Sports
Extra Points: Defensive Switch Spearheads Sandburg's Win over Joliet West
Move from zone to man-to-man with the lead works wonders for visiting Eagles.
Sandburg was leading early in the fourth quarter Friday night by playing mostly 2-3 zone defense against more athletic Joliet West team.
Then, the Eagles switched to man-to-man.
It’s supposed to happen the other way around. Most teams would play man-to-man, get a lead, then sit back in a zone to protect it.
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“We were absolutely getting killed on the boards, and that can happen in a zone,” Sandburg coach Todd Allen said. “I thought the guys did a much better job rebounding the basketball in our man-to-man.”
Joliet West did not score a fourth-quarter basket until midway through the final quarter. That allowed Sandburg to pull away for in the SouthWest Suburban Conference finale for both teams.
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Sandburg won 11 of its last 15 games to finish the regular season 17-9 overall and 8-5 in the SWSC. Joliet West is 9-5, 5-9 heading into the state playoffs.
“There were about eight minutes in this game when we were on the attack,” Joliet West coach Luke Yaklich said. “They (the Eagles) came in here ready to play.”
Zone, that is.
Sandburg built a 25-16 halftime lead with it and led 37-29 early in the fourth quarter before the defensive switch. In between, a three-point play by Joliet West’s Brandon Tyson tied the game at 29-all.
“Our zone forced them into perimeter shots, but the problem was we weren’t rebounding their missed shots,” Allen said. “We knew if we didn’t rebound against them, we were going to have to go man-to-man. We did a much better job in the fourth quarter rebounding the basketball.”
“The whole game, (Coach Allen) was talking about going inside the three-point line with our man-to-man defense,” Sandburg senior forward Jason Viane said. “They struggled a little bit with it.”
Sandburg closed the third quarter with an 8-2 run to take a 37-31 lead into the fourth.
“We work on both defenses a lot,” Allen said. “We talked in the beginning of the game that we might switch things up defensively.”
“We struggled rebounding in our zone, so we went man-to-man,” Viane said. “It worked pretty well for us.”
