Special kids get chance to play
Benefit held for crash victim
WSU vs. Milwaukee
Crider leads Wayne with 18 in fast-paced attack
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Wayne's Markus Crider grabs a rebound Friday, Dec. 12, against Fairmont. Crider and Travis Trice Jr. led the Warriors with 18 points. KETTERING — Wayne coach Travis Trice got in the face of Markus Crider midway through the third quarter with the Warriors leading 40-38.
Crider hadn't done anything to grab his coach's attention and that was exactly the problem.
The sophomore forward had seven first-half points, but had yet to score with 3:27 remaining in the third quarter. Whatever his coach said worked, as Crider keyed a 19-5 run that put the Warriors up for good on their way to a 72-60 victory over Fairmont at the Trent Arena.
Crider scored nine of his 18 points in the spurt, which lasted more than five minutes.
In a one-minute span, Crider scored seven points, many coming off of offensive rebounds.
"I've been waiting for that," Trice said. "Quite honestly, he can do that any time he wants to.
"Sometimes its about pushing his buttons to force him to do it, yell at him and get in his face a couple of times to get him upset a little bit, then he plays."
Wayne (1-1) used its explosive offense to wear down the Firebirds, who came in ranked No. 4 in the DDN high school poll.
The fast-paced offense was tough for Fairmont (2-1) to keep up with and even harder to defend as three players scored 16 points or more for the Warriors.
Crider and sophomore guard Travis Trice Jr. led the team with 18 points and senior Jordan Bazile added 16.
"We just had to keep the intensity up," said senior Dominique Fowler, who electrified a large contingent of Wayne fans with several big dunks. "We just had to keep attacking the basket."
The Warriors used the attacking style of offense to make a thin Fairmont squad even smaller. Two Firebirds fouled out and two others had four fouls.
"The offense is supposed to be built around attacking the basket," Trice said. " I thought we could wear them down."
Coming off of an upset loss to Lebanon earlier in the week, Trice encouraged his team to do a better job defensively and it showed.
While Wayne had 23 turnovers, it also forced 20, which led to a lot of fast-break points.
Other than Logan Rucker, who scored a game-high 21 points, the Firebirds struggled to get open looks.
"Defense is the key," said sophomore Tre' Moore, whose lockdown defense created many of those turnovers. "Most of our points are going to come off of those turnovers."
