Austin Tollefson, Newark sizzling shooting crushes Sandwich

NEWARK — Shooters are really on their game once they find their groove, and a team is about unbeatable when the entire team is feeling it.

Newark certainly was feeling it in the first quarter of Saturday afternoon’s nonconference game against visiting Sandwich. The Norsemen scored the first 27 points, and went on crush the Indians, 63-27.

“These kids did this their sophomore year and I think they’re just getting acclimated to varsity,” Newark coach Rick Tollefson said. “They didn’t get a lot of floor time because they had really good kids in front of them. Alex (Tollefson) and Nate (Christian) played a quarter here or there, but that was about it. Now it’s their game and you can see the nerves are starting to go away.”

In the first quarter alone, Alex Tollefson knocked down three from beyond the arc, Jacob Chapman made a pair and Jared Slivka and Christian each made one — the hosts finished with 12 in the game.

Sandwich (0-9) finally got on the scoreboard on a 3-pointer from Saulo Rodriguez with 14 seconds left in the first quarter. The Indians were pressured into seven turnovers in the first quarter, often succumbing to the full-court press of the Norsemen.

“We’re not translating what we’re working on in practice or what we go over in the locker room onto the floor,” Sandwich coach Jim Braddish said. “We put some things in for press breaks and zone offenses but we don’t execute them. We’re not even in the right spots. We’re going to have to start over on how we teach them because right now there are things we go over that we aren’t doing in the game.”

Braddish explained that he’ll need to “drill them to death and go over situational things” as well as revisit some of the more basic things that he may have assumed the kids understood.

“It’s hard to play winning basketball when you have four guys within 10 feet of each other on offense,” he said. “And we’re not doing what we’re supposed to on defense. We’re kind of lost right now so we’ve got to figure it out.”

The Indians are showing a lot of effort, but sometimes that’s getting lost because of a lack of execution.

“We do play hard, but there are time where we don’t react,” Braddish said. “We’re thinking it through or get out of position or lost a bit and that’s been a part of it.”

Surprisingly, Newark’s first quarter offensive fiesta didn’t include a 3-pointer from sophomore Austin Tollefson, who came off the bench to lead the Norsemen with 21 points. He led the way with four triples and also was a perfect 7-of-7 from the free throw line.

“It’s a blast being out there when everyone on the court is hot like that,” he said. “Anywhere you shoot you feel like it’s going to go in.”

Alex Tollefson added 15 points and Christian had 13 points and seven rebounds.

“We shot really well for once,” Austin Tollefson said. “We’ve been cold a lot, but tonight we started pouring them in which was a good feeling. We put them away early and kept them down.”

Newark (5-3) seems to be developing its identity with an entirely new starting lineup.

“This is my 14th season here and each team has their own unique personality and blend of talent,” Rick Tollefson said. “We’re obviously not very big so we’re trying some different press things, but we’re also not very deep so we can’t do out man-to-man, our 55 (defense), which we’ve done in the past because we can’t sustain it. So we’re just figuring it out and different things work for every team. We’ll find out our way, but we have to shoot well.”

They certainly did that on Saturday.