Newman dominates on both ends to beat Hall

STERLING – Newman cranked up the pressure from the opening tip Friday night, and a shell-shocked Hall never recovered.

The Comets used their aggressive 1-3-1 half-court zone to speed up the Red Devils, and hit 3-pointers and fast break layups on the offensive end in one of their most complete performances of the season for a 71-49 Three Rivers Conference East Division victory.

“We knew we needed to play hard,” point guard Garret Matznick said. “When we played Mendota [on Tuesday], we didn’t play hard at all and we got beat by 22. Tonight, we played hard the whole game and won by 22. So as long as we play hard, we’ll be fine.”

[ Photos from Newman vs. Hall boys basketball ]

Newman (11-10, 2-2 TRAC East) used a 16-5 run over the final 5:28 of the first quarter to build a 23-9 lead, then scored nine straight points early in the second period to push the margin to 32-12.

Evan Bushman nailed a 3 to ignite the first surge, Matznick added a 3 and facilitated in the half court and George Jungerman buried a 3 to end the second surge.

Then in the third quarter, the Comets added to their lead with three fast break layups on long passes from Matznick to John Rowzee after Rowzee had outrun the Hall defense.

“We wanted to play really fast tonight, and transition’s one of our most key scoring options,” Jungerman said. “After that Mendota game, we just kind of wanted to get back and get a win here. We just passed the ball around to everybody, and everybody was scoring. It’s just awesome when we can play like that.”

Newman led by 26 points (59-33) after Bushman’s final 3 and Cody McBride’s putback to open the fourth quarter before both teams emptied the bench.

“You’ve got to give all the credit to Newman, they played way better than we did and way harder than we did. They competed, and after that start, we kind of quit, and we haven’t done that all year, so that’s kind of disappointing,” Hall coach Mike Filippini said. “We just need to play better, there’s no other way to say it. Newman played really, really well, and we played not really, really well, to put it nicely.”

Jungerman led all players with 23 points (including three 3-pointers) and seven rebounds, and he added two steals and a blocked shot. Matznick stuffed the stat sheet with a double-double of 13 points and 14 assists to go with six rebounds and three steals, Rowzee also scored 13 points and Bushman finished with four 3s to go with two assists and two steals; 11 different players recorded a stat.

The Comets shot 55% from the field (28 for 51), including 54.5% from 3-point range (12-for-22), and forced 21 Hall turnovers, turning 14 steals into 14 points. They dished 20 assists on their 28 baskets, and turned the ball over just 10 times.

“It’s motivation when the other team is saying, ‘Who’s got him, who’s got him?’ and still nobody can get there because they’re worried about Evan Bushman and George Jungerman from 3-point range, and even Garret going to the hoop. It really opens it up for me, and we all just do such a good job of getting each other open,” Rowzee said. “And on the other end, we just kind of trusted the defense, and we got a lot of tips, a lot of steals, forced them to play faster than they wanted.”

“It’s really nice in games like this when we’re shooting well because I can pass it to anyone and they’re going to knock down shots for us,” Matznick said. “It’s really big when we can get out in transition, run for fast break layups. The easiest shot is probably a wide open layup, and we got a bunch of those tonight.”

Greyson Bickett hit four 3-pointers and led the way with 12 points for the Red Devils (10-8, 2-2 TRAC East). Jack Jablonski (3 rebounds, 2 steals) and Braden Curran (4 rebounds, 2 assists) each scored six points, Noah Plym added five and Wyatt West chipped in four points and a team-high six rebounds.

“It looked like the players were as frustrated as the coaching staff was. We told them after the game that we’re way too far into the season to scream and yell and throw stuff,” Filippini said. “We’ve got a game tomorrow, and that’s the good thing about basketball season. If that was a football loss, we’d have to sit there all week and stew on it. We just told them we’ll find out what kind of team we are tomorrow. We haven’t played like this all year, it was a bad game, but we’re still 10-8 and we’re not canceling the season or anything like that.”