CEDARVILLE — Playing hard and improving while staying focused on yourself is a difficult thing to achieve in a game like the one at Cedarville on Tuesday.
The Indians overwhelmed an underpowered league opponent during a 57-14 drubbing of Triad at home, but it the score wasn’t the focus for the team once the game flow was established, according to head coach Ryan Godlove.
“That’s just kind of where I think our mind is as a team,” Godlove said. “Once we jumped out to the lead, it was just more focusing on us and are we done the things we need to do. So just taking pride in getting better right now.”
Cedarville pitched a shutout in the first quarter with an 18-0 lead, doubling their own point output in the final 2:31 while Triad tried to slow the game down immediately by holding possession for a minute at a time.
The Indians allowed a few opening scoring chances from three, but Triad wasn’t able to put any of their opportunities in the basket. Cedarville’s first points allowed came on the opening possession of the second quarter on a layup, but Triad wasn’t able to make another field goal attempt until a Cedarville turnover at midcourt led to a two-on-none fastbreak with six seconds until halftime.
Godlove said with the game out of hand early, he wanted his Cedarville team to keep its focus on themselves and what they want to accomplish on the floor through its offensive efficiency. You could tell they remained locked in even as a running clock began in the second half as they went 10-for-13 inside the arc and only committed two turnovers until the bench was subbed in late.
“I think we have a very good basketball team,” Godlove said. “We’ve got three losses against some really good teams. We tried to set up a really tough schedule for ourselves to keep pushing ourselves to get better. And the goal is always to win, but it’s still taking one game at a time and learning right now and from those losses.”
Drew Koning had 13 points to lead all scorers, but everyone made contributions too. Mason Johnson put in 11, while Caleb Sultan, Braden Criswell and Tyler Cross all added six points, respectively.
Cedarville’s 10th win of the season allows them to remain in second place of the OHC South with a 6-1 league record behind Greeneview, who is the only league team to defeat them this season.
