The Allentown High School boys’ basketball team learned a valuable lesson in defeat.
Allentown was beaten by a superior foe, Trenton Central High School, by a final score of 65-36 on Jan. 23 in Allentown. However, the loss may pay off down the road.
“Trenton plays a fantastic schedule,” Allentown coach Jay Graber said. “They were 9-5 coming into this game, but the record definitely isn’t indicative of how great they are and how tough they are. They play a full-court man press the entire time, and they definitely put pressure on you. I think this was a good learning experience for us. We just have to continue to develop and get better.”
The Redbirds faced a large deficit in the game, but they continued to play hard and outscored Trenton Central, 13-11, in the fourth quarter. The visiting Tornadoes had pulled away with a 21-5 effort in the second quarter.
Senior Yeshua Powe led the Redbirds with 15 points, while sophomore RJ Weise hit for nine points and senior Stafford McIsaacs ended with four points.
Four Allentown players — senior Robert Hynes, junior Jack Kudrick, sophomore Tim Mastromarino and freshman Brandon Pfeifer — each finished with two points.
“I liked the way we competed in general,” said Graber, whose squad fell to 4-11 with the defeat. “I like the way we competed on the defensive end. We went man-to-man the entire game, and for the most part, we were able to keep them in front of us. Where we struggled was in our transition defense. We had a couple turnovers, and we gave up some points there. But in the half-court defense, I thought we played really well.”
Powe agreed that Allentown’s defense, especially in the second half, was better, but he wanted to see the Redbirds take better care of the ball and get back in transition.
“I think the biggest issue was we weren’t boxing out enough,” he said. “When we didn’t do that, they got out in transition and got some easy points because we didn’t get back on defense.”
Powe noted that the team played better defensively in the second half.
“I think we played more together than we had before,” he said. “I also think we took better shots and made better decisions on offense.”
Allentown was unable to rebound in a 64-47 loss to New Egypt High School on Jan. 27 in Allentown. However, the Rebirds looked to get back on the winning track when it played Notre Dame High School in Lawrenceville on Jan. 29.