Gator Offense Goes Cold in Second Half

Gator offense goes cold in second half

By: Ryan Bergeron

KARLSTAD, MINN—At halftime, the Freeze led the Gators 27-23 in boys’ basketball action on February 3. Things would change in the second half. After halftime, the Freeze defense stepped up its game, helping it go on a 26-0 run, and the Gators offense scored seven points, turning a tight affair into a 62-30 win for the Freeze.

“A lot of it I’m going to contribute to our defense,” Freeze Head Coach Zach Green said about his team’ second half performance. “We created some turnovers, we got some fast breaks, got some easy points, (which) got the guys loosened up. And then we started moving a lot more on offense… shots started to fall, and everything started working a lot better.”

Holding a team to 30 points or less for the second straight game, the Freeze defense held the Gators to 23.4 percent shooting. Offensively, the Freeze shot 41.8 percent, led by Connor Sorenson’s game-high 22 points, the only Freeze player to hit double figures.

The Gators would actually jump out to a 9-2 lead to the open the game, capped by a Brandon Sorenson three-pointer with 14:43 left in the half. He would score another three-pointer 28 seconds later to give the Gators a 12-6 lead.

Responding with an 8-2 run, the Freeze would tie the game for the first time since 2-2 in the opening minute, capped by a Connor Sorenson jumper with 11:05 left, tying the game at 14. Neither team would build a lead larger than three the rest of the half, until the Freezes’ Sawyer Nelson ended the second half scoring with a couple free throws to extend the Freeze led to four.

The only Gator to hit double figures with 13 points, Connor Graff opened the half with a two-point basket to draw his team to within two. After this Graff basket, the Freeze went on a 7-0 run. Graff would halt this spurt with another two-point basket, drawing the Gators to within seven at 34-27 with 12:20 remaining. The Gators wouldn’t score again until a Michael Olson three-pointer with 1:19 remaining in the game.

“We played real good first half. In fact, I thought we had good effort all night long. Second half, we just really struggled scoring and that’s kind of been our MO this year,” Gator Coach Kent Christian said. “… They (the Freeze) are a very good team. I thought our effort was there again, just had trouble scoring.”

Asked what his team can do to work on this scoring issue, Coach Christian said, “Like I just told the guys, they got to tighten up their defense that much more and probably take better shots, try to get to the free throw line a little bit more. I thought we took good shots, but yeah that’s kind of the thousand dollar question right now.”

Asked what he’s looking for from his players as they draw closer to postseason play, Coach Green emphasized consistency and discussed his bench play, complimenting it in this game, especially as some of his starters encountered some foul trouble.

“We’re deep enough that if someone isn’t ready to go, we got people that can step up, but biggest thing for me I guess is constant effort,” Coach Green said. “For us, it was pretty clear (in the) second half, (if) you give the effort, you get rewarded. (If) you don’t give the effort, usually those are the games we get beat.”

Next Action:

Gators-- On Thursday, February 9, the Gators head to East Grand Forks to play the Sacred Heart Eagles, before playing the Hawley Nuggets in a neutral site game at the Fargo Civic Center on Saturday, February 11. The Gators then return home on Tuesday, February 14 to host the Crookston Pirates.