Vikings come back to beat Crown Point 65-51 in boys basketball

A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith
12-06-2009

VALPARAISO (65)  Brad Karp 8-0-16, Andy martin 3-4-10, Adam Butterfield 3-1-9, Derek Kennet 1-2-4, Jerrick Suiter 7-3-1, Rick Freeman 1-0-2, John Clymer 3-0-7, Brent Hill 0-0-0, Dan Hummel 0-0-0, Nick Galouzis 0-00. TOTALS: 26 (10-14) 65.

CROWN POINT (51)  Michael Albrecht 6-1-15, Jared Smoot 5-1-1, Sean Crary 7-3-18, Dejan Stefanovic 2-0-5, Evan Langbehn 1-0-2, Scooter Jacobus 0-0-0, Jordan Jurasevich 0-0-0, Tony Patrick 0-0-0, Zak Bostian 0-0-0, Billy Brown 0-0-0. TOTALS: 21 (5-10) 51.

FREE THROWS:  VALPO (10-14, 71.4%) Andy Martin 4-4, Adam Butterfield 1-2, Derek Kennet 2-4, Jerrick Suiter 3-4; CP (5-10, 50%) Michael Albrecht 1-2, Jared Smoot 1-3, Sean Crary 3-3, Evan Langbehn 0-2.

REBOUNDS:  VALPO (24) Suiter 9, Karp 5, Butterfield 4, Kennet 2, Martin 2, Hill 2, Clymer; CP (21) Smoot 9, Albrecht 4, Langbehn 3, Crary 2, Stefanovic 2, Bostian Brown.

ASSISTS:  VALPO (11) Martin 4, Karp 3, Butterfield 2, Suiter 2; CP (5) Albrecht 3, Jacobus, Jurasevich.

STEALS:  VALPO (3 ) Martin, Suiter, Clymer; CP (3) Albrecht 2, Crary.

BLOCKED SHOTS:  VALPO (1) Brad Karp; CP (5) Jared Smoot 4, Jordan Jurasevich.

3-GOALS:  VALPO (3) Adam Butterfield 2, John Clymer; CP (4) Michael Albrecht 2, Sean Crary, Dejan Stefanovic.

CROWN POINT, IN (12-16-2009)  After watching Crown Point's 65-51 Duneland Athletic Conference (DAC) loss to Valparaiso Tuesday night, a game CP lead 11-3 early and 34-31 midway through the third period, I came away with an opinion that not everyone shared.

The 14-point win seemed to be a pretty good game for Valparaiso (6-0 3-0 DAC) and a very good game in the development of the Bulldogs (2-3, 1-2 DAC) looking towards the end of the season.

Crown Point did not appear to be the equal of the team rated No. 5 in Class 4A in the latest state poll.  But the Bulldogs did appear capable of eventually defeating them, and those are two different things.  Two different and significant things since the two teams meet again in DAC play in February and since Valparaiso hosts the 4A sectional next March.

"I'm glad we had Suiter back tonight," said new Valpo coach Joe Otis of 6-foot-3 junior forward Jerrick Suiter, who scored 17 points and grabbed nine rebounds.  "He had the biggest baskets of the game."

Suiter's versatility enabled Valpo to slowly spread the CP defense after the Bulldogs junior center Jared Smoot had blocked three shots on the way to that early 11-3 lead.  One quarter in a basketball game is a throwaway as far as analysis is concerned, but it showed what CP can do eventually.  CP's lead guard Michael Albrecht is as good as any in the DAC and wing guard Sean Crary is a creative scorer.  Add Smoot, who scored 11 points Tuesday, as a dominating post player and one more wing shooter and CP will start winning more often than not.

"I keep telling the guys that anyone who can score 8-10 points a game can play all they want," said CP coach Clint Swan.  "Smoot was big in the first quarter.  But what you saw was experience against inexperience.  Our guys needed to find a way to finish out the game and they (Valpo) knew what to do."

Valparaiso evened the game with an 8-0 run in the second quarter as Brad Karp scored 10 of his 16 points before halftime.  CP opened the game in a full court press to slow up Valparaiso's running ways.  But the green clad VHS boys were able to effectively spread CP's defense in the halfcourt and score consistently after halftime while CP had only Albrecht and Crary scoring consistently.

