Chris Caporale, sports@wolfrivermedia.com
Leader Photo by Chris Caporale Menominee Indian High School center Ron Frechette dribbles baseline on Oneida Nation’s Jonathan Massey early in the second half of Menominee Indian’s 88-73 loss Tuesday. Frechette scored 8 points to help the Eagles close the deficit to 1 point before the Thunderhawks finished out the game.
Leader Photo by Chris Caporale Menominee Indian High School junior Warren Wilber (1) and Meshaen Waukau attempt to block Oneida Nation point guard Crimsen Powless in the second half of Menominee Indian’s 88-73 loss Tuesday. Powless finished with a game-high 34 points.
Foul trouble for Menominee Indian’s top two scorers put a damper on the Eagles’ comeback effort against Oneida Nation in a season-opening loss Tuesday.
After senior Ron Frechette brought Menominee Indian back within 1 point by scoring the team’s first 8 points of the second half, Oneida senior center Jonathan Massey made a 3-pointer and drew the fourth foul on Frechette.
From there, the Thunderhawks pulled away for the 88-73 victory.
“He’s going to do a lot of work for us throughout the season,” Menominee Indian head coach James Oshkeshequoam said of Frechette. “For him to be as effective as he can be, we all have to play smarter and not allow to give up fouls on the defensive end.”
With Frechette on the bench, Oneida went on a 7-0 run over 30 seconds. When he checked back into the game at the 7:47 mark, it didn’t take long for Thunderhawks point guard Crimsen Powless to attack.
Powless, who had a game-high 34 points, drew the fifth foul on the Menominee Indian center.
“(Frechette’s) a big kid, and he’s real agile,” Oneida Nation head coach Jamison King said. “He’s got good hands, so that was part of our plan, to attack him on defense and make him play defense and try to get him in pick-and-roll situations where he had to guard somebody a lot smaller and quicker.”
Shortly after Frechette fouled out, Darwin King was called for his fifth, taking him out of the game with 11 points.
Powless continued driving through the Menominee Indian defense all night, getting to the free-throw line 23 times and scoring 16 points with the clock stopped.
“We were trying to stay a couple steps off of him. It takes five guys to guard the person with the ball, so we were trying to have more of a team effort along with not fouling,” Oshkeshequoam said. “Of course, we didn’t do that, but those were a couple of things we tried to do.”
With Frechette and King out, Massey was able to use his size advantage in the post to score 8 of his 23 points in the final five minutes of the game for Oneida (1-0).
The Eagles (0-1) were led by Charles Lasley with 18 points. He knocked down four 3s on the night. Point guard Sean Rohr added 13 points.
“We’ve got to focus and just commit to the game plan. I felt us coaches had a pretty good game plan for Oneida,” Oshkeshequoam said. “Oneida played very well.”
Oneida Nation (88)
Powless 9 16-23 34; Massey 11 0-1 23; John 4 1-3 13; King 5 0-0 13; R. Summers 1 1-3 3; J. Summers 1 0-0 2.
Menominee Indian (73)
Wilber 4 1-1 9; Rohr 4 2-8 13; Munson 1 2-5 4; Redkettle 1 2-6 5; King, 4 1-1 11; Lasley 7 0-0 18; Waukau, 1 1-2 3; Frechette 4 2-4 10.
Oneida Nation 43 43 — 88
Menominee Indian 38 35 — 73