In the first round of the Division II State Tournament, the Bulldogs took down the Marietta Tigers 62-36 in what might’ve been Athens’ most complete game of the season.
At the start of the game, it was a defensive slugfest. Athens started in their aggressive zone defense, which was giving the Tigers fits all throughout the quarter, forcing bad shots and turnovers almost every time they came down the court.
Marietta’s defense, though, had their own standout performance in the first quarter, pressing after every made basket and forcing the Bulldogs into tough spots on offense. The quarter ended with the Bulldogs in the lead, 10-7.
The big difference in this game was how each team responded to their opponent’s defense and cleaned up their own offenses.
The Bulldogs decided to simplify things on offense and just take what was given to them. They focused on just trying to run the Tigers out of the gym by speeding up the tempo and getting layups and mid-range jumpers in transition.
After another relatively sluggish quarter of basketball, the Bulldogs were leading the Tigers 25-16 going into halftime. The difference was that Athens had started to figure out how they were going to play the rest of this game while Marietta still looked relatively clueless against that vaunted Bulldogs’ zone scheme.
The Bulldogs came out of the break looking refreshed and ready to take off with this game, and they did.
Senior forward Nate Trainer lead the way for Athens in the second half with his physical play, which helped him force turnovers and snag rebounds.
“Nate was playing like a grown man out there tonight,“ coach Mickey Cozart said. “He was everywhere on defense and hitting the glass exactly like we needed him to.”
The rebounding was a team focal point coming into the game, and it showed as Athens had one of its best rebounding games of the year.
“I told the guys I wanted at least 35 boards coming into this one, and now that it’s over, I’ll be shocked if we didn’t pass that number,” Cozart said.
When the fourth quarter came around, it only got worse for the Tigers. The Bulldogs opened it up with an 8-0 run and, with a big lead, took out starters until the bench finished off the game.
Senior standout Brayden Markins lead the way in the scoring department for Athens with a cool 22 point night, taking over time and time again whenever Athens needed it.
“He definitely did not want this to be his final high school game, and he showed it tonight. He very well might have a couple all-star games to compete in before this is all said and done, but not until we’re done with what we came here to do,“ Cozart said.
With Marietta now out of the way, Athens will advance to the second round of the tournament and play New Lexington at Logan High School this Friday.
