Rams do nothing wrong in big win

Southeastern trails 41-14 at the half and never gets close in OHC opener. opener. opener.

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By Jeff Gilbert, Contributing Writer 11:29 PM Friday, December 9, 2011

JAMESTOWN — Greeneview missed its first five shots Friday night, but it didn’t seem like the Rams missed another shot in the first half of its Ohio Heritage Conference boys basketball opener.

There were steals that turned into layups, a 3-point barrage led by Tyler Bruntz and a dunk by Evan Bradds as the Rams built a 27-point lead. The second half was a formality as the Rams rolled to a 63-38 victory over Southeastern.

“I don’t know if we can play much better than that,” Rams coach Bill Green said about the first half.

About the only thing the Rams (1-1, 1-0 OHC) did wrong in the half was shoot with 30 seconds left when Green was shouting for his team to hold for the last shot.

The cold start was erased by consecutive half-court traps that produced steals by Eric Green and Kyle Combs, putting the Rams up 5-2. Then Bruntz and Garrett Hudson made consecutive 3-pointers and the rout was on.

Bruntz, a transfer from Yellow Springs, scored all 15 of his points in the first half. After missing their first four 3-point shots, the Rams made 7-of-9 from behind the arc to take a 41-14 lead at the half.

The trapping and pressing defense is new for Greeneview. Last year, with 6-foot-8 Ronnie Drinnon in the post, the Rams were more of a half-court, muscle team that won the OHC. This season, with Bruntz and point guard Combs in the lineup, the Rams are trying to force the action more.

“It kind of sent a message,” Bradds said. “That’s what our goal was tonight — to show that we can win even though we’re not the same team at all.”

Green said assistant coach Mark Combs convinced him that a faster tempo to produce more easy shots was necessary.

“I’m not a press coach by any stretch of the imagination,” Green said. “Mark said, ‘Coach, we need to get up and down a little more with this group.’ All credits go to him on that one.”

Green said he didn’t expect to win by such a margin and that Southeastern (0-2, 0-1) won’t be a pushover the second time.

“I’m not real sure I put our kids in the right situations offensively, defensively, and we struggled,” Bertemes said.

“It was a butt-kicking from the get-go. I did not foresee losing by 35.”

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