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Coshocton 'D' stymies Bishops

Rosecrans shoots 31 percent in loss

Sam Blackburn
Reporter

ZANESVLLE - Coshocton has been putting the clamps on opposing offenses for much of this season under first-year coach Jeremy Ady, who has the Redskins playing among the best of any team in the East Central Ohio League.

Rosecrans was its latest victim on Friday night.

The Redskins used a 10-0 second quarter run to take a 13-point lead, then leaned on their defense the rest of the way to earn a 48-34 win in an ECOL Gray Division game on Friday night at Rogge Gymnasium.

Rosecrans (9-9, 5-6 ECOL), playing without post player Keagan McLaughlin, who missed the game due to a prior commitment, shot only 20 percent in the first half and only 31 percent for the game. They scored only eight points in the second and third quarters in falling behind by as many as 23 points in the second half.

Much of that was because of the Redskins' ability to contain the Bishops' dribble drives and limit easy looks at the basket.

"They came in here and did a good job," Rosecrans coach Todd Rock said. "That's a good basketball team over there. You have to give them a lot of credit."

The win was the seventh straight for the Redskins, who improved to 14-4 overall and 7-3 in the ECOL. One of their losses was an overtime heartbreaker to Rosecrans in the first game of the season, when their inability to seal the game off at the line came back to haunt them. That was never a problem in the rematch, as the Redskins shot 58 percent (17-of-33) from the field, including a 7-of-8 showing in the second quarter when they made all three of their 3-point attempts.

As a result, an 11-8 lead after one quarter ballooned to 21-8 after Conner Roahrig scored along the baseline, a run that saw Ashton Jarvis, Nick Kirkpatrick and Roahrig all hit 3s.

Rosecrans, which made only 4 of 20 field goals in the first half, managed only four points in the quarter. Things didn't get much better in the second half, when it made only 2 of 8 shots in the third quarter as the Redskins' lead reached 39-16 entering the fourth.

The Bishops finally caught fire in the fourth, when top scorer Aaron Gehlken got free for 10 points, but they never got closer than 14 points the rest of the way.

"When we lost two in a row earlier in the season I talked to a few of my coaching mentors, and they told me to challenge our guys on the defensive end, because that's where it all starts," Ady said. "We did that, and ever since then that's been the key to the seven-game winning streak, our defense."

The Redskins' latest string of good play all but assures them of a high seed at Sunday's Division III East District tournament drawing at Cambridge, where the road figures to be daunting with the likes of state-ranked Hiland and Garaway in the field.

But Ady likes how his team is playing.

"The kids are good defense, we're efficient with out offense and we're taking care of the ball," Ady said. "We're coming together at the right time."

Gehlken had 16 points to pace Rosecrans, which had only seven turnovers but were outrebounded 28-20 and attempted only three free throws.

Kirkpatrick had 15 points with a trio of 3s and Andrew Mason contributed 12 counters for Coshocton.

sblackburn@zanesvilletimesrecorder.com

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Twitter: @SamBlackburnTR

Stat book

Coshocton 11-18-10-9 -- 48

Rosecrans 8-4-4-16 -- 34

Coshocton: Jarvis 3 1-3 8, Griffiths 1 0-2 2, Hardesty 0 0-0 0, Mason 5 2-5 12, Kirkpatrick 5 2-3 15, Roahrig 2 0-0 5, Haas 3 0-0 6, TOTALS 17-33 5-12 48. Three-point goals: 5-9 (Kirkpatrick 3, Jarvis, Roahrig). Rebounds 28 (Mason 8, Griffiths 6). Assists 10. Steals 2. Turnovers 7.

Rosecrans: Fisher 5 0-0 13, Hagy 1 0-0 3, Mohr 1 0-1 2, Kunkler 0 0-0 0, Gehlken 6 2-2 16, Clifford 0 0-0 0, TOTALS 13-42 2-3 34. Three-point goals: 6-22 (Fisher 3, Gehlken 2, Hagy). Rebounds 20 (Gehlken 5, Clifford 4, Johnston 4). Assits 6 (Gehlken 3). Steals 4. Turnovers 7.

Officials: Schwartzel, Kasler and Jenkins.