DALTON — Less than 24 hours after a devastating road loss, Dalton’s boys basketball team looked like a team on a mission Saturday night.
The Bulldogs wasted little time, jumping on visiting Chippewa from the opening tip en route to a convincing 70-53 Wayne County Athletic League victory.
Still with the bitter taste from a setback at Hillsdale Friday, Dalton (7-7, 4-5) embraced the time back on the court as it led wire-to-wire to pick up its second win in a busy three-game week.
"It was a huge bounce back after a tough road loss, where maybe we didn't play as well as we would've liked to," said Bulldogs assistant coach Dave Monter, who served as the acting head coach for the second straight game as his son, head coach Matt Monter, attended to some family issues out of town. "For the kids to come back tonight, on a back-to-back like this, with that kind of effort was awesome."
Paced by the red-hot shooting of senior Andrew Kandel (game-high 25 points), Dalton was strong from the start as it led by as much as 14 just minutes into the contest and didn’t see its advantage go under 10 for the rest of the night.
Kandel’s hot hand, combined with the play of guard Joey Dalessandro (17 points) and center Nathan Nussbaum (12) provided for an efficient night of execution for a Bulldogs team that finished shooting 26 for 47 from the field – including 10 for 23 from 3-point range.
"It was a lot of fun," Dalessandro said. "I like playing fast and when we play fast, and under control, everyone is hitting shots and it's really fun."
Kandel and Dalessandro combined for 22 of the team’s 35 first-half points as Dalton took a 35-21 lead in halftime.
Chippewa (5-6, 3-5) found a spark in the opening minutes of the second half after a pair of buckets from Spencer Bailey cut the lead to 36-25.
It was as close as the Chipps would get, however, as Kandel hit back-to-back trifectas in a 13-2 run to push the advantage to 49-27 and the’’Dogs never looked back.
"It's tough," first-year Chippewa coach D.J. Schrock said. "That's two nights in a row where we've come out and got down too many points early and we talked to the guys about not digging holes like that, especially on the road.
"We would get a couple of buckets back-to-back, after that, and then we would give up a score or foul, it was just a combination of things."
Dalton did it on the defensive end as the Bulldogs forced the Chipps into the 15 turnovers – 9 of which came off steals – and attacked in the open court with perfection as Alex Alger and Dominic Dalessandro combined for 10 assists to keep the offense moving. Alger also had a team-high three steals.
While that proved to be crucial, Joey Dalessandro admitted that they wanted to get a win for their coach in a difficult time.
"That was one of our keys, to come out and just pressure them defensively and bring energy," Joey Dalessandro said. "That was a big key for us.
"We thought we should get coach one win this weekend, because he's dealing with some hard times. We wanted to get a win for him."
Chipps guard Cade Durbin was solid for most of the night, netting a game-high 20 points, while Bailey chipped in 13 to go with six boards. The team finished shooting 20 for 45 from the field, but just couldn’t prevent the Bulldogs from pulling away.
"We want to get three stops in a row and there's no way we did that tonight," Schrock said. "If you get three stops in a row, you can get a run going and work yourself back into the game."
But it was the Bulldogs, who were able to do something that they have struggled to at times most of the season: close out the game.
It’s a positive sign for the group heading into the final month of the regular season.
"We're a work in progress still, I would say, but I think we're on the upside," Dave Monter said. "We just need to keep pushing forward, working at it, and keep trying to get better every day."