Munster
shuts down Red Devils at home 53-32Munster
shuts down Red Devils at home 53-32A USA-365.com Special Report
by Mark Smith
01-26-2008
| Team/Record | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final |
| MUNSTER (8-5, 5-0 NWCC) | 13 | 16 | 15 | 9 | 53 |
| LOWELL (7-6, 2-3 NWCC) | 0 | 11 | 14 | 7 | 32 |
Friday, January 25, 2008 - Northwest Crossroads Conference boys basketball at MUNSTER, IN
MUNSTER (53) Kyle Ritz 1-1-3, Krtse Ruiz 0-7-7, Brian Stolarz 2-0-4, Seth Flahaven 2-1-5, Tony DiCostanzo 1-0-2, Branden Ruiz 3-0-6, Alex McGuire 5-0-10, AJ Spolnik 3-0-6, Jeff Lucas 4-1-10, Matt Gaskey 0-0-0. TOTALS: 21 (10-14) 53
LOWELL (32) Robert Cusic 3-3-10, Joe Bell 2-0-5, Nate Miller 2-1-5, Eli Macis 5-1-12, Ted Macis 0-0-0, David Weiand 0-0-0, Jake Kerwin 0-0-0, Keith Greer 0-0-0, Ben Fox 0-0-0. TOTALS: 12 (5-6) 32.
FOUL SHOTS: MUNSTER (10-14, 71.4%) Krste Ruiz 7-8, Ritz 1-2, Flahaven 1-3, Lucas 1-1; LOWELL (5-8, 62.5%) Cusic 3-4, Miller 1-2, Eli Macis 1-2.
REBOUNDS: MUNSTER (35) Brandon Ruiz 9, Stolarz 7, Flahaven 5, McGuire 4, DiCostanzo 4, Spolnik 4, Gaskey, Ritz; LOWELL (20) Bell 5, Kerwin 4, Greer 3, Weiand 2, Eli Macis 2, Cusic 2, Miller, Fox.
ASSISTS: MUNSTER (10) Spolnik 3, Ritz 2, Stolarz 2, Lucas, Krste Ruiz, Brandon Ruiz; LOWELL (6) Eli Macis 3, Cusic, Kerwin, Bell.
STEALS: MUNSTER (7) Ritz 3, Lucas 2, Flahaven , McGuire; LOWELL (6) Cusic 4, Eli Macis, Weiand.
3-GOALS: MUNSTER (1) Jeff Lucas; LOWELL (3) Eli Macis, Joe Bell, Robert Cusic.
LOWELL, IN (01-25-2008) Have you ever seen that fast food TV commercial where the punch line is: "Wow. I didn't see that coming."
It's supposed to be funny.
Comedy was not the first thought on the minds of the home fans after Friday night's game down on Route 2 in the Northwest Crossroads Conference. On a snowy classic January basketball night, Lowell's Red Devils played their worst game of the year. They could not get started. Against a good foe in front of a decent bad weather crowd, it was a major disappointment. A rare game when the losing team was truthfully never, ever in it. Munster, which has nine juniors on the varsity, shut out Lowell 13-0 in the first quarter and won easily over the senior-dominated Devils 53-32.
"We opened the season with a loss to Hanover Central," recalled Munster coach Mike Hackett. "And this team (Lowell) beat Hanover by 13. Lake Central beat us and Lowell beat Lake Central by 16. This is not what I expected here tonight."
Lowell shot 26% from the floor, and to be totally honest, it was a bad 26%.
There were at least six Lowell 'air balls', shots that didn't hit the rim or
the backboard. It was 15-0 before Lowell senior Eli Macis scored with 7:32
to go in the half. It was 21-4 with 5:07 left in the second period.
And while Munster has defeated Lowell eight times in a row going back eight
years, that didn't explain this. Lowell (7-6) came into the game with
a record equal to Munster (8-5) and I honestly think The Devils are just as
good a team. I thought Lowell matched up very well with the first
place Mustangs. But after Friday night, I'm going to be hard-pressed
to find anybody else who does.
"We were 4-of-25 in the first half," said Lowell coach Mike Magley.
"We just shot the ball terribly. You can't do that against the caliber
a team that Munster has. They're always well coached. We knew we
had to come in and execute."
So what happened? Seeing a real chance to beat Munster for the first time since 2000, Lowell simply tried too hard.
"We have a monkey on our back where Munster is concerned," said Magley. "We had one against Lake Central and we got it off. We have experience. We can be just as good a team or better. But I've got to take my hat off to Munster players. When we turned our heads, they made the passes. We didn't take bad shots. We just missed them."
