Place an Ad Calendars Classified Forums Sports Weather

sptimes.com Text-only News sections Arts & Entertainment AP The Wire Business Citrus County Columnists Floridian Hernando County Hillsborough Letters Movies Neighborhood Times News Update North Pinellas North of Tampa Obituaries Opinion Pasco County South Pinellas Sports State Tampa Bay TV Times World & Nation  Find your local news section Weekly sections Brandon Times City Times Homes Outdoors Perspective Personal Tech Taste Travel Weekend Xpress Special Sections Arena football Buccaneers College football Devil Rays Lightning Police reports Schools Seniority Subscriber Services Subscribe Renew Help Advertise Place an ad In print Online Market Info Join Us Internships Scholarships Times Jobs Contact us

Balogh bails out Hernando in victory

Central's gimmick defense isn't enough as the Leopards find a way to beat the Bears, 50-41, in a GCAC game.

By FRANK PASTOR
© St. Petersburg Times,
published December 12, 2001

BROOKSVILLE -- When Hernando's Jeremy Balogh saw Central in a box-and-one defense that was supposed to limit leading scorer Jerrell Graham's chances, he knew he was going to have to do more of his team's scoring.

Problem was, Balogh -- normally a point-blank shooter -- had injured two fingers on his shooting hand in a loss to Lecanto and was coming off consecutive subpar games.

No matter.

Eschewing the tape he wrapped around his fingers, the senior forward scored a game-high 18 points to lead Hernando to a 50-41 victory Tuesday at Imhoff Gymnasium.

Hernando improved to 4-2 overall and 3-2 in the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference. Central dropped to 3-2 and 1-2.

"I kind of thrive on stepping up and playing the big games," Balogh said. "I kind of enjoy that. Especially against a county rival, you've got to step your game up a little bit."

Balogh scored seven points in the third quarter as Hernando outscored Central 11-2 to turn a six-point halftime deficit into a three-point lead.

The Leopards didn't allow a field goal in the quarter and held the Bears to just three in the half.

"That was our talk at halftime," Hernando coach Jeff Laing said. "We thought we should have been well prepared enough defensively to stop what they were doing. I challenged them at halftime to execute on defense, and we did."

The game was tied at 22 with 5 minutes, 13 seconds to play in the second quarter when Central closed with a 9-3 run to take a 31-25 halftime lead.

Freshman Alex Ruoff and junior Gerado Uribe had limited Graham -- averaging a county-best 23 points entering the game -- to six points in the half.

But Central got away from its offensive game plan in the third quarter, and the shooting of Balogh and Joel Hoogewind (two 3-pointers) eventually forced the Bears out of their box-and-one.

"We came here and played 16 minutes of really nice basketball, then we played 8 minutes of just atrocious basketball," Central coach John Sedlack said.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright