“It felt like we almost had a second offseason,” said junior Ian Galluch. “We had to come back and go through conditioning all over again. It was just weird.”
Back from the break, the Irish are on a roll. Catholic Central is 10-2 this season and have won seven straight games. The Irish earned two wins over the weekend, beating Triad 85-58 on Friday night and Southeastern 86-59 on Saturday night.
“The quarantine really slowed us down,” Galluch said. “It’s being able to play again and not have to wait two weeks to play a game. It’s really helped us get in a rhythm.”
Catholic Central improved to 8-2 in the Ohio Heritage Conference behind Greeneview (12-2, 8-1) and Cedarville (10, 7-1).
“We basically had to start over again (after the quarantine),” said Irish coach John Detling. “The boys are finally starting to put it together. I finally feel like we’re back where we were after the KR game.”
The Irish will play 12 games this month to help make up for the time it lost in December.
“It takes a toll on the guys,” Detling said. “We’re still having practice every night, taking time to break down film. We’re also just preparing one game at a time and we’re not looking ahead at all.”
Defensively, the Irish are allowing a division-best 41.9 points per game.
“We’re getting stops and we’re pushing the ball, getting fast-break layups,” said Galluch, who is leading the OHC in steals at 3.9 per game. “We’re getting easy buckets.”
Offensively, the Irish are led by sophomore post Tyler Galluch. He ranks among the league leaders in scoring (15.7 points per game), rebounding (9.6 pg), blocks (1.5 pg) and field-goal percentage (54.6 percent). He had a game-high 19 points and 13 rebounds in the victory at Triad.
The Irish have seen several different defenses aimed at shutting him down, Detling said, but his teammates have stepped up in a big way. They’re also buying into their roles on the squad, he said.
Sophomore Cole Ray is averaging 10.9 points per game and leads the OHC in field-goal percentage at 63.5 percent.
Junior Ashton Young is averaging 10.4 points per game and leads the OHC at 5.2 assists per game. Ian Galluch is averaging 9.5 points, 4.4 assists and 3.8 steals per game.
The Irish’s lone senior, Joey Kampman, had a night to remember against Southeastern. He scored a career-high 29 points, tying the school record of nine 3-pointers previously held by Jason Ronai and Patrick Schutte.
“Everybody is coming together and playing really good team basketball and that’s what I like to see,” Detling said.
Ian Galluch was a freshman when the Irish last won the OHC South. He hopes they can make another run at the title in the next few weeks.
“It would mean everything to prove we can win after having a pretty bad season last year and we can turn it around immediately,” he said.
Next week, the Irish face tough OHC games against Cedarville on Tuesday and West Liberty-Salem on Friday.
“It’s not getting any easier,” Detling said. “We can’t take any game lightly. Every game we have to come out and give it our all.”