MOOSEHEART, IL, Jan. 29 -- When they threw a fullcourt press at Christian Liberty from the very start of Friday's game, Mooseheart's intent was certainly to disrupt the visitors' offensive pattern of play.
But there was a more central aim to that press, and that was to keep the Ramblers moving and fluid right from the opening tip. The tactic achieved both its goals:. Mooseheart jumped to a 12-0 lead and stayed active as they cruised to a 75-34 Northeastern Athletic Conference win.
"When we come out in a press, it forces us to play harder," Mooseheart senior Jonell Crump said. "Instead of coming out in a man-to-man defense and kind of lollygagging around, it makes us play faster."
Crump scored 19 points, led all scorers, and did not play in the fourth quarter. Neither did Munir Smith, who finished with 16 points. Those two inside players have been the team's top scorers all season. What's changed since Christmas Break is the emergence of a balanced attack.
Friday, Shawn McReynolds scored 17 points and Levi Chavez added 13 in an attack that featured seven overall scorers.
"When everybody starts scoring, it takes a lot of pressure off the big guys," Crump said. "At one point, teams started to take our bigger players away and it forced us to develop other scorers. It really helped our team chemistry now that we got everybody scoring."
The Ramblers are 9-2 since 2010 began and improved to 12-7 overall and 3-2 in NAC play with Friday's victory.
"Our best offense is our defense," Mooseheart coach Ron Ahrens said. "That's been our motto and I think we're playing pretty decent defense right now - and we still have a lot of room to improve."
From that 12-0 lead, the Ramblers never looked back. By halftime, the score stood at 38-17. Only once in the game did Christian Liberty score on consecutive possessions without intervening Mooseheart points. Luke Comerovski and Aaron Johnson scored 11 points apiece to pace the visitors.
"In the past, we've let teams hand around with us too much," Ahrens said. "We had trouble putting teams away. This Christian Liberty team has played some teams in our conference pretty tough."
Stats |
| Sotomayer |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Elleson |
1 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
| Claybourne |
2 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
Tayddin |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
J. Kathan |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Comerovski |
4 |
2 |
4 |
11 |
Hennek |
1 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
A. Johnson |
5 |
1 |
2 |
11 |
| Litzenberger |
1 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
Colbert |
1 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
Thomas |
0 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
| M. Kathan |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Totals |
14 |
4 |
8 |
34 |
| |
|
|
|
|
Yarngo |
6 |
1 |
3 |
13 |
Chavez |
8 |
0 |
1 |
16 |
Moore |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Crump |
9 |
1 |
4 |
19 |
| McReynolds |
7 |
0 |
2 |
17 |
Brigman |
2 |
1 |
2 |
5 |
Lech |
1 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
| K.Owens |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Corral |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Totals |
34 |
4 |
14 |
75 |
| |
|
|
|
|
Scoring |
Christian Liberty |
5 |
12 |
7 |
10 |
- |
34 |
Mooseheart |
21 |
17 |
21 |
16 |
- |
75 |
3-point goals:
Christian Liberty:
Comerovski 1, Hennek 1.
Mooseheart:
McReynolds 3. Fouled out: None.
| 
