18 points vs. Century
(photo by Jim Lindquist)
They may have been baby steps but the progress his team made from game one to game two in a 60-49 home court loss to Rochester Century Tuesday night did not escape coach Shane Wyandt.
"We played much better basketball tonight," Wyandt said. "We weren't timid like we were at John Marshall. We were more aggressive and comfortable on the floor and we played hard all night.
"We are young and inexperienced and have a lot of growing up to do. Hopefully we can become more consistent as the season moves on and we develop as a team."
The final score did not reflect how close the game was for the first 28 minutes of play.
Alex Chadwick's baseline jumper tied the score at 16-16 with seven minutes to play in the first half before the Panthers closed the half on a 15-6 run to lead 31-22 at intermission.
Five points apiece by Darren Beneken and Austin Bassett to start the second half pulled Farmington to within a point at 33-32 and Century led just 42-40 after a Beenken lay-up with 10:03 remaining.
But from that point on the shots wouldn't drop for the home team and the visitors went on another strong closing run (18-9) to win by double digits.
Wyandt said that one of the highlights in the losing effort was the play of post players Nick Varner and Tom Sell (7 rebounds apiece) who went toe-to-toe with a big Panther front line.
"They played much better than the first game," he said. "They didn't back down."
Beenken led Farmington scorers with 18 points, including a dozen in the second half. Mackinley Bassett added nine and Austin Bassett eight
6-5 forward Ater Manyang (24 points, 11 rebounds) and 6-8 center Evan Carter (19 points, 12 rebounds) were a two-man-wrecking crew for the Panthers.
One big statistical improvement for the Tigers was their reduction in turnovers from 42 in game one to a manageable 17.
The Tigers (0-2) try to dent the win column Friday night with a non-conference road game at Hastings.
