One-point third quarter is Badin’s undoing

State-ranked Summit Country Day remains unbeaten, 43-23.

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12:42 AM Wednesday, January 18, 2012

By Jay Morrison

Staff Writer

CINCINNATI — The Badin High School boys basketball team stayed with the state’s No. 3-ranked Division III squad for two quarters Tuesday night.

But the third quarter was a one big mismatch as Summit Country Day outscored the visiting Rams 19-1 to stay undefeated with a 43-23 victory.

“One bad quarter,” Badin coach Nick Argentati said. “In the first half we had the pace where we wanted it and we were running offense for long periods of time. But in the third quarter we got a little tired, they knocked shots in and all of sudden our guys’ minds started speeding up.

“We just didn’t handle their run very well.”

The Silver Knights (11-0) took a narrow 17-14 lead into halftime, but they forced Badin (8-4) into turnovers on its first two possessions of the third quarter and then senior captain Tommy Kreyenhagen, who was making his season debut after rehabbing a shoulder injury, hit a couple of big 3-pointers to help the hosts build a big lead.

“We hit some 3s to go on a big run and kind of separate from them,” SCD coach Michael Bradley said. “Our guys made plays and got stops, and Badin was short on a lot of the jump shots they were making earlier in the game. When it’s a four- or five-point game and you hit a couple of 3s like that, it gets to 12 or 15 real quick.”

Kreyenhagen hit four of his first five shots from beyond the arc to finish with 14 points, sharing game-high honors with junior teammate Kevin Johnson. Holden Hertzel, a 6-foot-5, 235-pound load in the post, added 10 points for the Silver Knights.

“They’re just big across the board,” Argentati said. “Their post guys are big and their perimeter guys have long arms. It’s hard to even get open shots against them. And when we did, we were rushing.

“We couldn’t feed the post and score inside, and we couldn’t hit any perimeter shots,” he continued. “That’s a bad combination.”

Badin made only 8-of-29 shots from the floor, including just one from the 5:13 mark of the second quarter until 4:56 was left in the game, a span of more than 16 minutes. Morgan Reynolds led the Rams with seven points, while Joe Marot added five.

“A more talented team beat us on their home court tonight,” Argentati said. “That’s probably the best team in the state. I find it hard to believe there’s too many D3 teams more talented than those guys.

“But it’s good for us,” he added. “If we end up meeting them in the tournament, at least we have an idea now of how we need to play them.”

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2193 or jmorrison@coxohio.com.

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