Published: December 29, 2008 11:55 pm      

BOYS HOOPS: Peru to play for championship

Zimmerman leads Bengal Tigers over Warriors

BUNKER HILL — The Peru Tigers boys basketball squad utilized pressure defense and a strong offensive inside attack to advance to the winners’ bracket of the American Trust /Beef O’Brady’s Holiday Classic, defeating North Miami 58-44 Monday night at Maconaquah.

Peru coach Eric Thompson was happy with his squad’s defense, and how Peru handled North Miami’s main inside threat.

“We put on defensive pressure forcing a lot of turnovers [16] and attacked their big man [Greg Miller] getting him in early foul trouble. He wasn’t as aggressive in the second half at blocking our shots and getting that fourth foul in the third quarter was key. He is one tough hombre that is for sure,” Peru coach Eric Thompson said.

Peru entered the fourth stanza leading 44-37. With 5:24 showing on the clock in the fourth quarter, Warriors’ center Miller received his fifth foul. This would prove costly to North Miami’s effort to keep the game close and the Tigers were able to storm to their largest lead of the game, 56-39 at the 2:30 mark, and cruise from there.

Peru’s Wes Zimmerman lead all scorers with 23 points, doing most of his damage in the second half with 14 points.

“Wes is starting to come into his own. On any given night any one of our players can put up big numbers. We have different leading scorers every night and [Monday] it was Wes. He took advantage of everything the defense gave him,” Thompson said.

The Tigers led after the first quarter 16-15, hitting on 7 of 14 from the field. Zimmerman contributed eight points for the quarter. North Miami’s hot shooting Nick Black poured in 12 points in the quarter to keep it close, going 3 of 3 from beyond the 3-point arc.

Peru only held a 30-26 advantage at the halftime intermission despite some great defensive pressure forcing 11 first-half turnovers and only committing 1.

Peru’s Justin Engle chipped in eight points, and Terry Smith seven points.

The Warriors were led by Black with 21 points, and Miller with 11 points seven rebounds, and four blocked shots.

The only moral victory for North Miami was blanking Peru from 3-land at 0 for 12.

“This was a quality win for us, coach [Zach Henson] does a great job. We play them again in February and it will be tough to beat them a second time, it will be a dogfight”, Thompson said.

Peru plays Whitko in the championship tonight at 8 p.m.