Wolves
take out LaCrosse 67-49, face PCC semifinal showdown with Morgan Twp.
Saturday morningWolves
take out LaCrosse 67-49, face PCC semifinal showdown with Morgan Twp.
Saturday morningA USA-365.com Special Report
by Mark Smith
01-17-2008
| Team/Record | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final |
| LaCROSSE (7-4) | 5 | 10 | 18 | 16 | 49 |
| BOONE GROVE (6-5) | 12 | 25 | 19 | 11 | 67 |
Wednesday, January 16, 2008 - Porter County Conference (PCC) boys basketball quarterfinals at Boone Grove HS.
LaCROSSE (49) Cory Terpening 1-0-3, Dusty Young 2-0-6, Matt Smith 4-7-16, Travis Zippel 8-2-18, Jason Ewart 2-0-4, Nate Engel 1-0-2, Martin Bobcek 0-0-0, Tyler Jones 0-0-0.
TOTALS: 18 (9-12) 49.
BOONE GROVE (67) Danny Block 2-2-6, Michael Eleftheri 2-0-5, Wayland Roach 3-0-26, Zak Ursitti 11-0-267, Greg Wilkins 2-0-6, Jacob Wright 4-0-10, Alex Radivan 3-1-7, Ryan Reynolds 0-0-0, Ben Vasquez 0-0-0, Bobby Rapley 0-0-0. 27 (3-5) 67.
FREE THROWS:
LaCROSSE (10-13, 76.8%) Zippel 2-2, Smith 8-9, Ewart 0-2; BOONE (3-5, 60%) Block 2-4, Radivan 1-1.
REBOUNDS: LaCROSSE (26) Zippel 9, Ewart 6, Smith 4, Engel 3, Bobcek 2, Terpening, Young; BOONE (22) Eleftheri 5, Radivan 5, Block 4, Roach 3, Ursitti 2, Wright 2, Wilkins,
ASSISTS: LaCROSSE (4) Zippel 2, Engel, Jones; BOONE (17) Eleftheri 9, Roach 4, Block 3, Ursitti.
STEALS:
LaCROSSE (5) Zippel 3, Ewart, Jones; BOONE (5) Ursitti 3, Roach, Wright.
3-GOALS: LaCROSSE (3) Dusty Young 2, Cory Terpening; BOONE (10) Zak Ursitti 5, Jacob Wright 2, Greg Wilkins 2, Michael Eleftheri.
PORTER TOWNSHIP (01-16-2008)
Since Boone Grove defeated LaCrosse 55-33 last month, you could have guessed
that Boone would beat LaCrosse in the opening quarterfinal game of the 85th
Porter County Conference (PCC) boys basketball tournament Wednesday night.
But I really don't think you could have guessed how they would do it.
Senior Zak Ursitti, who was averaging a rip-roaring 3.5 points per game,
caught the proverbal lightning in a bottle and kept on catching it. Ursitti,
a 5-foot-10 senior guard, scored 20 first half points, including five
three-point shots. His career-best 27 point final total was far too
much for the Indians in a 67-49 romp.
Boone now faces a third meeting this season with defending PCC champion
Morgan Township (10-2), a 50-40 winner over Washington Township in the
second PCC quarterfinal game Wednesday night.
The Morgan-Boone game would be a semifinal
game Saturday morning ay 11:00 a.m.
The winner advances to the PCC boys final Saturday night at 8:00 p.m.
"I don't know how I did it," said Ursitti, who chose not to play as a
junior, but asked to return this year even though the team has no other
seniors. "We didn't even warm up. We didn't have time. I shoot
well in practice. I just haven't shot well in games."
"Its amazing what this tournament does," said Boone coach Matt McKay.
"I've seen it over a lot of years now. I always try to let the seniors
have the first chance here, because it's their last chance. Zak stepped up
tonight and had the game of his life."
Ursitti chose to sit out his junior year and he came back this season even
though there are no other seniors in the program.
"He came and talked to me at the end of June and he said he wanted to come back out," explained McKay. "I laid down some criteria by which he could come back. He met all those requirements. I think he just missed it."
Ursitti agreed.
"I always wanted to come back," he said. "My dream was to see all the
fans here. I grew up watching Boone Grove play."
In the first minute of the game, Ursitti dived into the scorer's table for a
loose ball. Michael Eleftheri's three-point shot made it 5-0 and
Ursitti's back-to-back three-pointers upped the lead to 15-5. Lacrosse
(7-4) probably stayed in the zone too long. When Ursitti sank
back-to-back three-point shots again midway through the second quarter,
Boone led 27-7 with 4:35 left in the half. It was never close after that in
a game where a the pressure of expectations were on Boone as they played on
their home floor.
"Zak averages about 3-1/2 points a game and he has about that many turnovers," admitted McKay. "But what he brings to us is that he's all over the floor. There was a game where he just played out. He was about 15 feet away and he got a hand on the ball. He can really get after it and that's contagious."
LaCrosse is better than they showed. Only 6-foot-2 junior Travis Zippel, who scored 10 of his 18 in the second half, had consistent precision. The single-elimination format of the PCC tournament may have gotten into the heads of the LaCrosse boys. Their passes and shots we errant for most of the night.
"The 5:30 (pm) game is rough," McKay said of the first game of the tournament. "When it starts, there's nobody in the stands. The 11 a.m. game Saturday is a lot like that. When that game starts, there's no energy in the building. Then all of a sudden you turn around and the building is filling up."
In the girls tournament Monday night, both favored teams struggled mightily. On opening night in the boys league championship playoff, the favorites dominated.
Boone, which other than Bowman Academy (which has no juniors or seniors in the entire school) is Northwest Indiana's youngest team, passed the ball brilliantly, getting several easy baskets. Sophomore left-handed swingman Wayland Roach had a very good night moving the ball.
"We had not seen a zone this year," said McKay. "We've worked against it, but we had not seen it. It's the old cliche. As coaches, we put our profession into the hands of 16 and 17 year olds. Sometimes they rise to the occasion. Sometimes they don't. I'll be honest. I lost that a little when we lost to Portage (46-45 on Jan. 12) last week. I had to reflect this week that I've still got two guys who cant legally get a drivers license out there."
PCC NOTES: Morgan Township trailed 9-2 early, but rallied to wear down Washington Township 52-32 to advance to play Boone Grove Saturday. Morgan, the defending Porter County Conference (PCC) champion, has defeated Boone twice this season and five times in the last two seasons.
All four games Saturday will be aired on WIMS (1420) AM, which means the Morgan-Boone showdown can be heard clearly in the Morgan and Boone home areas. But WIMS cannot be heard in Lake and western Porter County after the station must cut down to low power at sunset.
There are no advance seats for the PCC finals and there should be many
tickets available because the league's 50th anniversary will be held at
Valparaiso high school, which has a 5,000-seat gym. The PCC final night is
annually an automatic sell-out at the 2,100-seat Boone Grove gym. But
especially with the hard core winter weather, there is expected to be room
at Valparaiso. The enrollment of the entire PCC is less than 3,000 and
every kid isn't coming. Even with the honoring of the league's 50 top
players, there figures to be plenty of room. The 2009 PCC tournament
will finish at the new three-year-old Hebron high school.
Extreme cold is expected for the PCC tournament final day Saturday.
The high temperatures are not expected to reach 10 degrees.
Boone Grove has seven sophomores, two juniors and one senior (Zak Ursitti)
on the PCC tourney roster. Only the Washington Township girls, who
have one senior, two juniors, three sophomores and four freshmen, are
younger.
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