H.S. Boys Basketball: Morgan Twp. 62, Boone Grove 49

Team	1st Qtr	2nd Qtr	3rd Qtr	4th Qtr	Final
BOONE GROVE (4-3)	10	16	9	14	49
MORGAN TOWNSHIP (6-1)	7	18	19	18	62

67th South County Tournament championship - Tuesday, 12-30-2003 at Morgan Township

BOONE GROVE (49) Jayce Dowdy 1-0-2, Will Mitchell 0-0-0, Phil Bien 4-5-13, Jeremy Wright 0-0-0, Danny Borys 6-2-14, Jon Shurr 1-0-2, Jake Pivarnik 1-0-3, Joe Faron 6-0-14, Matt Langbehn 0-0-0, Kyle Krol 0-1-1. TOTALS: 19-8-49
FTS: 8-10, 80.0 percent - Bien 5-6, Borys 2-2, Krol 1-2
REBOUNDS: Danny Borys - 5
BLOCKS: Will Mitchell - 2
ASSISTS: Phil Bien - 4
STEALS: Will Mitchell - 3
FOULED OUT: None
3-POINT GOALS (3) Joe Faron 2, Jake Pivarnik.

MORGAN TOWNSHIP (62) Brian Melton 3-1-7, Nate McGinley 6-1-13, Troy Ditoro 3-2-10, Matty Bush 2-8-14, Warren Mosser 1-1-3, Joel Phillips 6-0-12, BJ Snook 1-1-3, Kevin Marine 0-0-0, Bryan Jones 0-0-0. TOTALS: 22-14-62
FTS: 14-20, 70.0 percent - Bush 8-10, McGinley 1-3, Otero 2-2, Melton 1-1, Mosser 1-2, Phillips 0-1, Snook 1-1.
ASSISTS: Joel Phillips - 3
REBOUNDS: Joel Phillips - 7
STEALS: Joel Phillips - 3
3-POINT GOALS (4) Troy DiToro 2, Matty Bush 2.

Team	1st Qtr	2nd Qtr	3rd Qtr	4th Qtr	Final
BOONE GROVE (4-2)	14	10	19	23	55
KOUTS (5-2)	9	8	15	16	48

BOONE GROVE (55) Jayce Dowdy 4-0-8, Will Mitchell 10-0-21, Phil Bien 1-2-4, Jeremy Wright 1-0-2, Danny Borys 6-1-13, Jon Shurr 1-2-4, Joe Faron 1-0-3, Matt Langbehn 0-0-0, Kyle Krol 0-0-0. TOTALS: 24-5-57.
FTS: 5-7, 70.1 percent - Bien 2-2, Borys 1-3, Shurr 2-2.
REBOUNDS: Will Mitchell - 10
BLOCKS: Will Mitchell - 3
ASSISTS: Danny Borys - 4
STEALS: Matt Langbehn - 3
FOULED OUT: None
3-POINT GOALS (2) Will Mitchell, Joe Faron.

KOUTS (48) John Lauer 3-0-8, Justin Hefner 6-5-17, Justin Birky 1-2-4, Brandon Sutter 2-0-4, Jake Schoon 4-0-8, John Selman 1-3-5, Craig Freyenberger 1-0-2.
TOTALS: 18-10-47.
FTS: 10-17, 58.7 percent - Hefner 5-7, Birky 2-2, Sutter 0-4, Selman 3-3, Schoon 0-1.
ASSISTS: John Selman -4
REBOUNDS: John Lauer - 8
STEALS: John Selman - 2
3-POINT GOALS (2) John Lauer - 2.

MORGAN TOWNSHIP (12-30-2003) - You figure that after watching the South County Tournament this week at Morgan Township that Morgan has the best squad among the four team field that includes Kouts, Hebron and Boone Grove.

You believe that the demise of the annual holiday tournament in Michigan City did nothing but help the South County playoffs which were held in front of capacity crowds both nights in the 1,500-seat Blastick gymnasium.
You hope that the second half knee injury to Morgan 6-6 junior Nate McGinley (16.1 ppg.) will not cause him to miss any time since Morgan is now in the midst of a two week break in the schedule.

But you know that Class 1A No. 9 Morgan Township has not seen the last of Boone Grove. Tuesday night's 62-49 victory for the title in the 67th South County Tournament only means that Boone's potential meeting with the Cherokees in the Porter County Conference (PCC) tournament the week oF Jan. 19-24 and their regularly scheduled game Feb. 6 at Boone will be hotly contested. Morgan (7-1) won this time, but there were a lot of things that indicated that Boone, which had a four-game win streak broken, is not 13 points worse than the tourney favorite.

"It was one of those games where it just didn't seem like the ball was going our way all night long," said Boone veteran coach Matt McKay. "We got a couple of breakaway layups and missed the layup. Loose balls where we'd hit the floor first. We'd knock the ball to them for layups. Rebounds went into their hands and a couple of calls went their way. In an adrenaline-packed arena where you're playing a tournament championship on their floor, you've got to make your own breaks and we didn't do it. At least the breaks went away from us."

Boone led 26-25 at the half, but couldn't maintain the offense when Morgan switched to a 2-3 zone at half-time. Even though the Wolves and top defender Will Mitchell, held PCC scoring leader Matty Bush (23.1 ppg.) to just 14 points, Boone was outscored 37-23 in the second half and denied their first South County title in four years.

"Boone's size is going to hurt a lot of people," said long time Morgan coach Matt Bush, who switched to a 2-3 zone at half-time after playing a man-to-man. "We were concerned with our post defense but we thought we had the advantage at the guard position. We played a little 2-3 zone. They've got a couple of young kids shooting the ball, but that's not their strength as a team. That kinda turned the tide, too. We're a lot better when we run. We got a couple of kickouts and breaks and things worked for us."

