CROWN POINT, IN (1-24-2005) - The winter snowstorm that dumped 24-inches of snow on Crown Point over the weekend resulted in the postponement of the East Chicago-Crown Point boys basketball game from Saturday to Monday night.  But for the modest sized crowd that came out Monday, they were treated to a game that saw the Cardinals roar to a 19-9 first quarter lead before the Bulldogs fought their way back for a 68-63 nonconference victory.

EC jumped to a 15-5 lead early in the game behind some long range shooting of senior guard Kyum Gillis, who had two 3s and E-Twaun Moore's (20 ppg.) five points and strong rebounding from the Cardinal front line of Moore (6-3), Efrem Simmons (6-4) and the center combination of senior 6-3 Darrel Weathersly and junior 6-3 Christopher Brown.  

But Crown Point stiffened on defense in the second quarter, holding the EC attack to just six points and putting together a mini-run of their own, including a buzzer-beating put-back by Mark Patrick just before the half. 

The Bulldogs offense really started to click in the third, but the Cardinals continued to hold their own, including a buzzer-beating half-court shot by David Conner to break a 42-42 tie and retake the lead at 45-42 after three quarters. 

Crown Point then opened the fourth quarter with an 11-1 run to take a 53-46 lead with 5:40 remaining in the game, a lead the Dogs would not relinquish the remainder of the game. 

“I thought the last three quarters we played extremely well,” said CP's ninth year coach Tom Johnson. “I thought we had a great second quarter on both ends of the floor. Offensively we just didn't finish (early in the game). I thought we had a lot of good opportunities -- we just didn't finish. We kind of challenged our big men, Brian Maloney and Ryan Brown, at halftime to start finishing some good looks that they had, and boy, they really came out.  I thought those two guys really set the tone for us offensively for the rest of the game.  And when their defense started to collapse on the big guys, that's we began to get some good looks on the perimeter as well.”

In fact, Brown had two field goals underneath and Maloney three fieldgoals in close, all in the pivotal third quarter that brought the bulldogs back into the game. Brown added two more field goals in the 4th and drew three fouls under the basket which he then converted with 5 of 6 freethrow shooting in the fourth quarter Bulldog scoring surge. 

The win over Coach Bobby Miles respected East Chicago basketball program is a significant achievement for the Crown Point program.

“We're just really proud of our kids right now. We're playing really well. We just need to keep it rolling, because it's just one hard game after the next,” said Johnson, noting the Bulldogs face Valparaiso at home this Friday night.

USA-365.com will be rolling as well, with plans to provide live coverage of the CP Girls hosting LaPorte Tuesday night, Valparaiso at CP Boys Friday night and CP Boys at Munster Saturday night -- all starting at 7:15pm.  (Plus, Indiana State men's basketball games Wednesday night at Northern Iowa @ 6:40pm and ISU hosting Bradley Saturday afternoon @ 1:05pm.)

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CROWN POINT (8-5)

Coach: Tom Johnson, 110-79 in 9th year at school, 143-110 in 12th year overall

DATE	OPPONENT	RESULT/ TIME	USA-365.com Broadcast Time
Nov. 27	at Griffith {3A}	W, 66-36
Dec. 3	LaPorte {4A}‡	W, 69-57	7:15 PM
Dec. 10	at Lake Central {4A}‡	L, 61-64
Dec. 14	at Valparaiso {4A}‡	L, 35-55
Dec. 17	Michigan City {4A}‡	L, 51-55	7:15 PM
Dec. 28	Merrillville {4A}‡	L, 53-67	7:15 PM
Dec. 30	at Hammond Gavit {3A}	W, 47-35
Jan. 4	Portage {4A}‡	W, 56-47	7:15 PM
Jan. 7	at Chesterton {4A}‡	L, 36-45
Jan. 14	Lake Central {4A}‡	W, 59-38	7:15 PM
Jan. 15	at South Bend Adams {4A}	W, 36-35
Jan. 21	at Michigan City {4A}‡	W, 67-60
Jan. 24	East Chicago Central {4A}	W, 68-63
Jan. 28	Valparaiso {4A}‡	7:30 pm	7:15 PM
Jan. 29	at Munster {4A}	7:30 pm	7:15 PM
Feb. 4	at Merrillville {4A}‡	7:30 pm
Feb. 10	at LaPorte {4A}‡	7:30 pm
Feb. 18	at Portage {4A}‡	7:30 pm
Feb. 19	Lowell {4A}	7:30 pm	7:15 PM
Feb. 25	Chesterton {4A}‡	7:30 pm	7:15 PM
‡DUNELAND CONFERENCE GAME

East Chicago Central (8-6)

Coach: Bobby Miles, 112-60 in 7th year at school

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Revised: January 25, 2005 .