Munster didn't play a great game, but they out-rebounded Lowell 9-8 in the
first half and 35-20 for the game. Guards Kyle Ritz, Krste Ruiz and
Jeff Lucas showed strong ball-handling skills. Freshman Brian Stolarz, a
6-foot-3 forward, grabbed seven rebounds. A lot of the Munster baskets
were layups.
"I have a young team that tends to get in a hurry on offense," said coach
Mike Hackett, who occasionally substituted five players at a time when it
became obvious Lowell could not score enough points to win. "We need
to be able to shift gears and be a little more 'sure' with the ball.
This was a big game because it was a conference game against a sectional
opponent. We needed to play well to beat this team. Lowell is
capable. Mags (Mike Magley) does a great job. We know when you play
Lowell they will play awfully hard."
"A staple of our offense is to get in the paint and play from the paint out. The forwards work hard to get position and you have to have somebody who is willing the get the ball into the post. Post feeds are a lost art."
Lowell senior guard Robert Cusic drew two fouls in the first five minutes and that clearly hurt the Devils. Cusic and Eli Macis were all the offense Lowell had. Senior Jake Kerwin grabbed four rebounds and blocked two shots off the bench while 6-foot-4 soph Joe Bell grabbed five rebounds coming off the bench.
The only possible good for Lowell out of this game is that Munster, a significantly younger team, may draw Lowell in the sectional in March and underestimate them because of this game. The dark side is: This game began a three game stretch of perennial Lake County powerhouses. Lowell played at Merrillville Saturday (1-27-2008) and they host Gary city champion West Side (11-3) Thursday night. Nobody left the gym thinking Munster is 21 points better than Lowell.
"I'm not blaming our kids, but it's gut-check time," said Magley. "We've got to turn around and play Merrillville. We designed this schedule (they also play Gary West Side Thursday, Jan. 31). We know we're better than this and maybe we tried too hard."
"We always say that basketball is a life lesson. You're going to have these frustrating days. How we deal with it shows the character we have."
DEVIL NOTES: Lowell's last victory over Munster was 59-51 on Dec. 1, 2000. Munster has now won seven in a row since then. East Chicago has eliminated Lowell from the state tournament in each of the past two seasons.
This loss hurt Lowell's chances of having their first winning season since 1993 because they are heading into the tall grass portion of the 2008 schedule. Assuming the Devils defeated Andrean, Boone Grove and Morton (certainly not a given) the Devils need to beat one big winning team the rest of the way to finish at 11-9. They faced Merrillville (11-2) Saturday, Gary West Side (10-3) on Thursday, Jan. 31 and the Devils still have Crown Point (10-5) and Wheeler (10-3) to play.
There is not much talk about the .500-or-below streak that has reached 14 seasons, but there is a feeling that, second only to a sectional championship (and state champ EC is in the sectional), a winning season would be a major accomplishment against this schedule. Lowell was 10-10 last season and had a game with Whiting postponed and never replayed.
In one of those odd-but-true stories witnessed by few, five time Indiana state champion Lawrence North actually came to the Lowell gym over the Christmas holiday.
"They came here to practice on their way to East Chicago," revealed Lowell athletic director Don Bales Friday. "I know their athletic director. It was the biggest high school team I've ever seen. After watching them, I can't believe they lost to East Chicago, but then I haven't seen East Chicago this year. But they were all big and fast. Jack Keifer (LN's coach). He kinda shrugged his shoulders and said, 'Yeah, I do have a lot of talent.'"
Munster won't 20 games in the 2008 campaign as they have four times in the past five years, but the days of 20-win seasons may be returning. What opens your eyes about the young ponies is that they have a lot of ball-handling lead (or point) guards. Juniors Krste Ruiz and Jeff Lucas, sophomore starter Kyle Ritz and freshman JV lead guard Joe Crisman (6-1, 168) all, at first glance, appear to be highly skilled dribblers. Some certainly make decisions better than others, but Munster has four lead guards in the program and none of them are seniors.
"We are fortunate to have a little depth in all of our positions," said
Munster coach Mike Hackett. "There's not a lot of difference when we sub.
I only have one senior. The junior class went undefeated through
middle schools. And the freshman class that's at the high school now
went undefeated all through middle school. The kids coming in have had
some success."
The most athletic player for Munster is clearly 6-foot-4 wing forward Alex
McGuire, a junior who splits time between varsity and JV. There's a
reason for that.
"McGuire has worlds of potential," explained Hackett. "He really grew and developed recently. He does not have much experience. He had 26 points (16 in 2 quarters on the JV and 10 on the varsity for us tonight. He's going to be a force for us tonight. We've just got to get him physically stronger and more experienced, but we're really high on Alex."
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