Top-seeded Chargers fend off upset-minded foes

Seeded eighth, the Ridgewood Spartans seemed not to know they were taking on the top-seeded Orion boys.

For the entire first half, and almost all of the third quarter, the Spartans stayed within a few points of the Chargers.

But as the game wound down, the Orion boys wound up. They escaped the quarterfinal round of the ROWVA  regional with a 66-45 victory.

Ridgewood played a solid three quarters, Orion coach Brent Hutton said.

“No one wants to lose and go home,” he said. “We have to expect everyone’s best game.”

“I can’t fault our effort,” Spartan coach Jeff Hannam said. “They gave me great effort. They understood the underdog role and played it well tonight.”

“Ridgewood came out with a lot of intensity and ran their offense well,” Hutton said.

The Chargers expected Spartan Brian Norberg to make shots from beyond the arc, Hutton said.
Norberg arched in six of Ridgewood’s nine treys.

“We lost him a couple of times,” Hutton said. The Chargers switched to man defense in order to keep track of Norberg.

“We limited his looks at the basket,” Hutton said. Norberg had four triples in the second quarter and only two in the entire second half.

“I knew we needed everyone to shoot the ball well tonight,” Hannam said. “We hit shots early, and that kept us in the game. Later, we started to miss and that’s when we let the game slip away.”

Early on, the Spartan defense forced the Chargers into turnovers at key times, Hannam said.
“Our scoring led us to play better defense,” he said. “They got in a hurry against our zone.”

The hurried Chargers threw bad passes, the Spartan coach said.

Ridgewood managed to counter Orion’s height advantage by hitting the boards hard and limiting their taller opponents to one shot on offensive possessions, Hannam said.

Knowing Monday might be the last game of his senior year, Clayton Carr did a great job of boxing out Chargers who were eight inches taller, the Spartan coach said.

“They played a better first half than we played,” Hutton said.

The Chargers clung to a 28-27 lead at intermission.

“At halftime, we knew Orion would turn up the man pressure,” Hannam said. “They did, and that caused some of the turnovers.”

The Chargers also turned up the heat on offense, Hutton said. Danny DeBacker had 10 points to go with nine in the first half.

Tanner Williams and Jared Simmer got baskets going to the hole, Hutton said.

Williams had a respectable 10 points in the first half, but he kicked things up a notch and put in 14 during the second half.

Simmer fired in three baskets in the first half and two more in the second.

Even with turning up the pressure on both ends of the floor, the Chargers had only a four-point lead with 1:44 to go in the third quarter.

During the last minute, Orion went on a 6-0 run for a 10-point advantage as the fourth quarter began.

Early in the fourth quarter, the Spartans had committed only 12 fouls. Unfortunately for them, only three players had accounted for all of them. Carr, Ben Smith and Tyler Nimrick had four fouls each.

That hurt the Spartans, Hannam said.

Scoring in double figures were Chargers Williams, 24; DeBacker, 19; and Simmer, 10, and Spartan Norberg, 18.

Other Chargers with points were Trent DeDecker, eight, and James Matson, five.

Spartans in the scorebook were Carr, nine; Smith, eight; Kyle Leathers, five; Nimrick, four; and Cody Lanning, one.

Orion had three treys, two from DeBacker and one from Trent DeDecker.

Besides Norberg’s six from beyond the arc, Ridgewood got two from Carr and one from Leathers.

At the free-throw line, the Chargers made five of 16. DeBacker, Matson and Trent DeDecker each shot 1-for-2.

The Spartans put in four of six. Smith hit 2-for-2 and Lanning and Carr, 1-for-2.

This was the first year for Ridgewood, and Hannam noted all of the scoring and ball handling from both Cambridge and AlWood graduated at the end of last season. Boys had to play in unfamiliar positions.

The Spartans finished the season 3-26, while Orion improved to 22-8.

For more photos, see the Feb. 26 issue.