The Blackhawks put together two solid halves Thursday night against the Colby Hornets on their homestand during the week, as they defeated the visitors by a final score of 73-45.
In a close game early, the Hawks used their defense to score as Mason Gay got an early steal and turned it immediately into a lay-up, followed by four straight free throws and a post feed into Jack Wendler to give the Hawks an 8-5 lead. A pair of baskets by Dominic Sherwood and threes by Sam Wells and Winston Poehler increased the lead to 20-7. The Blackhawks continued to crash the offensive boards to earn more points. A perfect pick and roll executed by Brett Baehr and Gay added to the score, then Gay found Baehr on an executed out of bounds play for two also. The Hawks finished the half scoring on four straight possessions with Wendler kicking out a perfect pass to Gay for three and on the next possession, Poehler hit Gay for another three, putting the halftime score to 38-21.
However, Colby would not go away as the Hawks struggled early in the second half only scoring on two of their first nine possessions. Then the Hawks got settled in with Poehler scoring twice, once on a rebound and next on a steal. Back-to-back threes by Gay and Poehler followed by a Colin Fritz hoop put the lead to twenty, 54-34. The Hawks continued to get more chances with more offensive rebounds and reloads. On one possession, the Hawks battled for five straight offensive rebounds with Wendler finally finding Sherwood for a three to make all the hard work pay off. The Blackhawks finished the game off with solid defense and won 73-45.
The Blackhawks were 7 of 18 (39%) from three point range, outrebounded the Hornets 44-28 with 25 offensive boards and only had 10 turnovers on the night.
Box Score: Poehler 22 pts, 12 rebs, 5 stls; Gay 19 pts, 2 rebs, 6 asts, 5 stls; Wendler 10 pts, 13 rebs, 3 asts; Sherwood 9 pts, 7 rebs, 3 stls; Wells 5 pts, 3 stls; Fritz 4 pts, 6 rebs, 3 asts; Baehr 2 pts, 2 asts; Colton Paczkowski 2 pts.
Coach's Comments
We played very determined tonight and we played aggressive, which is what we do. The guys really hit the boards and attacked the rim, as we finished with 16 assists and 20 steals. The players continued to move the ball with our balanced scoring from game to gam