ROCKTON — Hononegah boys basketball coach Mike Miller is assured of a least one thing.
The Indians’ defense will be a force in the NIC-10 after taking down Harlem 58-38 Friday for their second straight conference victory.
The team’s offense may be coming around too.
David Brown scored 22 points on an array of midrange shots, free throws and 3-pointers to lead the Indians (6-1, 2-1).
“I found my rhythm finally,” said Brown, who scored a combined 23 points in his previous two NIC-10 games. “I have struggled these past couple games. I haven’t been able to find my rhythm and hit shots. I have been working on that in practice. It showed tonight.”
Miller said it was good to see his team play well on both ends as the Indians and Huskies (3-3, 1-2) came in tied at 1-1 in the conference.
“The league is going to be top heavy,” Miller said. “You can’t afford to lose one at home, and especially against Harlem, which is one of the top teams in the league. We needed this one for sure. We needed it for ourselves. We are still a work in progress. We are still figuring out what our identity will be. It looks like we are going to be great defensively and now we’ve got to figure out some things on the offensive end.”
Both teams played erratic in the opening minutes. But the Huskies, despite three turnovers, held a 5-0 lead with baskets from their big post players Chaz Winters and Dario Savic.
Brown answered for the Indians en route to scoring all 10 of his team’s first quarter points.
Hononegah led 10-9 at end of the first, but extended it to a 22-12 halftime lead.
“Harlem forced a lot of deflections early,” Miller said. “I think our team was in hurry mode. ... Sometimes you can try too hard, and finally we settled down. I was happy with the way we responded in the second quarter and on.”
“We wanted to utilize our size, but the zone made that tough,” said Winters, who scored five points.
Harlem had no double-figure scorers. Casey Beck led the Huskies with nine points and Jordan Johnson had eight.
“Harlem has a couple of good scorers with Chaz Winters and obviously Casey Beck,” Hononegah sophomore Jeff Lewis said. “We wanted to limit their touches and limit their shots and give them only one possession with the ball.”
The Huskies could do little to stop Brown, or Matt Carroll and Mario Donaldson, who each scored nine points in the win.
“There were high expectations coming into this game,” Brown said. “It was a huge win for us.”
- Brenda Young, rrstar.com
