Rams Earn Win and Loss – Travel to Eastern Saturday
January 14, 2022
The Rams had a busy schedule last week as they played two back-to-back games. On Friday the Rams fell short against the Mitchell Bluejackets 44-48 on January 7. The loss moves the Rams 1-1 in the PLAC Conference. The next night the team turned their game around at Tell City with a win against the Marksmen, 61-52.
Head Coach Dusty Cole reflected on Friday’s game.
“Tough night on the road. We came out a little bit flat and had too many dry spells on the offensive end. There were multiple times throughout the game that we had chances to stretch a 2-3 point lead to 8-10 and we just never could get it done,” said Cole. “We allowed Mitchell to hang around and they gained more and more confidence as the night went on. We missed a few shots late and they hit a few shots.”
The three leading scorers for the Rams were junior Isaac Cornett-McBride with 13 points, sophomore Trey Rominger with 11 points, and freshman Fletcher Cole with 8 points.
“We only shot six free throws and we got outrebounded. These are two areas that we pride ourselves in so it was disappointing to see those numbers,” said Cole. “Isaac hit a few shots late in the game for us, but overall, nobody stood out as having a great game.”
The positive takeaway for Cole was on defense.
“Defense was solid and we held their two leading scorers to 19 points combined,” said Cole.
Saturday’s game ended with the Rams adding another tally to the win column.
“We didn’t play our best game, but we found a way to get the job done,” said Cole. “We have a bunch of winners on this basketball team. Winners, find a way to win. Sometimes you have to win UGLY. But you find a way to win. Our kids did just that.”
The three leading scorers for the Rams were freshman Fletcher Cole with 16 points, sophomore Trey Rominger with 15 points, and senior John Moon with 13 points.
“We are still making a lot of mistakes. We turned the ball over a season high [of] 16 times and shot a very poor percentage from the field,” said Cole. “On a positive note, we hit our free throws really well late. We were already down a player with Carson Little being sidelined, but we also had to overcome a lot of foul trouble as well.”
Cole was pleased by the performance of senior Bladen Patton and of his team at the free-throw lane all night.
“Bladen [Patton] was solid tonight. Went three of four from three-point range, and had five assists and 0 turnovers. Fletcher hit his free throws well (11-12 from the line). Trey had 14 points in the second half. As a team we hit 26 of 31 free throws,” said Cole.
The Rams will not be playing host to the Dubois Jeeps, with the game to be rescheduled at a later date.
The team will travel to Eastern Pekin to play the Musketeers tomorrow at 6 p.m. Ram fans can purchase tickets at the link below.
