Boone
Grove pushes Cherokees early, but falls 59-57 in double-OT in PCC SemifinalsBoone
Grove pushes Cherokees early, but falls 59-57 in double-OT in PCC SemifinalsA USA-365.com Special Report
by Mark Smith
01-21-2008
| Team/Record | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | OT | OT2 | Final |
| BOONE GROVE (6-6) | 12 | 18 | 13 | 8 | 1 | 5 | 57 |
| MORGAN TOWNSHIP (11-2) | 8 | 10 | 15 | 18 | 1 | 7 | 59 |
Saturday, January 19, 2008 - Porter County Conference (PCC) boys basketball semifinals at Valparaiso H.S.
BOONE GROVE (57) Danny Block 5-3-13, Ryan Reynolds 4-1-9, Wayland Roach 4-2-10, Michael Eleftheri 4-1-11, Zak Ursitti 3-1-9, Greg Wilkins 1-0-3, Alex Radivan 1-0-2, Jacob Wright 0-0-0. TOTALS: 22 (8-19) 57.
MORGAN TOWNSHIP (59) Troy Turner 6-5-19, Chase Heinold 4-3-11, Jarrett Washington 2-3-7, David Sheets 2-3-8, Eric Spaulding 5-3-14, Jon Grubl 0-0-0. TOTALS: 19 (17-25) 59.
FREE THROWS: BOONE GROVE (8-19, 42. 3%) Block 3-6, Ursitti 1-2, Eleftheri 1-1, Reynolds 1-2, Roach 2-6, Radivan 0-2; MORGAN (17-27, 62.9%) Spaulding 3-4, Sheets 3-8, Heinold 3-4, Washington 3-5, Turner 5-6.
REBOUNDS: BOONE (26) Ursitti 4, Block 6, Eleftheri 5, Reynolds 2, Roach 8, Radivan; MORGAN (18) Spaulding 6, Washington 4, Grubl 4, Turner 3, Sheets.
TURNOVERS: BOONE (17) MORGAN (8).
3-GOALS: BOONE (5) Zak Ursitti 2, Michael Eleftheri 2, Greg Wilkins; MORGAN (4) Troy Turner 2, Eric Spaulding, David Sheets.
| Team/Record | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final |
| HANOVER CENTRAL (6-7) | 9 | 16 | 9 | 14 | 48 |
| SOUTH CENTRAL (7-5) | 4 | 16 | 14 | 16 | 59 |
Saturday, January 19, 2008 - Porter County Conference (PCC) boys basketball semifinals at Valparaiso H.S.
HANOVER (48) Andrew DeYoung 3-2-8, Charlie Huffnagle 2-0-6, Tim Kubiak 3-0-6, Jordan Rizo 3-3-9, Kevin Mantel 1-4-7, Jerrod Howard 4-1-9, Zach Rush 1-0-2, Aaron Jackson 0-2-2, Andy Cripe 0-0-0. TOTALS: 17 (10-16) 48.
SOUTH CENTRAL (50) Jake Kitchell 7-4-18, Ethan Kitchell 7-2-16, Neal Busse 4-0-8, John Fagan 2-0-4, Danny Breyfogle 2-0-4, Cody Satoski 0-0-0, Steve Ames 0-0-0. TOTALS:
22 (6-9) 50.
FREE THROWS: HANOVER (10-16, 62.5%) DeYoung 2-2, Rizo 3-6, Howard 1-4, Rush 2-2, Jackson 2-2;
SOUTH CENTRAL (6-9, 66%) Ethan Kitchell 2-2, Jake Kitchell 4-6, Konieczny 0-1.
REBOUNDS: HANOVER (25) Howard 6, DeYoung 5, Rizo 3, Kubiak 2, Jackson 2, Rush;
SOUTH CENTRAL (24) Jake Kitchell 7, Ethan Kitchell 3, Fagan 6, Kociezny 2, Rice, Satoski 3, Breyfogle 2.
ASSISTS: HANOVER (6) Kubiak 2, DeYoung 2, Huffnagle, Rush; SOUTH CENTRAL (12) Ethan Kitchell 4, Jake Kitchell 4, Busse 3, Konieczny.