The Bulldogs got some tip ins from Smoot and a couple of jump shots from sophomore reserve guard Dejan Stefanovic, but Valparaiso had five different players score six or more in the second half.  Everybody on Valpo seemed skilled.

"I had some pretty good players at LaPorte," said Otis, who coached at LaPorte throughout the 1990s.  "But I don't know if I've ever had this many kids who could handle the ball and shoot it.  We're seven or eight deep in that respect."

The highlight moment of the game for CP was when Smoot, an improving 6-foot-10 forward, blocked three Valparaiso shots and altered a couple of others during the early CP run.

"He gets way up off the floor," said Otis.  "He changes a lot of shots.  I didn't want them to take it straight at him.  That's a deadly proposition.  But we fell behind because we weren't making shots.  We really haven't had a spectacular night from the arc yet.  But that will come."

Valparaiso did not pull ahead significantly until late in the third quarter when they broke a 40-40 tie with an 11-2 run, including two baskets by 6-foot-2 reserve John Clymer, who also was assigned the job of defending CP's Albrecht, who has averaged 20 points a game over the first quarter of the regular season.

"John did a good job defensively on Albrecht," said Otis.  "But he still hit some tough shots.  He's a really good player.  Clint is a good coach.  They changed defenses on us and made it a little tough in the first half, but we were able to adjust."

Valparaiso doesn't have any 6-foot-9 or 6-foot-10 players like CP, Lake Central and Chesterton, but they have eight players on the roster who are 6-foot-2 or taller and seven of them are juniors.  Crown Point, with only two seniors on the varsity, will be much better next season, but so will the Vikings.  All of which makes Otis (302-169 in 23 years) very happy as he comes out of a semi-retirement.

"I'm just very glad to be able to coach in my hometown," said Otis.  "My wife teaches in the building and I live a mile away.  For my last coaching job, and this will be my last job.  That's as good as it can be.  I missed coaching.  I never really retired.  I just haven't been a head coach.  I coached some girls teams, which gave me a different perspective on things.  I applied (at Valpo) when the job was open two years ago.  I'm very glad to be here."

Crown Point plays at Valparaiso on Jan. 29 and they could draw the Vikings at the Valparaiso sectional that begins on March 2.  The main thing that came from this first meeting is a CP win over Valpo in March is not at all farfetched.  But I understand that everyone might not have seen it that way.

"We're 0-for-2 in games we've lost like this," said Swan in referring to CP's four-point overtime loss to Lake Central on Dec. 11, a game CP led most of the way.  "I'll never criticize the effort of these guys.  We just need to get better at the offensive end of the floor."

CP was 7-7 last year and the finished 0-3 against Valpo, but 15-8 overall.  That's the blueprint for this season and nothing you saw last Tuesday indicated that wasn't possible.

DOG NOTES:  Valparaiso coach Joe Otis has some interesting background on junior Dan Hummel, the younger brother of Rob Hummel, who is at Purdue.

"He's grown five inches in the past year," Otis reports of his 6-foot-5 junior.  "He's on the JV because he's awkward.  It's not because he's not athletic.  He's just not used to his body. He'll probably be starting for us next year."

CP coach Clint Swan hopes that the Bulldogs can turn junior center Jared Smoot into a double figure scorer in every game.

"I'm not sure whether the guys just don't have enough confidence in getting him the ball or not.  But we're not getting easy baskets we should."

Dejan Stefanovic, a sophomore guard who'd scored just seven points in CP's first four games, is being encouraged to shoot more by the CP coaches.  In the fourth quarter against Valparaiso, with the Bulldogs badly in need of hoops, Stefanovic sank two jump shots off the left wing, including his first three-point basket of the year.

Crown Point committed just 11 turnovers, giving them 47 for the season in five games.  Sean Crary (11.8 ppg.) scored a season-best 18 and also sank his first three-point goal of the season.  Other than Michael Albrecht (20.2 ppg.) and Crary, no one on Crown Point was averaging as many as five point a game after five games.

Chesterton's 6-foot-10 center Mitch McGary (22 ppg,.) is out for at least a month with a broken bone in his foot.  A major college recruit, McGary will certainly miss Crown Point's home game with Chesterton on Jan. 8.  But he figures to be back in time for the regular season finale (CP at Chesterton) on February 26.

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Revised: December 19, 2009 .