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TOLEDO – When driving on the freeway it’s only natural to speed up a little when other drivers are passing by at high speeds.

Jabryis Heidelburg

But no matter how quickly the opponent may be going, the Fremont Ross boys basketball team has to stay in its lane and battle the urge to push the gas.

Friday night, playing the team favored to win the Three Rivers Athletic Conference, the Little Giants tried to keep up with the high-powered Knights. And when they tried to go faster, they only got left behind as St. Francis pulled away in to an 84-53 victory.

“When we get into trying match people shot-for-shot, it’s bad for Fremont Ross and its good for whoever we’re playing,” coach John Cahill said. “We have to be patient in getting good shots.”

When Ross kept a modest pace, it found success, such as a 10-10 tie early in the game. But the Knights then scored the final seven points of the quarter. Ross stayed in shouting distance, trailing by 12 latein the second quarter until St. Francis grew the lead to 19, 44-25, in the half’s last 90 seconds.

“I felt there were times where, because they scored, we felt like we had to match them,” Cahill said. “Then we’re getting a shot blocked and they get a dunk and we rush down take another quick shot and they come back and hit a 3 and – all of a sudden – they turned a 2-0 run into a 7-0 run but a lot of that is our own doing.

Dontrez Brown

“We’re not the quickest team or the strongest team, so if it becomes an up-and-down game, that’s not to our benefit. It’s (about) being patient and making people score through us and then getting good shots. When we stayed with that, we had some success.”

Jabryis Heidelburg led Ross in scoring 14 points while Bryce Root and Ben Gedeon each added 10. Dontrez Brown scored eight points but displayed the competitiveness Cahill wants the rest of the Little Giants to take note of.

“I don’t think, at any point, we ever thought Dontrez would be playing these kinds of minutes, but he led us in rebounding, he defended hard, we put him on a lot of different kids, including on the perimeter some tonight, and he just competes,” Cahill said. “If we can get everybody just with his attitude and his competitive attitude we would be a much better basketball team. He stays in the fight at all times. I thought he was really good.”

Ross (0-2 overall, 0-1 TRAC) returns to action Tuesday when the Little Giant travel to St. John’s. After a long, and highly successful, tenure coaching the Clyde girls program, being winless after two games is a new experience for Cahill.

“As a coaching staff, we rage against defeat and I think sometimes the kids are used to getting beat and it’s a clash of expectations,” he said. “We’ll get there. We’ll become a better team as we go and I think our coaching staff is committed to getting things going this year but we also have a long haul. We knew it wasn’t going to be an overnight fix going in and it’s not going to be.”

 

St. Francis 84, Fremont Ross 53

FR| 10—15—13—15 – 53

SF| 17—27—22—18 – 84

FREMONT ROSS (53)

Deryante Hardin 7; Hayden Lehmann 2; Jabryis Heidelburg 14; Ben Gedeon 10; Bryce Root 10; Dontrez Brown 8; Jaevon Martin 2. Totals 13 11-14 53.

  1. FRANCIS (84)

Wells 9; Niel 19; Uzigne 2; Kozak 10; McClannan; Justice 3; Crumby 2; Kizer 3; Harris 18. Totals, 32 8-12 84.

 
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