STEALS: HANOVER (6) Huffnagle 2, Rush 2, Howard, DeYoung; SOUTH CENTRAL (4) Ethan Kitchell 2, Buse 2.
BLOCKED SHOTS: HANOVER (0) SOUTH CENTRAL (5) Jake Kitchell 5.
FOULED OUT: SOUTH CENTRAL (1) Neal Busse (4th Q) :39 left.
3-GOALS: HANOVER (2) Jordan Rizo, Charlie Huffnagle; SOUTH CENTRAL (0).
VALPARAISO, IN (01-19-2008) If you're in the league championship tournament, you want the last shot. Win or lose. You want it. You'd do it again. On a team full of sophomores, Boone Grove guard Zak Uristti is the only senior.
In the 86th Porter County Conference (PCC) tournament, Ursitti sank 27 points in a semifinal win over LaCrosse. In the semifinals against the defending champion: Morgan Township, Ursitti got a wide open 20-foot jump shot with his team trailing by two in the final second of the second overtime. If he makes it, Boone wins the game. It came up short and Morgan won 59-57.
In the second semifinal game Saturday, Hanover Central's Kevin Mantel, who rarely shoots, fired a last minute three-point shot from the left wing, also with his team trailing by three, 48-45. Not only did the ball go in but Mantel, a 5-10 junior was knocked down after the shot. The referee, in a very questionable call, ruled the foul to be after the shot instead of 'in the act of shooting" and gave Mantel a 1-and-1 foul opportunity. Mantel sank both free shots for a 48-46 Hanover lead with just 39 seconds to play.
But in a stunning turnaround, a defensive breakdown led to a halfcourt pass and a layup by SC's John Fagan. Then, after HC held the ball and called a time out to set up a final shot in the front court, HC's Jordan Rizo fired the ball into the backcourt towards Charlie Huffnagle only to have the ball intercepted by Fagan, a 6-foot-2 junior who raced away to score with two seconds to play giving South Central a 50-48 victory. It was a let down.
Later, after the PCC's 50th anniversary celebration, defending champion Morgan beat a bone-tired South Central 41-32 in a slow, boring championship game in front of 4,000 fans late Saturday night. The Cherokees (12-2), winning for the 12th consecutive game, also won their ninth title in the 86th annual small school midwinter Northwest Indiana showcase.
The two-point Hanover defeat was a crushing loss for Hanover, which didn't play especially well, but needed only one defensive stop to win after Mantel's shot. On the inbound pass, Hanover appeared to get confused on defensive alignment and overloaded the front court. A long pass set up a 2-on-1 breakaway and Fagan scored on an easy layup. Hanover may have waited too long to call time out to set up the final shot. With just six seconds left and no time outs, Rizo had to inbound the ball or take a five second violation. Fagan grabbed the ball and scored quickly and HC, with no time outs, could only get the ball to half court where Rizo's 40-foot shot was wide of the basket.
Boone Grove's loss might have been worse than Hanover's. The Wolves led by 16 points in the first half and by 15 points at 48-33 with 6:16 to go. But Morgan started trapping the ballhandler and diving all over the floor and Boone committed 10 second half turnovers.
Chase Heinold's steal and layup cut the Boone lead to 51-42 with 3:10 left. Boone lost the ball on three consecutive possessions and free throws by David Sheets cut the edge to 51-49, forcing a Boone time out with 1:05 left. The Wolves lost the ball again and Troy Turner's basket tied the game with 55 seconds left. Boone leading scorer sophomore Wayland Roach missed a free throw with 38 seconds left, but Morgan's Turner was called for an offensive foul with four seconds to go.
In the first overtime, Morgan stalled for almost three minutes because Turner and center Eric Spaulding had four fouls. Ryan Reynolds split two free throws with 40 seconds to go but Morgan's Heinold split two free shots with 19 seconds left.
