Cromwell used a punishing first half defense to grab an early lead and the Cards rode the momentum to an 80-59 boys basketball win over Carlton on Friday.
"I thought we came out with good intensity," said Cromwell coach Bill Pocernich. "Carlton gave us some early trouble by going with a 1-3-1 zone, but our kids adjusted and started attacking it better as the half went along."
Trailing by six points in the first half, the Bulldogs suddenly had trouble getting the ball up the court and suddenly found themselves down by double digits.
"It was the same as the Esko game in that Cromwell came out with some full court pressure and we had about a two-minute stretch where we struggled taking care of the ball," commented Carlton coach Mark Cool. "It went from 15-9 to 25-9 real quick."
John Ammesmaki lit the offensive fire in the first half for the Cards with 21 of his 23 points coming before the intermission. Jordan Johnson, who finished with 24 points, got off to a big start in the second half.
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"We mixed defenses up, but the one constant was pressure," said Pocernich. "We were able to get 21 steals and force 29 steals and many of those led to easy scores for us on the other end and that was the key to the game."
John Hedin was also in double-figure scoring for the Cards with 10 points, Cody Hendrickson hit for eight, Tyler Burgraff added six, Logan Shiflett scored four, Ryan Hutar added three and Kyle House scored a pair of points.
"I thought we played better in the second half," mentioned Cool. "We have to go into a game expecting to lose skin on elbows and knees to get every loose ball and every rebound. In the second half we started to play like that, but it was a little late."
Chris Domogalia led Carlton with 17 points, Mike Lundquist added 15, it was Travis Gran with 10, Justin Schwartz had seven, Matt Ostby, Jake Adams and Allen Davis all recorded three, and Taylor Shanda finished with a point.
Carlton was without starting center Josh Dahl who was out of the lineup due to a broken nose.
Pine Journal sports reporter Kerry Rodd can be contacted at: kdrodd@aol.com .
