It’s a pretty safe assumption in basketball that if a team has five players score in double figures, the chances of winning are fairly high.
The Windsor boys proved that axiom last week in a 76-69 overtime win at Fox in Arnold, although it took an unlikely hero to accomplish the win.
Pierce Hartmann led the Owls scoring brigade with 16 points, Sonny Amabile and Derek Williams notched 15 apiece, Norman Alford had 11 and Grant Siegel added 10. Alford also pulled down 10 rebounds, with Williams and Matt Martin each grabbing seven. Windsor scorched the nets from the field at a 53 percent rate (27 of 51).
But the much-anticipated return of Williams may have been the story line. The 6-foot junior suffered a gruesome leg injury playing quarterback in September, and according to Windsor head coach Jason Gillman, is playing with a titanium plate in his ankle. Gillman said that Williams has been prepping for his season debut for several weeks.
“First off, he played the Nos. 2-4 spots, and to have that kind of versatility is important; that’s a rare breed of player,” Gillman said about Williams, who nailed a 3-pointer with 38 seconds left to send the game to the extra session. “After that pretty devastating injury from football this was the first time he was able to let it go. Not only did he hit the big shot to force overtime, he then hit four straight free throws. We’ve got a lot more scoring promise now with Williams and Hunter Metteer back.”
Although the Owls ended the week with a 50-37 loss to Festus, Gillman noted that he enjoyed the double-digit quintet against Fox.
“I coached with Dan Johnson (at Hillsboro) for a long time,” he said. “So I’m used to a team scoring points. I want guys on the floor here who can dribble, pass and shoot. That’s going to give us a chance to win every night.
“Sonny runs a good point and he’s worked super hard on his game. If I gave him a key (to the gym), he’d never go home. Getting that kind of balanced scoring is a big deal for us. We played some pretty stiff competition early, with the Southside Classic, and we want to balance it out, move the ball and make the easy plays.”
Fox had some pretty impressive offensive numbers as well. Myles Richardson finished with 26 points, Brendan Moss had 20 and Colby Reese 16. The problem with that, as head coach Mike Wilken pointed out, is that the trio accounted for 62 of the team’s 69 points as the Warriors fell to 5-10 on the season.
That’s something Wilken wants to see change, although he admitted he was pleased with the overall performance of the Warriors.
“Offensively, we played one of our better games,” Wilken said. “We shared the ball, but again the same three guys scored for us. We were pretty much dead even until the final minute (of overtime), and we had to foul down one. They’re really balanced and had five guys hit 3s, and Amabile does a great job of running the point. I was happy with the way we played but, unfortunately we couldn’t get the win.
“I think Luke Pisoni did a good job of trying to shut Williams down, and he had two great offensive rebounds that he kicked out to guys for 3-pointers. But there are nights where we have to find somebody that can get stops defensively and limit the points we allow. I think the guys are getting more comfortable playing together, but we’ve got some challenging games coming up, so hopefully we can start moving in the right direction.”