NT’s Depth Too Much For CSAT

Safe to say that the Lumberjacks lived up to the motto: Strength In Numbers that is printed on the back of their warmup shirts.

Ten players hit the score sheet and all 12 saw playing time as North Tonawanda posted an 83-46 win over CSAT in Niagara Frontier League boys’ basketball action Tuesday night.

“It’s going that no matter who comes in it’ll pretty much be the same game,” said NT co-captain Trevor Book.

“We all play nice as a unit.”

Improving to 5-1 overall, 3-1 in league, the Jacks were able to get back on track after what they felt was a sub-par performance in their loss to Lockport this past Friday.

The combination of last week’s winter blast and the fact that three players were battling the flu hindered the Jacks ability to prepare for the Lions properly.

Tuesday, facing the NFL expansion CSAT Eagles for the very first time, the Lumberjacks were back in synch and showed what they are capable of as a group.

The Eagles, were led by Jayden Gulledge who had 10 points and Ricky Smith who had seven points.

Falling to 2-4, 1-3 in league the Eagles, who previously competed in the Niagara-Orleans League, are experiencing a trial by fire as they adjust to life in the NFL.

Head coach Camilo Hoyos said that even though it’s not reflected in the final score he was very pleased with the effort and sense of compete that his young showed against a deeper, more experienced NT squad.

“The first half for sure. The first half we competed really well,” Hoyos said. “The second half, not as much. Maybe towards the end of the game, I put some subs in…And we had a hard time beating that 2-3 (defense). That’s what they’re known for and they really got us what that. And it seems liked they couldn’t miss a three.”

Hoyos wasn’t far off as NT hit a total of seven shots from behind the arc-with Alex Quinn hitting three of those treys.

Depth was the key for the Jacks as they came in with the game plan of using their depth to ware down the Eagles starting five.

“We played a lot of players early and often. The goal was to ware the Charter School down and it worked,” NT head coach Ryan Mountain said. “We still weren’t happy with the defensive effort, the players that is. Hats off to Charter School for Applied Technology for scoring 46 points against us. They really came to play. I was very impressed with how hard they played as well. They brought out the best in us. When you look at the scoreboard 10 out of 12 players scoring and that’s only because the two players that didn’t score, didn’t get a shot off. So that’s really what we’re all about.”

NT raced to an 8-0 lead out of the games but the Eagles stuck with them as best they could and cut the lead to 16-9 at the end of the first quarter, but the tide would soon changed. Paced by Trevor Book, who had 13 of his game high 26 points in the second quarter, the Jacks outscored CSAT 20-11 to own a 29-20 lead at the half. Brandon Casterline had 12 points while Zack Woodard brought down 11 rebounds.

“Number one I was really impressed with out unity tonight. We really shared the basketball,” Mountain said. “You’ve got to give something to get it back and I saw a lot of sharing tonight.”

Hoyos is optimistic that as his young team gains experience against the NFL teams they will improve each day, each game and definitely be a much improved ball club in the second half of the season.

Notes: NT made it a sweep as they also won the JV game 67-45. The Jacks are still without starting center Rory Farkas (ankle). Farkas is expected to be back in action next Thursday when NT faces Starpoint in the first game of the Amherst Holiday Tournament.