The Milan News-Leader
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Tough times
Girls fall to Airport, boys lose to Dundee
By Jerry Hinnen, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: February 14, 2008
Reinforcements have arrived for the injury-struck Milan boys' basketball team, but it wasn't enough to turn around the Big Reds' fortunes this week as Milan's losing streak stretched to six games.
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The Big Reds fell 67-41 on the road at Monroe-Jefferson Friday and 78-66 at home to the visiting Dundee Vikings Monday. The losses dropped Milan to 1-16 overall this season and 1-11 in Huron League play.
Sophomores Andy Kuck, a forward, and Mike Craig, a guard, have been called up from the Big Red JV to help fill out a Milan roster missing injured centers Erik Gunderson and Cody Chatfield. But after the Dundee game, head coach Jeremy Davies said that his team wasn't going to get back in the win column unless it made a stronger effort on the defensive end and on the glass.
"It's the same story," he said. "Defense and rebounding. We work on it every day, all the time, in practice. We say it and say it and say it: defense and rebounding. For whatever reason, though, it's not carrying over into games."
Lance Smith's basket 90 seconds after the opening tip gave Milan a 4-4 tie, but it would be the last time the Big Reds would be even or ahead as they went without a field goal for the remainder of the quarter.
A 5-for-8 stretch from the free throw line kept Milan within 12-9 as late as the 1:34 mark of the quarter, but Dundee would go on an 11-0 run over the end of the first and start of the second to pull ahead by 14.
A free throw by Smith and a pair from freshman center DeAndre Mitchell ended the Dundee run, but the Big Reds would see their drought from the field stretch to more than 11 minutes as the Vikings pushed the lead all the way to 40-14 before Demetries Love's three-pointer with 3:02 left in the half.
The Big Reds would come within 46-24 before Dundee connected on a demoralizing 35-foot bomb at the halftime buzzer, sending Milan into the locker room down 25.
The Dundee lead would grow to 72-43 early in the fourth quarter before a furious 22-2 Milan run capped by a Craig three-pointer with 49.1 seconds to play, bringing the Big Reds within nine at 74-65. But the Vikings scored on their next possession and held the Big Reds on theirs, ending any hope for a miracle comeback.
Craig finished the night as the only Big Red in double figures, leading a balanced Milan attack with 10 points. Zach McGovern, Smith and Kuck scored eight points each, with Irwin and Brandon Duval scoring seven a piece, Mitchell and Lyle Tomaszewski each adding six, Love five and Joe Ewer two.
Milan got off to a hotter start on the offensive end against Jefferson, scoring 13 first-quarter points, but defensive troubles meant the Big Reds, nonetheless, trailed by five after giving up 18. The Bears would stretch the lead to 34-24 at halftime and hold the Big Reds to only two third-quarter points en route to a 47-26 lead and the 26-point win.
Duval led the Big Reds with nine points, followed by McGovern with seven, Smith, Mitchell and Tomaszewski with five each, Kuck with four, and Irwin and Ewer three.
Milan will look to bounce back with a pair of home games this week against Airport Thursday and New Boston Huron Tuesday.
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