KC Is the Sunshine In Hornet Victory

It wasn’t pretty.

But with Friday’s 43-29 win over Tecumseh, the Hornets are now 3-0 on the young season.

The Tecumseh team, coming off a tough loss to Milan, decided to focus their attention on Saline big man Michael Smutny. The Indians did a good job keeping Smutny off balance with double coverage, limiting him to 11 points. But sophomore KC Borseth stepped up, shooting five treys to account for all of his team-high 15 points. Fellow sophomore Michael Hendrickson scored eight points, including two treys in the first quarter. Senior Garrett Stark had seven points and seven assists.

“If you don’t shoot well and if you don’t create offense off your defense, you’re going to have a hard time with their zone. They were hitting just enough shots to keep excited about the game,” said Saline head coach Matt Seidl.

Despite giving up just 29 points, Seidl thought the team could be been better defensively.

“One of my keys is to defend the post without fouling. I think my guys took that a little too seriously because we were a little soft in the post. I’ll take the blame for that because I didn’t want to get (Smutny) in trouble because I thought he would be our x-factor,” Seidl said.

Seidl said his shooting sophomores, Borseth and Hendrickson, give his team options when the opposition keys on Smutny.

“Against a zone, we have some guys. We have two really good sophomore perimeter shooters and I trust both of them. (Borseth) hit five (three pointers) and probably could have hit 10 of them. (Hendrickson) hit two and he’ll usually shoot better than that both days,” Seidl said.

Saline took an early 5-4 lead and never relinquished its advantage. By the same token, Tecumseh stayed close, never letting Saline build more than a seven-point lead until the fourth quarter.

Saline busted the game with an 11-0 run to start the fourth quarter.

The game started slow, with Tecumseh opening scoring with a basket from Kyle Bryan. Hendrickson gave Saline the lead with a three-pointer, but Bryan put Tecumseh back up by one with a layup. Midway through the quarter, Stark sent Smutny in for a layup.  A few seconds later, after a steal sent three Hornets in on one Indian, Stark passed to Smutny who dunked to the roar of the Hornet student section. Saline led 9-4. Tecumseh’s Ben Kasper dropped a three-pointer in to make it 9-8 after a free throw by Casey Hunt. Hendrickson drained his second three-pointer of the quarter to give Saline a 12-8 lead.

Bryan scored to open the second quarter for Tecumseh, but Smutny responded with a couple of baskets from the charity stripe. Indian Brad Vannatter putback a rebound for two points. Saline’s Kevin Moss responded with a basket off an inbound pass. Kasper got Tecumseh within one with a three pointer. Borseth responded with a three of his own to make it 19-15. Stark expanded the lead with a free throw. Tecumseh’s Jacob Britt made a layup to make it 20-17. Borseth gave Saline a 23-17 lead at halftime with his second three-pointer of the game.

Saline’s shooters went ice cold in the third quarter. The Hornets managed a three-pointer from Borseth and nothing else.

Defensively, the Hornets stayed tough, but Tecumseh clawed to within two points by the end of the third quarter, 26-24.

“I thought we got nearly every shot we wanted, but we just couldn’t buy a basket,” Seidl said. “We wanted to pressure in third quarter, defensively, but we couldn’t put the ball in the basket to pressure,” Seidl said.

In the fourth, the Hornets employed the full court press and it paid off.

First Borseth hit a three-pointer to make. A half-minute later, Smutny made his layup and a free throw to make it 32-24. Moss came up with a steal seconds later and then Stark drained a three-point shot. Stark set up Smutny for a layup to cap Saline’s 11-0 run that made it 37-24 with 5:55 to play. Tecumseh got within eight, but Borseth’s final three-pointer of the night nailed down the win with 3:03 to play.

Saline hosts Chelsea Tuesday.