Big surges send Newman past Erie-Prophetstown

STERLING – Newman ended the game right where it started Wednesday against Erie-Prophetstown.

The Comets built a big lead with a huge opening run, then pulled away with a second-half surge for a 65-39 Three Rivers East victory.

“We’re hoping to get a couple of wins here, get rolling and end the season on a high note so we can have some momentum going into the playoffs,” point guard Garret Matznick said.

[ Photos from Newman vs. Erie-Prophetstown boys basketball ]

Newman (14-12, 3-3 TRAC East) was aggressive from the jump and controlled the game on both ends of the court, setting the tone by attacking with its half-court 1-3-1 trap defense and a downhill offense that led to layups and kick-out 3-pointers.

“We knew they were good shooters, and we tried to do something a little bit different than we normally do to start off the game, and they executed really, really well,” Erie-Prophetstown coach Ryan Winckler said. “That’s one of their strengths. We knew coming in that we wanted to take away the 3s and the paint, and that’s where they killed us: on 3s and in the paint.”

The Comets led 16-2 with 51 seconds left in the first quarter, thanks to 10 points from John Rowzee and 3s by Evan Bushman and George Jungerman.

Midway through the second quarter, Matznick scored in the paint before Jungerman put back his own miss and hit a pair of free throws to make it 27-9.

“We knew the fast break was probably going to work, and we just trusted our defense,” said Rowzee, who scored a game-high 20 points. “We’ve kind of given up a lot of points these past couple games, a tough loss to Princeton and Lena played us really well. We kind of just didn’t rise to the occasion like we usually do, but tonight we just took it in our own hands and got it done.

“We knew the defensive steals, tips, turnovers were going to be huge; turnovers won it for us.”

The Panthers (6-15, 1-5) started the second half with a three-point play by Gus Schultz and a 3 from Connor Keegan to cut the deficit to 31-22 just 33 seconds into the third quarter. But Newman answered with a 16-4 run highlighted by 3s from Bushman and Chase Decker and a pair of buckets in the paint by Rowzee to push the lead back out to 47-26.

Keegan scored inside and hit a 3 to start the fourth quarter, then Schultz scored twice inside to make it 54-37, but Rowzee hit back-to-back 3s and both teams emptied their benches for the final 3 minutes.

“After that start, I thought we did some really, really good things,” Winckler said. “We were strong with the basketball and we executed a lot better after that first quarter, when we had a bunch of turnovers; after that, we started to limit that and we got good looks.”

Jungerman had 11 points, three rebounds and two steals, Bushman hit three 3s and also had three rebounds, two assists and two steals, and Matznick flirted with a triple-double before finishing with eight points, eight rebounds, 11 assists and five steals. Decker hit a pair of 3s, nabbed two steals and blocked a shot, Ashton Miner scored five points, and Cody McBride added four points, four rebounds and three assists.

“We need other people to step up and make shots other than George and Evan; they’re our main shooters, but we need some other people to start shooting here toward the end of the season to really be successful when we get in the playoffs,” Matznick said. “We really did that tonight, and we all just played hard on defense. We’ve just got to keep the ball pressure up and we’ll be good.”

Keegan hit four 3s and led E-P with 14 points and four assists, and Schultz finished with 13 points and four rebounds. Evan Steimle chipped in five points, five rebounds, three assists and two blocks.

“I was proud of our guys’ effort,” Winckler said. “We’re continuing to learn. I think we have a really nice team, I think we’ve got some really good pieces. We’re just trying to figure out our roles still … but slowly, we keep seeing improvement. I’m glad we didn’t quit; I thought we competed the entire 32 minutes, and that says a lot about our guys.”