Cougars maul Wolfpack
By Wade Bell, Sports Writer
It was a rescheduled homecoming night Friday at North Harrison High School, and the Cougars made the best of it with a massacre of their visiting rival, Crawford County, in what proved to be the Wolfpack’s worst defeat in more than 28 years. The Cougars dominated from the beginning of the game and won 67-22.
“They’re a team that would probably beat us 10 out of 10 times right now,” said Crawford County coach Jerry Hanger Jr. “They’re pretty good. I’m not trying to say we’re not. I’m just saying they’re pretty good.”
“For whatever the reason, maybe because they’re a rival of ours or maybe because it was a big homecoming crowd, all of our players were really charged up and energetic to start, sometimes a little too energetic,” said North Harrison coach Lou Lefevre. “They were just doing some crazy stuff. But we haven’t always been ready to go from the get-go. We’ve had games where we’ve got off to lethargic starts. Tonight, we were like a pepper pod of energy, and I think that was the reason we got off to such a good start and got such a big lead.”
The Wolfpack wanted to focus their defense on North Harrison senior Logan McIntire, but it didn’t go well at the beginning of the game when McIntire got loose on the opening play and rattled the rafters with his first dunk of the night. Crawford County’s Chase Satterfield countered with a three-ball, but Ethan Oakley put in two in the paint and McIntire hammered in his second dunk on a putback. At the end of the first eight minutes, the Wolfpack found themselves behind 25-8.
North Harrison scored the first six points of the second period before Isaac Nickelson stopped the run, driving in the lane for two. The teams traded baskets for the next two minutes, then McIntire got loose again for his third dunk of the half. Oakley scored in the paint to end the period, and the Cougars led 45-13 at halftime.
“Whenever you play a team that is rebuilding or struggling, jumping on them early is tremendously important,” Lefevre said.
Crawford County hit just one of eight shots in the third quarter. North Harrison, meanwhile, sent the game into a running clock when Riley Schneider scored following a Cougars’ timeout.
“It’s very difficult of the other team to sustain, doing things sharp and well when one team runs out to a big lead like that in front of a home crowd,” Lefevre said. “It was a good game for us, not just because we won … but because they were ready to play and charged up, and that’s very important.”
“We knew they could get down the court quick,” said Hanger. “You had two choices. You either let McIntire go off and get his points, which he could have very easily put 40 up, he’s that type of scorer, or we had to gamble and try to keep an eye on McIntire and try to keep his points down and try to make the other guys beat us. Well, they beat us and we couldn’t guard McIntire.”
McIntire led the Cougars with 28 points playing three quarters. Oakley followed with 13 for the Cougars who connected on 24 of 44 field goals (55%) and 14 of 21 free throws and had seven turnovers.
“Logan is hard to stay with because he’s so fast and he keeps hustling,” said the North Harrison coach. “A lot of what he got was in the open court in transitions. We made them make mistakes, and he got the ball in transition for a lot of his baskets. Without the rest of the players helping that occur, he doesn’t get those exchanges either. So, it was partially a team thing that freed him on a lot of those, but he is the most skilled offensive player on the floor. He had a nice night.”
“Ethan Oakley had a really good game,” he said. “I don’t know how many rebounds he had, but he had a lot for the amount of time he played. He was all over the boards. Riley Schneider probably played his best game of the year. There was just a lot of good stuff, charged up on defense, talking and making plays on offense.”
“He’s good,” Hanger said of McIntire. “He’s legit. He’s the best player we’ve seen around here in a while. He’s a scorer. There’s an athlete, there’s a ball player and there’s a scorer, and he’s got all of them rolled up into one. He can elevate. He can shoot from about anywhere on the court.”
Satterfield lead the Wolfpack with 6 points. Crawford County hit 7 of its 28 field-goal attempts (25%) and 4 of 6 free throws and had 17 turnovers.
Lefevre said he wants to see his team continue to play a complete game and to keep that habit going into the sectional.
“We’ve got a couple of stronger teams coming up where a team is having a tough year and, regardless of the situation, you’re in charge of yourself,’ he said. “You want your team (saying), ‘This is what we’ve got to do. This is how we run this play. This is how we play defense. This is how we defend the screen. This is how we defend the post.’ You’re trying to do it perfect every time and, when you get in the habit of doing it perfect against the best teams, you’ll play your best and have the best chance of winning.”
