Troopers top Cossacks
Troopers top Cossacks
By STU MERRY
The Garrison Troopers boys’ basketball team utilized its size this past Thursday to overpower a scrappy Max Cossacks team in Max.
The Cossacks opened strong, eventually bolting to a 40-32 lead late in the second quarter. But from there on out, it was all Troopers. Garrison outscored Max 21 5 in the third quarter to cruise to a 74-57 victory over their neighbors to the north.
The key to the win was pounding the ball inside to the Trooper big men, Will Robinson, Luke Hasenwinkel, Randy Essler, Craig Kolden and Dan Gackle. The four combined for 43 points. Garrison Coach Jason Mattheis observed that the inside game was visibly absent the majority of the first half.
“We didn’t look in the post enough and, when we did, we made poor passes,” he said.
That was the focus of the halftime talks in the Trooper locker room.
“We didn’t really make any adjustments, we just tried to hammer the point that getting post touches was our strength and we needed to take advantage,” he said.
Another plan was to push tempo in the second half. Pushing tempo and getting post touches made a big difference right away in the second half. Even though it was a good inside game that won it for Garrison, Mattheis said there’s room to improve.