In the second OT, Heinold scored the
first four points as the Cherokees, who
had already defeated Boone twice this
year, built a 57-52 lead with 1:13 left. Danny Block scored an offensive
rebound basket to cut the Morgan lead to
58-57 with 15 seconds to go, but Turner
sank two foul shots with 10 seconds
left. Boone missed a quick shot but the
Wolves got an off-balance rebound and
bounced it to Ursitti, the 5-10 senior
who scored a career-best 27 points in
the semifinals against LaCrosse. On what
would be the last play of the game,
directly in front of the Boone cheering
section, Ursitti's form was good, but his
shot was short and Morgan survived,
eventually to win the league title.
The championship game, as it often does
in the two-games-in-one-day format,
featured two exhausted team. South
Central, which defeated Morgan 49-38 in
the season opener, led 12-10 at the half
as both teams forced shots and missed
them. While 4,000 fans quietly waited
for something to happen, all that
occurred was shot after shot blocked by
6-foot-8 South Central center Jacob Kitchell. Kitchell had 25 points, 10
blocks and 12 rebounds. But no one else
on his team scored a basket until Danny Brefoygle scored with 10 seconds left in
the third quarter.
Morgan's Troy Turner scored 13, but the Cherokee's won the game with 18-of 25 from the foul line while South Central was 11 of 22.
PCC NOTES: Hanover principal Joe Fetty sang the national anthem at the PCC finals Saturday night.
Most of the players voted to be the
'50 Greatest' in the PCC's 50 years were
able to attend the finals Saturday. All
past Mental Attitude Award winners also
attended, including players like Hanover
Central's Jill McElmurry, Melanie
Brumbaugh and Christie Wick and stars
like Boone's Mike Lemmons, Danny Borys
and Cole Casbon.
The semifinal crowd of about 2,000 was
disappointing. But, despite day-long sub-zero wind chills based on temperatures
in single digits, 4,000 fans showed for
the championship game, nearly filling
the 5,000-seat Valparaiso gym.
"I'm glad we made the decision to move
this tournament here," said Boone
athletic director Doug Knutson, who was
very pleased with the outcome. "We would
never have been able to handle all these
people at Boone.
Boone Grove, which has a 2,100-seat gym,
normally hosts the PCC tournament
championship day.
There was confusion about the numbers
involved in the length of the PCC
tournament.
This was NOT the 50th PCC tournament.
It was the 50th anniversary of the
Porter County Conference, which was
formed from teams that remained in the
PCC tournament when Chesterton and
Portage dropped out in 1958.
Chesterton and Portage, schools of
300-500 students back in the 1940s and
50s, left the annual county tournament
because they grew much larger than the
other Porter County schools.
At that point, the league's founding
fathers decided that the remaining teams
should link up in all sports. The PCC
decided to add a girls competition to
the boys basketball tourney in 1973. So
the girls tourney is 36 years old, but
the PCC tournament has been held
annually for 85 years. The PCC is 50
years old. I admit. It is a little
confusing.
Former Hanover athletic director John
Brindley was an invited guest at the PCC
tournament Saturday. He has been the
assistant golf coach for both young men
and women at St. Joseph's College in
Renssealer for seven years. Brindley
was Hanover's boys golf coach for 25
years and he was Hanover AD for 19
years.
"I enjoy it," he said. "I get to play a lot now. The bus rides are a little tough. I follow Hanover sports in the newspapers, but I really don't get to games any more. I had a lot of that for a lot of years."
Hanover's Christie Wick reports that she and former Hanover stars Krysta Rickey are doing well at Purdue where Wick is a junior.
"Of course I miss this," she said watching the basketball games Saturday. "I remember when we won this tournament (in 2004). I remember it all. I wish I could still play."
Wick was also on Hanover's 2003 state finals softball team.
"I had a great time playing. We still play (intramural) a lot at Purdue."
Boone assistant basketball coach Reggie Flesvig was honored as a 1984 PCC Mental Attitude Award winner for cross country.
Hanover Central gets their shot at the champs when they travel to Morgan Township (12-2) Friday night. Kouts (8-5, 3-0) still leads the regular season standings, but they may not after they host Boone Grove Friday.
Boone visits big neighbor Crown Point (8-5) Saturday night with the JV game beginning at 6:00 p.m.
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