By Mark Saluke
GREENTOWN — Eastern unveiled its 2009-10 boys basketball squad to a buzzing home crowd Wednesday night, and if the 72-48 thrashing it handed Frankton is any indication of things to come, the Comets mean business this season.
Joby Renbarger paced a balanced offensive attack with 20 points as Eastern led by double digits from the second quarter on. Dylan Buck and Jonathan Keith followed with 10 each, Brandon Hainlen netted nine and Wes Horner and Blake Donson added eight apiece.
“Good win, and good effort from all the kids,” Eastern coach Duane Keisling said. “I’m pleased we were able to play nine guys in heavy rotation in the first game of the season, and I’m pleased with the way our defense created a lot of offense.”
Eastern capitalized on Frankton’s turnovers all night. The Eagles turned the ball over 28 times and the Comets scored 31 points off the miscues.
“It wasn’t just the fact that they forced those turnovers,” said Frankton coach Brent Brobston. “They beat us back down the floor and turned several of those turnovers into points.”
Frankton committed half of its turnovers in the first two quarters, which the Comets promptly turned into 17 points on the way to a 30-18 lead at the half. Many of those points cam e on fast breaks when Eastern beat Frankton down the floor with ease.
“When you run the ball there’s a fine line between a good fast break and what I call the old barnyard basketball,” Keisling said. “It was good to see guys finishing strong. I think our intensity picked up defensively right off the bat in the first two or three minutes. Once we got going on defense our offense picked up.”
Frankton’s only real threat was in the game’s opening moments when Zack Doughty put the Eagles up 4-0 with two quick hoops. Following two Renbarger free throws, Horner stole the ball at mid-court and tied the game on a breakaway lay-up. Keith pulled off a nearly identical steal seconds later, scoring on a breakaway for a 6-4 Eastern lead that stood the rest of the game.
The rest of the night, it was all Eastern. The Comets held an 18-10 advantage at the first stop, held the 12-point cushion at intermission, and upped the lead to 20, 50-30, heading into the final eight minutes.
Despite the convincing win, Keisling sees room for lots of improvement during the team’s 10-day layoff before Eastbrook pays a visit on Dec. 5.
“We had some good looks at shots that just didn’t fall, but we still have a lot of work to do on our outside shooting. And we need to be able to cash in on those free throws down the stretch. That’s something we didn’t do [Friday] night.”
Eastern shot only 21 percent from 3-point range (3 of 14) while only hitting 9 of 16 for 56 percent from the charity stripe.
