Sharpshooting can't keep AHS from loss

Posted: Dec. 26, 2012

Marquette University men's basketball coach Buzz Williams always preaches the value of "paint touches" to succeed. On Marquette's campus at the Al McGuire Center, the Arrowhead boys basketball team found that out the hard way.

The Warhawks rained down 14 three-pointers, but, unable to get an inside game generated, they incurred their first loss of the year in a 70-66 setback against Brookfield Central on Saturday. Hot shooting from beyond the arc enabled the Warhawks (9-1) to stay close, but Central (5-1) never trailed in the second half.

"It's a strength of ours, but you have to do a better job scoring in the paint, too," Arrowhead coach Craig Haase said. "You make 14 threes and you lose, it doesn't do you a lot of good. We have to find ways to get the ball inside and finish inside better. Offensively, we just didn't get into the lane as much as we needed to. And then defensively, we gave up too many second-chance points when Billy (Hirschfeld) wasn't in the game boxing out. They had a lot of second chance rebounds, that just killed us in the second quarter."

Hirschfeld, the team's inside presence, had just four points. Central big man Elijah Goodman scored 9 of his 15 points in that second quarter after the Warhawks hit five 3-pointers in the first quarter, enabling them to fight back from a 16-5 deficit to tie the score at 18-18. AHS hit three straight triples, the last a four-point play converted by D.J. Escamilla.

The senior Escamilla, who sustained a shoulder injury during the football season, finished with 10 points.

"I'd say he's almost there," Haase said. "Once he really is ready to let loose, that will really help us offensively. We scored some points, we just didn't play well on defense. Against really good teams, every possession matters on the defensive end. We just didn't do a great job defending on tough possessions but we haven't had a lot of super close games this year or playing from behind too much."

Central went on a 10-0 run that straddled halftime to take a 37-28 lead, but Arrowhead didn't go quietly, fighting back to within a possession on numerous occasions. A Dominic Todarello 3-pointer made the deficit 59-57, but Central standout Riley LaChance (22 points) drove for a score and drew a foul, then hit the free throw to make it 61-57 with 1:23 to play. The Lancers hit 8 of 10 free throws from there to hold off any comeback hopes.

"This team can place three or four 3-point shooters out there at the same time with one big kid, and obviously we were very concerned with that," Central coach Mark Adams said of Arrowhead. "We don't want to get beat inside for easy baskets. If I look at the shot chart, I don't think that happened."

Kyle Keranen finished with 12 points, and Ricky Finco hit a trio of 3-pointers - including one just before the final buzzer - to finish with 9 points.