Orioles Heat Up Play; Ready for Dell Rapids

Orioles Heat Up Play; Ready for Dell Rapids

When it comes to rivarlies, we think of great games, loud crowds, and a good time. That is how high school basketball rivalrives always match up to be. The Orioles took on the Tea Area Titans this past Saturday in the Nest, and it was the annual Pink night. The Orioles had just come off a depressing loss to West Central. It was a well fought game that just ended in the wrong favor of the Orioles. So this set up for the Orioles to be ready and hungry for a win over Tea.

The Orioles played the Tea Area Titans in a good game that involved the Orioles to score 76 points. It got off to a pretty hot start as Hinker scored on the opening possesion. Hinker hit a three and Lennox would finish by scoring 14 in the opening quarter. Tea only put up 10. Then the Orange Crush defense came into play. Lennox gave up two 3's and a two in the 2nd and that was all for Tea. As for Lennox, Hinker's 8 points and McEntee's 3 pointer helped Lennox to throw up 17 points and take a 31-19 lead at the break. Lennox opened the second half with Hinker's 2 pointer. That was followed by a 3 from Hinker. After a steal, Lennox would get another 2 points from Hinker. They finished the scoring run with a 3 pointer hit by Tyler Leisinger and assisted by Jacob Hinker. Lennox went on a 27 to 4 scoring run in the third quarter to take a 58-23 lead. Lennox was now leading by 35 points. Lennox would get a 35 to 5 scoring run before Evan Munkvold would make a 2 pointer to break up the scoring run. That is by far the best scoring run of the season. Then the backups came in and they went on a 10 to 1 scoring run in the last 3 minutes to give off a score of 76-32. Lennox had won by 44 points and had earned their biggest deficit win of the year.

I was lucky enough to get a chance to talk with Coach Paul McVey of the Lennox Orioles. We discussed how the Orioles were coming off of a tough loss to the Trojans from West Central and how the Orioles were able to beat Tea. I asked him what his main focus versus the Tea Titans was and he said, "Our main focus this year is to play Oriole basketball.  We just need to stick to our principles defensively and run the floor hard and share the ball on offense.  Our players our very mature and united.  They understand that even if we lose a game, what matters most is how we play.  We are more focused on the process than the results.  We are improving everyday and we are peaking at the right time." I also asked him what helped with our defense to play so spectacular against Tea. He said his team spends countless hours in the weight room making sure they are athletic and fit so they can outrun other teams. He also said with such a high fitness level and a deep bench, it is easy for us to out work and out hustle the opponent.

The Orioles would take the pride and honor of a blow out home win into a home game vs another Region rival, the Beresford Watchdogs. In the first quarter, Beresford went on a 16 to 6 scoring fun thanks to Kropenske's 8 points. Raabe would hit two 3 pointers in the first to give Lennox their points. As Lennox's offense started to find a faster gear, the defense was still getting beat. Beresford would score 13 to Lennox's 15 and at half it was 29-21, Beresford was winning. After fixing and discussing at half, Lennox came ready to roll. Lennox started slow as Beresford scored 4 points in the first minute. Then Lennox caught fire as they went on a 20 to 5 scoring run in the last 7 minutes of the 3rd quarter. Lennox lead 41-35 after the third. Lennox was given a lot of fouls in the 4th and they took that. They made a lot of free throws. Beresford made a push as they scored 15 points in the 4th. However, Lennox also scored 15 and the Orioles won 56-50.

Jacob Hinker was named player of the game in the Tea game and the Beresford game. He scored 28 points vs Tea and found a 27 point game vs Beresford. The past three games, Hinker has scored an unbelievable 71 points. I had a chance to sit down and talk with Jacob and I asked him a few questions. When asked what has been leading to our defensive success lately, he said, "we've really started trusting in each-other that we will be in the gap if they drive on us. The big key is us trusting each-other and using our great chemistry that we have." That lead me to ask how he has scored and played so well lately. His reply was, "Great screens are being set and people are doing a good job of finding me when I'm open. Anybody on our team can put up a lot of points on any given night, so the opposing team really has to account for everyone." The mention of opposing team brought up my final question. How will Lennox do against the strong 1-3-1 defense that Dell Rapids will bring to the Nest on Friday? Hinker replied with, "Just by being patient. If we can play good defense and get our transition going, then it will be hard for them to get set up in their defense. That will be a big key." I thanked Hinker and he left. Hinker brought up many great points in our interview.

Shoutouts of the Week:

Shoutout to Jacob Hinker on being the Player of the Game versus Tea Area and Beresford.

Shoutout to Ahmed AlQattan for scoring his first points in American Basketball.

Shoutout to Jacob Lackas for throwing down a dunk as he Took Flight versus the Beresford JV team.