Wednesday, January 17, 2007 10:52 PM CST
Trojan defense may be coming around
By RICK DAWSON Staff Writer
rdawson@jg-tc.com
SALEM -n Before the season ever began, Charleston basketball coach Trevor Doughty pinpointed his biggest concern.
He knew the Trojans had enough athletes to put points on the board. The more important question: Could they stop anyone from scoring?
Against the toughest squads on their schedule, that’s liable to be a nagging dilemma for the rest of the year. Yet, the Trojans (9-6) have looked good on paper since the Charleston Holiday Tournament began in late December, holding teams to 44 points per game while winning five of their past six.
Granted, none of those teams had the offensive firepower of Mount Zion. But Charleston hasn’t given up 70 points or more since then, as it did four times previously during a monthlong stretch.
“Truthfully, after the Mount Zion game (an 89-73 home loss) we really focused even more on defense than we had been,” Doughty said. “We’re paying more attention to it in practice and we have made some adjustments defensively. When you go through Olney and Newton and Mount Zion, you’ve got some teams that can really score some points. That really shot up our numbers. Numbers can be deceiving. Statistics can be deceiving some times. But the bottom line is you’ve got to be able to make plays. And right now we’re making plays to win games.”
Charleston’s next game, at 7 p.m. today vs. Centralia in the opening round of the Salem Invitational, is against a team that hasn’t posted prolific offensive numbers. The Orphans (3-10) are young and they played like it early in the year, with double-digit losses to Quincy, Algonquin Jacobs and O’Fallon.
They may have begun turning things around, however. It took them a year and a half to get a win away from home, but they finally defeated Belleville Althoff in triple overtime last week then returned home to hand DuQuoin a six-point loss.
Carlton Westbrook, a 5-foot-8 guard who averages nearly 15 points per game, scored 21 vs. Althoff and hit the game-winning shot at the buzzer.
“He’s a quick guard that can take it to the basket,” Doughty said. “Their record’s a little deceiving. They’re very young. They don’t have a senior on the team and they’ve played a lot of good competition along the way.
“I know they’re quick and they go to the boards well. They still get after you. It will be a tough game for us.”
The Orphans do lack size, which could be a hindrance against a Charleston team that may be without one of its starters. Five-seven guard Nathan Zuniga is recovering from the flu and Doughty was prepared to move 6-5 sophomore Jamel Johnson (9.5 ppg) into the lineup in place of Zuniga. That would leave the Trojans with no starter under 6-2.
The talk has been of a weakened field at the Salem Invitational. Only three of the eight teams have winning records this month.
But the Trojans aren’t in a position to overlook anyone, especially Salem, to whom they lost here in December. The winner of this one meets either Salem (11-6) or Triad (4-10) in the semifinals Friday.
“Mount Vernon may be 6-9 but they’re still a quality basketball team,” Doughty said. “Again, they’re schedule is very tough. Effingham (8-7) hasn’t won a lot recently but they’re still capable of winning, as they proved at the Effingham (St. Anthony Thanksgiving) Tournament. Edwardsville has lost a couple lately but they’re still Edwardsville.
“And you can’t discount Centralia. If Centralia was that bad, why isn’t Salem playing them? It made me think that Salem knows something more about Centralia than their record indicates. They had a worse record than Triad but Salem’s choosing to play against Triad.”
Charleston, which placed fourth here a year ago, hasn’t won the title since 1986. This is the 56th annual edition of the Invitational.
Contact Rick Dawson at rdawson@jg-tc.com or 238-6855.
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