“We had a lot of undisciplined moments,” he said. “I felt like once we got back and watched film, we were able to correct some of those things in practice and have some more practice time overall.”
The saying “practice makes perfect” certainly is being applied for the Warriors in its last two games.
Wayne held Centerville to under 30 points through three quarters and coasted to a 71-51 win Tuesday in Huber Heights.
The win comes a week after Wayne also crushed Miamisburg 71-42.
“I just felt like defensively, we had a really good week of practice and I felt like that definitely showed up in the game,” Martindale said after the Centerville win.
He may have been downplaying his team’s effort.
Centerville (2-1, 2-1) was forced into making uncharacteristic mistakes most of the evening as Wayne defenders clogged passing lanes and stood their ground to force the Elks into taking numerous long range shots. Centerville went 4-for-19 from three and missed all but one of its initial 13 attempts.
“I think it really speaks volumes of our kids on the buy-in that we’ve had the last week and a half since we played that [Fairmont] game,” Martindale said. “I think that’s probably what I’m most proud of is the guys giving great effort tonight. Multiple guys had a huge impact.”
Wayne (3-1, 2-1) left no doubt in the second half by keeping its foot on the pedal. The Warriors turned defense into offense with runs of 7-0, 10-0 and 10-0 coming in each of the first three quarters. Wayne shot 59 percent from the field and went 10-for-19 from three.
Credit: Steven Wright
Kaden Post had 14 points as part of a balanced scoring effort for the Warriors that saw six players score at least eight points. Sophomore Dontay Chivers added 10 points, all coming in the first half.
“We want to play unselfishly. We want to pass the ball and we wanted to make the right basketball play,” Martindale said. “When our guys are doing that and they’re doing it at a high level, it just makes the game easier.”
Wayne’s two runs in the first half forced Centerville to go scoreless for more than nine minutes of action.
A 7-0 run in the first quarter built an early five-point lead for the Warriors as the Elks didn’t lead again after going up 2-0 in the opening seconds. Wayne’s mixed in zone defense to keep the Elks shooting jumpers.
Wayne went on a 10-0 run for the final 5 minutes and 26 seconds of the first half. It was only ended after senior Sante Jones got fouled while making a layup with two seconds left and was called for a technical foul during his celebration that led to two free throws for Centerville. Wayne led 31-17 at the break after shooting 9-for-14 inside the arc in the first half.
Centerville made its first seven two-point shot attempts to begin the second half. The amount of turnovers Wayne forced negated much of those gains.
The Warriors’ defense was relentless midway through the third quarter. As part of the 10-0 run in that period, Post hit a three to put his team up by 18 and force a timeout by Centerville head coach Brook Cupps. Upon the resumption of play, Jones got a steal near the midcourt line after mere seconds had passed and he went in uncontested for a layup to extend the lead to 43-23.
Wayne went on to lead by as much as 29 in the fourth quarter as they continued to sink threes.
Patience was the key, according to Martindale, as his side never forced their way into taking bad shots and on several occasions restarted offensive sets until they got a look they would end up making.
“There’s times where we want to have a great, long valued possession. I thought they did a really nice job attacking and then making decisions whether to pass the ball around and making them work defensively,” Martindale said.
Wayne will travel to Beavercreek for a game on Friday. Centerville heads to Fairmont, the lone remaining unbeaten team in GWOC play after three games, for another rivalry game Friday.
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