Kentwood High School’s boys basketball team knew that their final game against Auburn would be one of their final real tests against a state championship level team.
After a disappointing first meeting, the Conks were a little too excited for their game against the Trojans, which may have come back to bite them. On Jan. 14, Kentwood fell, 75-57 ,at home for their third loss since Dec. 21 (3-3 since).
“Our guys were really looking forward to tonight… It wasn’t a 20-point game, but it wasn’t a close game either. I told them in the locker room, it’s go time now. We have to figure this out before it is too late,” Head Coach Blake Solomon said.
A big difference in that first meeting was the big three of Brandon Tagle, Corey Tita and Mason St. Louis had just seven combined points on free-throws and no made field goals.
They combined for 14 in the fourth quarter this time around, but that still wasn’t enough as Auburn’s Miles Henry scored 13 points on his own for the Trojans in his best game of the season.
At the end of the first half, Auburn was up just four points in the final 30 seconds. But a three on a loose ball from Daniel Johnson and then a buzzer-beating bank shot by Carter Hansen moments after a quick St. Louis basket gave Auburn a 35-25 advantage at halftime.
“When you see a double-digit lead at halftime, that is good momentum they had going into the locker room,” Solomon said.
Those two shots, seeming insignificant at the time, might have had massive repercussions. It was a focus for Kentwood to slow down Johnson and Hansen, who combined for 52 points in their first meeting. However, Solomon wanted Auburn’s supporting cast to beat them. And they did.
“Our focus was to naturally to take those guys out (of the game). We did a pretty good job. We held them to under five or six under their average. But their other guys just made plays,” Solomon said.
Auburn’s Henry had taken just 10 threes all season and made three of them. He doubled his season total in the win over Kentwood.
As far as Kentwood’s offense goes, facing a double-digit deficit, they needed to stop Auburn from scoring more than one occasion. They just couldn’t go on a run. Anytime Kentwood cut the lead to a single digit, whether a Tagle three or Tita and-one, Auburn responded with two consecutive baskets, crushing the will of Kentwood.
“As a group, we just have to figure it out. I don’t think as a group we have gelled yet, consistently all year. We have had some ups and downs. At this point we gotta do it,” Solomon said.
Auburn had four players score in double figures (Johnson 14, Hansen 14, Englund 16, Henry 25). Against good teams, the defense has to rise to the occasion. It just didn’t for Kentwood, but similar to last season, the Conks found their groove later in the year.
That is something this year’s Kentwood team and last year’s team have in common — both were 10-4 after 14 games into the season.
But it doesn’t get any easier as they host Tahoma, which is playing their best ball of the season. Then on MLK Day at the ShoWare Center, they play Glacier Peak, which is looking like a top five team in the state.
“We weren’t humming at this point last year. This is kind of where we started to play better. Hopefully us as coaches can do better and our guys can do a better job of picking it up,” Solomon said.
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