Up-tempo style of Calumet upends Hanover Central boys, 88-77

A USA-365.com Special Report By Mark Smith
11-29-2006

Saturday, 11-25-2006 at Cedar Lake, IN - boys basketball (nonconference) - Calumet season opener

CALUMET (88) Tony Harris 9-3-21, Leon Lewis 2-3-7, Dynami Thurman 6-2-15, Mike Akins 3-4-10,  Fred Abram 4-1-9, Errol Sherrod 3-4-10, Clarence Bryant 1-1-3, Deric Scott 2-1-5, Pat Goethe 2-0-4, Kyle Krown 1-0-2, George Ezell 1-0-2, CJ Montgomery 0-0-0, Britton Johnson 0-0-0.  TOTALS: 34 (19-32) 88.

HANOVER CENTRAL (77) Charlie Huffnagle 2-14-18, Josh Styx 4-2-10, Jordan Rizo 5-10-20, Scott Krager 3-0-6, Andrew DeYoung 0-2-2, Vince Warren 1-2-5, Matt Kozlowski 1-2-4, Jerrod Howard 1-0-2, Tim Kubiak 1-2-4, Joe McClymont 2-0-4, Aaron Jackson 1-0-2.  TOTALS: 21 (34-47) 77.

FREE THROWS:  Calumet (19-32, 59.3%) Harris 3-4, Lewis 3-5, Thurman 2-2, Akins 4-5, Abram 1-2, Sherrod 4-8, Bryant 1-3, Ezell 0-1, Scott 1-2.
HANOVER (34-47, 72.3%) Huffnagle 14-16, Styx 2-2, DeYoung 2-4, Warren 2-2, Rizo 10-14, Kozlowski 2-3, Kubiak 2-3, Howard 0-2, McClymont 0-2.

STEALS:   Calumet (23) Abram 5, Thurman 4, Harris 3, Akins 3, Lewis 3,  Sherrod 2, Montgomery, Goethe, Scott;  HANOVER (10)  Huffnagle 3, Styx 2, Krager 2, Rizo 2, McClymont.

3-GOALS:  HC (1) Vince Warren.  CALUMET (1) Dynami Thurman.

TURNOVERS: Calumet (5-4-4-5) 18, HANOVER (9-8-11-3) 31.

CEDAR LAKE (11-25-2006)  When the other team steals the ball from you 23 times, you're going to lose.  But the fact that Hanover Central lost the home opener just 88-77 to a much more gifted Calumet team Saturday afternoon was encouraging.

"There's no way we can simulate what they do in practice," said HC coach Dave Uran about Calumet's endless full court press. "But if we maintain the intensity we played with in the last four minutes of this game all the time, we'll win a lot of ball games."

It may be a good year for Calumet as well.  In their season debut, the Warriors played 14 players and kept up the speed and intensity for most of the 32 minutes.

"I thought at the end of the second quarter and the end of the game they got tired," said Calumet coach Brandon Ridenour.  "This is what we're going to do all year.  We don't have any post players so we're not going to beat anybody in a half court game.  But I think we can wear teams out if we use everybody and they all play hard."

The last five minutes of the game were when HC, overmatched against Calumet's depth and quickness much of the afternoon, answered with a trapping press of their own and rallied to cut a 22-point lead down to 87-77 with 56 seconds to go.

"I wanted to win the ball game," said Uran, "and I knew we could when we had it at 17-15 in the first quarter.  That there should have told us we could stay with their team.  But in the middle quarters we gave up 55 points and we got into foul trouble.  We had to take some people out."

A lot of the problem HC had came down to their first movement.  Under pressure, they telegraphed passes, giving the ball up on the first movement.  They needed to use head fakes and ball fakes (fake passing) and that's something that comes with experience.

"We tell the kids about conditioning, too," said Uran.  "And they don't always believe us.  Maybe some of them will understand after this."

Calumet used 14 players and they substituted five at a time.  Not only is the reality of that difficult to handle.  Seeing five new players come to the scorers table is a little demoralizing when you're trailing and trying to rally.  Truthfully, the Warriors were not at full strength.  Senior guard Errol Sherrod, a pre-season all-area pick who averaged 18 points per game last season, was not 100% and did not start.

"He's had an ankle problem," said Ridenour.  "We're hoping to get him back in shape.  That's why he didn't start the game today.  Our execution down the stretch wasn't good and we let them back in the game.  We've got some guys who are quick with long arms.  Our biggest guys are 6-3 and 6-4.  The more helter-skelter we can make it, the better.  There will be some games when we need to value our possessions better, but overall we played well."

Hanover's Charlie Huffnagle showed a quality game against speed in this contest.  He was guarded all over the floor all night.  Sophomore Jordan Rizo made some nice head fakes and did damage inside.  But he, like several of his teammates, lost the ball in the open court.  HC lost 31 turnovers, most of them to Calumet's full court pressure.  The Wildcats do not have a backup point guard against this level of speed which, fortunately, they won't see in the Porter County Conference (PCC).

The Warriors can afford to foul a lot, but not to the extent that they give up 47 foul shots like they did Saturday.  The Wildcats also didn't make Calumet shoot from the outside, something they did not have to show they could do.

Some of Calumet's depth is new and some isn't.

"(Mike) Akins played for me two years ago, but did not play last year," said Ridenour.  "(Fred) Abram, too.  They did not really play last year due to off the court situations, but they're back this year.  We'll give people problems.  Our thing will be to put the game away.  When you play this style, sometimes you don't know when to slow it down and make some passes at the offensive end.  That's what we have to work on."

Hanover has Hebron to work on in the annual boys-girls double header this coming Friday (Dec. 1).  This is a pivotal game for Hanover.  Both the Wildcats boys and girls team lost at Hebron on the same night last season and they both went on to finish under .500.  If the HC boys can beat Hebron, they could mount a winning streak before Christmas.  A loss to a Hawk team that is supposed to be rebuilding puts the entire season in doubt.

"We need to find some maturity as a team," said Uran.  "We broke down under pressure.  We had some guys who have never seen this speed before.  We were down 22 and we cut it down to 10.  We missed an easy bucket twice to cut it to eight."

"We saw Hebron last night.  They can't play like this.  We have to maintain intensity from the opening tip.  That's how we're going to win."

CAT NOTES:  Calumet was 34 of 75 for the field this season.  Hanover didn't originally want to play Calumet on a Saturday afternoon but a lively crowd of about 200 showed up.

"The Festival of Lights" is tonight," said HC athletic director Dave Seils. "I thought that on a holiday weekend we could play in the afternoon.  Kids who are home from college might come out in the afternoon.  It's not something I'd want to do any other time."

Seils did say that he'd like Hanover to have a holiday basketball tournament in the new gymnasium.

"I'd like to play a four team tournament over Thanksgiving with maybe Calumet and Griffith and Lowell.  I think that would go over well."

HC guard Charlie Huffnagle said the Calumet 'wave' style is tough.

"They couldn't do that if they just had seven or eight players.  But they're all so quick.  You have to make decisions quickly.  They force you to.  And a lot of times today we made the wrong decisions."

It is not accurate to say that Hanover will not see Calumet's level of speed again.  HC is again entered in the Wheeler Holiday Tournament, which means they'll see Hammond high, another very fast 3A school.

Even though they probably had other things to do on Saturday afternoon, almost all of Hanover's girls team was in attendance watching the boys play.  After the game, HC cheerleaders immediately began dressing up the school for 'Homecoming Week'.  Since HC does not have football, they have a Homecoming basketball game and, every other year, it is the boys-girls double-header with Hebron.

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Revised: November 29, 2006 .