Turnovers Plague Blue Wave Freshman Boys

(photo -- Jack Jachino gets loose on a fast break)

A recurring theme for the Darien freshman boys basketball team seems to be illness and injury -- two of the things a coach cannot control. Last week Darien lost key player Doug Brown for several weeks to injury. This week the Wave lost Zarek Swetye for the Trumbull game due to the flu. Nico Solis who has been making important sixth man contributions was also unavailable for the Wednesday game.

Illness and injury aside, the other big challenge for Darien is to find a way to reduce the number of turnovers. The Wave turned over the ball 34 times in a 32 minute game and about 18 of the turnovers resulted in Trumbull points. Trumbull had 16 TOs -- fewer than half as many. Darien was minus 18 on turnovers. That is a big deficit for any team to overcome.

Darien played well at times. They jumped out to an early 6-0 lead, but errors ultimately cost the Wave the game. Trumbull prevailed 52-36.

Controlling the boards is a huge advantage. It is one of the main strengths of the Darien team. The Wave freshmen outrebounded University and Greenwich by a large margin in the first two games of the season. They outrebounded Trumbull 44-37 in the Wednesday game. If Darien can reduce their tendency to turn over the ball and continue to control the boards they should win a lot of games.

Matthew Burke continues to find ways to get to the foul line. He made three trips to the line and made 3 free throws. He always finds a way to pick up a few rebounds and leads the team in assists and steals. He scored 3 points, had 4 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 steals.

Brian Kisken is a dominant force inside. The 6'4" freshman picked up 6 points and 10 rebounds to go along with 2 blocked shots and a steal.

James Mathus led the Wave in scoring with 10 points. He grabbed 5 rebounds and had an assist.

Power forward Adil Shahzad grabbed 7 rebounds to go along with his 2 points and 3 assists.

A bright spot for Darien is that Ben Secor commits very few turnovers while logging serious playing time. He only had 1 TO against Trumbull and only has 3 on the season -- the lowest turnover to minutes played ratio on the team. In addition to being adept at taking care of the ball he picked up 3 defensive rebounds and had an assist in the game.

Nolan Burke got to the line and scored 1 point. He also had 2 rebounds and a steal.

Jack Blenke worked both sides of the court very well. He knocked down a long 3 and grabbed a defensive rebound.

Will Olson was strong inside. He pulled down 3 rebounds and blocked a shot. He was the only Wave player who did not commit a turnover.

Sam Hadlow scored 7 including a 3-pointer. He also had an assist and 2 steals.

Ted Brennan had a rebound, an assist, and a nice deflection which interrupted the Trumbull offense.

Jack Savage made an athletic play -- hitting a long bankshot floater while running at full speed. He also grabbed 2 rebounds.

Jack Jachino knocked down a beautiful mid-range jumper.

Darien and Bridgeport Central schools were closed today due to snow. Their games will be rescheduled, but at this time there is no word on when that will be.

The next boys freshman game is on Tuesday, January 9 at home against Trinity Catholic.

Tipoff is scheduled for 3:45pm with the JV and Varsity to follow.