Cardinals win the battle against Bombers

Both the Cromwell-Wright and Barnum boys basketball teams pride themselves on playing tough, hard-nosed defense. All of that and more was on display Tuesday night as the Cards opened their season with a 45-35 home win over the Bombers.

"The game was two good defensive teams doing battle," said Cards coach Bill Pocernich. "I felt like we had control of them on our defensive end, and I'm sure that they felt the same way on our end. Good shots were hard to come by for both teams, especially in the second half. Part of it was both teams really locking in and playing good defense."

Rich Newman, head coach for the Bombers, had similar thoughts.

"It was a good competitive game with both teams playing hard," Newman said. "I felt we got out-hustled on the boards and loose balls. It was a two- to six-point game throughout most of the game and they hit some shots and we didn't. We had trouble scoring and I thought we did well to shut down their scoring. They are a talented team who can score a lot of points."

Barnum held a slim 22-21 halftime lead, but the Cards pulled away in the second half by outscoring the Bombers 24-13. A huge key in the second half was the ability of Micah Pocernich to hit the three-pointer: he recorded 24 points in the game with 15 of those coming in the second half.

"Micah hit some really deep 3s that ignited our team and provided the separation we needed down the stretch," Pocernich said. "We look to him for scoring and emotional lifts and, more often than not, he delivers. He has added to his game this year and is now able to attack off the dribble and also score from mid-range, which he did on a key free throw line pull-up jumper late in the game that gave us an eight-point lead with about four and a half minutes to go."

Despite the big game by Pocernich, Newman thought his team did a pretty good job on the junior.

"Micah is a good shooter and with any good player your defense is going to focus on him," Newman said.

"I felt we did a good job. He came through for them at the end of the game by hitting a couple of deep three-pointers."

Tyler Nynas was the only Barnum player in double-digit scoring with 15 points, while Jake Nynas hit three 3-pointers for nine points. Also scoring for Barnum were Sam Goodwin with six points, Blaze Hurst with three points and Jordan Haley with two.

"I thought Tyler and the entire team played hard," Newman said. "We just struggled to score, which is something we have been working on since Day 1."

Another big key to the Card's victory was their ability to get to the free throw line. Cromwell-Wright went 13-for-20 from the line - nearly doubling up points from the charity stripe on Barnum, which went 7-for-10 from the line.

"They did shoot more free throws and I think that was a big factor," Newman said. "When it is a hard-fought game and points are at a premium, losing the free throw battle definitely mattered."

Cameron Cahoon added 11 points for the Cards to also score in double figures. Also scoring for the Cards were Marcus Pocernich with six points and Isaac Shelton and Gage Jones each recorded two points.

The win moves the Cards to 1-0 on the season, while the Bombers drop to 0-2 on the season.