Hanover Central boys win season-opener 51-47 over Lake Station

A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith
11-28-2007

Wednesday, 11-20-2007 - boys basketball (nonconference) season opener at CEDAR LAKE, IN

LAKE STATION (47)  Khalied Ibrahim 5-2-13, Russell Jorgensen 7-0-14, Dean Flores 3-3-10, Ian Enriquez 3-0-7, Tim Bozeman 1-0-2, Nick Todd 0-1-1, Alex Suleski 0-0-0. TOTALS: 19 (6-12) 47.

HANOVER CENTRAL (51)  Andrew DeYoung 4-2-10, Charlie Huffnagle 3-4-10, Jarriod Howard 5-0-10, Jordan Rizo 2-0-4, Zach Rush 2-0-4, Tim Kubiak 1-0-2, Aaron Jackson 1-0-0-2, Vince Warren 0-0-0, Andy Cripe 0-0-0.  TOTALS: 21 (6-13) 51.

FREE THROWS:  LAKE STATION: 6-of-12, 50%:  Ibrahim 2-6, Flores 3-4, Todd 1-2.
HANOVER:  6-of-13, 46.1%:  DeYoung 2-5, Rizo 0-2, Huffnagle 4-4, Howard 0-1, Mantel 0-1.

REBOUNDS:  LAKE STATION (26) Jorgensen 10, Enriquez 6, Ibrahim 6, Todd 3, Flores;
HANOVER (29) DeYoung 10, Kubiak 5, Mantel 5, Rizo 4, Jackson 3, Cripe 2.

ASSISTS:  LAKE STATION (11) Flores 4, Ibrahim 3, Bozeman 2, Todd, Jorgensen;  HANOVER (10) DeYoung 4, Kubiak 4, Rizo, Jackson.

STEALS:  LAKE STATION (10) Enriquez 2, Ibrahim 2, Bozeman 2, Flores 2, Suleski, Todd;  HANOVER (8) Rizo 2, Huffnagle 2, Kubiak 2, Mantel, DeYoung.

3-GOALS:  LAKE STATION (3) Khalied Ibrahim, Ian Enriquez, Dean Flores;  HANOVER (3) Kevin Mantel 2, Charlie Huffnagle.

FOULED OUT:  LAKE STATION: Ian Enriquez (4th Q - 0:38 left);  HANOVER: Jordan Rizo (4th Q - 6:51 left).

CEDAR LAKE, IN (11-21-2007) - Neither team played especially well in the 2007-2008 season opener Tuesday night, but Lake Station had a reason.  The Eagles, three players short for assorted reasons, battled Hanover Central on even terms for four quarter before the home team held on for a 51-47 triumph in the first game of the high school boys basketball season.

Hanover (1-0), which seems primed to have its best season in years, did not seem primed to face Lake Station as they could not pull away from a team that started two freshmen guards, Dean Flores and Nick Todd.

"We didn't anticipate on defense," said new Hanover coach Rod Bollenbacher.  "I think the junior varsity game (an 80-30 Hanover victory) may have affected our guys.  "I thought we were in better condition.  I guess maybe we were looking ahead."

Hanover Central plays 4A power Munster for the first time Saturday afternoon at 2:30 p.m.

Hanover led 12-6 and 14-8 before things started to slide the other way.  The Eagles have two 6-foot-6 players in center Russell Jorgensen and swingman Ian Enriquez.  When 6-foot-2 junior Jordan Rizo drew his second and third fouls and missed most of the second quarter, the Wildcats had trouble on the backboards and their half court defense, which is hoped to be a staple this year, could force only 15 turnovers from a team led by two rookie ballhandlers.

When 6-3 senior Khalied Ibrahim scored on an offensive rebound, Lake Station had its biggest lead at 20-14 with 6:51 left in the first half.  Freshman Hanover guard Zach Rush and senior forward Jarrod Howard came off the bench to lift the Wildcats to a two-point lead at the half and Hanover's Rizo and Kevin Mantel scored the first two baskets of the second half to put HC ahead 33-26 with 6:05 left in the third period.

But without starting guards Aaron Todd and Mike Altieri and with 6-1 junior Jordan Greer home sick, Lake Station kept closing the gap.  Since the Eagles only scored 18 second half points, it's hard to say they challenged to win.  But Lake Station was never out of a game that they probably should have been blown out of.  This is supposed to be Hanover's best team in many years.

"We're playing our first two on the road with two rookies running the show," said coach Bryon Clouse.  "So we'll see.  But I'm very optimistic. What was our free throw shooting tonight?  Six of twelve?  We've got to get better than that."

Hanover held on when Huffnagle sank four consecutive fourth quarter free throws and Lake Station was just 4-of-7 in the final period.  But last year's leading scorer Jordan Rizo fouled out (with 6:51 to play) after playing only about a dozen minutes and scoring just four points.

"He was trying too hard," said Bollenbacher, who had promising freshman lead guard Zach Rush split time between the varsity and the JV team.  "Jarrod Howard did a good job.  Zach?  We're going to have to bring him up.  We were dribbling down to the baseline with our heads down."

