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W&J zones out Thiel
Make no mistake about it, Washington & Jefferson College men's basketball coach Glenn Gutierrez believes the best defense is the man-to-man variety. He wants players who can bend their knees, shuffle their feet and play in-your-face, aggressive man-to-man.
When it comes to zone defenses, Gutierrez offers this:
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So it was quite a surprise when W&J dusted off the old 2-3 zone midway through the first half of its Presidents' Athletic Conference game Wednesday night against Thiel. It was an even bigger surprise that the Presidents were still sitting in the 2-3 at game's end with Thiel having little idea of how to score against it.
The Presidents received a big offensive game from Josip Lucic-Jozak and held Thiel to only seven second-half field goals to defeat the Tomcats 74-65 at Henry Memorial Center.
Jozak came off the bench to score 22 points and grab 13 rebounds (seven offensive), but it was W&J's zone that made the biggest difference.
The Presidents (2-1, 5-7) went to the zone when Thiel's long-range shooting specialist Nick Sefcsik went to the bench with his second foul. That was midway through the first half, when Thiel was holding a 19-14 lead.
"I guess the old dinosaur is changing," Gutierrez said. "As much as I dislike playing zone defense, there is a time and place for it. We talked about playing it Saturday at Westminster but ended up not playing it at all. I had no idea we'd play it so much tonight."
Thiel managed only five field goals against the zone over the remainder of the first half, and W&J went into the break with a 38-34 lead.
"When Sefcsik went to the bench in foul trouble, we wanted to give Thiel a different look," Gutierrez explained. "The way the zone was working, we decided to ride it out."
With Thiel unsure about how to handle the zone - the Tomcats committed 21 turnovers - W&J pulled away to a 12-point advantage at 53-41. The Presidents did much of their damage at the free-throw line, the result of consistently getting the ball inside on the Tomcats. Thiel committed 28 fouls and W&J converted 26 of 39 free throws.
Jozak scored 15 second-half points, including five on free throws.
Albert Varacallo contributed 14 points for W&J, including three first-half three-pointers.
"I usually get ripped for shooting the three too much," said Varacallo, a 6-4 sophomore swingman from DuBois. "Tonight, I felt it. I had put in some extra time working on my shooting. Then, at halftime, the point made was attack them on offense and we'll get a good shot or free throws."
Thiel pulled to within 64-60 with four minutes remaining after Devon Adams' layup, but the Tomcats didn't make another field goal until 13 seconds were left.
"The key was playing hard and communicating on defense," Varacallo said. "We went to the zone as a change of pace, but you stick with what works. It probably threw Thiel off because they haven't seen us play it very much."
Thiel coach Tim Looms, a former head coach at California University, was not available for comment.
Wahab Owolabi, who was in foul trouble much of the night, scored 10 points before fouling out.
Joe Herrmann led Thiel with 19 points. Adams scored 13 and Brandon Mirizio had 10.
