The Windham Bombers boys’ basketball team may have trailed by only five points at one point in the fourth quarter against Champion but it was a gap they could not close. The Bombers lost 59-54 to the Golden Flashes for their third defeat in the last four games last Friday evening in Warren.
“We didn’t do ourselves any favors with how we performed on Friday night,” said Coach Cody Apthorpe. “We were very inconsistent and never really fully turned it on. We played decently in some spurts but overall, it was a pretty poor performance and definitely one I think we should be disappointed in.”
Trailing throughout most of the game, Windham’s (4-3, 3-1) offense awakened in the fourth period, sparked by junior guards Carlos Bruton and Nick Hopper, who combined to score 16 of the Bombers’ 19 points.
After making only one 3-point shot in the first three periods, Bruton and Hopper each knocked down a pair of 3-pointers in the Bombers’ best offensive period of the night.
When the lead was trimmed to five points at the beginning of the fourth period, the second-year coach said his squad and the Golden Flashes traded buckets but then Windham could not get a defensive stop.
The Bombers’ poor defensive discipline resulted in Champion earning eight trips to the free throw line and converted seven of those opportunities, preserving their lead and sending Windham to another defeat.
Apthorpe acknowledged Windham never hit its offensive stride because it dealt with foul trouble throughout the game, with senior forward Jake Collins, junior wing Brandon Petrich and Bruton all spending significant time on the bench.
The Bombers’ defense committed 25 fouls in the game and Champion made enough free throws, shooting 19-of-32 from the line to maintain an advantage while Windham was only awarded 16 free throw opportunities.
“When you get behind as much as we got behind early in a game, to be able to fully come back and get on top, you have to have defensive stops consistently and it seemed like every time we would get on a little bit of a role offensively, our defense would let us down,” noted Apthorpe. “We would end up trading hoops back and forth and that only lasted so long before their lead maintained itself because we could never really get over the hump because we consistently did not get a stop when we needed to get a big stop.”
Apthorpe added that Windham’s offense struggled to score against the Golden Flashes’ zone defense, which dared them to beat them from the outside, but the Bombers’ perimeter shooting struggled.
Windham’s defensive foul problems were highlighted in the second quarter as despite being outscored by only an 11-10 margin, it allowed only one field goal to the Golden Flashes, Champion earned 16 free throw opportunities.
“We talked about it after the game, 25 fouls in a regular four-quarter game is extremely unacceptable and it was something that led to them scoring over a third of their points from the free throw line and led to our starters missing a lot of game time,” Apthorpe said. “Honestly that comes from lazy defense and that is what we preached to our guys after the game and at halftime.”
Golden Flashes’ sophomore guard Marky Nolan drew numerous fouls from the Windham defenders in the second period, earning 10 free throws and knocking down five.
Despite Windham’s starters being plagued by foul trouble, Apthorpe credited the reserve unit of sophomore forward Matt Kolczek, junior guard Cam Hardrick and junior guard Jayquon Smith for staging a rally in the second half.
“They held their own and actually worked our way back into the game in the third quarter and cut the lead down to five,” he said. “We kept that lineup to start the fourth quarter and that lineup I mentioned truly worked our way back into the game.”
It was another game of growing pains for a Windham squad that returned only one varsity starter from last year, Bruton. This year’s team fields a senior class of only three players and is dominated by juniors but most of the roster is playing without significant varsity experience.
Despite Windham’s youth, it has played in some close games at the beginning of the season and has found considerable depth, fielding a 10-man rotation at times.
“In previous years we have not had that type of depth and I think that something that comes with having those many guys around the same ability level, it breathes competition,” Apthorpe said. “It makes it more competitive for playing time and it gives us a little bit more options as a coaching staff to make decisions to have different lineups in a game.”
Following a home contest against Portage County rival Waterloo on Wednesday night, the Bombers will host Pymatuning Valley at Marty Hill Court on Friday night at 7 p.m.
