Bulldogs Drop Front End of Back-To-Back

The Dayton boy’s team had a rare off game, as they dropped a 61-43 decision to Scotch Plains-Fanwood Thursday night.    

Dayton [14-3] came out flat and pretty much stayed off-key for the rest of the night in the frontend of another back-to-back. Scotch Plains-Fanwood jumped out to a quick lead on its “Senior Night” and took advantage of the Dayton’s miscues and wayward shots. The Bulldogs also didn’t help their cause by horrible foul shooting.   

“We were 4-of-20 on free throws and that was an indication of how we shot the ball,” said a disappointed head coach Bob Martin. “We didn’t capitalize well on scoring opportunities that we did have.” 

The Bulldogs couldn’t get anything going early, as they were down 19 at the half. Foul trouble and a lack of fire were reasons for the slow start. Martin said if not for some of his reserves to pick up the slack, the first half could’ve been a lot worse. Christian Wortman, who’s mostly known for his defensive prowess, gave Dayton some needed energy to take into the locker room. He finished with seven points.   

“He [Wortman] gave us some good minutes,” said Martin. “He did a great job.”  

That was about all the praise that came from Martin, as he was perplexed at why his squad laid an egg. He said Dayton’s early third quarter run was simply a mirage.    

“We were down 32-13 at the half and we came out pretty strong to get it down to 12 after a good run. But we couldn’t sustain anything offensively and they beat us to a number of loose balls,” he said. “Their main scorer [Oliver] had only 15 points so if you’d have asked me before the game to take that I would’ve said that worked in our favor but they had four or five players in double figures. Loose balls and putbacks got them easy points for them. It wasn’t one person. Collectively we all own this.”  

The Bulldogs outscored Scotch Plains-Fanwood 27-14 in the third, led by Aaron Williams, who scored all 11 of his points in that quarter. Kevin Kirk also added 11 points but that was about all Dayton could muster offensively.     

It’s not unusual to see Bulldog starters on the bench late, as they’re usually on the giving end of a blowout win. But for the first time in many games it was a reversal of fortunes. He said although they have another game tonight, he’s more worried about the a weary psyche than tried legs.  

“My concern is more mentally than physically,” said Martin, adding that the onus is on everyone to forget about this game as quickly as possible. “It’s our responsibility to now look forward to [Friday’s] back-to-back…my message to them afterwards was you gotta get past the last game and look forward to the next. And the team to do that the quickest puts themselves in position to win again.”  

Senior shooting guard Ronnie Herman said he’s already on to the next one.  

“Nothing was good, that’s the bottom line,” grumbled a dejected Herman, adding that Friday’s game will be a different story. “We’re going to play the complete opposite of [last night].”   

Friday will be another test for Dayton, as Roselle will be looking to avenge an earlier loss and try to get back into the conference race. Martin said he warned his team to not be overconfident and think that Roselle won’t come in fired up. 

“They may sometimes start slow but they always finish strong. They’re an explosive team and they can get points in a hurry off their defense,” he said. “We’re playing to put ourselves in the [conference] driver’s seat to win it outright and they’re playing to make it a three-way tie, so they’ve got a lot of purpose, too. It’s a big game, so when you get to this point and get to play for something like this you have to drag guys off the court.”