DUKE CENTER — For the first two weeks of the season, Austin was the hottest team in the North Tier League.
On Thursday night, Otto-Eldred (4-1 overall, 1-1 North Tier League) played the role of grinch, dominating Austin 55-28 and putting an end to their undefeated season.
The Panthers came into the game averaging close to 65 points per game through their first five contests of the season, but couldn’t get anything going offensively in the ‘Terror Dome.’ Austin (5-1, 0-1) was held scoreless in the first quarter, and were down 30-9 at the half.
Instead of stealing gifts, O-E just took the ball away. The Terrors had 12 steals on the game, including five from Andrew Sheeler. Despite only giving up 48 points to Galeton on Tuesday night, O-E head coach Dan Dalton knew that they had to be much better against Austin.
“I told them after the Galeton game that we are going to ‘D it up’ tonight,” Dalton said. “They definitely came out and gave me the energy that I wanted. Austin is a good shooting team. I knew they could shoot the ball from the outside. I told my bigs that they had to step up tonight and guard the perimeter and I thought we did a great job tonight defensively.”
The steals and transition offense led to a balanced scoring attack for the Terrors. Otto-Eldred had nine boys with at least two points in the game. After grabbing 22 rebounds in his last game, Cameron Grigsby was again a force on the glass, with nine rebounds to go along with his team-leading 12 points.
“Once we start seeing the ball go in, our offense seems to click,” Dalton said. “We like to get up and down the floor as you saw tonight. We share the ball really well with each other. The kids strive off assists. We preach assists in practice and I thought tonight we did a great job sharing the basketball.”
Led by Sheeler with eight and Dylan Close with six, the Terrors had 22 assists in the game. Those passes went mainly into the paint — another area where Otto-Eldred dominated. Only nine of Otto’s 55 points came from beyond the arc.
Austin — a team that won their first five games of the season by at least 10 points each — just couldn’t get its offense going on this night. By the time Blake Burgett put the ball in the net almost midway through the second quarter, his team was already down double-digits. Burgett actually led the Panthers in scoring, despite only having six points.
Dalton admitted that he and his Terrors (4-1) had some extra motivation heading into this game knowing they had the chance to hand the Panthers their first loss.
He also couldn’t help but notice the power rankings in The Bradford Era the week before that had Austin in the third spot and Otto-Eldred fifth.
“The rankings (in the Era) threw us off a little bit, too. So that gave us some extra incentive. You know how those papers guys are,” Dalton joked.
Although he never specifically addressed those early season rankings with his team, he heard the buzz in the locker room, and the message was relayed by one of his assistant coaches. If Thursday’s performance was any indication, his team should read the paper more often.
“It was kind of in the back of my mind, but I never mentioned it. One of my assistants did go out kind of gave them one of those pep talks with the rankings,” Dalton said. “I think that gave them that extra drive defensively that we needed.”
AT DUKE CENTER
Austin (28)
P. Glover 2 0-0 5, Blake Burgett 2 1-2 6, J. Glover 1 3-4 5, Valenti 2 0-2 2, Rees 0 1-2 1, D. Glover 1 1-2 3, Fowler 0 2-2 2, Walentukanis 1 0-0 2. Totals: 9 8-14 28
Otto-Eldred (55)
Cameron Grigsby 6 0-2 12, Cole Sebastian 4 0-0 8, Chase Sebastian 4 0-0 8, Sherwood 3 1-2 8, Dylan Close 2 0-0 5, York 2 0-0 4, Drummond 2 1-2 5, Sheeler 1 0-0 3, Connelly 1 0-0 2. Totals: 25 2-6 55
Austin 0 9 20 38
O-E 9 30 47 55
Three-point goals: O-E 3 (Close, Sheeler, Sherwood), Austin 2 (P. Glover, Burgett); Total fouls: O-E 16, Austin 9; fouled out: none
JV: O-E won 55-28
