Shenandoah runs away from Frontier, 59-39
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NEW MATAMORAS -- Shenandoah's experience paid off in a big way in Tuesday night's Pioneer Valley Conference battle at Frontier.
Zep seniors and three-year starters Nickolai Wickham and Boone Jones combined for 39 points as Shenandoah completed its regular season with a 59-39 win over the Cougars.
Shenandoah forced the Cougars into 10 first-quarter turnovers as it jumped out to a 17-8 lead.
Frontier actually led 6-4 early in the game before the Zeps got on track and went on a 16-2 run that gave them a 22-8 lead early in the second quarter.
"You just aren't going to win against good teams when you allow them to go on runs like they did," said Frontier head coach Roger Kirkpatrick. "We played hard but those two or three runs they put together just killed us."
The Cougars managed to whittle the lead down to 10 (29-19) at the intermission thanks to 3-pointer by Corby Curtis and a deuce by Kyle Daugherty.
Shenandoah started the second half much like it did the second quarter as it put together a 7-0 run.
A Logan Brookover field goal for Frontier briefly halted the Zeps' run but a triple by Kendal Sherman and an inside basket by Wickham gave Shenandoah its first 20-point lead of the game.
"I was a little disappointed in our start tonight and maybe a little disappointed in our finish but in between we did a lot of things pretty good," said third-year Shenandoah head coach Marc Smith. "I thought we made it tough on them to score and about midway through the first quarter we got things going offensively."
The Zeps' lead stood at 21 heading to the final quarter and they quickly added to it with another 9-2 run that extended their lead to a game-high 28.
Wickham led all scorers in the game with 26 points while also grabbing seven rebounds.
Jones filled up his stat sheet nicely with 13 points, eight rebounds and six assists.
"Those two are both three-year starters and it shows," said Smith, whose team improved to 17-3 on the season with the win. "When Nickolai scores he seems to score in bunches and Boone is just a vocal go-to leader of this basketball team."
Frontier was led by Brookover with 17 points while sophomore point guard Breckin Hoff added 10 points and four assists.
Both teams have qualified for the Ohio Valley Athletic Conference semifinals next week as the Zeps will host a game against a team to be determined next Tuesday while the Cougars (8-9) will travel to Trinity Christian.
Smith feels his team is primed and ready to go as tournament play begins.
"Hopefully we haven't played our best basketball game yet and I really don't believe we have," said Smith. "I think we have a lot of room to improve and I think if we play up to our standards and play well we will have a shot to win everynight."
Frontier will wrap up PVC play Saturday night when it hosts conference champion Fort Frye.
"We have came along way since we played them the first time," said Kirkpatrick. "We are very young and all of these hard games at the end will make us better in the future."