Very little worked for Boone (4-3), which slowed the game in the first two quarters and worked the ball inside to 6-6 Phil Bien and 6-4 Danny Borys, who combined for 18 first half points. The zone pushed the Boone attack to the perimeter in the final two periods and only junior Joe Faron, who scored eight of his season-high 14 after the break, could put points on the board after the middle of the third quarter."

"I thought Nate (McGinley) stepped up in the second half," said coach Bush. "We went to high-low post with Nate and Matty. We got some good looks and knocked them down."

Boone wanted 6-3 sophomore Will Mitchell to control Bush, who scored 31 in Morgan's 67-54 semifinal win over Hebron. Bush, a 1,000-point scorer and a four-year starter, did not hit a field goal until 4:17 remained in the third quarter. The senior needed 8-of-10 from the foul line to finish with 14 points.

"Will didn't score tonight," said Mckay. "But we asked him to hold Bush down and he did. There was the one streak where he hit the two 3s in a row. Will did a nice job on him. But they're a well-balanced team. They had four boys in double figures. We shut one aspect of their game down. McGinley hit some midrange jumpers which he's capable of doing but we needed him to miss a couple of those to keep him in the game."

With Morgan leading 33-31, Bush hit a three-point shot and Joel Phillips scored on an offensive rebound to force a Boone time out. Joe Faron's basket of a pass from Bien cut the lead to 38-35. But a jump shot by McGinley and a 20-foot three-point bank shot by Troy DiToro sparked a 10-0 run that gave the Cherokees their biggest lead of the game with 5:09 left in the game.

After McGinley had to leave with his knee problem, 6-8, 240-pound senior Warren Mosser came off the bench to grab three rebounds and score three points. With the Boone cheering section cheering the big reserve on, Mosser held his own against Boone's more skilled forwards.

"He's done that a couple of times this year," said Coach Bush. "He comes in and he gives us a couple of minutes. Obviously, he's not very fast but he's a big boy and he takes up a lot of space."

The tournament was a big success with near capacity crowds both nights despite the Monday-Tuesday dates. The four competitive games (Hebron led twice before losing) hint that the upcoming Porter County Conference (PCC) championship could be highly watchable and very well-attended.

"I don't think we played badly at all," said McKay, who knows the PCC finals are back home at Boone Grove. "We just didn't' get very many breaks."

SOUTH COUNTY NOTES: In the semifinals, Boone's Will Mitchell had his best all-around game of the year. Defensively, he guarded Kouts scoring leader John Lauer (23.2 ppg.) and held him to eight points. Mitchell also grabbed 10 rebounds and scored a career-high 21 points.

The Blastick gymnasium at Morgan Township high school was full by half-time of the first semifinal game Monday night. The brightly lit basketball room holds about 1,500 fans and, with the host school playing first, the largest group of followers were in place by 6 p.m. Many of the Morgan fans left at half-time.

The South County tourney, which matches the four Porter County schools south of Route 30, has been held for 67 years and seems destined to continue even though it has one flaw.

"Most of the coaches don't like it," said Boone coach Matt McKay. "We'd rather not play each other three and four times. We could play Kouts and Morgan three times this year. Before they changed classification (moving from 2A to 1A) we could play Hebron four times in the same year.

McKay has noticed a trend in South County results. "Hebron was the host two years ago," the Boone coach recalled, "and they won. Kouts hosted it last year and they won. This year, Morgan is the host and they win. We're the host next year."

The only northwest Indiana tournament that is older than the South County Tournament is the annual Porter County Conference (PCC) championship, which began as a 10-team tournament in 1924 and is now held every January. With Wheeler's move to the Lake Athletic Conference this year, Washington Township, Morgan Township, Hebron, Boone and Kouts are the only remaining original members of the PCC. That PCC tournament actually predates the Porter County Conference, which was officially organized in 1958. The PCC girls tournament, which began in 1973, predates the Indiana state girls basketball tournament.

Most of Hanover Central's team showed up wearing HC letter jackets, to watch the four South County teams. Hanover plays Boone Grove on Jan. 9 and the two likely will meet at the PCC tournament in three weeks.
Kouts starting guard Josh Schoon could not play in the South County tournament due to a knee injury. They hope he will be back for the PCC tournament. Morgan beat Hebron 67-54 in Monday's first semifinal as 6-3 Matty Bush scored nine of his 31 points in the third quarter when the Class 1A No. 9 Cherokees outscored Hebron 20-9. Morgan's Nate McGinley, who was injured 24 hours later, scored 11 points with 12 rebounds and avoided serious injury in the final minutes when he fell on his hip after leaping high for a lob pass on a dunk attempt. Coach Bush said that the knee injury to the 6-6 McGinley was significant but not serious.

"Don't know right now. We've had a couple of trainers look at it and they don't think it's ligament damage, maybe cartilage. He's a big part of what we're trying to do. We're not deep enough to go without someone like him for very long."

The Hawks (1-6) appear to be better than their record. Hebron led 32-28 in the first minute of the second half before a 10-0 Morgan run turned the game in favor of the home team. Hebron lost 71-68 in overtime to Kouts in the South County third place game.

Ryon Brindley scored 19 to lead the Hawks while sophomore outside shooter Caleb Biggs had 16 including three three-point baskets, three assists and three steals.

"We played about 30 games this summer and we've got two weeks off," said coach Bush. "They need it and I think the coach needs it."

Boone Grove settles for runner-up in 62-49 South County Tourney finals loss to Morgan Township

A USA-365.com Special Report By Mark Smith