AVON — The Avon Orioles were within striking distance before the Carmel Greyhounds took off.
Avon fell 60-36 to Carmel in a game where the Orioles trailed by two after the first quarter.
“They have a lot of kids that can dribble and a lot of kids that can create shots,” Avon coach David Cupp said. “That’s hard for us to match up with. They just have a lot of kids that know how to play basketball. They hit shots and we didn’t. We missed a boatload of easy ones and just had some unfortunate turnovers. Things that are just a microcosm of our season. We are in it and then we just kind of figure out ways to get ourselves out of it very quickly.”
After the first quarter, the Greyhounds led 11-9 as both teams shot 4 of 14 in the period.
“They missed some shots and their point guard got in foul trouble which helped a little bit,” Cupp said. “But we moved the ball pretty well.”
Carmel full court pressed the entire game and through the first quarter, it was no problem for Avon. And it showed as Avon’s three turnovers was doubled by Carmel in the first quarter.
But from the second quarter, it was all downhill for the Orioles.
Avon trailed by eight at halftime and before the lead got stretched out to 45-29 at the end of three quarters.
In the second and third quarters, the Orioles combined for 16 of their 21 turnovers, including 10 in the third quarter.
The team quit running their press offense to counterbalance the press and it showed.
“We got back into it, in the second half and we didn’t turn it over as much against the press, it was more making bad decisions in the zone in the halfcourt,” Cupp said. “When we get away from this stuff, we unfortunately don’t have the ability to freelance. We have to stay in our system. When we get out of that, that’s when we get in trouble.”
Shots were not falling for Avon either as they shot 24 percent on the evening and 5 of 22 in the second half.
“Unfortunately for us the last couple games, I felt like we’ve gotten shots and we haven’t shot it well. My thing is with our kids we’ve got to get ourselves chances to score.”
The contest was also the first of two Coaches vs. Cancer games for the Orioles this week. The second takes place Friday when the boys take on Hamilton Southeastern at Avon.
The team sported homemade pink t-shirts to warm up in for the night.
“It’s a good time to raise awareness,” Cupp said. “It’s nice that kids can at least be aware this is an issue. We used it as a team bonding thing. They made all those shirts last night and we gave them pink shoelaces. It’s nice that we can at least take some time to let the kids understand there’s a bigger picture out there than high school basketball.”
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