Bishop Diego’s Defense Shackles Friefeld

Bishop Diego High basketball Coach John Ward is no genius. On the bench, he uses no chalkboards or scratch paper. There’s nothing, he said, complex about his game plan.

But on Friday night Ward turned out to be the master of strategy.

Searching for a way for his team to obtain a rare win, Ward abandoned the zone and, for the first time this season, used a man-to-man defense “to out-athletic them,” he said.

The Cardinals did, beating Oak Park, 65-51, in a Tri-Valley League game at Oak Park. “Using man-to-man made us better than we’re used to being,” said Ward, whose team improved to 6-9 overall and 2-2 in league. “I’m proud of the way the kids responded. They played hard and kept their intensity all the way.”

Most importantly, the man-to-man defense limited Oak Park guard Brian Friefeld, who had averaged more than 27 points a game, to only 4 field goals and 21 points.

Bishop Diego guards Mark Boeddeker, who is 6-0, and 6-3 Ted Tangney towered over the 5-10 Friefeld.

“I thought both of them did a great job on him,” Ward said. “Mark especially was always between him and the basket. He made him work.”

The pressure forced Friefeld out of his game as Oak Park dropped to 4-8 overall and 1-3 in league.

“The difference was extremely obvious,” he said. “We got out-quicked. I usually go higher--even against a taller guy like Ted--because I get up quicker. I couldn’t get up. I’ve never been so fatigued. I was dead.”

So was the rest of his team. Seven other Oak Park players, most of them sophomores, could contribute only 30 points.

Early in the game, the lead changed four times before Oak Park reserve guard John Sloan made two free throws to give the Eagles a 13-11 edge after the first period.

Then Bishop Diego took over.

Tangney, the league’s most valuable player last year and the team’s leading scorer this season with a 20-point average, scored 8 of his team-high 21 points in the second quarter while three reserves contributed 10.

Bishop Diego, which led 33-25 at halftime, took its biggest lead at 33-21 when Tangney sank a long jump shot, then stole the inbounds pass and made an easy layup.

Ward got “a little worried” when his team made several turnovers and scored only 10 points in the third period. Meanwhile, Friefeld made 5 of 6 free throws late in the period to close a 10-point deficit to 41-36. But midway in the fourth quarter, Bishop Diego took advantage of its depth and continued to run, gradually building its lead to as many as 17 points.

Oak Park dropped to 4-8 overall and 1-3 in league.