Second half struggles sink Wright City in loss

By John Rohlf, Sports Editor
Posted 1/18/23

Wright City was unable to solve the St. Louis Christian Blue Knights’ zone trap in their loss Monday night. 

Wright City fell to St. Louis Christian 68-37. Carle’on Jones led …

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Second half struggles sink Wright City in loss

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Wright City was unable to solve the St. Louis Christian Blue Knights’ zone trap in their loss Monday night. 

Wright City fell to St. Louis Christian 68-37. Carle’on Jones led Wright City with 15 points in the loss. 

The Wildcats and Blue Knights played a close first half, with Wright City trailing by two at halftime. The game was tied 11-11 after the first quarter. Wright City trailed 24-22 at halftime after leading a majority of the second quarter. 

“We moved the ball well,” Wright City boys basketball coach Ken Brown said. “We took care of the ball somewhat. Versus their man, we were doing a good job of scoring.” 

St. Louis Christian’s defensive adjustment stifled the Wright City offense for most of the second half. St. Louis Christian played a zone defense, with a trapping component to the zone once the Wright City guards crossed the half court line. St. Louis Christian went on an 18-5 run in the third quarter, with most of the points coming in transition. 

“They got a lot of steals,” Brown said. “The steals turned into transition buckets. We had the open slot. We just had to get to that point. Once we did get it to the block down to Carle’on (Jones), we were able to score. We were able to have success out of it. We just weren’t able to get past that part of the game.” 

Brown noted the Blue Knights were trapping the ball once the Wildcats crossed half court. Wright City was not able to get the ball reversed against the St. Louis Christian defense. 

Brown said the Wildcats did not spend too much time preparing for the zone trap look. The Blue Knights had not shown that defensive look much earlier in the season. 

“They did it a little bit versus other teams and other teams kind of beat it,” Brown said. “We just weren’t able to get it to the right spot.” 

St. Louis Christian started the fourth quarter on a 9-0 run to take a 55-31 lead less than two minutes into the quarter. They outscored Wright City 22-6 in the fourth quarter. 

Wright City is scheduled to compete in the Hermann Invitational next week.


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