PLEASANT HILL – The Newton boys basketball team’s 33-19 win over visiting Bradford resembled a pick-up game of “Chicago” or even “King of the Mountain” with a football rather than basketball due to the physical style of play.
Ironically the only 3-pointer of the night for Bradford came on the first shot of the game from senior guard Greg Chowning for a quick 3-0 lead for the Railroaders.
Senior forward Isaac Hainline would sink two free throws for Newton to close the gap to 3-2 at 7:19 where the score remained that way for the next couple of minutes.
A free throw by Newton senior guard Rhett Koffer knotted the game at 3-3 and then a putback from Ayden Kane gave the Indians the lead 5-4 at 4:19 and they would never relinquish it the rest of the game.
Bradford was working hard to get their big man 6’5” junior center Rallie Wirrig going but the Indians were attached to him on both sides making life difficult inside for him and would shut him out in the first quarter with Newton holding a 10-5 lead.
First year Bradford coach Dillon McCullough was determined to get Wirrig touches in the 2nd period and why not. He had 18 points in Bradford’s season opening win over Houston and averaged 11 points and 9 rebounds a game last year and the Railroaders needed some easy baskets.
While Wirrig scored 7 points in the quarter there was nothing easy about them with 6’4” sophomore center Ayden Kane leaning on him and getting help defense from all over determined to not let Wirrig dominate the paint.
The Indians scored 6 points in the second and held a 16-12 lead at the break.
Newton started the 3rd quarter with a couple of Kane free throws and a triple from Koffer at 5:24 to go up 21-14.
The Railroaders only mustered three points and trailed 27-15 and with both offenses struggling it would feel like a mountain to climb for Bradford heading into the final stanza.
The physicality was on full display in the final frame, and it was the Indians standing at the top of the mountain knocking Bradford off looking up from the bottom on the wrong end of the scoreboard with Newton winning 31-19.
Newton was coming off a very easy 62-5 win over Jefferson, but it would be anything but easy verses Bradford in their first WOAC league game. They would have to earn the win and in the process find out a little bit about the toughness of their kids along the way.
“Kudos to Bradford coach McCullough, they were ready and played us hard. I mean, they took away things we usually try to get into, so good job by them. I’m just proud of my guys because at some point with our sporadic offense we had to turn defense into offense and it kind of helped us a lot,” Cantrell commented.
“When we scrimmaged Fort Recovery I saw something from our dudes, about their toughness, that’s really one thing if you can’t put the ball in the hoop, you’ve got to be tough,” Cantrell stated.
“We had to make life tough for their big, he’s a man amongst boys, obviously he’s going to be the focal point on everybody’s scouting report. In the last week and a half, we’ve been really just keying in on, how can we eliminate paint touches and post touches and like, where do we want to send our help from? Because they run good stuff for him but at the end of the day Ayden Kane played up to the moment,” Cantrell praised.
While the Indians are happy with the win coach Cantrell knows they have to get better on offense.
“I think the big thing for us right now is for us to get our looks, we got to have good spacing, good movement, good off ball screening. We talk about getting two feet in the paint all the time and creating an advantage, or like a domino effect, that’s one thing that Luke and Rhett do a phenomenal job of, they really do a great job of penetrating and dishing, but you could tell, I mean, they were ready for us. They took away some things, but I was proud to see our guys react and tough it out,” Cantrell explained.
Newton has put together some early season non-conference games to test them and will be going to Columbus to participate in the Wellington Tournament to face Patriot Prep Academy who just won a district title last year.
“It should be a good challenge for us. I’m good friends with one of the previous coaches who just retired, so that’s why we got into it, it should be fun and a good test,” Cantrell concluded.
Rylie Wirrig led all scorers with 11 points and a dozen rebounds to pace Bradford and Luke Cornett led the Indians with 10 points.
Bradford is back in action Saturday taking on the same Jefferson team that Newton played last week.
Box Score
Score by Quarter
Bradford: 05 … 07 … 03 … 04 – 19
Newton: 10 … 06 … 11 … 06 – 33
Team Scoring:
Bradford: Zander Lingo 0-0-1/2 -1, Greg Chowning 1-1-1/2 – 6, Colton Gambill 0-0-1/2 – 1,
Rallie Wirrig 0-4-3/4 – 11, Totals 1-5-6/10 – 19
Newton: Rhett Koffer 1-1-3/6 – 8, Luke Cornett 0-5-0/0 – 10, Trenton Robinson 0-0-2/2 – 2, Isaac Hainline 0-1-5/6 – 7, Ayden Kane 0-2-2/2 – 6, Totals 1-9-12/16 – 33
