Chesterton girls beat Lady Bulldogs 47-41 in OT, Trojan boys outlast CP 64-60 in DAC double-header

A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith
01-07-2008

Friday, 01-04-2008 - Duneland Athletic Conference (Girls) at CROWN POINT, IN

CHESTERTON (47)  Amanda Gough 1-3-5, Andrea LeVrio 1-2-4, Dana Christensen 0-7-7, Katy Foster 1-0-2, Jessica O'Brien 4-0-9, Morgan Palombizio 4-1-121, Abbe Skube 3-2-8, Kathy McMannes 0-0-0, Rachel Crawford 0-0-0.  TOTALS:  14 (15-19) 47.

CROWN POINT (41)  Maegen Maloney 5-0-13, Samantha Polus 3-1-7, Sydnee Reeves 2-3-7, Daniela Tarailo 3-0-6, Flori Garcia 1-0-2, Abby Thomas 1-0-2, Jessica Martinez 2-0-4, Clare Grubnich 0-0-0, Madeline Moore 0-0-0.  TOTALS:  17 (4-9) 41.

FREE THROWS:  CHESTERTON (15-19, 78.9%) Gough 3-4, LeVrio 2-2, Christensen 7-8, Skube 2-2, Palombizio 1-2, Foster 0-1;
CROWN POINT (4-9, 44.4%) Reeves 3-6, Polus 1-1, Maloney 0-1, Tarailo 0-1.  

REBOUNDS:  CHESTERTON (27) Skube 6, Levrio 6, Chrsitensen 5, Palombizio 3, Gough 3, McMannes 2, O'Brien, Foster.
CROWN POINT (28) Maloney 8, Reeves 6, Garcia 4, Tarailo 3, Polus 2, Thomas 2, Gross, Martinez, Moore.

ASSISTS:  CHESTERTON (7) Levrio 2, Palombizio, Skube, O'Brien, Foster, McMannes; CROWN POINT (6) Tarailo 3, Garcia 2, Polus.

STEALS:  CHESTERTON (8) Christensen 3, LeVrio 2, Skube, Gough, Crawford;  CROWN POINT (8) Polus 4, Reeves 2, Tarailo, Garcia.

3-GOALS:  CHESTERTON (4) Morgan Palombizio 3, Jessica O'Brien;  CROWN POINT (1) Maegen Maloney.

 

Friday, 01-04-2008 - Duneland Athletic Conference (Boys) at CROWN POINT, IN

CHESTERTON (64)  Jordan Lewis 1-1-3, Tommy Peller 4-3-12, Alex Beierwalter 2-0-4, John  Thanos 1-0-2, Zack Novak 8-7-26, Jack Houpt 6-2-17, John Thanos 0-0-0, Adam White 0-0-0.  TOTALS:  22 (13-16) 64.

CROWN POINT (60)  Ben Derks 2-1-7, Kyle Hanaway 3-1-8, Zach Cecich 7-0-14, Aleks Alavanja 2-2-6, Stephen Albrecht 8-2-21, Michael Lipton 1-0-2, Jacob Burkholder 1-0-2, CJ Mantel 0-0-0, Billy Cox 0-0-0.  TOTALS:  24 (6-10) 60.

FREE THROWS:  CHESTERTON (13-16, 81.3%) Lewis 1-2, Peller 3-5, Houpt 2-2, Novak 7-7;
CROWN POINT (6-10, 60%) Albrrecht 2-2, Derks 1-2, Hanaway 1-2, Alavanja 2-4.

REBOUNDS:  CHESTERTON (13) Pellar 3, Lewis 2, Beierwalter 4, Novak 2, White, Houpt;
CROWN POINT (22) Alavanja 9, Cecich 5, Derks 3, Hanaway 2, Burkholder 2, Lipton.

ASSISTS:  CHESTERTON (12) Lewis 6, Peller 4, Beierwalter, Houpt;  CROWN POINT (15) Hanaway 10, Cecich 2, Derks 2, Mantel.

3-GOALS:  CHESTERTON (4) Zack Novak 3, Tommy Peller 3, Jordan Lewis;  CROWN POINT (6) Stephen Albrecht 3, Ben Derks 2, Kyle Hanaway.

CROWN POINT, IN (01-04-2008) - This is how these boys-girls double-headers are supposed to be.  Good Friday night.  Good DAC games.  Good home crowd.  The trouble for Crown Point was:  There were good teams getting off the bus.

Chesterton's girls, who are .500 because of the schedule they play and Chesterton's boys, who are undefeated despite the schedule they play -- both faced fourth quarter challenges in Crown Point Friday.  But the Trojan girls outscored CP 8-2 in overtime to win 47-41 before the boys watched the Bulldogs erase an 11-point second half deficit and then closed with an 11-5 run to win 64-60.  For coach Tom Peller's Trojan boys squad, he has the blessing of four senior starters who have played together much of their lives.

"They're just playing really good ball right now.  They're just high school boys having fun playing ball and I'm having fun watching it.  They've played a long time and they know when it's game time.  When you have veterans, they know how to play at crunch time.  They make me look good because they know what they have to do.  You call a time out and you don't have to say much.  We don't change the game plan, they just elevate their play."

Chesterton (10-0, 7-0 DAC) reached the halfway mark of the season as Northwest Indiana's only undefeated team.  Ranked 10th in Class 4A, the Trojan boys dominated the second quarter and led 40-29 early in the third period.  The Bulldogs (7-3, 4-3) were able to pick up the pace behind senior guards Stephen Albrecht (21 points) and Kyle Hanaway (10 assists) to go ahead 55-53 on a three-point shot by Hanaway with 2:30 to go.

