Cole Van Schyndel made the most of his first varsity start.
Thrust in to the starting lineup instead of his normal role of sixth man of the bench, the 6’5 junior forward scored 15 of his game-high 18 points in the first half to help pace the #8 ranked (Division III, according to wissports.com) Wrightstown Tigers to a 73-44 victory over the Hilbert Wolves in Olympian Conference play Tuesday night.
“Everyone has a role on a basketball team to be successful, and Cole knows what his role is,” said Tiger head coach Cory Haese. “He is the big boy down low. And we have to go inside and attack. That means he gets a lot of touches and has to finish. His teammates did a great job of moving the basketball and getting him the ball. He did a nice job.”
The Tigers (18-2 overall, 14-2 Olympian Conference) got off to a quick start, thanks to that suffocating defense that has carried them all season. They outscored the Wolves 28-7 in the first quarter, with Van Schyndel scoring more in the first quarter then the entire Hilbert squad. The Tigers harassed the Wolves into 2 of 10 shooting from the field and five turnovers.
“I was doing what I normally do; get the ball inside, and go up strong every play,” Van Schyndel said. “We knew coming in that it would be a hard game, especially after we hung 100 on them the first game. I knew I would have to step it up, and I did that.”
Hilbert was able to settle down a little bit and actually stay with the Tigers in the second quarter, as Wrightstown just barely outscored the Wolves 14-13 in the second stanza. Hilbert was able to turn the turnover game around in the second quarter, forcing the Tigers into six giveaways. TJ Hemauer, who finished with 14 to pace the Wolves, scored seven in the stanza.
“They have got a great team,” said Hilbert head coach Nathan Wesener. “They can go 9, 10, 11 deep it seems. They just keep coming at you, and it is hard to duplicate that in practice to have them take a look at it. They are aggressive, and they force you to dig yourself a hole that is hard to get out of.”
Wanting to make sure that the strong quarter by the Wolves was an anomaly, Wrightstown ratcheted up the defense in the third quarter, and blew the game wide open. With six points and 3 steals, senior Brandon Do-McKenzie outscored the Wolves by himself in the stanza. Able to muster only 5 points, the Wolves found themselves down by 41 going into the fourth quarter. Outscoring Wrightstown 18-8 in the fourth quarter enabled Hilbert to get the final deficit under 30.
“We came out with a lot of energy, we played fast and we played our game,” Do-McKenzie said. “We played physical when they played physical with us.”
According to Do-Mac, nothing really special attributed to his strong third quarter. It was simply his time.
“We all have our moments,” he said with a grin. “It’s a team thing. Everyone has to step up once in a while, and it just kind of happened for me.”
The Tigers have just two games left on their regular season schedule. Friday they welcome the Zephyrs of St. Mary’s Central to Wrightstown High School. Game time is 7:30.
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