By Ed Friedrich

Sun Sports Writer

Darrell Anderson experienced his worst nightmare, but his Mike Jesch-led South Kitsap Wolves eased their coach’s mind with a come-from-behind 47-42 defeat of Bremerton last night on the Knights’ new homecourt.

“I wasn’t surprised one bit,” Anderson said of his Wolves – who started a lineup of 5-9, 6-3, 6-3, 6-5 and 6-7 against the sub-six-foot Knights – trailing Bremerton throughout the first three quarters. “I’ve said since I’ve been here that when Les Eathorne retires, my biggest dread is that Larry Gallagher’s the head coach at Bremerton High School.  I said that five years ago. He does a great job and I’ll take the win for what it was. We had to play our butts off.”

In the debut of Gallagher, Anderson’s former assistant coach the Knights drilled four of their first six shots, including two three-pointers by Todd Lewis and another by Casey Lindberg, to spring to an 11-2 lead. South closed to 14-9 after one period, but Lindberg fired in another bomb from 10 feet behind the three-point arc to lift the Knights to their biggest lead at 25-15.

Although the Knights were outrebounded 22-6 in the first half, they used constantly-harassing full-court defense to force 14 turnovers and keep a 25-19 edge. They also shot a decent 10-for-25 from the field. Half their hoops were three-pointers.

But the Wolves expanded their zone a couple of steps and that, combined with fatigue from Bremerton’s hyperactive defense, caused the Knights’ shooting to tail off.

Bremerton sank just six of 31 second-half field goals, including three of 14 in the third quarter, but still led 35-34 heading into the final stanza.

Jesch sandwiched a tip-in and turnaround jumber around a Paul Lassila layin late in the period to get the Wolves that close, then laid one in off the break and popped in a 10-footer to give the Wolves their first advantage at 38-37.

Bremerton immediately regained the lead, 41-39, on Lewis’ layin and Jon Rustovold’s foul-line jumper before South went on a 8-1 run to the buzzer.

The Wolves hit four of six foul shots and got buckets from Jesch and Jeremy Fields down the stretch.

Diminutive stature eventually cost Bremerton. The Knights were outrebounded 54-20 for the game. Several times the Wolves missed free throws (they were just 13-for-28 from the stripe) but went over the top of Bremerton’s inside players for rebounds.

Often they’d miss the putbacks but get fouled again in a cycle about as frustrating for the Knights as Bremerton’s pressure defense was to the Wolves. Jesch finished with 18 boards, just two shy of Bremerton’s total.

“The rebounding end of it, we can only get better and we will get better, but we have to use our bodies and do the right things,” said Gallagher, who said the Knights blocked out well with their bodies but didn’t get their hands up. “Rebounding is tough and we started turnout only 15 days ago. It takes a while to develop, but we’ll be there with it.”

Jesch was the only Wolf in double figures with 25 points, 17 in the second half, on 11-for-20 shooting.

“He went to the offensive glass real hard,” Anderson said of Jesch. “Rob Endsley did too (he had eight board and Lassila 13). That first half, we were around the ball a lot, but we were tipping the ball and losing it because Bremerton did a great job of tipping the ball and we brought the ball down too much. I thought the second half our kids went to the boards with a little more authority.”

For the way Bremerton started, scoring 11 point in the first few minutes, Anderson was pleased to hold the Knights to 40.

“I’m tickled with a game like that,” he said. “I wanted a deliberate tempo. I don’t care if it’s 47 or 37. I think if you’re an up-tempo team, you’re not going to be real happy with the score. Larry’s kids came out that first half and just shot the eyes out of the bucket.

[ top ]

Staff photo by Larry Steagall

Mike Jesch, 6-foot-7 senior from South Kitsap, shoots over small Knights Casey Lindberg (22) and Chris Liebmann. Jesch scored 25 points and the Wolves won 47-42.

“Every game we’ve ever played since I’ve been at South we’ve found ourselves down by 10 or 11 points. We told our kids at the start of the (second) half to peck away, hit the boards a little harder, do the things in terms of taking care of the ball that we didn’t the first half.

“To be able to shoot for the whole ball game the way they did the first half, you’ve got to be a tremendous, tremendous player. It was a tough game. There was a lot of emotion involved. As they (the Knights) got a little bit tired their legs weren’t quite there and the shots started dropping off instead of in.”

Aside from the rebounding deficiencies, Gallagher was literally gushing about his Knights. Lewis, who led them with 12 points, showed tremendously improved shooting touch. Lindberg scored 11 points, all in the first half. Junior Rustvold and sophomores Mike Gurske and DeForrest Phelps came off the bench in their varsity debuts and contributed, allowing Gallagher to keep his troops fresh for the exhausting pace at which they play.

“It was a great start of our season. We needed to see if the things we’ve been doing and working on so hard are going to get us anywhere, and they will,” said Gallagher.

“We’ve been telling them every team has some assets. South Kitsap is big and strong. North Kitsap is big and strong, but coaches have wish lists and I’m sure South wishes they had a few of our perimeter people. Other teams wish they had some post people.

“But the kids I have, I wouldn’t trade them. They’re competitors, they’re going to give you everything they have. I told them tonight I really have a lot of respect for the kids at South Kitsap, but not as much right now as for the kids at Bremerton. There wasn’t anybody that would rather beat South tonight than me and I think the kids were right with me.

“I’ve asked an awful lot of them in a lot of different areas, not just basketball but academics and punctuality and discipline, and they could not have given us more in our entire program than what they’ve done in the three weeks since we’ve started. They’ve done everything we’ve asked as coaches. As long as they’re playing hard and having fun, that’s what the game’s about.”

Non-League Friday