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Stinson scores 15, earns all-tournament nod
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
PERU — The Caston boys basketball team might not be considered a team that relies on a zone defense yet, but they might be showing more of it now than in any time of Carl Davis’ seven seasons as coach.
Against North Miami in the consolation game of the Miami County Invitational at Peru Thursday, Caston held North Miami to just four field goals in the second half and pulled away to win 47-26.
Caleb Stinson led Caston with 15 points, and Talon Zeider rebounded after early foul trouble – he was called for two personals in the first 52 seconds – to add 10. Grant Yadon contributed seven points and 13 rebounds.
Afterwards, Stinson was named to the all-tournament team. He scored twice in the post in the third quarter, a unique accomplishment for a player who is otherwise Caston’s point guard.
“We actually do that about 40 minutes a day,” Stinson said of his post-up skills. “I go to the post most of the time.”
Davis said he felt the team was getting overly reliant on 3-pointers and needed to diversify itself. Posting up Stinson or a driving 3-point play from Josh Evans are examples of offensive execution that did not involve the 3.
“Most of the point guards he’s going to go up against are his size or smaller,” Davis said of Stinson.
Caston went on a 19-4 run covering the second and third quarters as they built a 36-17 lead.
That run also included a slick, no-look pass from Stinson to Zeider for a 3-pointer in transition to push the lead to 31-15.
After Drew Wright hit two free throws for North Miami at the 4:45 mark, Yadon scored on a putback, and Evans had his aforementioned 3-point play.
It was 42-20 after three quarters, and the lead strayed over 20 for the entire fourth quarter.
Jake Riley came off the bench to score 10 points for North Miami, who lost their seventh straight game and fell to 1-7. North Miami came in averaging 49 ppg, but this output was a season low.
Meanwhile, the 26 points allowed for Caston (3-5) was the fourth fewest during Davis’ tenure. It also came approximately 16 hours after the Comets allowed 78 points to Maconaquah in their first-round loss.
“We mixed it up today,” Davis said. “We changed our presses a couple different times just to adjust to the flow of the game and to adjust to some of our foul trouble as well.”
Stinson said he would “100 percent” agree with the assertion that Caston is better defensively this year than last. He cited “communication” as the main reason why.
“Last year wasn't good either, and that’s just kind of what we focus on,” Stinson said.
Only once prior to Thursday had Riley been held to single digits in points; on the other hand, he had scored 20 or more points four times previously this season.
“Obviously, he was a focus coming in, and we had some good rotations when he had the basketball,” Davis said. “We lost him a couple times in our fullcourt pressure, and that led to some points for him, but he got in foul trouble there too, and he was probably a little less aggressive in foul trouble and pulled up a little bit more than he probably would have if he wasn’t in foul trouble, but I thought our guys had a good focus on him.”
Caston beat North Miami for the ninth straight time. The teams will meet again at Caston on Feb. 22 for their regular season meeting.
In the championship game later Thursday, Maconaquah beat Peru 88-83 to break Peru’s 10-year stranglehold on the tournament. Both Maconaquah’s Josiah Ball and Peru’s Matt Roettger each had 45 points.
Caston 47, North Miami 26
NORTH MIAMI (26) (1-7)
Kale Deardorff 0 0-0 0, Caden Clingaman 0 0-0 0, Lake Musall 1 1-2 3, Ray Pickett 0 0-0 0, Drew Wright 2 2-2 7, Bryce Gosnell 1 2-2 4, Ryan Meredith 0 0-0 0, Jake Riley 4 2-5 10, Michael Cleaver 0 0-0 0, Ming Lowry 0 0-0 0, Gavyn Fritz 1 0-0 2
TEAM: 9 7-11 26
CASTON (47) (3-5)
Talon Zeider 3 1-1 10, Caleb Stinson 7 0-2 15, Alex Craig 0 0-0 0, Lane Hook 0 0-0 0, Grant Yadon 2 3-4 7, Carter Clingler 3 0-0 7, Corbin Smith 2 0-0 4, Gavin Mollenkopf 0 1-2 1, Joshua Evans 1 1-1 3, Max Sommers 0 0-0 0, Reed Sommers 0 0-0 0, Carson Harness 0 0-0 0
TEAM: 18 6-10 47
Three-point field goals:
North Miami 1 (Wright),
Caston 5 (Zeider 3, Stinson, Clingler)
Total fouls: North Miami 12, Caston 16
Turnovers: North Miami 14, Caston 20
Score by quarters
North Miami 11 4 5 6 – 26
Caston 15 11 16 5 – 47
Miami County Invite boys recap: Hook leads Caston with 13, but Maconaquah advances to title game
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
PERU — Lane Hook scored 13 points, and Caleb Stinson and Talon Zeider added 11 apiece, but the Caston boys basketball team lost to Maconaquah 78-56 in the first round of the Miami County Invitational at Peru’s Tig-Arena Wednesday.
