After taking big steps, Knights are tripped up by Monaco in Sectional semis
But if nobody other than Monaco would have stepped off the Dover bus it still would have gone to overtime between the Knights and Tornadoes as the 6-foot-4-inch forward scored from everywhere imaginable on the court and equaled the offensive output of the entire West Holmes team, bringing the Knights season to an end 58-31 inside the Wigwam.
“It’s tough,” said second-year West Holmes head coach Jim Lindeman whose team improved from 1-20 a year ago to 9-13 during the 2010-11 campaign. “We tried different things. We tried face guarding him. We tried running extra guys at him. We tried box-and-oneing him. And it’s one of those nights where when a guy hits his shots like that you’ve got to be pretty good on the offensive end yourself, and we weren’t.”
Monaco didn’t tip his hand early on, missing his first jumper from the left side, allowing West Holmes freshman point guard Brady Arnold to drive right side of the lane at the other end and finish the layup for a 2-0 Knights lead.
That was the last lead West Holmes would enjoy, however, as Monaco laid all his cards on the table on the Tornadoes (15-6) next possession, dribbling in from the right side, spinning left, then right and burying a jumper from just right of the free throw line, tying the game at two before popping in a deep three from the top right side of the arc on Dover’s next possession to put the Tornadoes up 5-2.
West Holmes would draw even again at seven apiece when sophomore guard Keaton Leppla drove the lane for his second layup later in the quarter, but those were the last points Leppla would score on the night, as Dover closed out the opening period on a 10-2 run, thanks to two more jumpers from Monaco – one from the top of the circle, the other from outside the arc on the left side – and a triple-make and running jumper down the lane from 5-foot-9-inch guard Mason Mamarella.
After missing the week of practice leading up to the Sectional semifinal against West Holmes after injuring his ankle, Monaco said, “It’s not completely back to normal yet, but we’re working on it.”
So apparently still nursing a bum wheel, Monaco would extend the Tornadoes lead to 20-9 on Dover’s first possession of the second quarter, draining a deep three from outside the top left side of the arc, forcing Lindeman to call an immediate timeout.
Not too hard to figure out the West Holmes counter-strategy coming out of the timeout as Arnold would hit a quick jumper from right of the free throw line before sticking a triple-try from the top left side on the next possession and shooting five of the Knights’ last nine shots in the quarter – connecting on another jumper and two free throw shots to finish with 12 points and help push West Holmes out to 17 points by halftime.
But Dover would have 33 at the half, with seven of their final 13 coming off the hands of Monaco, who would hit from just inside the arc on the left side, float one home driving from the right side down the middle of the lane, drain another after doing the spin one way and then the other maneuver at the free throw line again, and splitting from the charity stripe after getting fouled by West Holmes 6-foot-6-inch sophomore post Brock Macaulay while driving for a scoop layup down the middle.
Asked whether he has a favorite spot to shoot from, Monaco replied bluntly, “No, not really. I was just lucky I was shooting them in today.”
Monaco would add nine more points to his 22 point halftime total over the final two periods of play, but Arnold would be held to five in the second-half, finishing with a team-leading 17.
“Jordan [Ravine] and Jared [Alexander] both did a pretty good job on Arnold, but he’s an outstanding player, great offensive player,” said Dover head coach Bob Von Kaenel after the game. “We [wanted to] not let him get a lot of open looks and then keep the ball out of their post people’s hands.”
And while Arnold got his 17 against a tough defensive effort, the ball was kept out of the West Holmes post players’ hands most of the night, as 6-foot-3-inch sophomore forward Gabe Snyder was held to three points, Macaulay went scoreless and the Knights were outrebounded 27-18 by the Tornadoes.
“First half I thought we did a nice job [rebounding],” said Lindeman. “The second half I think we got worn down. We got a little tired and started missing box outs and assignments and didn’t rebound near as well as we normally do. I think that was definitely a key because when we did force misses there were times when we gave them second chance opportunities to score, and you can’t do that against a team like that. They’ll make you pay.”
They made West Holmes pay in the third quarter as 6-foot-2-inch senior forward Colton Zahner ended a little run by the Knights by capitalizing on a rebound and stick back that pushed the Dover lead to 39-26 midway through the period, before 6-foot-3-inch junior forward Derik Swinderman followed his own miss from the left baseline, drawing a foul from West Holmes senior forward Adam Polen and allowing Monaco to connect from three-point land on the ensuing inbounds play.
When Zahner put another bucket up and in from underneath with 3.9 seconds remaining in quarter number three he drew contact from West Holmes sophomore guard Grant Hay, failing to complete the and-one but allowing Monaco to fly in for the rebound and stick back that sent both teams into the final eight minutes of play with Dover up on West Holmes 46-26.
“I thought a big, big play was us getting a bucket with three seconds left in the third quarter and then getting a missed free throw and getting another bucket,” said Von Kaenel after the game. “Getting four points stretched it from 16 to 20 there and that helped us a lot in that situation.”
It helped them make the fourth quarter a mere formality as starters from both teams found themselves watching from the bench for the final 2:40, with Dover outscoring West Holmes 12-5 over the final stanza to pick up the 27-point win, as Mason Mamarella joined Monaco in double figures with 11 and senior guard Sam Meyer added five points for West Holmes.
And while Lindeman said at the beginning of the season and reiterated throughout, “We’re not looking to take any baby steps, there are no moral victories,” turning a 1-20 team into a 9-13 team with a Sectional quarterfinal victory under its belt has setup a bright future for the West Holmes boys program and certainly earned the respect of his peers.
“I give West Holmes a lot of credit,” said Von Kaenel. “Coach Lindeman has done an outstanding job there. When you go from 1-20 to nine wins the next year and do it with a bunch of freshmen and sophomores…they’re definitely no one you want to play in the future.”
Talking about his three departing seniors, in starting guard Meyer, backup guard Trae Wright and the backup forward Polen, Lindeman said, “I told them I’m extremely proud of the type of men that they are. [They] embraced the role of being a leader and establishing what a leader is for the West Holmes program. I’m going to miss them dearly because they’re good young men.”
The rest of Lindeman’s young men will be back for the 2011-12 campaign, looking to continue moving the program forward.
“I think it definitely gives these guys something to look forward to and I told them they need to go back and thank the guys from last year and the guys from this year as we continue to grow as a team because that’s all a testament to those guys and the ground work they laid,” said Lindeman.
“And next season for a lot of guys starts tomorrow. We play Hiland in two-hundred-eighty-some-odd days.”
Published: March 3, 2011
