Depinet drops in 25 points, Tigers hold off Warriors

SYCAMORE - Challenge accepted.Seneca East wanted a repeat win against Mohawk.Mission successful.The Tigers defeated the Warriors 47-37 on the road in Northern 10 Athletic Conference play Saturday.The first meeting was on Dec. 5th for the N10 opener, where SE won 61-56."We watched film from our last matchup with Mohawk and what they did successfully against us," SE coach Anthony Langhurst said. "We worked on handling their pressure and we didn't necessarily do that towards the end of the game. We didn't handle the man-to-man pressure well the first time around and their 1-3-1 caused us problems, but it's a good thing to see so we know what to clean up heading down the road."The Tigers (11-3, 6-2) kept the Warriors (3-7, 1-5) away from the free throw line until the fourth quarter, and made Mohawk turn the ball over 17 times.SE had 10 turnovers all game.The first time the Warriors saw the free throw line was a mere 55 seconds into the fourth quarter, and Levi Tiell split his pair of free throws."We have to be aggressive to get to the basket, and it hurt us that we didn't get there until the fourth quarter." Mohawk coach Paul Dunn said. "We should have won tonight; that's a 12-to-13-win team but my God we can play with them. It shows the ability we have and hopefully we learn and bounce back from it."After a brief exchange of points, Tiell got a bucket in the paint, bringing the Warriors closer 37-30.A little later in the fourth quarter, the Tigers made two trips to the line between Jaron Depinet and Landyn Hicks, and both of them missed theirs.With 2:09 remaining, Tiell made it to the charity stripe and split his pair, cutting into the lead 39-35, which was the closest that the Warriors ever got.Coming out of a timeout, Brady Bloom was at the line, and missed the free throws.With 1:06 on the clock, Luke Mason found himself in a position to score a couple of points. About 15 seconds later, Mason was back at the charity stripe after a Tiell foul and was able to put some distance between the Tigers and the Warriors.The last score from Mohawk came from Magallanes with 41.7 seconds left.Bloom rebounded the ball and threw the ball just in time for Depinet to catch uncontested under the basket for him to score only to be fouled by the Warriors.Depinet made the bonus shot, bringing it to 45-37.With 17.5 seconds left, and one last trip, Hicks made both of his free throws to end the game."Defensively being able to hold a team under 40 points is a good thing," Langhurst said. "We just need to clean some things up offensively and defensively but definitely a good win in a tough arena."Depinet scored on a basket at the start of the game, Mohawk came back with a triple from Tristan Bright, making it 3-2.That was the last time the Warriors ever had the lead.SE saw Depinet at the charity stripe just after that triple as he got fouled. He converted a basket into a three. Then a forced Warrior turnover allowed him to add two more points.The Tigers had the last word in the first quarter adding another four points to make 11-5."We do the same exact thing every single game. We turn it over and over again," Dunn said. "We do things consistently on that end. We have guys that have to get aggressive and we figured that out in the second quarter but we turn the ball over every game and we don't rebound every game. We start every game down 10 and we can't win games doing that."No more than 30 seconds into the second quarter Logan Price stood at the free throw line, where he split his free throws.Mohawk went on a 4-0 run with Tiell. That was cut short when Depinet scored a basket.Zikki Magallanes had the response back for the Warriors: a triple with 3:12 left and slicking the lead from eight points down to five 17-12.Heading into halftime, SE had an eight-point lead over Mohawk 24-16.Mohawk got a run going halfway through the third quarter, when Jack Sager drilled a triple, Magallanes swished a basket, and Tiell sent a basket swishing through the net.Nicholas Parks got in the lane making it 30-23 and halting Mohawk.The team chemistry that the Warriors had last season hasn't quite happened yet this season."These guys haven't had anyone to rely on, but at the same time, these guys have to rely on and trust what we tell them," Dunn said. "There isn't a lot of trust in what we tell them, they aren't doing what we ask them to do in transitioning to the floor. We are just doing things on our own and we aren't taking what we learn in practice and putting it onto the floor."Tiell led the Warriors with a double-double, as he had 20 points and 10 rebounds."He is the guy that we want to be aggressive and he got there in the second quarter," Dunn said. "He has to do that more often for us, and the rest of the guys have to feed off of that. The other guys that are hungry for it will put the ball into the basket."Depinet led the game and the Tigers with 25 points."Jaron definitely doesn't play like a freshman," Langhurst said. "He is the biggest thing for us. We didn't know what we were going to have with him and everyone else besides Luke and the varsity experience. He has been our second best scorer. When teams are taking away Luke, and he isn't able to get shots to fall, which is uncharacteristic of him, then Jaron steps up, that's huge for us."Another key player for the Tigers is Mason. He averages 18.4 points per game as well as 4.3 rebounds per game. He is currently N10 leader for scoring average as well as steals, which are three per game."Luke does all the little things for us such as handling the basketball, setting other guys up, and even coming up with clutch rebound for us," said Langhurst of Mason. "Even if he isn't scoring, he is definitely making an impact for us." Seneca East 47, Mohawk 37SENECA EAST (11-3, 6-2): Ayden Perkins 1-1-4, Nicholas Parks 1-0-2, Luke Mason 2-3-8, Brady Bloom 1-0-3, Logan Price 0-1-1, Jaron Depinet 11-3-25, Landyn Hicks 0-4-4 TOTALS: 16-12-47MOHAWK (3-7, 1-5): Tristan Bright 2-0-5, Zikki Magallanes 3-0-7, Jack Sager 1-0-3, Jagger Ekelberry 1-0-2, Levi Tiell 9-2-20 TOTALS: 16-2-37Seneca East 14 10 8 15 —47Mohawk 15 11 9 12 —37Three-point goals: Mohawk 4 (Bright, Magallanes, Sager, Ekelberry); Seneca East 3 (Perkins, Mason, Bloom)Rebounds: Mohawk 30 (Tiell 10); Seneca East 23 (Mason 10)Free Throws: Mohawk 2-4; Seneca East 12-24Turnovers: Mohawk 17; Seneca East 10