CEDAR LAKE, IN (12-3-2004) - Hanover Central was on their way to a perfect night. The girls team had won the first half of the annual boys-girls homecoming doubleheader 59-51 over rival Hebron, leading almost all the way.

Between games, senior forward Christie Wick and senior guard Larry Pempek were named Homecoming queen and king. In a late-starting game two, Hanover's boys led Hebron 17-10, 24-17 and 28-21 at the top of the third quarter.

But Hebron junior Caleb Biggs got away from the Hanover Central defense. After three three-point baskets and an 11-0 Hebron run in the third quarter, the Hawks were on their way to a come-from-behind 64-49 victory. Biggs (19.0 ppg.), a classic 'old school' Porter County Conference (PCC) long distance shooter, scored 17 of his game-high 24 points in the second half as the Hawks came from behind to beat Hanover for the second year in a row.

After close losses, 54-49 to Griffith and 69-60 to Kouts, this might have been a pivotal game for the Hawks. “It is when you're 0-2,” said Hawk coach Mike DeFries “We start four juniors so I know I've got a lot of guys coming back next year. that's supposed to be our year.”

“But I started three of these guys last year and we played really well all summer. We should be pretty good but we were 0-2.”

Hanover could be 3-0 but they lost a 13-point fourth quarter lead in a 61-59 loss at South Newton on Jan. 27 and let the seven-point edge get away against Hebron.

“It was the same thing,” said HC coach Dave Uran. “We had them down eight twice. We really don't have that leader on the floor who's communicating defensively. Every game we've had so far this year, when we've had the defense in front of us. When the other team is shooting at the end of the floor where our bench is, we're okay. Because the coaches are yelling out instructions.”

“But when they're on their own at the other end, we don't communicate. One time, a couple of kids were both in position but they let Biggs go. We held him to seven in the first half.”

“We were up 13, 53-40 with six minutes to go at South Newton. Then we scored three times in the last 17 possessions.”

It was almost that bad on Friday. After senior Larry Pempek followed up his own missed shot to cut the Hebron lead to 49-45 with 5:40 to play, the Hawks scored 15 of the game's last 19 points, shooting 13 of 16 from the line in the fourth quarter.

Biggs was seven of 10 for the game.

“We're not supposed to foul Biggs,” said Uran later. “He missed a couple but we talked about how we weren't going to foul him.”

Hanover doesn't start a player taller than 6-foot-2 so a quick-moving zone defense was their first choice and Hebron was limited to just eight first-half field goals.

Senior Greg Shroka, he only returning starter from last season, scored eight in the first half but drew three first half fouls, one a questionable offensive foul with 3:09 left in the half.

Hanover probably should have had a larger lead but they were only 5-of-9 from the line. HC was 11 of 19 for the game on free shouts compared to Hebron's 17 of 24.

“A lot of those misses were the front ends of 1-and-1s,” said Uran. “At the end, we had a couple of seniors stepping up and trying to do it all by themselves. I appreciate them making that effort, wanting to win on their last Homecoming. But we just couldn't get anything done. And when Shroka fouled out (3:21 to go in the game), we didn't have a lot of scoring out there.

Hebron has a couple of big new players in 6-6 senior Mike Yankauskas and 6-4 junior center Ryne Marshall. Both are first year varsity players and, for Yanauskas, this is just his second year of organized basketball.

“He doesn't have that good a concept of team defense yet,” admitted DeFries. “But he's made a lot of improvement. Right now, he just fouls too much and he can't stay in the game.” Ryne Marshall had six points, four rebounds and a steal and the Hawks got some key rebounds in the late going. “They both can be a big factor for us against teams like Boone Grove,” said DeFries. “Boone killed us on the boards last year.”

Shroka began the game on the wing and moved to the point late in the game. After scoring 24 in the season-opening win over Lake Station, and adding 23 against South Newton on Dec.4, Shroka finished with 15 on this night. Pempek, HC's point guard, drew his fourth foul with 2:25 left in the third quarter, also limiting the Cats. The only other options at floor leader are Shroka, who's really a wing, and freshman Charlie Huffnagle, who is very small, like Biggs was as a varsity freshman two years ago.

'Who else do we have,” said Uran, who will go with Pempek and Shroka much of the time. Huffnagle looks like Biggs and look at how Biggs turned out.”

There's no doubt that this game turned when Biggs, still a baby-faced ball-handler, hit three three-point field goals in a two minute span, two of them back-to-back in a 30-second span. Hanover led 30-25 with 5:45 left in the third quarter and Hebron led 39-33 with 2:48 left in the third period. “They did to us,” said Uran, “what we wanted to do to them.”

Biggs (19.0 ppg.), who has been on the varsity for three seasons, may be the best shooter in NW Indiana and few, other than coaches and players know about him. The 5-10 junior had ten 3-point goals after three games and 17 of 23 from the line. His six three-point baskets helped Heborn beat Hanover 88-79 last season.

