Gelon, Kenneally lead Bulldogs to 68-60 win over speedy South Bend Washington

A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith
01-06-2016

Team /Record	1	2	3	4	Final
(SB) Washington (6-5)	6	20	18	16	60
CROWN POINT (5-4)	23	8	19	18	68

Saturday, January 2, 2016 - Non-Conference game at CROWN POINT, Ind.

Washington guard Bryan Givens (3) gives CP's Bake Bonin (10) a hard road on the way to the basket early last Saturday. (All photos by Mark Smith)

CP's Andrew Kenneally (44) hands off to Grant Gelon (30) in half court action last Saturday against (South Bend) Washington. CP led 21-3 after 5:48 of the first quarter.

CP junior Dominic Tomich (12) tries to get past SBW's Anthony Brazier Saturday afternoon in Crown Point. CP won at home for the third game in a row.

CP's Sasha Stefanovic (33) watches as teammate Andrew Kenneally scores a first quarter layup against Washington. Kenneally made all 10 shots from the field and finished with 21 points.

Sasha Stefanovic (33) scored 31 points against Lawrence North on Dec. 29 in the Brownsburg holiday tournament.

Washington senior Lorenzo Glass finds his path to the basket blocked by CP's John Sakaleros (42) and Andrew Kenneally in last Saturday's game in Crown Point.

Coach Clint Swan looks on as Andrew Kenneally aims from the free throw line. Kenneally scored 17 of his 21 points in the second half.

Andrew Kenneally (44) screens for Blake Bonin (10) last Saturday against Washington. Bonin posted five assists and four three-point baskets in CP's 68-60 victory.

That's Merrillville coach TJ Lux taking notes watching Crown Point host Washington last Saturday at CPHS. That's senior guard DJ Wilkins one row below. CP hosts undefeated Merrillville on Jan. 15.

CP junior Sasha Stefanovic (33) didn't get to play much against Washington. Stefanovic took a smack to the head in the second quarter and sat out the rest of the CP victory. (All photos by Mark Smith)

Copyright © 2016 USA-365.com and Meyer Multimedia Services, a division of Meyer Broadcasting Corp.  All rights reserved. Revised: January 06, 2016 .

(SB) WASHINGTON (60) Lorenzo Glass 7-3-17, Anthony Brazier 3-2-8, Bryan Givens 8-5-26, Tyler White 0-2-2, Josh Wilson 2-3-7, Cory McKinney 0-0-0, Brandon Watts 0-0-0. TOTALS: 20 (15-24) 60.

CROWN POINT (68) Blake Bonin 4-2-14, John Sakalerios 1-2-4, Dominic Tomich 0-4-4, Sasha Stefanovic 0-1-1, Grant Gelon 8-1-24, Andrew Kenneally 10-1-21, Leo Zdanowicz 0-0-0, Kenny Decker 0-0-0, Zach Stewart 0-0-0. TOTALS: 23 (11-18) 68.

FREE THROWS: SBW (15-24, 62.5%) Givens 5-9, Wilson 3-3, Glass 3-3, Brazier 2-5; CROWN POINT (11-18, 61.1%) Tomich 4-4, Sakaleros 2-2, Gelon 1-2, Stefanovic 1-2, Bonin 2-4, Kenneally 1-3, Zdanowicz 0-1.

REBOUNDS: SBW (25) Wilson 8, Givens 5, White 4, Glass 2, Brazier 2, McKinney 2, Watts 2; CROWN POINT (18) Gelon 5, Sakaleros 3, Stefanovic 2, Bonin 2, Zdanowicz 2, Kenneally 3, Tomich.

ASSISTS: SBW (7) Givens 3, Glass 3, Brazier, CROWN POINT (17) Blake Bonin 5, Dominic Tomich 10, Grant Gelon, Zach Stewart.

3-GOALS: SBW (5) Bryan Givens 5; CROWN POINT (11) Grant Gelon 7, Blake Bonin 4.

FOULED OUT: None.

With junior forward Sasha Stefanovic on the bench after taking a hard shot to the head in the second quarter, CP (5-4) held off repeated rallies by Washington (6-5) in front of a small, but vocal matinee crowd.

Senior Grant Gelon sank six three-pointers in the first quarter to spark the home team to a 21-5 lead. Later on as the Panthers shifted to lock down on Gelon, junior CP forward Andrew Kenneally scored 17 of his 21 points in the second half as CP improved to 3-0 on the home court (they were 2-4 in faraway places) heading into the Duneland Athletic Conference play at Michigan City next Friday night.

