Pirates surprise cold-shooting Bulldogs with 52-42 win

A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith
12-29-2007

Friday, 12-28-2007 - Duneland Athletic Conference game in MERRILLVILLE, IN

CROWN POINT (42)  Stephen Albrecht 3-2-9, Kyle Hanaway 2-1-5, Aleks Alavanja 3-4-10, Zach Cecich 6-2-14, Ben Derks 1-0-2, Jacob Burkholder 1-0-2, Michael Lipton 0-0-0, CJ Mantel 0-0-0.  TOTALS:  16 (9-14) 42.

MERRILLVILLE (52)  Bo Patton 5-3-14, Arieus Stephenson 4-2-11, Ryan Smith 3-0-6, Jonathan Nwannunu 3-1-7, Mario Stapleton 0-7-7, Dolapo Macarthy 2-0-4, Jonathan Lee 0-1-1, Marquise Greene 1-0-2, Darius Stephens 0-0-0.  TOTALS:  18 (14-19) 52.

FREE THROWS:  CP (9-15, 60%) Albrecht 2-2, Hanaway 1-1, Alavanja 4-7, Cecich 2-5.
MERRILLVILLE (14-19, 73.6%) Stapleton 7-8, Patton 3-3, Stephenson 2-2, Lee 1-2, Nwannunu 1-4.  

REBOUNDS:  CP (27) Cecich 6, Derks 6, Alavanja 5, Burkholder 4, Albrecht 3, Hanaway, Lipton, Mantel.
MERRILLVILLE (28) Stapleton 9, Nwannunu 6, Greene 5, Macarthy 4, Smith 2, Patton, Lee.

ASSISTS:  CP (10) Hanaway 8, Lipton 2:  MERRILLVILLE (6) Patton 3, Stapleton 2, Smith.

TURNOVERS:  CP (5), MERRILLVILLE (8).

3-GOALS:  CP (1) Stephen Albrecht;  MERRILLVILLE (2) Arieus Stephenson, Bo Patton.

MERRILLVILLE, IN (12-21-2007) - This looked like the good, old days.  Merrillville's good, old days.  For years, Crown Point would come sailing into Merrillville full of high hopes and well wishes, only to walk the Pirates' plank with cement shoes and swim with the fishes.  But last year, the Bulldogs beat Merrillville twice, just the third and fourth wins for CP over the Pirates since 1984.

On Friday, it was turn back the clock night.  Merrillville played enough defense and the Bulldogs (6-2) missed enough shots for the home team to post their biggest win of the year, a 52-42 win over the arch-rival Bulldogs in front of about 1,500 fans.  A spectacular driving basket by senior guard Bo Patton gave the Pirates a 41-40 lead and Merrillville (6-2) slowly pulled away down the stretch as CP missed shot after shot.

"We got shots," said Crown Point coach Clint Swan.  "I thought we got good shots.  We just didn't make them."

CP was 16 of 47 from the field and it wasn't a fluke.  They were 8-of-23 in the first half and 8-of-24 in the second half.  And therein lies the problem for purposes of interpretation.  CP entered the game as a 51% shooting team from the field, although a lot of that was layups at the end of fast breaks.  Merrillville is known for man-to-man defense and they have almost always held the Bulldogs below their averages in the last 20 years.  Certainly, they shut down Crown Point, right?

You've got to say what you see.  CP missed a lot of open shots.  It wasn't all Pirate defense.  A lot of the damage was self-inflicted.  You have to wonder if the fact that CP was facing the speeding Pirates led to missing shots they normally make.  Do some of the Bulldogs choke up under pressure and pass to Stephen Albrecht and Zach Cecich?

"I think we've got other people who can make shots," insisted Swan.  "I don't think its all on Zac and Stephen to score."

