FLORENCE—Forest Park’s boys basketball team boosted its offensive output by changing its defense Dec. 21, closing out 2009 with a come-from behind 58-50 win over the Florence Bobcats in a nonconference battle here.

The Trojans trailed nearly the entire game, by as much as 11 points, but took the lead early in the fourth quarter and never gave it up. Forest Park is now 4-1 overall and stays at 3-0 in the Skyline Conference.

Ben Johnson’s three put Florence ahead in the game’s first minutes, and the Bobcats scored the last eight points of the quarter for a 13-4 lead. Missed shots and turnovers kept frustrating FP’s offense, along with Florence’s stubborn zone, which the Trojans struggled against.

A two and a three from Christian Valesano and Tim Martin’s bucket cut the lead to 15-12 in the second quarter, but a 10-2 Florence run built up a 25-14 lead. Josh Aberly’s three-point play just before halftime cut the lead back to single digits, 25-17, at the break.

Valesano’s third three-pointer of the game marked an 8-2 Trojan rally that cut Florence’s lead to 33-31 in the third quarter. Early in the fourth quarter, two Martin free throws followed by back-to-back threes by Martin and Jeff Hegstrom put Forest Park in front 44-39.

The turnaround, said Coach Gene Dziubinski, stemmed from his halftime decision to switch from zone defense to man-to-man. He said he wanted to switch to man in the first half but was afraid of putting the Bobcats at the free throw line in a close game.

In the second half, he gave the green light. “Then we started creating the turnovers. They [Florence] wound up with 21 turnovers, and they only had seven at halftime.” The grittier defense, he said, turned the game around.

After Bobcat free throws cut the lead to two, Martin cashed in a pass from Valesano for two, and Taylor Bartczak converted a three-point play, making it 49-42 with 3:06 to go. The Trojans stayed at least five points in front the rest of the way despite missing four straight free throws in the final minutes.

“Talk about winning ugly!” Dziubinski said.

The change in defense also helped FP defeat Florence’s zone. The Trojans scored 17 points in the first half, matched that total in the third quarter and added 24 more in the fourth. The fast transitions also wore down the Bobcats’ big players, who mostly dominated the post in the first half. (Especially with FP’s Dan Renner missing the game for family reasons.)

Dziubinski said he also overloaded the right side on offense—opening more space the left side, where Hegstrom hit a couple big baskets. “He was wide open twice and made them.”

The Trojans never got zoned in from the floor, making just 30% of their shots for the game (23% in the first half). Florence shot 29% for the game, 24% in the second half.

A big factor was three-pointers. The Bobcats made 1 of 6 for the game, Forest Park was 6 of 18, with Valesano hitting three of them. The consecutive threes by Martin and Hegstrom early in the fourth quarter put the Trojans in front for good.

Valesano led the Trojans with 17 points, and Martin scored 14, half of them in the fourth quarter. Hegstrom added 11, all in the second half.

Siler led the Trojans with eight rebounds, Bartczak had seven assists, Martin had six steals and Hegstrom added four.

Eric Hoehne led Florence with 14 points., but nobody teammate had more than six.

“The offense was really sluggish tonight,” Dziubinski said, “but you win games with good defense, and that’s what we showed tonight.”

The Trojans return to action on Jan. 4 at Watersmeet. The team is back home Jan. 7 for a rematch with Florence.

Trojans 4 13 17 24 -- 58

Bobcats 13 12 12 13 -- 50