Sports
Warren Uses Second Half to Defeat Athens
By: Noah Wolf
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Logan Maxfield had 12 first-half points, and at halftime, the Athens Bulldogs led the Warren Warriors, 28-24.
To start the second quarter, Warren went on a 10-0 run and Athens only scored 10 points in the entire second half as they fall to Warren, 61-38.
In the first quarter, Athens tried out a 1-3-1 zone, but it was largely unsuccessful, as they went into the quarter break trailing the Warriors 12-6.
When they came out for the second quarter, they switched back to a more familiar man-to-man defense, which worked a lot better for them. The Bulldogs outscored the Warriors 22-12 in the second quarter to hold a four-point lead going into the halftime break.
“We had a couple rolls that went our way,” said coach Mickey Cozart. “When these guys get a little bit of life, they kind of feed off each other. Our zone just wasn’t working. We tried to put it in last night, we only had one night to prepare for these guys. We knew that some of that worked last year [against Warren] . . . we just weren’t ready to do it.”
In the second half, things fell apart for the Bulldogs. The third quarter began with a 10-0 Warriors run, and Warren outscored Athens 14-6 in the third, with Athens’ only points coming from two three-pointers from Eli Chubb.
Warren started the fourth quarter on an 11-2 run, and ended up outscoring Athens 23-4 in the final period.
Athens ran into foul trouble as well. They committed 24 fouls in the entire game, 13 in the second half. Warren, on the other hand, committed only 17 fouls, with a mere three coming after halftime.
“Hopefully we quit fouling, because apparently, we foul too much,” said Cozart. “They shot 32 foul shots in the game. I guess we gotta get better defensively.”
Warren travels to Pomeroy to take on the Meigs Marauders on Friday. Athens is back in action this Friday as they play host to River Valley.