Boys basketball: Despite off night, Fieldcrest defeats Fisher in the HOIC

MINONK – It isn’t too often that a coach has an extended postgame talk with his team after a 19-point conference victory, but Fieldcrest boys basketball coach Jeremy Hahn felt his team needed one after Tuesday night’s 75-56 Heart of Illinois Conference triumph over Fisher.

“There is no excuse with how we played tonight,” said Hahn, his squad fresh off the consolation championship at the State Farm Classic. “We still have another step to take as a team with focus and really ask ourselves, ‘How good do we want to be?’ I feel we are a pretty good team, but the question is, can we be great?”

“The top thing coach had written on the board before the game tonight was focus and finish,” Lorton said. “I think I can speak for all of us on the team when I say we didn’t do either very well tonight. We struggled a lot on both ends of the floor. This wasn’t our best showing for sure.”

—  Ed Lorton, Fieldcrest junior forward

The Knights, which led 20-13 after one quarter, 35-21 at halftime and 54-40 heading to the final quarter, improved to 14-1 overall and 3-0 in league play. Fisher, which was led by 16 points and 11 rebounds from Ryan Hopkins and 15 points from Sid Pfoff, dropped to 5-8 and 0-2.

[ Photos: Fisher vs Fieldcrest boys basketball ]

“Our defensive rotations were off on almost every possession, and I know we scored 75 points tonight, but our focus on the offensive end wasn’t very good either,” Hahn said. “Last week we had back-to-back games against Quincy Notre Dame and Bloomington Central Catholic, and these guys were just flying around. That wasn’t the case at all tonight. We can’t just adjust our focus and effort depending on the name on the front of our opponent’s jersey, those things have to be there every game.”

Senior forward Brady Ruestman and junior forward Ed Lorton each scored 15 points to pace Fieldcrest. Ruestman also had eight rebounds, eight assists and three blocks, while Lorton had six rebounds and a pair of assists.

“The top thing coach had written on the board before the game tonight was focus and finish,” Lorton said. “I think I can speak for all of us on the team when I say we didn’t do either very well tonight. We struggled a lot on both ends of the floor. This wasn’t our best showing for sure.”

The key stretch of the game came at the end of the first and beginning of the second quarter. The Knights trailed 13-11 with just over a minute to play in the opening quarter but used a 22-4 run over the eight minutes to boost the advantage to 33-17 before heading into halftime with a 14-point lead.

“We came in the locker room at halftime up I think 12 or 14, but I think we all knew it should have been more than that,” Lorton said. “We have expectations as a team and individuals, and I’m sure none of us were happy with the first half. We talked about it, but then we just weren’t able to get things really going in the second half, either. But now we have a week of practice before our next game to try and figure things out.”

Junior point guard Jordan Heider netted five of his 12 points in the third quarter to help keep the Bunnies at arm’s length. He also finished the contest with four rebounds, six assists and three steals. Heider said he felt the Knights had responded well after dropping their first game of the season to Rock Falls in the State Farm opener, but also felt Tuesday night was a mirror image of the setback to the Rockets.

“We expect to win every game we play, so that one hurt, especially because we didn’t come out and play as well as we are capable,” Heider said. “We bounced back to win the next three, but I feel like tonight was kind of like the game against Rock Falls other than we were able to win.

“We didn’t really play with faith in each other, especially on defense. We have to play with trust, and for whatever reason we lacked that trust tonight.”

Fieldcrest is back in action Tuesday, Jan. 9, at Roanoke-Benson.