John Raffel
Sports Scene
The Ithaca boys basketball team was focusing on the TVC championship race with a very balanced attack this season and seems ready to have another strong postseason run in store.
Jake Greene has been averaging 11.4 points and Charles Schnetzler 10.6 points a game, while Luke Rayburn is at 7.4 points per game. Schnetzler is shooting 80 percent from the free throw line.
Lucas Slater is getting 6.9 rebounds per game.
Late in the season, the Yellow Jackets found themselves locked in a battle with Michigan Lutheran Seminary for first place.
“We struggled offensively,” said coach Jim Thompson. “Defensively, we’re as good as we can play. Offensively, we’re having problems putting the ball in the basket. We’ve been in first place, but we have to start scoring.”
The scoring for the Yellow Jackets has been steady, but there haven’t been any major episodes of explosiveness. That’s something Thompson hopes to see in the not-too-distant future.
“We’re not scoring enough points that would be good enough for playoffs,” Thompson said. “We’re winning because we’re holding teams in the 40s.”
It’s a matter, the Ithaca coach said, of following up on technique. “We’re getting good looks at the basket,” Thompson said, noting that the shots, for whatever reason, aren’t going through the hoop. “When they start making the baskets, they will win the games big.”
A case in point came in a 54-43 loss on Valentine’s Day to Shepherd.
“We scored 21 points in the first quarter,” Thompson said. “Then we scored 22 the rest of the way.”
But Thompson likes his team’s potential the rest of the season.
“When they peak, they’ll be very good,” he said. “I hope they peak at the right time.”
In a key game against St. Charles, Ithaca prevailed 45-38, with Schnetzler and Greene combining for 27 points. Schnetzler scored 14 and Greene netted 13 and added seven rebounds.
Greene had one of his best games in a 57-44 victory over Alma. He scored 20 points and went 9 for 9 from the floor and 2 for 3 from the free throw line. Slater added seven rebounds.
Slater had one of his better performances in an 18-point production effort, sinking 8 of 11 from the floor. Greene also had a strong game, with 14 points, shooting 5 of 8 from the floor. Sage DeMull had one of his better games, with 10 points, while Rayburn added eight. Slater also had 10 rebounds.