Edwardsburg boys basketball coach Dan Gunn gave a perfect description of his team’s offense Tuesday against St. Joseph.

“Slim and none,” said Gunn after his team fell to the Bears, 48-30, to drop to 2-3 on the season.

The Eddies shot 32 percent (11-of-34) from the field and went almost 13 minutes without a field goal from the first quarter into the third quarter. Josh Kozinski’s basket gave Edwardsburg a 6-3 lead went 4:51 left in the first quarter. The Eddies next field goal didn’t come until 5:40 left in the third quarter when Patrick Harvey scored to cut the Bears’ lead to 22-12. Harvey finished with eight points.

“I thought we got decent shots,” Gunn said. “I thought we made too many turnovers.”

Along with its shooting woes, Edwardsburg totaled 13 turnovers — all in the first three quarters.

St. Joseph broke out of its shooting struggles after missing eight of its first 10 shots. The Bears shot 52 percent (13-of-25) from the field the rest of the game. St. Joseph also made the most out of its field goals as eight of the baskets were 3-pointers.

“It took us awhile to kind of get comfortable against their match-up zone,” said St. Joseph coach Greg Blomgren, whose team improves to 2-2. “It’s a little different look that we’ve seen all year. They play that 1-2-2 and 3-2 matchup. We’ve been fighting against speed and quickness in our games. This was kind of a different paced game which suits our style a little bit more.”

Blomgren was much more pleased with his team’s defense, which allowed only one 3-pointer and held Edwardsburg leading scorer Josh Kozinski (23 ppg.) to a season-low 11 points. Five of those points came in the fourth quarter.

“We were focused on defense,” Blomgren said. “That was the key for us. We felt that Josh Kozinski was the key. We had to contain him, bother him and hassle him all night. Jalen Holmes and James Morris and whoever else that was ready to help (on defense) if Kozinski got free did a heck of a job for us.”

Gunn liked his team’s defense early and made changes defensively in an attempt to generate more consistent offense.

“We controlled them early,” Gunn said. “I thought defensively we had them. We just couldn’t score. We changed defenses to hopefully get some easier shots through our man-to-man defense and that didn’t work either. We just couldn’t get going. This year, we’ve scored more points than in past years. We were just pretty cold tonight.”

Three straight 3-pointers by St. Joseph’s Josh Schaffer extended the Bears lead from 24-16 with 3:27 left in the third quarter to 33-18 after three quarters. St. Joseph’s biggest lead came at 38-18 after getting two free throws from Tyler White with 6:53 left in the game. Edwardsburg pulled within 40-27 after getting a basket from Kozinski with 4:25 left in the game, but could get no closer.

“(Schaffer) went behind a couple of screens and we didn’t do a good job of staying with him,” Gunn said.

Edwardsburg played without starting center Kyle Slack (7 ppg.) who suffered a finger injury last week against Coloma.

“Slack is hurt and that hurt us some,” Gunn said. “Hopefully, he’ll get back soon.”

ST. JOSEPH 48

Jared Kuntz 2 2-3 7, Josh Schaffer 4 2-2 14, Michael Riemland 2 0-0 4, Jalen Holmes 1 0-0 3, Austin Sheskey 0 2-2 2, Tyler White 1 3-4 5, Jovon Meridy 1 0-0 2, James Morris 2 0-0 5, Dakota Mahler 1 1-2 3, Micah Schaffer 0 0-0 0, Logan Arent 0 0-0 0, Justin Woodley 0 0-0 0, Vincent Ball 1 0-1 3. TOTALS: 15 10-14 48

EDWARDSBURG 30

Josh Kozinski 5 1-3 11, Max Habicht 2 2-2 6, Abenicio Cordoba-Wilson 0 0-0 0, Patrick Harvey 3 2-4 8, Ethan Zimmerman 0 2-3 2, Austin Meadows 0 0-0 0, Eric Richardson 0 0-0 0, Evan VanBelle 1 0-0 3, Jason Schimpa 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 11 7-12 30

St. Joseph 5 19 33 48

Edwardsburg 8 10 18 30

3-point baskets: St. Joseph 8 (J. Schaffer 4, Kuntz, Holmes, Morris, Ball), Edwardsburg 1 (VanBelle). Total fouls (fouled out): St. Joseph 13 (none), Edwardsburg 15 (none). Shooting: St. Joseph 15-of-35 for 43-percent, Edwardsburg 11-of-34 for 32-percent. Rebounding: St. Joseph 23 (Kuntz and Riemland 5), Edwardsburg 17 (Kozinski 5). Turnovers: St. Joseph 15, Edwardsburg 13.

Varsity records: St. Joseph 2-2, Edwardsburg 2-3

Edwardsburg…54

Coloma…41

COLOMA – Visiting Edwardsburg outscored Coloma 21-9 in the fourth quarter to earn a 54-41 Lakeland Conference boys’ basketball victory Friday night.

The Eddies, who trailed by two at the end of the first quarter (11-9), opened up a 26-19 halftime lead, but after the Comets rallied in the third quarter, led by only a point (33-32) heading to the final stanza.

Junior standout Josh Kozinski was the only Edwardsburg player to reach double digits as he scored a game-high 22 points for the Eddies. Ethan Zimmerman added nine and Kyle Slack eight.

Devin Williams led a balanced Coloma offense with 12 points. Earl Taylor nad Tyler Fischer both finished with 11 points.

The win squared Edwardsburg’s record at 2-2 and 1-1 in league play. The Comets drop to 1-3 overall and 1-2 in the Lakeland.

EDWARDSBURG 54

Josh Kozinski 22, Kyle Slack 8, Austin Meadows 3, Ethan Zimmerman 9, Max Habicht 2, Dominic Razzano 2, Patrick Harvey 6, Abencio Cordoba-Wilson 2. TOTALS: 24 9-16 54
COLOMA 41

Devin Williams 12, Earl Taylor 11, Nate Caldwell 2, Tyler Fischer 11, Andrew Steinhoff 5. TOTALS: 19 6-15 41

Edwardsburg 9 26 33 54

Coloma 11 19 32 41

3-point baskets: Coloma 3 (Taylor, Williams 2), Edwardsburg 3 (Zimmerman, Meadows, Kozinski). Total fouls (fouled out): Edwardsburg 16 (none), Coloma 18 (none). Varsity records: Edwardsburg 2-2, 1-1 Lakeland; Coloma 1-3 overall, 1-2 Lakeland