AVON — For being the season opening contest, the Avon High School boys’ basketball team looked in midseason form.
The Orioles made six 3-pointers, committed just seven turnovers, and limited Plainfield to 22 percent shooting in a 65-25 blowout win over the Quakers.
Avon coach Jason Young did not have too much to complain about after watching his Orioles.
“(I’m) very pleased with our effort and our intensity,” he said. “We shared the basketball well but didn’t shoot it real well in the first half, but I thought we got good looks. Defensively, we were able to put some pressure on the basketball and then they missed a lot of shots early and I think that affected their confidence.”
First-year Plainfield coach Andy Weaver said he expected more out of his squad offensively in the first game of the season.
“Obviously, we struggled scoring the basketball all night so that’s something that we have to go to the drawing board and find a way to put points on the board,” he said.
The Quakers never scored more than two field goals in any quarter and were not able to get in any sort of offensive rhythm.
“They just made it tough for us entering the basketball offensively,” Weaver said. “We stood a lot, we turned the basketball over a lot, and offensively we just did not release the basketball against pressure.”
To end the first half, Plainfield’s Luke Jones rebounded an Avon miss but had trouble passing out of a double team and Aaron Bode stole the pass directly under the basket for an easy layup. That score gave the Orioles a 31-13 halftime advantage as Plainfield had turned the ball over nine times and shot 27 percent during the first two periods.
A 16-5 third quarter run put the Orioles up 47-18 as the Quakers only scored one field goal in the period.
Avon had nine players score and each registered four points or more. Leading the way for the Orioles was freshman Brandon Peters with 14 points off the bench. Senior Aaron Bode notched 10 points.
After graduating Notre Dame recruit Austin Burgett and losing two other starters, Avon is expecting to be a balanced scoring team.
“I don’t think we have that one go-to player for us,” Young said. “We anticipate being pretty balanced all year.”
Plainfield senior Jake Jay led the Quakers with six points.
With returning two starters and having some inexperience, Young said he was satisfied with the Orioles and their seven turnovers.
“We took care of the basketball,” he said. “That was a concern going into the game tonight and I thought we did a pretty good job with it.”
Weaver said he knows where the Quakers need to improve moving forward after the rough first showing.
“We’ve got to work in practice,” he said. “We’ve got to find better ways to take care of the basketball. If we can take care of the basketball and correct some of those things and then be able to set up our defense, that will be a big key for us, it will be a start.”
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