For Hermitage, tempo and pace takes priority over which players are putting the ball through the basket.
The Hornets backed up their motto well on Tuesday night, blitzing Weaubleau 79-50 as all five starters scored in double figures, led by Dillon Meyer’s 22 points.
Overwhelming Weaubleau in transition and with their full-court press, the Hornets avenged an earlier loss to the Tigers in the Humansville Tournament finals.
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“We’ve been doing a lot of drills where there’s no dribble allowed and the first four or five guys aren’t allowed to shoot until it gets to another guy so we can start getting the ball passed,” said Hermitage coach Joe Nicholson. “We don’t care who scores the points; we just want to keep everybody pushing it up. We don’t want to set up (on offense) unless we absolutely have to. We’ve played decent all season, but we haven’t ever done what we wanted to do and tonight’s the first night we did it. If we can keep doing that, we’ll be in good shape.”
The victory will have district seeding implications and boosted Hermitage to 9-3 overall, including a league-best 3-0 mark in the early season Polk County League race.
Hermitage controlled the game from start to finish. Ivan Long’s 3-pointer at the first-quarter buzzer gave Hermitage a 25-14 lead.
Weaubleau never got closer the double digits the rest of the way.
The Hornets led 43-24 at halftime, then 66-38 when Jeff Salmon converted a layup in the final seconds of the third quarter.
“We knew coming over here to their place, they’d be high energy with a lot of intensity and we’d have to withstand that, bring them down and eventually meet it,” said Weaubleau coach Matt Johnson. “We just didn’t do that tonight. We never got up to their energy level, getting up and down the floor.”
Aided by two Cory Nicholson 3-pointers, Hermitage scored eight straight early in the second quarter and stretched its 11-point lead (27-16) up to 19 (35-16).
The game was far different from the two PCL schools’ Dec. 5 meeting, when Weaubleau prevailed 67-64 in the Humansville Tournament finals.
The biggest difference in the rematch?
“I watched the tape of that game again (Monday) to try to answer that question myself, and we just didn’t shoot it very well,” Joe Nicholson said. “Our legs look tired. We had a lot of open looks and our offense was working – we got guys open – we just didn’t hit shots. Tonight, we hit the shots and that was the biggest difference. Those shots fired us up and got our press going.
“All week long in practice, all we’ve hit on is coming out tonight with a lot of energy. And I think we did.”
Hermitage was 6-for-9 on 3-point attempts Tuesday night.
It was the first loss of the season for Weaubleau (9-1 overall, 0-1 PCL). Kaleb Minica notched another double-double, including 23 points.
Johnson said Minica entered Tuesday night averaging around 21 points and 19 rebounds this season.
Weaubleau plays at Wheatland in a varsity doubleheader this Friday.
“I’m hoping we’ll come back and have this (loss) re-light the fire,” Johnson said. “We were getting kind of complacent. We were getting wins but just kind of showing up thinking it was going to happen. Hopefully, this gets us back to how we started the season out – working hard and doing the things it takes to win.”
Hermitage 79, Weaubleau 50
Weaubleau 14 10 14 12 — 50
Hermitage 25 18 23 13 — 79
Weaubleau – Kaleb Minica 23, Gatlin Freeman 10, Chase Ratliff 6, Cameron Ott 3, Paden Harryman 3, Chris Ritter 3, Thomas Queen 2
Hermitage – Dillon Meyer 22, Jeff Salmon 17, Cory Nicholson 12, Austin Hostettler 10, Ivan Long 10, Robert Ideker 4, Josh Howard 2, Mathias Pedersen 2
Hermitage’s usual three-player scoring attack turned into a one-girl show against Weaubleau. With sophomore Sadi Hostettler still recovering from injury, classmate Sheridan Corum picked up the slack and then some with a game-high 27 points as the Hornets rolled to a 56-38 win.
Defense made the difference for Hermitage, as the Hornets forced 14 first-half Weaubleau turnovers to lead 30-16 at halftime.
“We did a much better job of taking the ball away in this game, especially early in the first half,” said Hermitage coach Shane Salmon, referencing the Dec. 7 meeting at the Humansville Tournament that resulted in a 57-42 win for the Hornets. “We just have to finish around the basket. We missed a lot of easy shots.”
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Corum (16 points per game), Hostettler (14.4 ppg) and Cheyanna Jennings (11.3 ppg) led Hermitage in scoring entering Tuesday night, although Hostettler has now missed three games. Salmon said she’s about a week away from returning to game action.
On Tuesday night, Hermitage also had four players score between 5-to-8 points, including 8 by the senior Jennings.
“We had other girls step up and score tonight without Hostetler,” Salmon said. “That’s what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to play eight or nine girls a night.”
Leading 11-9 early, Hermitage utilized a pair of 10-2 runs in the first half to pull away. The Hornets’ defense helped them overcome a rough night on the free throw line, where they shot just 10-for-24.
Weaubleau fell to 5-4 overall, 0-1 PCL.
Hermitage (9-2, 3-0 PCL) travels to Walnut Grove on Friday night in a rematch of last season’s Class 1 sectional round game. Both Walnut Grove teams are 1-0 in league play.
Hermitage 56, Weaubleau 38
Weaubleau 9 7 7 15 — 38
Hermitage 15 15 9 17 — 56
Weaubleau – McKenna Arthurs 13, Becca Baker 10, Jerika Vanderford 5, Riki Meagher 5, Jenna Ratliff 5,
Hermitage – Sheridan Corum 27, Cheyanna Jennings 8, Emily Christian 6, Alyssa Owens 6, Nichole Bell 5, Kendra Owens 2, Lindsey Smith 2
