There seemed to be one common theme for the East Troy High School boys basketball team last week.
Fast starts.
And in both games, those quick sprints out of the gate were more than enough to lead the Trojans to their first two wins of 2014-15.
East Troy opened the week with a 63-48 Rock Valley Conference victory Dec. 9 over visiting Jefferson, followed by an 81-57 win Dec. 12 at Brodhead-Juda.
The two-game sweep the past week improved the Trojans to 2-1 overall and 2-0 in the RVC.
“We really started shooting the ball well all week in practice and it carried over to the games,” East Troy coach Darryl Rayfield said. “We are really good when we get playing in transition, and we were able to do that most of the night in both the Brodhead and Jefferson games.”
East Troy jumped out to a 22-8 lead over Brodhead and extended that advantage to 44-20 by halftime.
The rout continued in the third quarter, as the Trojans put the game out of reach with a 20-14 advantage.
Connor Mitchell led the way with 24 points, followed by Joe Ciriacks with 14, Will Iloncaie with 13 and Matt Kaminski with 12.
“Connor stayed out of foul trouble and was able to play sustained minutes and jump start us a bit,” Rayfield said.
The story was similar against Jefferson, as the Trojans built a 22-14 lead after the opening quarter.
Jefferson hung around until the fourth quarter, when East Troy finally put things out of reach. The Trojans outscored the Eagles 25-13 in the last eight minutes to pull away.
“We just need to keep rebounding and making shots, because we are very small,” Rayfield said. “That was the difference in the Jefferson game.
“We did it collectively as a group. As we move forward, it will define our season.”
Kaminski led the way with 18 points, followed by Iloncaie with 12, Ciriacks with 11 and Mitchell with 10.
East Troy was back in action Thursday night against visiting Clinton, followed by a home non-conference contest Saturday against Racine Case. Both games tip off at 7:15 p.m.
“Clinton and Racine Case come in this week and should be very competitive,” Rayfield said. “Clinton is a rival game. Throw the ‘favorite’ right out the window in that one.”
