Semi-State: Scecina vs. Forest Park
The road to the State Finals is never easy and Forest Park had already had to have two buzzer beaters to get this far and even being up early in this game, they had to fight of a late Scecina attack before winning and moving on to Bankers Life Fieldhouse to take on Oak Hill for the 2A State Title.
Forest Park was up 26-20 after the first half and looked dominant as Collin Hochgesang and Sam Englert were able to mix it up down low with Scecina really lacking a post presence. Kobe Clancy get them a chance on the offensive end because of his versatility but it wasn’t until the fourth quarter when Scecina really got their offense going.
They struggled shooting the ball most of the game and their inability to stop the post on the defensive end really put them at a disadvantage. In the fourth quarter, though, Scecina was able to press the ball a bit and get on a little run with some free throws and a couple threes that got them within two points but their defense just wasn’t good enough in this one as Forest Park rallied back to win, 58-47.
Best Offensive Player: Collin Hochgesang (Forest Park)
Collin was impressive on offense in this game. Nothing complex in what he or Forest Park was trying to do but he was always in the right spot and with no true matchup ability for Scecina, he just went to work on the low block to the tune of 20 points.
Best Defensive Player: Sam Englert (Forest Park)
I think with how this game went down, it always seemed like Sam Englert was able to do just enough to disrupt Scecina’s ability to drive the lane. That was about the only chance Scecina had for a while to score and he has just enough to impact that and he was able to rebound the ball well enough to stop them from getting any sort of second chance.
Biggest Surprise: Scecina’s Lack Of Ball Pressure
Maybe this is the fact that I spend more time around AAU than most high school coaches and this is definitely a philosophical choice but I would have tried a lot more to apply a press. Scecina did late and it seemed to affect a Forest Park team that doesn’t have a point guard. It seemed reasonable that you give up a few easier points but give yourself a lot more chances at the rim on offense. That would have been better in retrospect because they weren’t hitting jumpers and Forest Park’s size seemed to affect their ability to finish in the post.
Top Scorers:
Collin Hochgesang (Forest Park) – 20 points
Makylin Brown (Scecina) – 13 points
Team |
Q1 |
Q2 |
Q3 |
Final |
Forest Park | 9 | 26 | 39 | 58 |
Indianapolis Scecina | 9 | 20 | 31 | 47 |