Coaches love to see the payoff from something they have prioritized in practice, so Eric Check could go home very happy on Tuesday night.
Not only had the emphasis on jump-stops during Logan High School boys basketball practices lent itself to the situation, the fact that it was executed played a big role in the Rangers’ 71-65 victory over G-E-T at the Steve Hole Field House.
The Red Hawks may have had a seven-point lead when senior Kyle Seiling knocked down a 3-pointer with 2 minutes, 12 seconds left, but the Rangers didn’t allow another point while scoring the final 12 for the victory.
A three-point play by Bradley Check that gave Logan a 57-56 lead with 37.8 seconds remaining, however, was the fun topic of conversation after the game.
“On Friday, Saturday and Monday,” Bradley Check said, “all we worked on in practice was a jump-stop drill because we’d been struggling with turnovers.”
So when he had the ball and drove down the lane with his team trailing by two points, the senior guard executed in traffic, paused and made the tying basket while being fouled. His free throw broke that tie and put the Rangers (1-2) in front for good.
Check added two more free throws with 22.3 seconds left, and senior teammate Jacob Hackbarth two more with 8.3 seconds to go after a Bubba Leaver steal to help Logan win a game it trailed by as many as eight points in the second half.
Hackbarth scored a team-high 21 points and gave the Rangers a consistent presence in the lane as a rebounder and post. Check added 10, Jameson Degenhardt nine and Leaver eight for Logan, which led 26-19 after one half but trailed 53-45 with about 4 minutes to go.
Junior guard Mason Brone scored 19 points to lead G-E-T (2-1), and Jackson Burns added 10. Seiling made two 3-pointers and scored all eight of his in the second half.
“The first thing we talked about after the game was that, last year after I started, we talked about how we had to out-grit and persevere,” Eric Check said. “We had to have a tenacity that was unmatched, and you saw us at the 3 1/2 or 4-minute mark really dig in on defense.
“They may have taken some ill-advised shots, but we put ourselves in that position and put pressure on them when we had to.”