“He shoots about 10,000 shots during the summer,” said DeFries, of how Biggs learned to shoot the way he does. “Probably more than that. His sister (Erin) played for the girls team that went to the semistate in 2001. He had an older brother who played for me and he just works very hard at this.”

“He's the first guy in the gym in the morning and the last guy to leave. We shoot every morning. I've got to kick him out so I can get to class.”

HANOVER NOTES: The homecoming boys/girls double-header is a Porter County Conference (PCC) thing and a PCC tradition but Hebron coach Mike DeFries says it might not be the best idea.

“We may be losing money on this,” he said after the Hawks and Cats split two games Friday in front of an overflow crowd in the 1,500-seat Hanover gym. “I think we'd almost fill the gym for just the girls game and the gym would be full for the boys game,” he explained. “We may lose some gate on this. Plus, I'd really like my JV to play in front of a crowd like this.”

The double-header plus the Homecoming program between games took 3 ½ hours. It was a long weekend for the girls who had to play Kouts at 1:30 Saturday afternoon before the Homecoming dance on Saturday night. More than one person expressed a desire that this schedule be adjusted.

It had been hoped that Hanover senior Greg Shroka (20.6 ppg.) could double his scoring average of 7.4 points per game last season. Early on, it appears he'll get that done. Shroka, a state finalist high jumper, struggled with makable shots against Hebron but still totaled 15 in limited duty due to foul problems. The three-sport athlete (Basketball, cross country and track) was also 14-of-14 from the foul line after three games. HC, as a team, was 37 of 60 (61.6%) after three games.

Senior Billy Nordyke, a 6-3 senior center who has not played so far this season, will be eligible for the South Central game on Dec. 17 making HC a slightly taller team., “We might have to go to bringing one of the seniors off the bench,” said Uran, who started all four of his seniors against Hebron. “We need some experience. We go from one level to another when we go to the bench.”

Hebron's new school building is under construction. “Our new gym is will be done by next year,” said DeFries. “It'll be a little bigger than Boone Grove. But I hear Hanover's new gym (also set to open next year) will be 500 seats bigger than ours.

Hanover Central is also clearly under renovation. The basic metal structure of the new 2,500-seat gym is rising up west of the school on what used to be the baseball field.

Hebron has what they believe is a championship team coming. But DeFries admits it's a long way off.

“Caleb has a brother who's in fourth-grade,” the coach began. “Last year, our fourth graders won the 'Gym Rats' Indiana state championship and they also won the Michigan state championship. Caleb's brother was the only third grader on the team. That team is going to be awesome.”

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PORTER COUNTY CONFERENCE

                

	PCC	OVERALL	OFFENSE	DEFENSE	STREAK
Kouts	1-  0	3-  0	68.0	55.3	Won 3
Boone Grove	1-  0	1-  1	53.5	51.5	Won 1
Morgan Twp.	1-  0	1-  2	51.7	51.0	Lost 1
Hebron	1-  1	1-  2	57.7	57.0	Won 1
LaCrosse	0-  0	1-  2	45.7	46.7	Lost 1
Hanover Central	0-  1	1-  2	54.3	59.3	Lost 2
South Central (Union Mills)	0-  1	0-  1	49.0	59.0	Lost 1
Washington Twp.	0-  1	0-  2	36.0	47.5	Lost 2

 

Dec. 10 (Friday)

HANOVER CENTRAL at Washington Township

LaCrosse at HEBRON

South Central at Kouts

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Hebron (1-2)

Coach Mike DeFries, 61-68 in 7th year at school

DATE	OPPONENT	RESULT/TIME
Nov. 23	at Griffith {3A}	L   49-  54
Nov. 26	Kouts {1A}‡	L   60-  69
Dec. 3	at Hanover Central {2A}‡	W   64-  48
Dec. 10	LaCrosse {1A}‡	7:30 pm
Dec. 14	at Rensselaer {2A}	7:30 pm
Dec. 17	Morgan Twp. {1A}‡	7:30 pm
Dec. 22-23	South County Tournament
Jan. 4	at Kankakee Valley {3A}	7:00 pm
Jan. 7	at River Forest {1A}	7:30 pm
Jan. 14	at Hammond Clark {3A}	7:30 pm
Jan. 19-22	Porter County Conference Tournament
Jan. 29	at Michigan City Marquette {1A}	7:30 pm
Feb. 4	Washington Twp. {1A}‡	7:30 pm
Feb. 10	Knox {3A}	7:00 pm
Feb. 15	at Boone Grove {2A}‡	7:00 pm
Feb. 18	South Central (Union Mills) {1A}‡	7:30 pm
Feb. 22	at Whiting {1A}	7:00 pm
Feb. 25	North Newton {2A}	7:30 pm
‡PORTER COUNTY CONFERENCE GAME

HANOVER (1-2)

Coach Dave Uran, 24-23 in 3rd year at school

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Revised: December 06, 2004 .