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Springstead Shuts Down Hudson in Second Half

4A-8 BOYS BASKETBALL

Photo by JOE DiCRISTOFALO

Springstead High senior guard Dante Valentine, who finished with a game-high 18 points, eyes a path down toward the baseline in the Class 4A, District 8 boys basketball championship game Saturday night versus Hudson at Sunlake High School.

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By C.J. RISAK

Hernando Today correspondent

Published: February 15, 2009

LAND O’LAKES - Jason Vetter was smiling. The game was over, the Hudson boys basketball team he coached had just lost by 13 in the district final to Springstead, and still he was pleased.
The reason: A coach puts together a game plan against a superior opponent and hopes it works. Vetter did just that against Springstead. Even better -- his team followed the plan.
Problem was, second-year SHS Head Coach Pat Kelly countered Vetter's plan with a pretty good strategy of his own for his unbeaten Eagles, and they followed his instructions, too.
So the outcome, although producing lower totals than many would have anticipated from two up-tempo squads, was what many would have anticipated: Springstead 52, Hudson 39.
The Eagles, now 27-0, host the runner-up in 4A-8 in a regional quarterfinal scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday. Hudson, which slipped to 19-8, travels to take on the winner of 4A-8 Thursday.

Coaches' chatter

"I said it at halftime," Vetter said, still grinning. "If we could bottle up what we did in the first half and take it with us into the second . . ."
Problem was, they couldn't. Or perhaps more accurately, Kelly's Springstead team had something else in mind.
A 7-2 closing run by the Cobras in the last 2:33 of the second quarter allowed them to pull even at 24-24 at the intermission. Hudson committed just seven turnovers in the first half against Springstead's high-intensity defense and connected on 10-of-24 floor shots (41.7 percent), compared to 11-of-29 shooting for the Eagles (38 percent).
"Sometimes you've got to throw the book away," Kelly explained. "In a game like this with everything on the line, you've got to make choices. And I had enough confidence in these kids that they could do it."
"It" was to go from a fast-paced running style to a patient, wait-for-your-shot type team. The Eagles ability to adjust quickly became evident -- in the third quarter, they held Hudson without a field goal, limiting the Cobras to a pair of free throws. In fact, Hudson didn't get a basket until Jarrod Branco, who led his team with 16 points, hit with 4:54 left in the final quarter.
That came after 10 previous misses. For the second half, Hudson made just 4-of-23 floor shots (17.4 percent).
"It was too long a drought without making any shots," Vetter acknowledged. "The kids executed our game plan the best they could have.
"We usually play more up-tempo, but we can't play it like them. We asked our kids to play completely different, and I think they did pretty good."
As good as Springstead's defense played in the second half, Kelly thought it was his team's ability to adapt to its game plan -- offensively and defensively -- that was the difference.
"To their credit, they did a very good job of planning," he said of Hudson. "But our offense was as much responsible for taking them out of what they were trying to do as our defense."
Indeed, Springstead's adjusting to the slower pace proved pivotal.
While Hudson struggled to find the basket over the last two quarters, the Eagles connected on 10-of-18 from the floor (55 percent), led by Dante Valentine, who appropriately topped all scorers on this day with 18 points, 10 in the second half and eight in the fourth quarter.
Springstead's 8-2 scoring advantage in the third gave it a 32-26 lead heading into the fourth; an 8-3 run over the first four minutes of the final period increased its advantage to 40-29. The closest Hudson could get after that was seven.
Joining Valentine in double figures in scoring for Springstead was Addison O'Neil with 13.
So while the Hudson game plan may have been a feasible one, in the end it didn't work. The Eagles proved they could adjust, an ability that will come in increasingly handy as the post season goes on.
 
SPRINGSTEAD 52, HUDSON 39
Qtr. Scoring 1 2 3 4
Hudson 9 15 2 13 — 39
Springstead 7 17 8 20 — 52
HUDSON (39): Santos 1 4-4 6; Russo 2 2-2 7; Branco 6 4-6 16; Pryor 4 0-1 8; Brom 1 0-2 2. Totals 14 10-15 39.
SPRINGSTEAD (52): O'Neil 5 2-7 13; Valentine 8 2-2 18; Latimer 1 0-1 2; Roberson 1 3-4 5; Steadman 3 0-0 6; Mason 3 2-3 8. Totals 21 9-17 52.
Three-point field goals: Hudson 1 (Russo), Springstead 1 (O'Neil).
Fouled out: Hudson (Branco, Brom), Springstead (Roberson.
Records: Hudson (19-8), Springstead (27-0).
 

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