Bremerton West seemed to be cruising to their second consecutive session-opening victory Tuesday night, on the road, against a team who hadn't won a game all year when, all of the sudden, they forgot how to play defense. "They ran a play on us, several times, Plous and I call it 'Wildcat,'" Coach Sargent said after the game. "It got so tight, during the timeout we took with about 5 minutes to play, I didn't even say a word. I felt, at that point, we're up, we're the better team, and we just needed to pull our heads out."
And pull their heads out they did. Aided down the stretch by fresh recruits Matt Kadel and Tyler Whetstine, the Westies punched back at the Wildcats with back-to-back threes from All League guard Matt Sargent. "The first one, a broken play, Tyler hit me on. The second, a little pick-and-fade, from Kadel. I was definitely feeling my rhythm. All in all, we got a win. It wasn't pretty by any means. We have a lot of room for improvement. We can definitely take care of the ball better," Sargent was quoted, post-game.
There were a plethora ("Do you know what a plethora is, Hefe?" "I don't know, El Guapo....four or five?") of side plots to Tuesday night's game. There was Chad Cillessen, sworn in as the new team chaplain before the game, making his first appearance on the hardwood since severely injuring his foot in the '09 opener. There were the new recruits. The road crowd. The poor reffing. And even the Wildcats had signed a new PG, nicknamed "Lefty" (no relation to Phil Mickelson).
After the game, veteran players spoke to Bremerton Press. "It was good to play from in front, something we hadn't done too often this season," Joe "The Grocer" Burke mentioned. Alex Carr, who got his third career start last night, seconded that opinion. "It took about 5 minutes to get going. After that, we took it to them, hard," he said.
Perhaps the biggest news for West was the re-emergence of standout guard Chris Roth. "Rothchild definitely got his stroke back," Coach Sargent said. "I haven't seen a stat sheet yet, but he had several assists, hit a couple threes. Great drives to the hoop. Looks like he's back at his All-League playing level again."
The most telling story of the game, from a fan's view, was the unselfishness with which Bremerton played. "Dimes were dropping left and right," Sargent continued in his interview. "Again, I haven't seen the numbers, but we damn near had an assist for every field goal. The passing tonight was off the charts." Who'd have guessed? Passing the ball around really DOES get open looks and easy layups?
In accordance with team rules, the new recruits were prohibited from talking with the press after their first game. Coach Sargent deferred to the recruits' handlers for first impressions. Dave Plous (on Matt Kadel): "While it wasn't exactly 'Miller Time' from outside last night, Kadel's length definitely helps in the back of the zone. He's versatile, and we think that he'll develop nicely to a top-notch 3. His passing skills are Julian Wright-esque, and he showed some nice passing tonight, with 5 or more assists. He's got the mid-range game which we definitely lack as a team." Alex Carr (on Tyler Whetstine): "What I wrote on his initial spec sheet was, 'Played with Boschee, but much cooler than Boschee.' What we saw very little of tonight was his ability in the post, like an undersized PF, a la Mario Little. He can finish, shoot from outside, bring the ball up, etc. Once we get him acclimated into the offense, we have a great 1-2 combo with Roth and Whetstine running a two-man game. I know the staff is excited to bring in such a highly regarded recruit." While Kadel was in ESPNU's Top 100, Whetstine was listed as a four-star recruit by Rivals.com.
Bremerton West takes on Turner Construction next Tuesday at 8:30PM at The Matt.
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