BremerNation shocked the Matt Ross Community Center last night in front of a record crowd by beating preseason #2 The Subs, 36-29. The victory was the Westies' first in over a year. The new-look Bremerton squad has put the rest of the Men's Tuesday Night C League on notice. "We're playing a different style of ball than in the past," Head Coach Matt Sargent said after the game.
The game didn't quite start off as West had hoped, however. Ten minutes into the first half, the score was in The Subs favor by a clip of 11-0. Westie veteran Chad Cillessen finally knocked the lid off the hoop with a 3-point play with just over 9 minutes to play in the half. Cillessen would add another hoop as The Subs' lead was cut to five before the break at 17-12.
Coach Sargent, who revamped his staff this offseason in addition to all the player personnel moves, credited Assistants A.C. Unit and Chubbs with the halftime adjustments necessary for the come-from behind victory. "We switched to a box-and-one on the defensive side of the ball. It really frustrated #1. We did a lot of switching, face-guarding, and it ended up being very successful," Unit was quoted as saying postgame. "You saw a lot more movement in our offensive sets, more than in the past," Sargent noted. "With DeBaun's forced retirement, and our subsequent recruitment of smaller, quicker players, we had a lot of back-cutting, picking both on- and off-the-ball, just tiring their defense," he added. "I think that was shown in the fact that they used two timeouts to our none."
That may indeed have been the underlying factor for the Westie 2.0 squad. It has been a long time since Bremerton out-hustled an opponent, but in last night's game, they won every battle in the trenches. Team single-game records were made in rebounds (due to both team's poor shooting, naturally) and tied in steals which, given each squad's poor offensive output, put a high value on each possession. They kept their turnovers to a minimum. And let's not forget, they did all of this minus their top three leading scorers from last season (DeBaun, Roth, and Cool), although former Newcomer of the Year Chris Roth will be in uniform next week (holdout).
Brief notes: Scoring was well-balanced. Final tallies were: Hill-9, Sargent-9, Reddell-6, Burke-5, Cillessen-5, Carr-2. Coach Sargent was pleased with the newcomers Carr, Hill, and Reddell. On each: "Carr, as you saw, will slide nicely into the combo guard slot, and adding Roth into the mix, we've now got two legitimate guards who can handle bringing the ball up against pressure defense. B. Hill, well, what can you say. Great debut performance, we really need to have the ball go through him if we're playing against a zone. He's a deft post passer and versatile enough to step out and hit the three. Believe me, he's only going to improve as the season progresses. I think we found our ultimate sixth man in Nick Reddell. He really could, and would, start on every other team in the league. Did you see how much energy he brought when he came in? His pressure 'D' was phenomenal, and the offensive output just icing on the cake. He's going to have a chance at All-League honors if he progresses the way the staff predicts.
Chad Cillessen, who rolled his ankle with 16:33 left in the game, has reported that he's "much better, swelling is down but there is still a good amount." Cillessen is listed as doubtful this for next week's game, but will likely suit up, given his game history. "He is the hardest working defender and rebounder on the team, hands-down. I mean, you know, next to me," F Joe Burke said at the postgame rally.
Chris Roth, after holding out for the first game, has come to terms with BEI and will be in uniform for next Tuesday's game. The four guard rotation that he completes with Sargent, Carr, and Reddell may just be the best in the league. "They look like Villanova a few years back, with all those guards," one spectator was quoted.
Bremerton West looks to carry the momentum from last night's victory into next Tuesday's matchup with the Money Shots, 6:30PM at The Matt. Go Westies!
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