Both teams left the building still hoping to win a lot more games than Hanover (9) and Lake Station (5) did last year.  And to be honest, it appears as if both will.

"I started two freshman last year and two more stated tonight," said Clouse.  "I hope we're on the rise.  The new schedule helps.  We replaced some of our old (Lake Athletic Conference) games with Morgan and Boone.  I don't know how much easier that is, but the new schedule should help us.  Maybe we can finally get to the point where playing Lake Station is not a night off."

"I think everybody was really trying to do too much," said Bollenbacher who was a winner in his first varsity game.  "I think we'll get much better."

CAT NOTES:  Hanover's starting lineup included senior Andrew DeYoung and junior Jordan Rizo at forwards, 6-foot-7 sophomore Tim Kubiak at center with junior Kevin Mantel and senior Charlie Huffnagle at guard.

It's true that ex-Valparaiso high school varsity coach Bob Punter is the varsity assistant at Lake Station and Punter was impressed with his first-ever visit to Hanover.

"This is a really, really nice facility," he said after seeing the 2-year-old gym and the giant Hanover Central fieldhouse.  "I know they're expecting a lot of growth here."

How did Lake Station get ex-Valpo coach Bob Punter to give up his retirement and sign on as an assistant coach for this season?

"My dad and my uncle both played basketball for him," explained Lake Station coach Bryon Clouse.  "He's a friend of the family.  My uncle Steve played varsity for him.  My dad just played in middle school.  But they were always fans.  My dad took me to Valparaiso games.  I went to Portage but my dad wasn't going to go to Portage games.  We went to Valpo games."

"So I loved Valpo in high school.  I met him a lot of times.  They used to let come over and play with the Valpo kids.  My family knew him.  I called him up and he said give me a couple of days to think about it.  It's a testament to his character that he agreed to do it.  With the team he had last year, I don't know how much coaching he had to do.  Here we've really got to coach.  And he wanted to do it."

Not all the Lake Station kids know that Bob Punter coached Valparaiso for two decades.

"Ian has a pretty good sense of basketball history.  And he knows that those two boys at Purdue (Rob Hummell and Scott Martin) played for coach Punter.  He wants to know if coach Punter can get him to Purdue."

Punter was cheered by the Eagles narrow loss in the road opener.

"This school has won 24 games in the past 10 years," he said.  "Considering who we didn't have tonight, I'm very optimistic.  The freshmen and sophomores on this team have a chance to be good.  I'm not saying they'll win the regional, but they have the chance to be good."

Punter seemed happy to be on the Lake Station team and the fact that he's coaching at a 2A school that has not had any success in two decades speaks to his desire to coach.

"I'm enjoying the fact that I'm not doing anything but coaching," he said.  "I don't have to deal with the parents or the newspapers or the stats.  I'm not teaching anymore.  I enjoyed those things, but I'm not doing them now, so when I get to practice, I've got a lot of energy.  I can't ask them to go up and get quarters off the top of the backboard, but we can get down in a stance on defense."

Some of us thought that Bob Punter had no experience at a small school, but he attended one.

"I played at DeMotte high school," he said last week.  "We had 55 kids in the graduation class.  The good thing was, if you showed up every day, you got playing time.  DeMotte is now Kankakee Valley."

"Talking about class basketball, we won our first sectional my junior year.  It was the first one in 57 years.  We went right from the game back to our school and had a big pep rally.  The whole town was there.  That was just the sectional.  The next week we got beat at the regional at Logansport.  Logansport was a big city compared to DeMotte."

"Now that I'm on this end of it, though, Lake Station used to play the sectional at Merrillville and they were never going to win.  I said this last year, 'My attitude would be different if I was here.'  The folks who are really against class playoffs are the 4A coaches.  But it's hard to tell the kids at small schools that when they win a sectional now, it isn't the same."

"The first thing I did when I told Bryon I'd do this is look at the sectional and see if we could win it.  I'm thinking, if we get a good draw, we can win the sectional."

Also at the Hanover-Lake Station game last week was former HC coach Dave Uran, who resigned last summer to run for mayor of Crown Point.  Uran, who coached HC for five seasons, won a narrow vote over Republican Gayle Van Sessen to become Crown Point's second Democratic mayor in history.

"I've got some Crown Point gear to wear," Uran said after the HC-Lake Station game.  "And I've still got my Hanover gear.  I'm pretty happy."

Former HC girls basketball coach Chris York made his debut as junior varsity boys coach for Rod Bollenbacher.  Like Punter, York was recruited to take the job.

"The first time he (HC athletic director Dave Seils) called," said York, a Hanover graduate and a Cedar Lake Little League baseball manager, "I said no.  But then he said to just come into the office and talk about it.  I did and I thought about all the things I liked about coaching and not all the things I didn't like."

York said he was happy to be back on the bench, although coaching boys as opposed to girls is a chance. 

"They're a whole different animal," he said.

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Revised: November 28, 2007 .