Chesterton upsets Bulldogs in Sectional opener, 70-65 in overtime

A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith
03-03-2007

Tuesday, 02-27-2007  - Class 4A, Sectional 2 Quarterfinal  boys basketball at Crown Point 

CHESTERTON (70)  Mark Babcock 3-1-7, Adam Hutnick 1-2-4, Austin Bower 2-1-6,  Jordan Lewis 2-4-9, Zack Novak 9-8-28, Jack Houpt 8-0-16, Alex Beierwalter 0-0-0, Alex Mannen 0-0-0.  TOTALS:  25 (15-20)  70.

CROWN POINT (65)  Stephen Albrecht 9-4-28, Matt Ernest 3-7-13, Kyle Hanaway 0-2-2, Mitch Robinson 1-0-2, Aleks Alavanja 2-3-7, Zach Cecich 5-3-13, Ben Derks 0-0-0, Billy Cox 0-0-0.  TOTALS:  20 (19-25) 65.

FREE THROWS:  CHESTERTON (15-20, 75%) Hutnick 2-2, Bower 1-3, Lewis 4-5,Novak 8-10;  CROWN POINT  (19-25, 76%) Albrecht 4-6, Alavanja 3-6, Cecich 3-4, Hanaway 2-2, Ernest 7-7.

REBOUNDS:  CHESTERTON (23) Lewis 5, Houpt 5, Babcock 5, Novak 5, Hutnick 2, Bower;  CROWN POINT (21) Cecich 9, Ernest 4, Alavanja 3, Robinson 3, Albrecht, Derks.

ASSISTS:  CHESTERTON (22) Lewis 10, Bower 3, Novak 3, Hutnick 2, Beierwalter 2, Houpt 2.  CROWN POINT (14) Hanaway 9, Derks 2, Alavanja, Cecich, Ernest.

STEALS:  CHESTERTON (10) Bower 3, Lewis 3, Babcock 2, Beierwalter, Novak.  CROWN POINT (11) Hanaway 6, Albrecht 2, Ernest 2, Derks.

3-GOALS: CHESTERTON (5) Zack Novak 2, Austin Bower, Jordan Lewis, Mark Babcock;  CROWN POINT (6) Stephen Albrecht 6. 

FOULED OUT:  Adam Hutnick (C) 4th Q -  5:30 left.

Tuesday, 02-27-2007  - Class 4A, Sectional 2 Quarterfinal  boys basketball at Crown Point 

3-GOALS:  PORTAGE (11) Chris Moss 4, Eric Speer 3, Aaron Ciesielski 2, Albert Evans, DJ Anderson;  MERRILLVILLE (3) Josh White 3.

CROWN POINT (2-27-2007) -  The Dow Jones index went down 200 points in a minute late Tuesday afternoon.  Crown Point's stock fell almost as suddenly.  Leading by 11 points, 52-41 with 6:50 to play, the Bulldogs appeared to be about to defeat Chesterton a third time this season and advance to the semifinals of the first Crown Point boys basketball sectional in 37 years.

It was great drama for about 2,500 fans on opening night of the 97th Indiana state tournament, but it was great pain for CP (12-9), which had hoped to, at least, win a couple of games on their home floor in the post-season.  It was a 70-65 overtime victory for Duneland Athletic Conference (DAC) rival Chesterton and the end of the Bulldogs' 2007 season.

"We lost our attack mentality," said CP coach Clint Swan.  "Their supporting cast really stepped up.  I thought that was the difference in the game."

Juniors Jordan Lewis and Zack Novak led the charge in the fourth and fifth quarters with Lewis pressing the issue on the dribble and Novak, the Trojans top scorer, getting his points and setting up others.

"Zack had his 20," said a very happy Chesterton coach Tom Peller afterwards, "and our supporting cast really came through at this time.  We knew what we needed to do.  I thought we were confident tonight.  We'd beaten them in past years.  The two games (this year) were an overtime loss at our place and a five point loss here.  They hadn't dominated us.  We still thought we could come here and win.  We just had to stop their transition game."

The Trojans started the game playing much more intense defense than they did during CP's 70-65 regulation win over Crown Point just last Friday (2-23-2007).  The game was much slower than the earlier two meetings and Chesterton (15-6) edged out to a 10-6 lead.  CP ripped off a 9-2 run for a 15-12 edge, but the Trojans slowed the game again and kept getting the ball to Novak, the 6-foot-5 left-handed forward who averages 21 points a game.  Novak scored 13 of Chesterton's 28 first half points.