Caston led 10-4 in the first quarter as Hook, a 6-2 freshman big man, scored his team’s first eight points, and Stinson scored on a short banker on an inbounds play,
But Maconaquah would later go on a 7-0 run in the first quarter to take an 18-13 lead, and they never trailed again.
Josiah Ball, a 6-5 junior who came in averaging 27 points per game, led the Braves with 34 points.
Ball hit three 3-pointers, scored in the midrange off the bounce and also displayed a devastating turnaround in the post that led Caston coach Carl Davis to call him a “dynamic scorer.”
A.J. Kelly added 19 points, and Fuddy Kile had 12.
Maconaquah led 43-31 at halftime and led by as many as 27 in the fourth quarter.
Maconaquah improved to 6-2. Caston dropped to 2-5.
Caston committed 25 turnovers against Maconaquah’s 1-3-1 press. The Braves also look to dish out quick outlet passes after every defensive rebound.
“They’re going to put pressure on you for 32 minutes every game,” Davis said. “Even if they pull off the fullcourt, it’s pressure in the halfcourt. We knew that going in, and I think that the positive part for us is when we got to spots, we were pretty good against it, and when we didn’t, they made us pay, and that’s what a good team’s going to do, so I think it was a great learning opportunity for us tonight. Coach (John) Burrus is one of the best in the business for a reason, and they did a really good job of picking on us every time we made that mistake.”
Meanwhile, Caston exhibited a 2-3 zone in addition to a man-to-man. Davis is a long-time proponent of a switching man-to-man. Ironically, he consulted with Rochester girls coach Joel Burrus, who is John Burrus’ son, during the offseason in an effort to learn more about the zone. Joel Burrus is a 32-minute-a-game practitioner of the 2-3 zone.
“That was probably the most 2-3 zone we’ve played in seven years,” Davis said. “It’s just something we’ve probably worked on more this year than we have in the past, and I think we have some guys who have come a long way within that, and we’ve used it here and there.
“But tonight, they’re just so good at getting it in the paint, and that’s something we haven’t done a great job of in our main defense is protecting the paint. So I thought we did a pretty good job of protecting the paint. We wanted to make them shoot it from the outside tonight, and we picked a night where they were on from the perimeter, and they obviously knocked down some shots because of that.”
John Burrus said he thought Caston might play some more zone than what is typical because of Ball, and he thought it was effective when they used it.
“The thinking is keep him out of the lane, and I thought they did a good job,” John Burrus said. “They slowed us down with the zone. The zone can do that, and it kind of slowed our press down, where we didn’t get into the press as much we’d like. 43-31 at halftime, that’s kind of a back-and-forth game. They hit some shots. We hit some shots. But when you’re coming at halftime, that game’s going to go one way or the other, and you’ve got to give Caston credit for putting us in that position. I thought it was a good move to go to that zone.”
Caston’s consolation game opponent will be North Miami, who lost to Peru 93-61 in the other first-round game.
Maconaquah 78, Caston 56
CASTON (56) (3-5)
Carter Clingler 1 0-0 2, Talon Zeider 4 0-0 11, Caleb Stinson 5 1-2 11, Lane Hook 5 2-3 13, Grant Yadon 2 0-0 4, Corbin Smith 0 0-2 0, Gavin Mollenkopf 0 0-0 0, Alex Craig 3 0-0 6, Joshua Evans 3 0-0 9, Max Sommers 0 0-0 0, Reed Sommers 0 0-0 0, Carson Harness 0 0-0 0
TEAM: 23 3-7 56
MACONAQUAH (78) (6-2)
A.J. Kelly 8 2-5 19, Fuddy Kile 5 0-0 12, Ethan Zeiser 3 0-0 7, Josiah Ball 15 1-4 34, Kaden Miller 1 0-0 2, Braxton Birner 0 0-0 0, Caiden Richards 0 0-0 0, M.J. Ellis 1 0-0 2, Nate Rader 0 0-0 0, Landon Adams 1 0-0 2, Rylan Richie 0 0-0 0, Oakley Reeser 0 0-0 0, Devon Murry 0 0-0 0
TEAM: 34 3-9 78
Three-point field goals:
Caston 7 (Zeider 3, Evans 3, Hook),
Maconaquah 7 (Ball 3, Kile 2, Kelly, Zeiser)
Total fouls: Caston 11, Maconaquah 11
Turnovers: Caston 25, Maconaquah 17
Score by quarters
Caston 17 14 12 13 – 56
Maconaquah 23 20 18 17 – 78
