By Dan Truttschel
Correspondent
It took the Big Foot boys basketball team a little bit to get going last Friday night in its Rock Valley Conference contest with visiting Clinton.
But once the Chiefs got on track, there wasn’t much the Cougars could do to slow them down.
Big Foot held a 44-15 halftime lead and never was challenged from there in a dominating 78-26 victory that improved the Chiefs to 2-1 overall and 2-1 in conference play.
The big difference, Big Foot coach Jeff Fenrick said, was in the paint, where Big Foot’s A.J. Courier had a huge night with 31 points, as Clinton was without its post presence, Tyler Stauss.
“We actually started kind of slow and tight,” Fenrick said. “We were settling and not letting the actions in the offense happen. After we settled down, we were much more patient and found the open man.
“It was also obvious without Stauss, Clinton did not have an answer for Courier in the post. I believe we had an assist on all but four baskets in the first half, and that shows we were moving and finding the open man and cutters.”
Courier not only hurt Clinton in the post, Fenrick said, but he also was able to find open teammates when the Cougars were forced to double team him.
“Without Stauss, they just didn’t have anyone to match up with A.J.,” Fenrick said. “A.J. also did a real nice job of kicking it back out when they tried to double. He was able to get clean looks at the basket. He is also finding that running the court opens up his offensive chances.”
Big Foot closed out the game with a 34-11 advantage in the second half, and as strong as the Chiefs were offensively, Fenrick was even more pleased with the improved defense he saw.
Cleaning up issues on that side of the court will certainly help the Chiefs’ cause moving forward, he added.
“We made some corrections we saw on film and really emphasized all week that we are scoring enough, but we have to get better on defense,” Fenrick said. “We stressed that if we have to play 84 feet of offense, we can’t get out and put pressure on the defense as well as when we get a stop or a steal. The boys are starting to buy into what we want defensively.”
Logan Eischeid added 12 points for the Chiefs, followed by Aidan Greco with 11 and Jack Gillingham with nine.
Read more about the boys and other local sports in the Dec. 14 Times/Reporter.