When Zach Cecich guarded Novak, he went to the perimeter and when Matt Ernest guarded him, he went to the low post.  In the third period, it looked like CP had him contained.  The Bulldogs mounted a 24-10 run after halftime with Ernest, the 6-foot-2 guard scoring nine third quarter points and Hanaway dishing out four third period assists.  But CP began to slow the game down voluntarily in the final period and they simply didn't take many shots, running time off the clock.

Swan did not say that he ordered any type of slowdown.  Crown Point's favored pace is to push the ball up the floor.  In the fourth quarter of a playoff game, you can't realistically continue to do that.

"I think Chesterton had a lot to do with it," Swan said.  "What they were doing at the end of the game defensively, they did at the beginning of the game.  We didn't handle it very well. And we made some key turnovers."

Novak's three-point play made it 52-44 with 5:30 to go.  The Bulldogs' Albrecht, who scored 28 points, missed a short shot and Jack Houpt scored on a pass from Lewis to cut the Bulldogs' lead to six.  After a Crown Point time out and a CP turnover, Mark Babcock, who had missed 10 games this year with a broken foot, hit a three-point shot on a pass from Novak to make it 52-49.  The Bulldogs did not score one field goal in the entire fourth quarter and they took only five shots from the field.

Ernest's two foul shots made it 54-49 with 3:10 left, but Houpt scored again off a pass from a driving Lewis to make it 54-51.  CP threw the ball away in the back court and Houpt scored again to make it 54-53.  An inbounds pass by Aleks Alavanja got away again and Lewis scored on a driving lay up to give the Trojans a 55-54 lead with 2:00 left.  Ernest split two foul shots with 55 seconds remaining and Chesterton held for a final shot, missing a Novak shot and two tips in the final seconds.

In overtime, Albrecht's two foul shots gave CP the lead, but Chesterton scored nine in a row while the Bulldogs could not make a shot fall.  Trailing 67-62 in the final minute, CP got a 25-foot shot from Albrecht to cut the lead to two with 30 seconds left.  Novak split two free throws to make it 68-65 and another long three-point attempt by Albrecht missed everything in the final 10 seconds.  As much as the situation may have slowed CP late, the Trojans defended them well early.

"We gave up 20 points in transition last Friday," said Peller.  "We may have given up 10 tonight.  We tried to deny (Kyle) Hanaway the inbounds pass.  Whoever he was guarding offensively would immediately turn around and cover him.  For just tonight."

Swan didn't think the fact that CP had just played Chesterton 96 hours earlier worked against his team.

"If anything, we had the advantage," he said.  "Because they lost Tommy Peller when he got hurt at practice Saturday.

It felt like a premature edge to the CP season, even though it would have taken an overwhelming weeklong effort for CP to win the sectional title considering the draw they had.

"They made some big plays when they had to," said Swan.  "Chesterton jammed us up in the fourth quarter.  We let their pressure bother us.  We had trouble getting rhythm going.  The last four minutes of regulation, we couldn't get a shot to go.  We had things going in the right direction this year.  But this is a bitter pill to swallow."

SECTIONAL NOTES:  Merrillville got 11 assists and a strong floor game from Bo Patton and 24 points from Josh White in a 66-54 victory over Portage in the other Class 4A, Sectional 2 quarterfinal.  Portage led 10-5 early, but the Pirate defense limited Portage to just 42 shots from the field and only 18 field goals.  Junior Marquis Greene and sophomore Ryan Smith combined for 30 points and 14 rebounds and Portage had no answer inside.  Merrillville, which was 3-0 against Portage this season, committed just 12 turnovers and was 19-of-23 from the line.

Merrillville then defeated Chesterton 55-53 in overtime in Friday's semifinals as Patton hit a half court shot at the buzzer.  The Pirates reversed two earlier losses to Chesterton.  Merrillville was to face heavily-favored Valparaiso (21-2) in the sectional championship game Saturday night.

The first night went smoothly at the CP sectional.  The crowd was good sized, but far from capacity.  The fans who showed up were comfortable.  The attendance figured to suffer with CP eliminated, but Valparaiso was expected to bring a large crowd Friday and Saturday.

Swan thought that holding Chesterton's Zack Novak to 28 points on 9-of-20 was a job well done.

"Matt Ernest had another good game," said Swan. "We were able to switch Ernest and Zach Cecich on him and I thought we did a good job.  But the supporting cast stepped up.  That's been the story for them all year."

Chesterton sophomore guard Tommy Peller said he would not be available to play for two weeks.  Peller, the son of coach Tom Peller, had played in all 20 Trojan games.

Crown Point returns 10 juniors next season including their entire starting lineup.  Chesterton returns six players next season including four of the five who started Tuesday against CP.

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Revised: March 03, 2007 .