The Rising Sun boys basketball team fell behind early and never recovered in a 58-42 season-opening loss at Red Lion Christian Academy (Del.) Friday night. The Tigers took their lone lead when Jesse Shields hit a three-pointer to make it 3-2. Red Lion Christian embarked on a 12-0 spurt to take command and the Lions' lead was in double figures for much of the contest.
Rising Sun made a run late in the first half. Trailing 22-11, the Tigers outscored Red Lion Christian 9-2 to narrow the gap to 24-19 with 1:21 to go. Noah Juergens ignited the surge with a basket and then an assist to Bryce Brown. A jumper by Jordan Edwards cut the deficit to five but the Lions' Seth Wampler knocked down a three-pointer to make it 27-19 at the break. Seth Wampler finished with 19 points including four three-pointers. Red Lion Christian was able to outbound Rising Sun in the first half despite the Tigers' size advantage. "Their guards were quick and they beat us to the ball a lot," Rising Sun coach Don Passenant said. "And I think what happened was it was just pre-game jitters and the rebounding got better in the second half. But they were flat-footed in the first half. When they realized what they were going up against we started picking it up and cut the lead down to five." Rising Sun's Will Farrington hit two free throws to start the second half but Wampler made a three-pointer and layup to start a strong of nine straight points by the hosts. Down 36-21, the Tigers were unable to get within double digits the rest of the way. "I need to improve the offense," Passenant said. "I'll take responsibility for that. I'm going to probably add a few more ball-screens to it. We may just run some more dribble-drive type stuff. Maybe a couple more sets, too." He was pleased with his team's effort. "Everybody gave 110 percent," said Passenant. "Nobody has their head down. They kept going. And that's a good thing. That's a great thing." Juergens paced the Tigers with nine points. Shields supplied six. Kevin Alkinburg, Brennan Martz, Edwards, and Farrington each scored four points. "The scoring was spread out," said Passenant. "Problem was, we didn't make shots. In the first half you could see (Rising Sun) was uptight. They rushed shots. It happened a lot throughout the game. Our offense was clicking. I'm really proud of the way they hustled, though. They were really out there playing hard. The shots just didn't drop." The early deficit proved too tough to overcome. Juergens and Edwards came on to help the Tigers get back in the game but Wampler and Red Lion Christian kept a comfortable cushion. "Noah Juergens really showed me something," said Passenant. "Unfortunately, Casey (Baker) injured his ankle (in the first half). That really hurt us. We got in foul trouble early, a lot of touch fouls but the other team got called for them, too. I really don't like when a game is called like that. It's happening everywhere, especially in Delaware. (A Delaware officials organization also provides officials for games in Cecil County.) That's not the way you play basketball now. They haven't called fouls like that since the 60s. I thought it was called too close. I thought it slowed the game down. It hurt both teams. I'm not saying it's the refs' fault. We didn't do what we needed to do. And I didn't do enough to get them ready. They're hustling. We'll make some adjustments and I think we'll see more success." In the JV game, the Tigers triumphed 28-21. Curtis Cox collected 12 points, seven blocks, and six rebounds. Andrew Parker provided eight points and two steals. Nate McCullough added three points and four boards and Dave Moore contributed two points and three rebounds. Rising Sun overcame an 11-8 halftime deficit. Comments are closed.
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