THORNVILLE — John Glenn figured to face its first true fight in weeks with a road trip to Sheridan as the outright lead in the Muskingum Valley League-Big School Division hung in the balance.
Instead, it was more of the same. The surging Muskies clamped down in the middle quarters to pull away for a 64-44 win on Jan. 30 at Glen Hursey Gymnasium.
John Glenn (13-1, 9-1 MVL-Big), which got 18 points from C.J. Dolan and 17 from Stehl Bates, took a one-game lead in the division and ran its winning streak to 12 games.
Sheridan (10-6, 9-2), which played without forward Logan Russell, who re-aggravated the ankle injury that cost him six weeks to start the season, saw its six-game league winning streak snapped.
Beat rolls on for JG
Muskies coach Eric Sheck said afterward that his team had no knowledge of the 6-3 Russell’s injury, which occurred in the Generals’ 56-41 win on Jan. 23 at Coshocton.
He said they devoted hours of preparation figuring he would be a big part of the game plan after not playing in the first meeting.
“It’s unfortunate because he’s a good kid,” Sheck said. “I’ve gotten to know his older brother (Landen) through his days at Muskingum and now coaching, and you just hate to see that happen. Clearly, it hurts them tremendously.”
Sheck said not much changed with the way they approached the game as a whole, however. They still sought to push the tempo and avoid the grind-it-out type of game the Generals prefer.
A full-court press throughout the first quarter was used in an attempt to increase pace. The result was a 19-15 lead behind points from five different players — Sheridan had four points.
It set the type of tone Sheck wanted.
“We are who we are at this point,” Sheck said. “We’re going to pressure, we’re going to try to play fast, and that didn’t change anything that we would have done any different other than having to guard (Russell).”
Even as the driving ability of the slippery Bates was well-contained by Sheridan for much of the first three quarters — he had nine points entering the fourth, 12 less than his average — Dolan and Cooper Briggs had key 3s and Brayden Davis a pair of baskets down low in the second. Ben Stamm added nine first-half points.
Sheridan never got closer than 27-22 midway through the second after Colin Mallernee’s 3. Briggs answered back with his long ball to start an 11-4 run to close the half, and the Generals never got closer. Dolan had nine of the team’s 13 in the third, helping push the lead to 51-33.
John Glenn was 7-of-14 on 3s and 25-of-47 from the floor overall, as Stamm finished with 12 points, Davis 11 and Briggs eight. Davis, Dolan and Stamm were a combined 15-of-24 from the floor in a continuance of the team’s efficient disposition.
Meanwhile, the defense held a ninth opponent to less than 50 points. The Muskies are now outscoring opponents, 70-49, on average.
“When we are at our best we’re trying to make the other team do things that they are not good at,” Sheck said. “And you know, we’ve got a veteran group. They’ve got some good IQ to them and we practice our rotations defensively, stuff like that. We work on it constantly and it’s who we are at this point.
“We try everything we can to disrupt you, and we’re going to give up open 3s once in a while and a layup here and there,” he added. “But the ultimate goal is to outlast you for 32 minutes. We did a nice job of that (against Sheridan).”
Generals focused on future
Bill Mallernee wasn’t into making excuses.
Sheridan’s first-year didn’t fall back on Russell’s absence as the primary culprit for his team’s struggles. Instead, he took the polar opposite approach.
“We held Bates to nine going into the fourth quarter,” Bill Mallernee said. “And if you told me I had Bates with nine and Dolan with 15 going into the fourth, I’d be like, ‘we’re good.’ But we can’t, and I told them, ‘championship teams don’t let the role players come in and score double digits.’
“That’s the biggest thing,” he added. “We’d do good on (Bates and Dolan) and then our role players versus their role players, our role players get lost and then give up a straight-line drive. That’s the tough part.”
Colin Mallernee (13 points), Tyce Whiteman (11), Canyon Daly (11) and Owen Cains (10) hit double figures, but the Generals were haunted by a litany of misses from short range when the game was still in doubt.
Many of those misses resulted in transition opportunities for John Glenn.
“We missed five layups in the first quarter,” Bill Mallernee said. “(The score) should have been flipped. The press sped us up, but we were getting shots against their press. We were breaking it and getting shots, 3-on-2 and getting to the rim and just not finishing it.”
Russell avoided the major injury he suffered during the playoff game against Granville, when he tore multiple ankle ligaments. This was a different injury, though he will still require some recovery time.
Mallernee hopes to get him back sometime before the postseason.
“If we’re not going to win a league, I would rather make a regional run, you know what I’m saying?” Mallernee said. “So let’s go get a regional championship game at (Ohio University) and make sure (Russell is) ready to go.”
sblackbu@usatodayco.com; X: @SamBlackburnTR
This article originally appeared on Zanesville Times Recorder: Surging John Glenn pulls away from Sheridan, takes control of MVL-Big
Reporting by Sam Blackburn, Zanesville Times Recorder / Zanesville Times Recorder
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
