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Consistency brings victories for Trojans

Trojans bouncing back after a difficult start, much of it on the road.

Duncan Mercer (11) of Southeastern is guarded by Dale Maloney (5) of Catholic Central during the basketball game played Dec. 16 at the Jason Collier Gymnasium. Staff Photo by Barbara J. Perenic

Barbara Perenic Duncan Mercer (11) of Southeastern is guarded by Dale Maloney (5) of Catholic Central during the basketball game played Dec. 16 at the Jason Collier Gymnasium. Staff Photo by Barbara J. Perenic

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By Michael Cooper, Staff Writer 11:01 PM Thursday, January 5, 2012

SOUTH CHARLESTON — Early in the season, the Southeastern High School boys basketball team found itself in familiar territory — 0-2.

The Trojans lost a season opener at Northwestern, then suffered a 25-point loss at Greeneview.

“It wasn’t fun,” Trojans coach P.J. Bertemes said.

Since that loss, the Trojans (4-3, 4-2 Ohio Heritage Conference) are 4-1, including a three-game winning streak. The Trojans’ lone loss in that stretch came at Catholic Central, 53-48 in overtime.

“Consistency has been an issue for us on both ends of the floor,” Bertemes said. “We’ve developed a lot more consistency on the defensive end of the floor over the last few weeks than we’ve had. That allows you to stay in games and win them in the end, and we’re finding just enough offense to do that.”

To start the season, the Trojans played a 1-3-1 zone, hoping to utilize their tall, long group of athletes and veering from Bertemes’ traditional man-to-man defense. In those losses, their opponents made 13 3-pointers.

In the last five games, the Trojans have mixed up the defenses, playing both man and zone with good results. They’ve held opponents under 44 points in all four of their victories.

“With anything, it was new to the kids and it was new to me,” Bertemes said. “It’s taken some time and we’ve made some adjustments to figure out how best to play (the zone), where to put guys and when to play it.

“I think we’re getting better with those type of things, and we’ve been getting better over the last month defensively.”

The Trojans are also slowly finding offense. Duncan Mercer leads the team at 12.8 points per game, and has scored in double figures in all but one game this season.

“Duncan’s being consistent on the offensive end of the floor,” Bertemes said. “You have to play to your strengths, and we’re starting to figure out that he needs to get a few more shots probably than other guys.”

The Trojans, many of whom play three sports and don’t solely focus on basketball, are also starting to get more crisp on the floor.

“When you don’t spend time with this game that’s so skill-specific in the offseason, you’re going to be rusty when you get into it,” Bertemes said.

Bertemes likes the way his team is playing right now, and said it will need to develop more consistency on offense to keep the winning streak alive.

“It really comes down to taking care of the basketball,” Bertemes said. “We make a lot of shots when we take shots, we just don’t get to that point enough.”

The Trojans host rival Cedarville (1-8, 0-5 OHC) tonight at 7:30. They’ve played just three home games and have already made trips to Greeneview, West Liberty-Salem, Catholic Central and Mechanicsburg.

“It’s a little more comforting being 4-3 and half of our road games are done,” Bertemes said.

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