But Trojan senior Jack Haupt hit a three-point shot to start an 8-0 Trojan run that gave the visitors a 61-55 lead with 1:03 left.  Hanaway stole the ball and Albrecht hit a three-point jumper to close the gap with 39 seconds left.  But the Trojans hit enough free throws to get on the bus with the their seventh consecutive DAC victory.

Since his boys have been together so long, Peller doesn't have any problems with players knowing their role. 

"I tell the guys.  You're going to play with one of the best players ever to put on a Trojan uniform.  You have a responsibility to play well.  It's not all on Zach.  It's on the other four.  We know what Zach will do.  If we're going."

Coaches and players seem to feel it reflects badly on them if people consider them a one-man team.  Peller believes that some look at Novak's scoring average and don't see anything else.

"We hear about it after every game," said the sixth-year coach, who'd surely rather answer this question that have to explain away losses.

"Talk about trying to be humble," he laughed.  "The question is asked all the time.  In a play there's the stars.  The supporting actors.  The lighting crew.  If everyone doesn't do their job, the whole thing gets screwed up."

All teams have statistical stars and that's why Crown Point shouldn't worry about this loss.  Their leading scorer got 30.  Their top assist man got 10.  Forwards Zach Cecich (5) and Aleks Alavanja (9) combined for 14 rebounds and Cecich was 7-of-9 from the field.  The Bulldogs fell three games out of first place with seven league games remaining, but they played well, especially in the second half.

"They just made a few more plays than we did," said CP coach Clint Swan.  "We squandered some opportunities and they took advantage of theirs."

Zach Novak, who was guarded by Cecich most of the time, was 8-of-16 from the floor for 26 points.  He was coming off a 37-point game against Evansville Reitz.

"We couldn't ask more out of Zach (Cecich)," Swan said.  "We just wanted to do a good job on their top two players, but somebody else stepped up.  In the first half we had a real hard time guarding cutters to the basket."

After playing Merrillville (7-2), Winchester (7-2) and Chesterton (10-0) in eight days, the Bulldogs have just one game this week at Lake Central before they get back into double-header weekends at the end of the month starting with Michigan City and East Chicago on Jan. 18-19.

"Right now, we're just looking day-by-day," said Swan.  "The most important day of the season is Monday."

The first game was typically slow-paced with the Trojans (7-7) out scoring the Lady Bulldogs 10-8 in each of the first three quarters.  Trailing 37-31 with two minutes to play, CP got an offensive rebound basket from Samantha Polus and a spectacular off balance shot from Daniela Tarailo to cut the lead to 37-36 with 31 seconds to play.

Two foul shots Dana Christensen gave Chesterton a three-point lead with 25 seconds to play, but Maloney, CP's 5-8 junior, got free for a three-point shot to tie the game 39-39 with 12 seconds to play.  Chesterton should have won the game in regulation time, but Amanda Levrio's uncontested baseline layup missed with two seconds to play.

The Trojans, who have lost to Penn (14-1), Michigan City (12-4) and Merrillville (11-3), Portage (9-3) and St. Joseph's (8-6) among others, scored the first five points of the overtime and held off CP.  The Lady Bulldogs (5-10) only got nine foul shots in a physical game, while Chesterton got 19.  But the Trojans, led by 5-foot-11 forwards Morgan Palombizio and Abbe Skube, got shots closer to the basket.

Crown Point is 1-5 in games decided by 10 points or less, and the win, a 46-37 victory over Hanover Central, wasn't that close a game.

Last season, the Bulldogs swept the boys-girls double-header at Chesterton.  The girls won 44-42 and the boys won in overtime 69-64.

BOY-GIRL NOTES:  Chesterton's start is their best in recent history, but certainly not the best in school history.  The 1955 Chesterton boys team won the first 24 games of the season. 

When coach Tom Peller talks about Chesterton, its sometimes sounds like Clint Swan talking about Crown Point.

"These guys have played together since fourth grade," Pellar explained.  "They just have a feel for each other.  They have a special type of chemistry you don't have very often.  All the pieces fit.  It's a special group.  They obviously like each other and they just want to win and enjoy themselves."

The eye-opener for Chesterton was guard Jordan Lewis, a soccer star, who had six assists including a couple of spectacular bounce passes.

"Jack Haupt (6 of 6 from the field) was getting some great looks and that's a credit to Jordan," said coach Peller.  "He does a great job finding the open man."

CP's Samantha Polus was credited with six steals, a career high.  Sydnee Reeves got three, two-shot foul opportunities in the first half but none after the break.  Neither CP or Chesterton has scored 50 points against each other since November of 2004 and these are teams that meet twice (often three times) every year.  The Lady Bulldogs do not play again until Saturday night, Jan. 12 at home against Lake Central, a team that began the season 0-7, but has won five of their last seven beginning with a 51-48 overtime win over CP on Dec. 7.

Stephen Albrecht (16.8 ppg.) is 33 of 37 (89.1%) from the foul line and 21 of 58 from three-point range.  Kyle Hanaway (6.8 ppg.) has 86 assists (8.6) and 26 turnovers (2.6) in 10 games.  Senior Ben Derks (5.1 ppg.), who did not have a turnover in 25 minutes against Chesterton, is averaging 20 minutes per game and has committed just eight turnovers all season.