High School Boys Basketball:
Indians Tomahawked by Renagades

Friday, January 29, 1999

By Steve Robbins
SJSports Student Correspondent

Outplayed. That's the only word you need to describe how the Lenape Indians fared against their cross-town rival, the Shawnee Renegades, as Lenape lost 72-44. Amazingly enough, the final score doesn't indicate how bad Lenape was beaten. Let's put it this way, Lenape didn't score a basket until three minutes were left in the second quarter.

Zach Martin, the freshman forward from Shawnee, stole the show defensively and offensively, scoring 19 points, grabbing 10 rebounds, and rejecting six shots. Many of Martin's points were assisted by junior forward Sean Mulholland, who finished with 12 points.

The game started ridiculously slow for Lenape, whose only points in the first quarter came off two Craig Vogt free throws. Shawnee, however, didn't exactly have the same trouble as the Indians, by jumping out to a 19 point lead at the end of the first quarter. Shawnee capitalized off of every Lenape mistake, and boy, were there a lot of them.

Lenape's frustrations became apparent in the second quarter when star guard Chris Hall got into a shoving match with Martin, who was physically dominating Lenape's big men in the paint. Lenape's fans were frustrated as well. When Vince Osario scored Lenape's first basket near the end of the half, the fans erupted in sarcastic cheer. Osario led Lenape with 10 points. The score at halftime was a mind-boggling 43-11.

The second half was different for Lenape, who actually outscored Shawnee 33-29. However, much of that can be credited to Shawnee easing down their pressure defense and pulling their starters.

Hall, who has played his last game against Shawnee, had this to say, "It's a real shame the rivalry had to end like this for me. I would have loved to beat them, but we deserved to lose. We played sloppy and they picked up on our mistakes. We had it coming."

Lenape will try to rebound Tuesday at Woodrow Wilson, while Shawnee will play Overbrook also on Tuesday.