West Burlington's defense puts the clamps on Notre Dame boys basketball in home win
West Burlington High School boys basketball coach Ryan O'Hern knows there are going to be nights when shots just aren't falling for his team.
So O'Hern puts an extra emphasis on defense.
When the Falcons' offense was struggling early during Tuesday's season opener against SEI Superconference South Division rival Notre Dame, West Burlington put the clamps on defensively.
The Falcons held Notre Dame to 29.6 percent shooting and came away with a 57-39 victory at West Burlington High School.
When the shots won't fall, just make sure the other team's shots down fall, either.
"We work hard in practice. At first the shots weren't going in, but we held in there with defense. Then we just let our defense carry us and our shots started falling," said West Burlington senior guard Jace Figuereo, who was a force at both ends of the court, finishing with a game-high 21 points. "We have a lot of quickness. We got a lot of help from our younger guys. The freshman (Ayden Figuereo) came in and he helped us rebound a lot. Everyone was active and wants to get the ball and help our team win."
"The athleticism on this team gives us a lot of versatility. We can play a couple different zones. We didn't press a whole to tonight because Gedi Boal was too quick for us. He was breaking us down in the halfcourt to start the game," O'Hern said. "We wanted to take away their threes. They only made one there in the first half. I was not happy with the way we defended man-to-man to start the game. When that happens we try to play zone. Our zone was effective -- the 1-3-1, the 2-3. We were able to stay with Jones and not let him catch the high post and get out there and hit some threes."
An off night for the Nikes
Fresh off a 60-42 win at Albia on Monday in the season opener, Notre Dame couldn't get its offense on track against the Falcons. Carsen Jones scored 11 points and Matthew Booten got hot in the fourth quarter, scoring eight of his 10 points.
In between, the Nikes' offense was out of sorts.
More:Notre Dame girls basketball gets emotional lift from Nadiya Jones in road win over West Burlington
Notre Dame sank just 1-of-15 shots from behind the 3-point arc, making matters worse.
"It was just a bad game. You don't play good, you don't shoot confidently, you don't take good shots, you don't make shots," Notre Dame head coach Dan Kies said. "We didn't play well on either end of the floor. We got outplayed. That's pretty much it. That sums up the whole game. They made good shots. They made tough shots. They out-scrapped us. They got loose balls. Our guys are probably a little tired after last night. We played a big game last night and it was a battle. We showed up with a different team tonight than we did last night. We didn't have near the energy that we had last night."
Figuereo squared
Jace Figeuero was busy shaking and baking through and around the Notre Dame defenders, wrecking havoc in the paint, which in turn opened shots for his teammates.
"Everyone contributed. Everyone scored. Everyone worked hard," Jace Figuereo said. "Every game is a big game. It's nice to beat a rival. It helps us get momentum going for further games. Hopefully we can ride this one out."
More:Burlington puts an end to its 40-game losing skid in girls basketball opener
Not to be outdone, freshman Ayden Figuereo came in and contributed at both ends, guarding the 6-7 Jones to spell Hayden Vandenberg.
"Ayden had a great summer for us, so this is nothing new for him," O'Hern said. "He was kind of baptized by fire in the Justin Sharp Shootout in Rock Island by United Township, who beat us by about 50 points. He's played high level competition all summer. We challenge our guys in the summer that we are OK with getting beat down in the summer as long as it doesn't hurt our confidence. It just prepares you for the regular season."
On the horizon
Notre Dame (1-1 overall, 0-1 SEI Superconference South Division) hosts Van Buren County at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Father Minett Gymnasium.
West Burlington (1-0, 1-0) travels to Fort Madison to play Holy Trinity at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Shottenkirk Gymnasium. The Falcons host Mount Pleasant at 4:30 p.m. Saturday.
By the numbers
NOTRE DAME (39)
Gedi Boal 2-9 0-0 4, Owen Gulick 0-0 0-0 0, Carsen Jones 5-10 1-4 11, Liam Delaney 3-10 2-2 8, Matthew Booten 4-9 2-2 10, Ethan Todd 1-3 0-0 3, Spencer Brent 0-4 0-0 0, Hunter Lillie 0-5 0-0 0, Lucas Johnson 1-4 1-2 3. Totals: 16-54 6-10 39.
WEST BURLINGTON (57)
Brady Martin 6-14 1-2 14, Jace Figuereo 9-12 2-5 21, Parker Lau 2-7 0-0 5, Mason Watkins 3-9 5-7 12, Hayden Vandenberg 0-1 0-0 0, Ayden Figuereo 2-3 0-0 5, Danei Kelley 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 22-46 8-14 57.
Score by quarters
Notre Dame. 11. 7. 10 11. — 39
West Burlington. 15. 15. 16. 11. — 57
Fouls: Notre Dame 14, West Burlington 11. Fouled out: None. Technicals: None. 3-point goals: Notre Dame 1-15 (Todd 1-1, Booten 0-1, Boal 0-2, Johnson 0-2, Lillie 0-3, Delaney 0-6), West Burlington 5-21 (A.Figuereo 1-2, J.Figuereo 1-3, Watson 1-4, Martin 1-5, Lau 1-6, Vandenberg 0-1).
Records: Notre Dame 1-1 overall (0-1 SEI Superconference South Division), West Burlington 1-0 (1-0).
Matt Levins is a sports reporter for the USA Today Network in Burlington, Iowa, who has covered local sports for 32 years at The Hawk Eye. Reach him at mlevins@thehawkeye.com.
This article originally appeared on The Hawk Eye: West Burlington shuts down Notre Dame in boys basketball game
