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New way is the best way for W&J men
Such high-stakes games make for an interesting tournament. They also make for desperate times, which make coaches take desperate measures.
Such was the case Tuesday night as W&J's Glenn Gutierrez, a staunch believer in man-to-man defense, was searching for something to spark his team. The Presidents were lethargic in the first 24 minutes of a first-round PAC tournament game against Thomas More, and Gutierrez decided that switching to a 2-3 zone defense might give his team some momentum.
"A zone goes against all of my principles of defense," Gutierrez said. "I don't like them."
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The win puts W&J (13-13) at .500 for the first time all season and sends the Presidents to Bethany (19-7) for a semifinal game Thursday night. Tip-off is 7 p.m. Bethany defeated Thiel, 94-80, in the first round.
The W&J women also made it to the semifinals, rolling to a 73-48 victory over Thiel in the opening game. The Presidents (19-7) will play Westminster (21-5), a 67-46 winner over Grove City, in the semifinals Friday (6 p.m.) at Crestview Hills, Ky.
The W&J men struggled for a half against Thomas More (3-23). A basket by Jon Koch, who scored a game-high 17 points, gave W&J a 31-24 lead at the break. But what concerned Gutierrez was the Presidents were being outrebounded and outhustled by the Saints.
"We were letting Thomas More hang around a little too much," said senior guard Brandon Studer, who was held to eight points but moved into fourth place on W&J's all-time scoring list.
"We weren't doing what we wanted to. We were standing around too much on offense and were sluggish. We needed to play with a sense of urgency. At this time of year, if you lose you're done. Coach Gutierrez was stressing that we needed to play every possession like it's our last one."
And they needed to confuse Thomas More, the worst three-point shooting team in the PAC. The zone did that as the Saints were held to two field goals in the first nine minutes of the second half while W&J opened up a 52-30 lead.
"We need to change the pace and rhythm of the game," Gutierrez said. "We went to the zone and they didn't score for a few possessions, so we stayed with it."
On offense, the Presidents stayed with their dominant inside game. Post players Wahab Owolabi (12 points), Josip Lucic-Jozak (11) and Tony Lewis (10) each reached double figures and the Saints, who start three freshmen and two sophomores, were unable to counter the Presidents' size and inside strength.
"Our focus was on winning the first five minutes of the second half," Studer said. "We wanted to take that seven-point lead and turn it into 17. It made it a lot easier."
W&J women advance
It was a typical night for the W&J women. The Presidents had only two players score in double figures and nobody had eye-popping offensive numbers. Emily Hays led W&J with a rather pedestrian 16 points.
Yet everyone - and we do mean everyone - contributed. The Presidents used 15 players and 12 scored at least three points in the 25-point rout of Thiel.
It was a standard-issue performance by the Presidents - share the wealth on offense, play aggressive defense and hammer the opponent on the boards. It's a formula that has produced a 19 wins by a young team that concluded the regular season without a player averaging more than 10 points per game.
"Every season I've coached, I always had a go-to person on offense," W&J coach Jina DeRubbo said. "This team, however, is completely content not having a huge star. That's what makes it so unique. We have five players who are capable of scoring 20 points but you don't know from game to game where the points will come from."
On this night it was Hays and freshman guard Kennan Killeen leading the way. Hays helped W&J dominate inside early as each of the Presidents' first 10 field goals came from within five feet of the basket. That opened the perimeter later in the game for the guards. Killeen scored 13 points on 5-for-7 shooting.
