BETHALTO – The Civic Memorial High School boys basketball team hosted the Triad Knights in a Mississippi Valley Conference game Friday night. Triad went on to win the game by a score of 46-37.
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CM head coach Lee Green saw some things he liked, but also some things that he didn’t.
“The kids played so hard. I mean, they competed for four quarters,” Lee said postgame. “We’re still diving on the ground there with 10 seconds to go to get that jump ball and that’s what we’re trying to build here. That culture, just playing, competing at a level they’ve never competed at before.”
His team never gave up even after trailing by double digits midway through the second half.
The thing coach Lee didn’t like so much was the number of times his team turned over the ball. The Eagles did so 16 times whether through poor passing or some unnecessary travels and it led to their demise.
“You’ve got to value the basketball. We have to do a better job of that,” Lee said.
Triad started this game on a 7-0 run prompting CM to call a timeout early.
Whatever was said worked, because straight out of the timeout CM went on a nine-point run.
Senior Sam Buckley went to work in the paint and scored three baskets before sophomore Adam Ogden pulled up for a three-pointer to take the lead at 10-9.
Those two did almost all the scoring for CM on the night. Ogden led the team with 16 points while Buckley had 13.
Triad went on another run and took a 15-13 lead after the first quarter.
The Eagles managed to rally back to tie the game up at 19 but it was only for a brief moment before Triad extended their lead to 24-19 at the half.
The Knights slowed down the pace in the third quarter and outscored CM 10-4. Triad led by 10 at that point.
“We stopped scoring,” coach Lee said.
CM outscored Triad 13-12 in the fourth quarter, but it just wasn’t enough to come back. The Eagles fall to 3-4 on the season.
Despite the outcome, Lee was happy with how his team responded behind the ball.
“Defensively, we did a great job. We held them to 46 points. They’re a really good team, got a lot of offensive firepower.”
Triad was led by sophomore Drew Winslow with 17 points and freshman Tyler Thompson with 13.
CM will get the weekend off to regroup before a non-conference home game against Breese Central on Tuesday. They’ll play a couple more MVC opponents in Waterloo and Highland next week as well, both of those games being on the road.
Coach Lee believes his Eagles on are the brink of a breakthrough.
“I just told the kids in there that if you guys keep competing the way you are, it’s going to break and we’re going to get that W,” he said.
“We’re right there.”
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