HART — Montague struggled to counter Hart's zone defense in Tuesday
night's season opener, and its comeback efforts enabled the Pirates to
get turnovers and easy layups to pull away for a 59-29 win.
The
game was close most of the way, and Montague twice cut the Pirates'
lead to seven points in the third quarter before Hart swiftly answered.
Freshman Kolton Rockwell and Caleb Ackley each scored 14 points for the
Pirates, hitting big-time three-pointers to stave off the 'Cats.
In
the fourth quarter, Montague tried to press on defense and move quickly
on offense, and Hart was ready for it, turning a comfortable lead into a
large margin.
"They did a lot of nice things defensively, and
they've got a lot of length up front with their zone," Montague coach Nick Thaler said. "We knew that they were
going to play the 2-3 zone, but it's hard to replicate the length and size
that they have in practice. We don't have a lot of guys that have length
on our team. We have size, but most of their post players have
that length. They're active in the zone, and they did a lot
of nice things and challenged us defensively."
Montague
attempted to attack the zone by getting into the paint, and they had
occasional success - Riley Mulder threw down a first-half dunk - but
also turned the ball over too many times and took, in Thaler's view, too
many outside shots.
"I was impressed with
some things he was able to do going to the basket," Thaler said of Mulder. "We need to get better
production in the paint against teams if they're going to play a 2-3 zone
against us. We can't rely on shooting from the outside. That's the shot they want us to take."
The
'Cats played well defensively early on - Cortland Schneider was an
imposing obstacle in the paint - but as the game continued, Hart started
excelling from beyond the arc and cashing in many of its extra
opportunities forced by the zone defense.
Thaler remains
optimistic about the season going forward. Growing pains are expected
with so many new faces filling key roles, but it also creates space for
rapid improvement as those new faces get accustomed to what they're
doing.
"It's
frustrating, but they're a good team and it's the first game of the
year and there's a long way to go, 22 games," Thaler said. "It's a long season. We'll
learn from this and figure it out for the first conference game on
Tuesday."
Mulder led Montague with nine points, and Cole Herremans added seven.
