Sportsbeat – Posen lets one slip away, looks for another shot

What a rare opportunity it was to see two high school basketball titans pitted against each other in Posen. Sure, Cedarville took the tarnish off the much-anticipated matchup by losing two in a row before rolling into Posen ? or did they? I believe there were two teams on the court last Wednesday that really wanted to win. Posen?s motivation was finishing the season undefeated, and wrapping up a sixth straight nonconference win. The last team to win all 20 games was the Lansing-bound 2005 team.

And beating Cedarville, ranked fourth this week in the Class D polls, would have been a nice accomplishment. I don?t believe that?s happened since the 2005 season. Posen is ranked sixth this week in Class D. Cedarville coach Dave Duncan runs an outstanding basketball program, but the Viking players gave the capacity crowd plenty to cheer. They just couldn?t put the finishing touch on the win.

A better shooting touch from the free-throw line would?ve gave them a better opportunity to win — they certainly had more chances, 35 to 21, but made only 54 percent. Cedarville shot a respectable 71 percent, including 9-for-10 in the fourth. The Trojans made a handful of three-point plays in the fourth quarter to stay out in front. ?We?ve just got to finish,? said Posen coach Steve Hentkowski. THE GAME was lost during a six-minute stretch at the end of the third quarter, and the start of the fourth.

Posen had Cedarville on the ropes a couple of times. Other than Cedarville?s opening bucket, Posen had the first half lead, and were up on top by as many as eight near the end of the first quarter, 17-9. The Trojans piled up a lot of fouls, including their big man, Connor McLeod. He uses his height to get great looks at the basket, and doesn?t miss too many. He picked up foul number four with 5:40 left in the third and went to the bench. One-by-one, Cedarville players kept picking up their fourth fouls in the third, but played smart and stayed in the game. Posen made their move midway through the third, getting a three from David Kerr, who was wide open on the left wing.

Cedarville countered with an unbelievable cross-court pass from one end to the other, taking the transition game to an extreme level. Posen answered with a sweet pass from Tyler Kuffel to a cutting Shane Hentkowski, which brought a huge cheer from the crowd. Then on the Viking?s next offensive try, Travis Hirschman was in the right place to get a rebound after a flurry of misses

and put it up for probably the easiest basket of the night for either side. The lead was six. The crowd erupted and the momentum was all in Posen?s favor with a couple of minutes left in the third.

Just as thought bubbles of 20-0 started popping over the heads of the Posen faithful, Cedarville did what they do best and started popping them. They play pressure defense and do all the other little things, which resulted in an 18-2 run. ?We need to execute better against the press and not lose our patience,? said Hentkowski. ?In that six minute stretch, we lost our patience. We know we can break the press.

?This is something we are going to learn from. I?m not disappointed in the loss, because we lost to a very good team. This is the kind of team we need to play before districts.? The coach is hoping to get through districts and ?get another shot at this Cedarville team.? The Vikings know they?ve got what it takes; however, the stakes will be even higher if the two meet again in the regional tournament.

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