Poor defense costs Bulldogs in 97-87 loss

COLUMBUS—Cannelton boys basketball coach Brian Garrett had a simple reason for his team’s 97-87 loss to Columbus Christian Saturday: “We just didn’t defend.
“We scored 87 points and got beat by 10. Defensively we’ve got to do something different. I don’t know if we start working on gimmicks or what.”
He said the Bulldogs struggled trying to play zone defenses early in the season so he has had them playing man-to-man almost exclusively in recent games.
But Saturday “my guards out front got in a bad habit of trying to strip everybody. And we don’t rotate down and back the way we should.
“That puts too much pressure on Quinn (Duke, Cannelton’s center) sitting in the post. It leads to a lot of two-on-one situations (against him) with no weak-side help.”
That helped the Crusaders hit 59.0 percent from the field, including 64.6 percent from two-point range.
They were particularly hot in the third quarter when they scored 31 points to take a 71-67 lead after Cannelton led 44-40 at halftime.
Cannelton did make 17 steals, including eight by Brandon Cook and four by Tristan Simmons.
Cook also had 41 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds as he finished just two rebounds and two steals short of the first statistical quadruble double by a Cannelton player.
He is averaging 27.3 points per game for the season.
Simmons added 18 points and seven rebounds and Hunter Herzog had 11 points and nine rebounds.
The Bulldogs hit 41.9 percent from the field and got outrebounded 38-32.
Chris Noblitt had 30 points and 12 rebounds for the Crusaders, who improved to 15-4.
Cannelton, 5-8, will visit Bloomington Lighthouse Christian Academy Saturday at 7:30 p.m.