Titans declaw Lions: Glenwood nearly doubles up City champ Lanphier in CS8
Fresh off their first outright City Tournament championship since 2017, the Lanphier Lions trekked out to the suburbs Tuesday night, hoping to ride the momentum to a fifth straight victory. When their game was over against Chatham Glenwood, Lions players walked quietly to the team bus for a ride back that couldn’t have been very pleasant, especially given the mood of head coach Blake Turner.
The final score was Glenwood 55, Lanphier 30. Before a questioner could get out a query about a possible letdown from winning City, Turner scrunched his nose and wanted nothing of it.
“I’m not into making excuses. I’m not going to say it was a letdown because of City. I’m gonna say that their kids came out and executed the game plan their coach put together, and our kids came out and didn’t execute the game plan that we put together,” Turner said. “We’re a struggling team right now, scoring single digits in each quarter. We don’t have any leaders. We don’t have anyone who wants to take control, other than a coach. We need someone on the floor to be a leader.”
The Titans (13-8 overall, 5-2 Central State Eight Conference) actually turned the ball over on three of their first four possessions, but the Lions (13-10, 4-3 CS8) couldn’t capitalize on anything. It wasn’t long before the Titans started getting strong play both down low and from the perimeter and built a 15-4 lead after one quarter. With junior guard Mason Marshall (15 points) hitting 3-pointers and big men Cameron Appenzeller (13 points), Jonathan Helm (11) and Mason Neumann (nine) getting points around the bucket, the Titans never really were challenged at any point. The Lions’ 30 points were a season low.
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Marshall’s 3s were daggers
Turner said a big part of his team’s game plan was to not let Marshall get open for 3-point field goals. From the Department of Best Laid Plans: Marshall hit four 3-pointers overall on seven attempts. When he hit his third 3-pointer of the first half, the Titans had a 29-11 lead, and the rest of the game seemed like an extended garbage time.
Glenwood’s defense made life uncomfortable for Lanphier’s big men, and junior guard JaiQuan Holman, who had 29 points in the Lions’ city title win over Southeast Saturday night, was held to just four points.
“We settled down after that bad start. We’re still turning the ball over way too many times, but overall, offensively I thought we took good shots and took care of the ball when we needed to,” Glenwood coach Todd Blakeman said. “Defensively, we did a heck of a job tonight. Jack Dettro and Carson Doran did a heck of a job on Holman.
“Overall, our defense just moved well and got our hands on a lot of balls, and I think we also won the rebounding totals.”
More: Lions roar back onto City scene: Lanphier wins first outright City Tournament since 2017
Indeed, the Titans outrebounded Lanphier 38-25, with Appenzeller leading the way with 11 and 6-foot-7 junior center Neumann with nine.
Neumann could be wild card for Titans’ playoff hopes
If the Titans are to go anywhere in the postseason, the junior big man Neumann could be a wild-card factor. After missing last season with a knee injury, Neumann came into the game averaging 7.9 points a game. But he had 20 in Glenwood’s previous game, against Mahomet, and his nine-point, nine-rebound performance against Lanphier has shown that the Titans might have a dangerous player on their hands come playoff time.
“Personally, I feel like my game has improved a lot,” Neumann said. “I’ve made some huge steps from last year, when I was out all year, for sure. I think we’re slowly getting better as a team, after the beginning of the year that was a little rough. We just have to focus on the next game, win that game and get to the next game.”
Adrian Dater is a freelance writer for The State Journal-Register. He can be reached through the sports department at sports@sj-r.com.
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: CS8 basketball: Glenwood hammers City champ Lanphier in setback for Lions
