Knights In Revenge Mode 3/14/12
By: Scott Leber
Updated: March 14, 2012
Rockford, Illinois-There will be lots of story lines this weekend when the Auburn Knights head to Peoria for the State Tournament. For starters how about a rematch against one of the teams that has beaten the Knights this season.
Friday night in the semifinals the Knights will play the Pirates of Proviso East. Proviso East is 31-0. One of those wins came over Auburn during the holidays at the Proviso West Tournament 75-56.
The Pirates flustered the Knights with their trapping defense and their quick guard play.
The Knights are confident though that they've learned their lesson.
"We all know they're good, but we weren't ready then," said Auburn guard Elijah Smith to WTVO. "Now we're ready for anything...double teams, traps, because we've seen it all."
Fred Van Vleet did not have one of his better performances in that game. He scored only ten points and he had five turnovers. The Pirates double-teamed him to try to get him to give up the basketball.
"I missed some shots I usually make, but they do a lot of man and jumping," said Van Vleet. "They were getting the ball out of my hands early. I think they just made more championship plays then we did coming down the stretch of that game. It wasn't like they just beat us from start to finish. We were hanging with them, and they made more plays."
"What stands out about that game is how they pressured us into mistakes," said Auburn Coach Bryan Ott to WTVO. "They were running and jumping and trapping. They really got us caught up making mistakes. I think all of our guards would like a little redemption for how we handled that and didn't handle that the first time."
Auburn and Proviso East will square off at 6:30 p.m. Friday. Catch the game on Rockford's MyNetwork TV (Cable Channel 16, Over-the-air on Digital Channel 17.2.)
Friday night in the semifinals the Knights will play the Pirates of Proviso East. Proviso East is 31-0. One of those wins came over Auburn during the holidays at the Proviso West Tournament 75-56.
The Pirates flustered the Knights with their trapping defense and their quick guard play.
The Knights are confident though that they've learned their lesson.
"We all know they're good, but we weren't ready then," said Auburn guard Elijah Smith to WTVO. "Now we're ready for anything...double teams, traps, because we've seen it all."
Fred Van Vleet did not have one of his better performances in that game. He scored only ten points and he had five turnovers. The Pirates double-teamed him to try to get him to give up the basketball.
"I missed some shots I usually make, but they do a lot of man and jumping," said Van Vleet. "They were getting the ball out of my hands early. I think they just made more championship plays then we did coming down the stretch of that game. It wasn't like they just beat us from start to finish. We were hanging with them, and they made more plays."
"What stands out about that game is how they pressured us into mistakes," said Auburn Coach Bryan Ott to WTVO. "They were running and jumping and trapping. They really got us caught up making mistakes. I think all of our guards would like a little redemption for how we handled that and didn't handle that the first time."
Auburn and Proviso East will square off at 6:30 p.m. Friday. Catch the game on Rockford's MyNetwork TV (Cable Channel 16, Over-the-air on Digital Channel 17.2.)
