BBB: Chargers fall to Warriors

DANVILLE – Pace and pressure drove the Danville boys’ basketball team to an 82-35 rout of North Montgomery on Friday night. Starting out on a 13-0 run before the Chargers (2-11, 0-3 Sagamore Conference) could score their first points, the Warriors then went on another 12-0 spurt to end the first stanza and foretold what would be the third straight victory by at least 30 points in as many years. Danville coach Brian Barber pointed to their quick pace as to what did in the Chargers so quickly. “We’ve been really working the last couple of weeks of getting the ball pushed up the floor,” Barber said. “We felt like, early in the year, we weren’t doing a very good job of that. Coach [Mark] Artman, who is our offensive coordinator, has done a really good job of getting the guys to look down the floor and get the ball up the floor with a pass instead of dribbling.” Those quick passes up the court has not only allowed Danville to get easy buckets on the offensive end but also set up quickly on the defensive end, where they harassed the Chargers for 27 turnovers. The Warriors’ (7-5, 2-1 SAC) effort on Friday night was a far cry of what it was to start the season. After back-to-back overtime losses to start the year, they won three straight before going on a rollercoaster ride of losses and wins up until this point. Barber explains the early struggles were due to everyone trying to figure out their role on the team. “Guys were trying to find roles, coaches were trying to figure things out and it takes a little bit of time to jell all of that,” he said. Veteran players like Connor Jones, Sam Comer and Dillon Ware have established themselves as go-to options for the Warriors and showed it scoring more than half of their offense. Comer led the way with 20 points, followed by Jones’ 15 and Ware’s 12. Brody O’Brien rounded out the double-figure scoring for Danville with 11. For North Montgomery, their lone bright spot was junior guard Preston Shaw, who scored 15 points. Barber mentioned that North Montgomery, right now, is where Danville was to start the season and that they should be able to figure it out. “They’re searching and they’re a little bit like us towards the beginning of the year, where you’re trying to figure out your best team,” Barber said. “Your best team isn’t always your best players. It’s the five, six or seven guys that play best together, and I think they’re still searching for that.” North Montgomery and Danville are off until next Friday where they’ll play host to the Sagamore schools from Boone County. The Chargers battle Lebanon while Danville welcomes Western Boone. Both games are set for 7:30 p.m. starts.