Crown Point jumped to leads of 7-0 and 21-3 as Washington seemed not to know that Gelon has been the state’s top three-point shooter the last year and half. Gelon, who sank 102 3-pointers in 28 games last season, hit six three-point shots in the first quarter.

Washington, playing their fifth game in five days (they played four times in the Columbia City Holiday Tournament) and going without 6-foot-5 center Kaylen Andrews (the team’s leading rebounder) scored 12 points in a row to cut the CP lead to 23-17 midway through the second quarter as 6-foot-2 Bryan Givens ran up a total of 15 first half points.

Accelerating the pace in the third quarter, the Panthers closed to within 47-44 in the final minute of the third period and 52-48 with 5:32 to go in the game before CP pulled away.

‘That’s a lot,” said SBW coach Chad Johnston. “The boys were tired. I think that had an effect in the end. I think if we’d have had one more guy in our rotation it might have made a difference.”

“But they came out on fire. Obviously you have to stay close to ‘30’ (Gelon). He’s a great shooter. But I think we’re coming together as a unit. I know we lost today, but I think we’ll be good the next two months.”

As SBW ramped up the defensive pressure, the game, in moments, became a 1-on-1 showdown between CP junior guard Dominic Tomich, who was officially credited with nine assists, against SBW senior guard Anthony Brazier, who harassed Tomich into a couple of bad passes.

“It was definitely me and Brazier,” smiled Dominic later. “He was all up on me and I made a couple of turnovers and he thought he could take advantage. It was mental. After I got over those two turnovers, I started beating (the pressure). And everybody started getting open.”

Tomich, who starts along side senior Blake Bonin in what is really a three-guard attack for the Bulldogs, talked about the pace of the game and how the early schedule (Pike, Warren Central, Columbus East, Lawrence North) has prepared CP for defensive pressure.

“It was up and down all night,” Dominic said. “But compared to Pike? Pike was all over us. 94 feet the hole game. It makes it a lot easier when we come up here. Coach Swan did a god job on the schedule. It really has prepared us. Hopefully it helps us at the end of the year.”

Coach Clint Swan added, “We haven't played a bad team yet. Those games prepared us for this game. South Bend Washington gave us a battle the whole way. Grant is just a special shooter. When he gets going like that (six 3s in the first quarter), he’s quite a weapon. We needed every one of them. We didn’t know we needed every one of them, but we did.”

Andrew Kenneally was 10-of-10 from the field, all within 10 feet of the basket. It was his thrid consecutive double figure scoring game. Kenneally scored 14 against Columbus East on Dec. 30 at the Noblesville Holiday tournament. The day before, he was 13 of 18 from the floor for 26 points against Avon.  Andrew scored just 40 points all last season.

“He’s a good player,” said Swan. "Poor (John) Sakaleros and poor Kenneally. They never got playing time last year because I couldn’t take (2015 grad and CP all-area star) Nick Jeffirs off the floor. But both of those guys have always been able to do this.”

“In the fourth quarter I think we finally realized that if we can endure the first seven or eight seconds of (defensive) heat we can get what we want.”

DOG NOTES: After nine games, senior Grant Gelon was an official 43 of 74 (57.3%) from three-point range according to team game-by-game statistics. Gelon, the 6-foot-6 senior who is committed to attend Indiana University, was 0-for-2 against Warren Central and 0-for-6 against Pike, which makes him 43 of 66 against the other seven teams.

Junior Andrew Kenneally’s 21-point game Saturday was not a season high. Kenneally, a 6-foot-6 low post player, was 13 of 18 from the floor for 26 points against Avon in the Noblesville Holiday tournament on Dec. 28.

After nine games, Crown Point had faced only one school (Munster) from this part of the state. The first three home games were against Munster, Penn and (Lafayette) Jefferson.

Junior Dominic Tomich has found he likes to travel and play.

“I like to play the Indy teams,” he said. “There’s more talent down there. We saw a lot of good teams down there. We play the teams around here all the time. I think we like to play away more than at home. It's nice to play other kids.”

Crown Point plays a girls-boys double-header at Michigan City Friday with the girls game beginning at 5:30 p.m. That’s not an easy game, but it's also not like what is ahead for the Bulldogs.

CP hosts 4A No. 2 Merrillville (10-0) Friday, Jan. 15 and travels to 4A No. 1 Griffith (9-0) the next night. On the weekend of Jan. 22 and 23, CP hosts Chesterton (6-4) and 2A No. 6 Bowman Academy (6-4).