Maize South boys go high-low for big win over Andover Central

It would oversimplify Maize South’s 73-53 victory over Andover Central on Tuesday night to say the Mavericks won because of one very basic play.

But most everything Maize South was able to accomplish in an impressive offensive performance was rooted around its height advantage and its ability to run its high-low offense.

Andover Central, which has no one taller than 6-foot-2 and routinely plays five guards, knew Maize South was going to try to exploit Bryce Wiedemann (6-5) and Kael Kordonowy (6-6). Coach Jesse Herrmann had a variety of ways to defend the post, but Maize South was able to solve all of them in its rout.

“That really was the difference,” Herrmann said. “They had a huge height advantage and we tried a lot of different things to guard it, but they were real disciplined in what they were executing. We knew it was coming and we still couldn’t stop it. We couldn’t get underneath their high-low and when we did, they found the open shooter.”

Maize South’s offense revolved around trying to find angles to feed Kordonowy in the post. In the first half, Andover Central was able to limit Kordonowy by fronting him with a smaller defender and remaining active with its help-side defenders to eliminate the lob pass.

But all of that attention left cracks in the rest of Central’s defense and Maize South was able to capitalize, or rather Ethan Richardson, who enjoyed the freedom by connecting on a trio of three-pointers and scoring 15 of his 18 points in the first half to help lift Maize South to a 37-30 lead.

Richardson’s shooting display made Andover Central’s defense hesitate a second longer to help off in the second half and that’s all that Kordonowy needed to go to work.

“During the week all we’ve been working on is our seals to get the ball over the top,” Kordonowy said. “If we could get the ball to the rim, then it was an easy catch because we knew they didn’t have anyone tall enough to guard it.”

Andover Central wasn’t long enough to disrupt the entry pass, usually from Wiedemann, or quick enough to cut off the lob pass to Kordonowy. The play was so effective that Kordonowy scored the majority of his game-high 23 points on it.

The 7-point halftime lead grew to 11 at the end of the third quarter and then as many as 22 in the fourth quarter, as Andover Central never recovered.

“I just throw it to the rim and he goes and gets it,” said Wiedemann, who added 15 points himself. “It makes my job really easy. Once he scores a couple, then they start to sandwich him and he’ll kick it out to us and it’s an easy shot.”

Andover Central had its usual diet of three-pointers — making 10 against Maize South — but its offense became rushed when Maize South began to push its lead out. Braden Belt led the Jaguars with 19 points.

The loss was a minor setback for an Andover Central (2-2) team coming off an impressive road win at Goddard and an encouraging result for Maize South (2-1).

“This shows us we have the potential to win big games,” Kordonowy said.

“We got lucky in a lot of areas tonight and just because we were lucky enough to win by 20, we can’t stop there,” Maize South coach Kip Schultz added.

This story was originally published December 13, 2016 at 10:39 PM with the headline "Maize South boys go high-low for big win over Andover Central."