Sterling Jets VS FCSH
Friday, November 30, 2007 at Falls City
By Jimmy Motz
December 05, 2007
FCSH Takes Down Jets In Opener
Falls City Sacred Heart’s hot shooting in the first half was enough to defeat Sterling last Friday night 61-34 at the Falls City Auditorium.
The Irish used a pair of 10-0 and 11-0 runs in the first half to bust the game wide open. After being down 16-7 at the end of the first quarter, Sterling couldn’t answer the Irish runs, and went scoreless for the first 5:30 of the second quarter.
“I felt that those two scoring explosions on FCSH’s part was a big key to the first half” said Sterling head coach Jimmy Motz. “We couldn’t answer at the offensive end and things got away from us. We had very good looks at the basket, but the ball wouldn’t drop. Some nights, those things happen.”
For the ball game, Sterling shot 33 percent from the field on 16 of 48 shooting. The shooting woes continued as the Jets converted on only 1 of 13 three point attempts and shot 1 of 11 from the foul line.
The Jets were led by senior D.J. Thiel’s 10 points and Zach Lempka chipped in 8. Motz feels his team did some good things in their opener and has some things to work on.
“We have a long ways to go to get to where we want to get too. But I felt our effort and energy was outstanding. I told the kids after the game I was proud of the way they competed and how they kept fighting till the end. As a coach, that is a huge positive and we need to build from there.
Sacred Heart shot 42.5 percent from the field for the contest. Motz was very happy with the defensive effort of junior Jake Saathoff. Saathoff held pre-season all-state candidate Caleb Pokorny to 7 points on 2 of 8 shooting.
“Jake did a heck of a job on Pokorny” said Motz. “Our game plan was to take him and Ebel out of the game and make their other guys step up. Those other players stepped up and hit some shots.”
With a young group of underclassmen playing a majority of the minutes, Motz feels that his team needs to continue to work and get better.
“We need to eliminate the careless turnovers we had. Twenty-two turnovers and shooting 1 of 11 from the foul line is not a good recipe to win ball games. Those things are correctable, and we have to work on those things and get ready for Friday.”
The Jets return home Friday night with their first home contest of the season against Diller/Odell. Varsity tip is set for 8pm.
BOX SCORE
1 2 3 4 F
Sterling 7 10 8 9 34
FSCH 16 20 11 14 61
Sterling- Salberg 1-7 0-0, 3 Nieveen 0-3 0-0, 0 Saathoff 2-6 0-0, 4 Lempka 4-8 0-2, 8 Thiel 5-11 0-1, 10 D. Heusman 1-4 0-2, 2 J. Wirthele 0-3 0-2, 0 W. Wirthele 2-3 1-3, 5 Hunt 0-0 0-0, 0 Boyer-Sears 0-0 0-1, 0 Magill 0-1 0-0, 0 Lowmack 1-2 0-0, 2 K. Heusman 0-0 0-0, 0 Totals 16-48 1-13, 34
FCSH- Dr. Huppert 1-1 0-0, 2 Froeschl 0-2 0-0, 0 Ebel 2-3 1-2, 5 Vonderschmidt 5-6 1-2, 11 Lotter 0-4 4-5, 4 Meyer 4-9 7-8, 15 Santo 4-7 1-2, 10 Niemeyer 0-2 0-0, 0 De. Huppert 2-5 3-5, 7 Pokorny 2-8 3-4, 7. Totals 20-47 20-28, 61
Three Point FG’s- Sterling 1-13 (Salberg 1-5, Nieveen 0-1, Saathoff 0-2, Thiel 0-1, D. Heusman 0-1, J. Wirthele 0-1, Magill 0-1, Lowmack 0-1) FCSH 1-6 (Vonderschmidt 0-1, Lotter 0-2, Santo 1-1, Pokorny 0-3) Rebounds- Sterling 25 (Saathoff 8, Lempka 5) FCSH 28 (Pokorny 9, Meyer 5) Turnovers- Sterling 22, FCSH 13.
