Polar Bears pounce on Stockaders early

CASTALIA – Old Fort needed to play almost perfectly.The Stockaders were facing likely the best team they'll play all year in undefeated Margaretta and a slow start set the tone for Old Fort.In front of a packed house that was standing room only, the Stockaders trailed by 10 points less than three minutes in and never got going, falling 80-43 to the Polar Bears in a matchup of Sandusky Bay Conference division leaders."What are you going to do? We knew what their M.O. was," Old Fort coach Eric Hoover said. "I've seen them in five games. We talked about taking care of the ball and not let them get scores in transition. That's all we did - turn it over and let them get layups. They barely missed any 2s because they're all layups."We had no answer for their full-court pressure."Kale Bailey hit a 3 before Tate Bailey tallied a three-point play for Margaretta. From there, Julian Washington got going. He picked a steal and threw it down for a thunderous dunk. Just over a minute later, a second dunk by the elite junior made it 10-0 with 5:10 to go in the first quarter.Old Fort (13-2) got going just a little bit as Isaac Gallagher scored twice around a bucket by Brock Miller, but the rest of the quarter belonged to the Polar Bears.Nolan Wiley splashed in a triple and Washington scored again. Wiley dropped in a bucket, Washington picked a steal and scored, and Washington tallied his third dunk of the quarter off of a steal to surge ahead 21-8."We talked about the environment and told them if they weren't ready to go in this one - a packed house and two ranked teams - we'd have to check their competitive level," Margaretta coach Steve Keller said. "Obviously, we were ready to go. We were able to come with some good energy and we got some good looks early."Margaretta (17-0) didn't let up in the second quarter.Washington blocked a shot and turned it into an assist, finding Kale Bailey for the basket. Later, tallies from Judah Keller and Kale Bailey, as well as a pair of 3-pointers by Washington pushed the advantage to 33-15 for the Polar Bears.Margaretta finished off a 14-0 run when Kale Bailey swiped a steal and turned it into a three-point play. Washington had one more steal and dunk as Stockaders went into halftime down 47-23.Offensively, Margaretta made 15 of 16 shots inside the arc in the first half. Defensively, the Polar Bears were able to limit Ryan Adelsperger to four points in the first half. He came in averaging 19.4 points per game."Old Fort over the last eight years has been really, really talented and very good," Keller said. "They've got a great tradition and they've probably been really good for a long time. That's what they do. They play great basketball and they're a really good team."Margaretta was able to use balanced scoring to really attack the Stockaders. Washington finished with 24 points while Wiley added 21 points. Kale Bailey registered 16 points and Keller added 10 points."It was a challenge," said Hoover of defending Washington. "It took multiple people, but we were so out of it before he had a chance to do anything in the half-court. He dominated the game at the top of their press. He'd deflect every pass and as soon as the pass was deflected, they were all on it to scoop it. They didn't have to throw it to him. They'd deflect a pass and beat us to the ball and get it."I think he's probably capable of even more than we got to see. We just didn't make him have to do anymore."Old Fort finished with 21 turnovers, many forced by the Polar Bears."We struggled to get it past half-court," Hoover said. "When we did get it down there, we didn't do bad. We got a lot of back cuts for layups. We couldn't get it down the floor. When we did score or get a shot, they'd get a layup. They're right back down the floor like that. Maybe they're faster than what we could practice for. I don't know."We were not transitioning to defense fast enough mentally or physically."The Stockaders still have a lot to play for. Old Fort is 12-0 in the SBC River Division, two games up on Calvert with six to play.The next step in the pursuit of a league title is Tuesday when the Stockaders host Woodmore (4-9, 3-7)."It should have been a fun game to compete in," Hoover said. "I can think of a lot of words to describe it with fun not being one of them. We talked after it that we have to learn from this. That's why we schedule like this. That's why we scheduled (Colonel) Crawford at the beginning of the year. I want to know. They're going to expose weaknesses that maybe other teams will not."We learned some things about ourselves and what we need to do to continue to improve." OLD FORT (13-2)Tyson Frisch 1 0-0 2, Isaac Gallagher 4 2-4 10, Dimitri Carter 2 0-0 5, Ryan Adelsperger 5 4-4 16, Brock Miller 4 0-0 8, Griffin Miller 1 0-0 2. TOTALS 17 6-8 43MARGARETTA (17-0)Kale Bailey 6 3-4 16, Tate Bailey 1 1-1 3, Julian Washington 11 0-0 24, Nolan Wiley 9 0-0 21, Judah Keller 3 4-4 10, Keiygan Morris 1 0-0 3, Tyson Bailey 1 1-1 3. TOTALS 32 9-11 80Old Fort 10 13 10 10 - 43Margaretta 21 26 16 17 - 80Three-point goals: Old Fort 3 (Adelsperger 2, Carter); Margaretta 7 (Wiley 3, Washington 2, K. Bailey, Morris)