The Milan News-Leader
A Heritage Newspaper
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Rams find holes in Big Red defense, win 75-62
Milan falls to 1-12 despite containing Flat Rock star Crain
By Jerry Hinnen, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: January 31, 2008
According to head coach Jeremy Davies, the Milan boys' basketball team played well enough offensively to claim its second victory of the season Friday night at home against Flat Rock.
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Davies said his team played good enough defense on the Rams' leading scorer, Devin Crain, who had gone for 31 points in the team's Dec. 18 meeting, but scored only 10 Friday.
But Davies said those things weren't enough to offset the Big Reds' team defensive struggles against the Rams, struggles that led to a 75-62 Flat Rock win and dropped Milan to 1-12 overall on the season.
"More than one time, we've got a (Flat Rock) guy going 94 feet with the ball, no one picks him up, and he scores a layup," Davies said. "That's what I'm most concerned about. Sixty-two points, I can live with that. But we've got to play with more emotion and give a better defensive effort."
The Rams' offensive success was especially frustrating, Davies said, given that Crain was effectively shut down by Milan senior forward Lance Smith, who took the task of covering Crain in a box-and-one defense used by the Big Reds throughout much of the game.
"I told them that if we held Crain to 18 points or less, we'd win the game," he said. "Lance Smith did an excellent job on him. But it doesn't make a difference if everybody else is hitting lay-ups."
Milan was forced to play catch-up the entire 32 minutes. The Big Reds started ice-cold from the field and saw Flat Rock build a 14-2 lead before Paul Irwin scored the Big Reds' first field goal five minutes into the game. Back-to-back baskets from Erik Gunderson and Brandon Duval got the lead into single digits at 18-10 late in the first quarter, but the Rams would respond with a 7-0 run over the end of the period and the start of the second.
The Big Reds would claw their way back with their best defensive stretch of the game, holding the visitors without a point for more than six minutes while putting together a 9-0 spurt of their own, one capped by a Zach McGovern basket with 46 seconds to play in the half.
But the Rams broke their drought with a basket three seconds before the buzzer for a 27-19 halftime lead. They carried the momentum with them into the third quarter, where they scored 10 unanswered points in less than two minutes to go up 37-19.
Milan didn't go away, scoring the game's next six points and pulling within 43-34 on a McGovern three-pointer with 35 seconds to play in the quarter. But the Big Reds would come no closer as Crain hit two free throws to close the period and scored again to open the fourth.
Irwin's basket with 3:56 to play cut the lead to nine a second time at 55-46, but the Rams would score six of the game's next seven points to go up 14 with 2:52 left and put the game all but out of reach.
"Our execution wasn't bad, but they were on Zach and Brandon pretty tight and we weren't making shots early on," Davies said. "Zach started taking it to the basket and had some success, but we couldn't get any stops. It was frustrating."
McGovern finished with 19 points to lead the Big Reds, followed by Smith with 10, Duval and Irwin with seven each, DeAndre Mitchell with six, Gunderson and Demetries Love with five each, and Joe Ewer with three.
Milan will look to improve on its 1-8 Huron League record this week, though it won't be easy with a road contest at Grosse Ile Thursday night and a home game against St. Mary Catholic Central Tuesday.
Milan JV 55, Flat Rock 47
Tom Vitso scored a team-high 14 points as the Milan JV stayed over the .500 mark with an eight-point win over the Rams. Michael Craig and Nick Holzman each scored 11 points in the victory.
Staff Writer Jerry Hinnen can be reached at 429-7380 or jhinnen@heritage.com.
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