By MARC TOBIAS
mtobias@dailystandard.com
Led by a career-high 32 points from senior swingman Tim Homan,
Celina was able to move to 4-1 on the season with a convincing
69-45 win over Greenville Saturday night at the Fieldhouse.
Celina led just 22-19 with 6:29 left in the second quarter,
but with Homan blistering the nets for 25 first-half points
it wasn’t long before the ’Dogs took full control
before the break.
The Bulldogs finished the half with a 19-3 run to take a commanding
41-22 halftime lead.
Homan scored 12 of the Bulldogs’ points during that crucial
run, and finished the first half by draining 10 of his 12 shots
from the field.
“The guys did a nice job finding him, he shot the ball
real well, he’s a very good shooter and if you leave him
open he’s going to knock them down,” said Celina
coach Mike Kanney. “I thought we came out a little flat
after last night, once we got ourselves established defensively
it helped our offense, and everyone got involved and it was
a good night.”
The Bulldogs defense forced 23 Greenville turnovers and once
the ’Dogs got them flustered, the Wave abandoned what
had been an effective offense early on.
“I thought our kids sort of got out of our offense, we
started doing too much one pass and a little bit too much one-on-one
individual stuff,” said Greenville coach Brian Stickel.
“I told the kids when we ran the offense we got decent
shots, but when we started making one pass I think that hurt
us.”
With the game appearing secure for the Bulldogs, the storyline
at the half was Homan as he was well on pace to break a number
of Celina single game scoring and field goal marks including
the single game mark of 41 points set by Mike Hoyng against
Dayton Roth in 1981.
Unfortunately, the Bulldogs were playing too well for those
marks to be reached, and with Celina’s lead extending
to as much as 28 points, Homan and the rest of the starters
were used sparingly in the second half.
Homan didn’t appear to care much about records after the
game, but he did say breaking 30 points was a goal he wanted
to achieve this season.
“It means a lot personally, last year I had 25 a couple
times but I could never get to that next level. This year I
finally got there and it means a lot to me,” Homan said.
Homan displayed a stellar outside shooting touch on Saturday
night, as he connected on 5-of-7 shots from behind the three-point
arc.
“First couple threes I just kept shooting, they continued
to fall all night and I think I only missed two. Couple of shots
I didn’t think had a chance and they went in also. Guys
looked to screen for me quite a bit, and I was getting open
pretty easy,” Homan said.
“He’s a tremendous ball player and a tremendous
shooter, I told the kids we got to get to him, but he has the
ability to drive too, so you can’t really give him much
room,” Stickel said. “Good ball player, and one
of the better kids we’re going to face this year.”
Brian Gagle also had a tremendous first half for Celina, with
six points, five rebounds and a pair of steals.
Greenville was never able to challenge in the second half, and
Celina was able to get contributions from a variety of players,
as nine Bulldogs reached the scoring column.
“In the second half the kids came out and played real
hard, and it was just a good team win,” Kanney said.
Dane Brinley led Greenville with 10 points.
The Bulldogs inside tandem of Scott Boley and Adam Tindall played
well, as Boley finished with nine points and five rebounds while
Tindall added seven points and five boards of his own.
Celina returns to action Monday January 6 in the HALLiday tournament
against Springfield North.
|
