Jan. 14, 2021
It wasn’t the best game his team has played, but coach Deron Freeze will take the victory just the same. The Adair County boss said he saw a lot of positives, and a lot of things to work on, after the Indians held off a pesky Nelson County team 60-48 in the Lindsey Wilson College Classic Saturday night.
“I told the kids after the game that we didn’t have our best game tonight, but still won by double figures and that shows we could be a pretty good team,” said Breeze. “We could definitely win the district. We played probably a C- or a D game, but we still won, so that is a positive.”
The victory moves the Indians to 1-0 on the year, while Nelson County falls to 1-2.
The game started slow with neither team finding much of a rhythm. Adair County got most of its production from Lucas Pooler and Luke Janes. Nelson County went a lot to guard Lawson Strenecky, but the Indians led 16-8 at the end of the first period and 25-19 at the half.
“I don’t know how many layups we missed in the first quarter,” Breeze said. “The biggest thing for us was getting through the first game with a win. We’ve got a lot of room for improvement. Defensively, we were trying to take away their ball screen stuff by trapping it and making them rotate. I thought we did that very well.”
The back-and-forth battle continued in the second half. Adair County continued to get good production from Pooler and Janes. However, ACHS senior Aaron Steele got in on the act and scored eight points in the third period to help the Indians take a 44-29 advantage into the final period.
“We had a lot of people contribute in this game, but I didn’t think we moved the ball well,” Breeze said. “I don’t know how many assists we had but those we’re all driving and dishes, nothing where the ball swung to the weak side. We’re not patient enough on offense to get it to the weak side and you can’t beat a good team doing that.”
Steele led the Indians with 18 points on 5 of 10 shooting from the field. He also added five rebounds. Pooler scored 15 points on 5 of 11 shooting, with three rebounds and four assists. Janes added a double-double with 11 points and 15 rebounds. Connor Loy added seven points, with Clay Giles getting five and Brady Cundiff scoring four.
Lincoln Bone led Nelson County with 12 points and Strenecky scored 11.
Adair County will be back on the floor with three back-to-back games. The Indians will visit Foundation Christian Academy tonight (Jan. 14) at 7:30 p.m. and follow that with home games against Wayne County on Friday at 6:30 p.m. and Metcalfe County on Saturday at 7 p.m.
By Scott Wilson
Assistant Editor
scott@adairvoice.com