CP started slowly and when Aleks Alavanja was called for a technical foul after a referee said he stepped on the baseline, Merrillville's Bo Patton sank two foul shots for an 11-7 lead with 32 seconds left in the first quarter.  Merrillville's 6-foot-7 Ryan Smith sank three second quarter baskets as the Pirates built a 21-14 lead, but baskets by Cecich, Hanaway and a steal and score from Ben Derks tied the game 21-21.  But 6-foot-8 Jonathan Nwannunu put the Pirates ahead with an offensive rebound.

Although the rebound edge for the taller Pirates was just 28-27, the 6-8 Nwannunu and the 6-7 Smith, backed by 6-6 junior Dolapo Macarthy and 6-4 Marquise Greene, combined with quick guards like Patton, Arieus Stephenson and Mario Stapleton to cause CP double trouble.  This was the first time all year where Crown Point did not appear to be the better team on the floor.

"I don't know how they've lost twice," said CP assistant coach Brian Elston.  "They are big and fast."

A key to this game was CP's 6-2 senior guard Kyle Hanaway, last year's state assists leader.  Merrillville backed off Hanaway and dared him to shoot three-point shots.  Hanaway was just 2-of-6 and he attempted just two three-point goals.  But it was far from a sub-par game.

"He got eight assists and no turnovers," said Swan.  "You can't ask for more than that.  I was particularly proud of the way he handled his foul situation (he drew two in the first 10 minutes and had four in the middle of the fourth quarter).  I don't think they did anything special against him."

The Pirates didn't do anything they don't usually do except stay with the perimeter players.  CP sank just 1-of-13 shots from three-point range.  Traditionally, CP is a distance shooting team by trade, while Merrillville has always been an excellent man-to-man defense team.  That's the genesis of the Pirates, who have won 17 of their last 19 meetings and 35 of the last 39.  That's part of the reason why, in the first big game of the year, Merrillville won.

"We've got to move on," said Swan, who was to travel to Indianapolis Saturday night to watch CP's New Year's Day foe Winchester take on Washington.

"We've got some tough games coming up and we've got to get ready."

DOG NOTES:  This was a well-played game featuring top guards.  The pace of the game had something to do with this, but Crown Point committed just five turnovers and Merrillville stole the ball only once.  The Pirates committed just eight turnovers.

CP always looks at the Pirates as a No. 1 rival, but elsewhere, Merrillville may be under-estimated.  The Pirates have four players 6-foot-7 or taller (all of whom are underclassmen) and five senior guards.  An early 13-point loss at Chesterton doesn't look so bad now that the Trojans are unbeaten.  Merrillville has now held the last four foes under 50 points.

Stephen Albrecht is not 100% healthy.  The CP shooting star has been an inconsistent scorer this year and he is having some minor elbows problems that may be affecting his shooting. The CP senior wears a special sleeve on his right arm.  The injury is not enough to stop him from playing, but the Bulldog scoring leader is having trouble shooting.  Albrecht was 3-of-14 and 1-of-8 from three-point range, although the Pirates defense, including guard Arieus Stephenson, had something to do with that.

CP football star Kurt Wermers leaves this week to play in the All-American Bowl, a national high school all-star game in Miami on Jan. 5.

"My plane leaves at 6:00 a.m. Monday," he said at the basketball game Friday night.  "I know nothing really except that I go and play.  It's going to be the last game played in the Orange Bowl."

Wermers was a three-year starter for coach Chip Pettit and the Bulldogs won three consecutive DAC titles.  The 6-foot-5, 270-pound lineman will play for the University of Michigan, which recently had veteran coach Lloyd Carr retire, and former West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez replace him.

"I would have loved to play for coach Carr," said Wermers, who is a natural guard and figures to play that position in college.  "But its still great.  The new coach runs a spread offense. That's even better for me.  You need to have speed to outrun the bigger, slower linemen.  I'm excited about it."

CP coaches were interested in finding the score of the game between undefeated Chesterton and Valparaiso.  The Bulldogs are concerned with how well the undefeated Trojans, who CP will play at least twice in the final two months, are playing.  Chesterton won its eighth straight game Friday 69-64 at Valparaiso.  But CP and Merrillville are now two full games behind Chesterton in the 14-game Duneland Athletic Conference league season.