By BROOKE APPLE, The Delphos Herald
Tuesday December 4, 2007
DELPHOS — The Golden Gophers from Ridgemont made
the long trek west on SR 309 to meet up with the Wildcats of Jefferson for a
boys basketball matchup Saturday night at the Jefferson Middle School.
Jefferson came in with a 1-0 record after defeating
Cory-Rawson 64-42 last Saturday. The Wildcats once again easily prevailed this
time as they outscored the Gophers 67-27.
“We are a very methodical team as we work on having
our kids know where our strengths are and giving us some versatility,”
Jefferson head coach Marc Smith stated.
The Wildcats conquered the Gophers throughout the
whole course of the game, outscoring them all four quarters.
The Wildcats shot 24-of-58 overall (7-of-16 triples)
for 41.4% and 12-of-22 at the line (54.5%). They forced 25 turnovers (to 9 for
themselves) and outboarded their foe 43-29 (18-7 offensive) as junior Matt
Gerdeman had nine.
Jefferson really used its guards during the first two
periods as senior Michael Wiltsie and sophomore Jordan Jettinghoff (4 assists)
handled the ball well and got some points of their own, along with allowing
the inside to open up for the post players. Sophomore Craig Carder was another
key guard as he came off the bench to tally 14 points on the night with two 3s
to go along with Wiltsie and Jettinghoff’s two 3s each.
Devin Brown was the leading scorer for the guests as
he tallied 10 points and was the only Gopher allowed to reach double digits by
the Wildcats. Denver Ramsey tallied seven points.
The Gophers (0-4) came to within five — 23-18 —
as the buzzer sounded for the mid-game break. The only quarter the Gophers
scored over 10 was the second period as they tallied 12.
“We had contributions from everyone tonight; our
guards Jett, Michael and Craig were key in the first half and then the second
half our post took charge with Matt, (juniors) Josh Miller and Matthew Antalis
finishing strong in the paint and Bubba Shivley hustling all night,” Smith
said.
The Wildcats didn’t even allow the Gophers to score
over 10 points in the second half to their 44.
Gerdeman tallied 17 points, working hard on the
inside and putting up shots with people all around him. Antalis tacked on 10
as he also took a beating on the inside working hard for the Wildcats. The
Gophers really struggled to get anything going the whole second half as they
had players get into some foul trouble.
“We responded well defensively and were able to
control the paint as we finally started pushing the ball into the inside. We
are not a flashy team; we try to make everything natural,” Smith ended.
Jefferson hosts Kalida Saturday night (6:30 p.m. JV).
The Gophers are next in action on Friday as they travel to Riverside.
In JV action, the Wildcats (2-0) completely dominated
that game as well, winning 62-24.
The Wildcats were led in scoring by Logan Bonifas
with 15, Torey DeWitt with 12 and Mitchell Antalis 11.
The Gophers were topped in scoring by Derick Bailey
with 8.
