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Travis
Feitshans (24) battles Tyler Brown of Milton-Union for the ball
Saturday at The Hangar.
The Jets popped the Bulldogs, 52-38 in
non-conference play. CNO Photo by George Starks
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Balanced attack
propels Jets
Triangle works wonders for FM
By George Starks
See below for
Saturday scores
PITSBURG- When a team employs a gimmick defense, it’s used to stop or
at least slow down one or more players.
Franklin Monroe used a triangle defense on Milton-Union Saturday,
shutting down two of the Bulldogs best scorers, in a 52-38
non-conference victory Saturday.
“I was very pleased with our defense tonight,” said Jets coach Marcus
Bixler. “They have two really good scorers. The Poland kid (Caleb)
averages 15 and the Wheeler kid averages almost 17 so right there is 32
points combined from their backcourt. We knew we had to do a good job
with them and we took our chances with the others. We ran the triangle
all night and when you get in the faces of those kids, it makes a
difference. The Poland kid is very quick and he can get around people.
For the most part, we did a really good job tonight.”
At the end of the night, Poland netted 10 and Wheeler a dozen, 10
points under their combined averages.
Coming off a huge one point Cross County Conference victory over Bethel
on Friday, the Jets got balanced scoring from the offense.
Travis Feitshans and Trey Mong had 10 points each while Jaden Horner
and Devin Fourman contributed nine apiece in the winning effort.
“We talked about this after coming off a very emotionally draining win
Friday,” said Bixler. “If we want to take that next step, you have to
be able to do it on back to back nights. We were able to get some guys
in and get some of the kids a break early and that makes a big
difference. We had a lot of kids step up in the first half.”
Despite being out-rebounded 10-3 on the offensive glass, Franklin
Monroe dominated on the glass overall, yanking down 29 boards to 20 for
the Dogs.
The difference came in the scoring. The Jets put all three defensive
boards back in for points. Milton-Union had no points from its
offensive board work.
“I know they were down 15 percent on misses and I know we were at 50
percent in the first half but we’ve done a really good job in the last
four or five games, rebounding the ball,” Bixler said. “So it’s nothing
I’m really concerned with because I liked the effort we had tonight.
With sectional play due to get underway, the Jets are starting to come
together and gel as a team.
“We’ve been really fortunate the last three years and got better as the
season progressed,” Bixler said. “We attribute that a lot to the
competition we play. We play a brutal schedule and we’ve had eight
games in the last 16 days. So going into tournament, it’s a good time
to be playing the way we are playing.”
Franklin Monroe lost the junior varsity game 33-32.
The Jets will close out their 2011-12 schedule next Friday at home
against Ansonia
Saturday’s
Basketball Scores:
Boys basketball
Ft. Recovery 69, Greenville 23
Versailles 77, Ansonia 28
Newton 56, Bradford 38
Girls basketball
Milton Union 57, Arcanum 30
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