Chargers' Boys Open Season with 68-51 Win Over W-G

A strong second half defensive performance was a major factor in a 68-51 win for the ACGC boys' basketball team last night in a season opening win over Woodward-Ganger. Leading by a single basket at 31-29 at the intermission, the Chargers held the visiting Hawks to twenty two second half points en route to the victory.

After a strong first quarter in which the Chargers took a 19-9 lead and extended it to 29-15 three minutes into the second stanza, W-G closed the gap to two points at 31-29 when the home team hit a dry spell that produced just two free throws over the final five minutes of the first half.

The Chargers turned things around in the third quarter when it scored nineteen points, with eight of those points coming from Ben Marsh and seven from Miles Kading. Meanwhile, the Hawks were limited to eight points on just three makes out of seventeen field goal attempts. By quarter's end the Chargers' lead has increased to 50-37.

Good Charger shooting in the final eight minutes (seven makes in thirteen tries) put the game away for the home team. Marsh, Kading, Austin Kunkle, and Brock Littler all scored in the quarter with Littler and Kunkle each knocking down a trey.

Four Chargers scored in double figures with Marsh leading the team with 21 points. Kading netted 18, Kunkle 15, and Littler 10. Marsh also came up with thirteen rebounds, giving him a double double on the night. Jedd Weinkoetz also had double digit rebounds with ten, while Kading came up with five assists.

Overall the Chargers made 42% of its field goal tries on twenty six makes out of sixty two attempts which included six three point successes. From the free throw line ACGC made ten of nineteen tries.

There were other numbers that played a role in the Charger win as well. ACGC outscored W-G in fast break points 14-2, in points off turnovers 15-3, and in points scored in the lane 34-16.

"Overall I was very pleased with our effort," ACGC coach Lance Kading said following the game. "We had a few defensive lapses in the first half. However we're running a lot of new defensive schemes, so some of that is to be expected in the first game of the season.

"Offensively, I thought we did pretty well. We missed a lot of open threes, but other than that I thought we did some nice things. It was good to see fifteen team assists in the first game, especially with a lot of new faces in the lineup."

Score by quarter:

W-G 9 20 8 14--51

ACGC 19 12 19 18--68

ACGC statistics: (TP-REB-ASTS-STLS) Kunkle(15-2-3-0) Marsh(21-13-1-2) Solorzano(0-0-0-0) Bunde(2-1-0-0) Kading(18-8-5-2) Jacobe(0-2-0-0) Littler(10-5-4-1) Weinkoetz(2-10-2-0)