Duneland Conference - Tuesday, 12-16-2003  at Crown Point

VALPARAISO (56)  Ryan Nuppnau 3-0-9, Jon Moon 5-3-17, Brian McMillian 0-5-5, Brent Kimmel 5-5-17, Jordan Heckard 2-0-6,  Ryan Osburn 0-1-1, Brandon Thomas 0-1-1, Dan Lieske 0-0-0, Jake Lieske 0-0-0, Ben Pease 0-0-0.  TOTALS: 15-15-56.

FREE THROWS: 15-31, 48.3 percent - Kimmel 5-8, Moon 3-4, McMillan 5-8, Nuppnau 0-2, Thomas 1-2, Osburn 1-4, Heckard 0-3.
ASSISTS: Brent Kimmel - 8
STEALS: Brian McMillan - 4
REBOUNDS: Jon Moon - 7
FOULED OUT: Brent Kimmel (4th Q) :10 left.  Brandon Thomas (4th Q) :04 left.
3-POINT GOALS (11) Moon 4, Nuppnau 3, Kimmel 2, Heckard 2.

CROWN POINT (53)  Aaron Miller 4-0-9, Mark Patrick 2-1-6, Chachi Albrecht 6-1-18, Brian Maloney 4-0-8, Kyle Ernest 2-4-8, Ryan Brown 1-0-2, Seth Henderson 1-0-2, Sam Henderson 0-0-0, Jordan Ham 0-0-0.  TOTALS: 20-6-53.

FTS: 6-15, 40.0 percent - Ernest 4-6, Patrick 1-3, Albrecht 1-3, Sam Henderson 0-2, Maloney 0-1.
REBOUNDS: Mark Patrick - 7
ASSISTS: Mark Patrick - 4
STEALS: Chachi Albrecht - 3
FOULED OUT: Brian Maloney (4th Q) :08 left.
3-POINT GOALS (7) Albrecht 5, Miller, Patrick.

CROWN POINT (12-16-2003) - The thing to remember in the aftermath of Tuesday's 56-53 overtime loss to Valparaiso is, it was only the fifth game of a 20-game season. 

"It's a funny game," said coach Tom Johnson. "On a given night, you can get beat bad and the next night against somebody else, it's close."

Crown Point, after losing by 30 at LaPorte, lost to Lake Central after leading by 15 in the second half. And then lost to Valparaiso in overtime after leading by nine in the third period.  Valpo coach Bob Punter said the obvious. "We were very, very, very lucky to win."

Valpo made an abysmal 15 of 31 from the foul line, including a dismal 7-of-17 in the final period. The Vikings (5-1) survived on a low-intensity Tuesday night, when Crown Point simply didn't have the experienced hands to reach out and grab another major upset.

"I thought we had a lot more energy than they did," Johnson said later. "I thought they came out flat and we didn't. They had a Saturday night game and we didn't. I think we had a lot more confidence coming into Lake Central and Valpo than we did LaPorte. I would not say we were scared at LaPorte, but we certainly played like it was our first conference game for a lot of people."

Against Valpo, a team that's at least as good as LaPorte, CP certainly didn't play like it was their first game. After a 12-12 tie in the final minute of the first quarter, Crown Point used a 9-1 run to grab a 21-13 lead with 6:10 left in the half. Valparaiso could not stick to the Bulldog shooters in CP's wide spread, perimeter attack and the home team sank three three-point goals to produce a 30-23 half-time lead.

The taller, more experienced Vikings finally mounted a rally near the end of the third quarter, scoring nine in a row to tie the contest 42-42 with 5:40 left.

Skilled point guard Brent Kimmel, who was ill during Valpo's 75-58 loss to undefeated Lake Central, began to penetrate the CP man-to-man defense and pull his struggling team even. CP's Brian Maloney scored on a fast break layup with 5:15 left to give the Bulldogs a 44-43 lead and Kyle Ernest took a feed from Aaron Miller and hit a jump shot for a 3-point lead with 4:39 left.

The game slowed down at that point as CP spread the floor and tried to look for an easy layup. Kimmell missed the front end of 1-and-1 opportunities twice at the 4:24 point and the 3:36 mark. CP's Mark Patrick, who had six points, seven rebounds and four assists, missed a 1-and 1 with 2:02 left and Jordan Heckhard sank a three-point goal to tie the game with 1:02 to play.

Crown Point held for a last shot and Albrecht missed a driving shot with 19 seconds left. Heckhard grabbed the rebound and was fouled but he missed two foul shots with 19 seconds left and gave the Bulldogs a chance to win.

CP rushed the ball up the floor and set a screen away from the ball for Albrecht, the 5-10 guard, who rose up and hit another three-pointer for an apparent 49-46 lead. Here's where Valparaiso indeed got lucky. CP's 6-5 forward Brian Maloney set the screen for Albrecht and Valpo's Brandon Thomas ran into Maloney, knocking him down and drawing a foul.

Referees correctly disallowed the basket and put Maloney on the line, where he missed the front end of a 1-and-1. Kimmel drove the floor for Valpo and missed a last second shot, sending the game to overtime. 

"We just had some atrocious free throw shooting," said Punter. "Just terrible. I though we were in too much of a hurry in the first half. We were too fast on offense and not fast enough on defense."

For Crown Point, it was the second consecutive time they had the ball in the final minute of regulation in a tie game against a top team. The Bulldogs are two baskets away from being 4-1.

"We just have to handle the end of the game better," said Johnson, "and we can't put them on the line 31 times. They had 31 free throws. I'd like to think that if we were a little bit better from the line we'd get out in regulation. I've got a young and small group of kids. Because of our inexperience late in games we don't make the plays we need to make to win. It's just a learning curve that we're working with right now. The way our conference is set up now, you don't have any time to talk about the losses. We've got to go to Michigan City and they'll give us a really different look. We just have a very inexperienced bunch of kids and we'll keep working and it will turnaround."

Chachi Albert's three-point basket tied the game 49-49 with 3:17 to play, but Valpo football quarterback Jon Moon sank a three-point shot to put the Vikings back up by three. Down four, CP again reversed the ball around the perimeter quickly for another three-point, 20-foot shot by Albrecht, his fifth bonus goal of the night to make it 53-52.

A miss by Moon and one of two free throws by CP senior Kyle Ernest tied the game 53-53 with 1:52 left. But three free throws by Moon, a 6-foot junior wing player, made it 56-53. Sam Henderson of Crown Point missed two foul shots with 10 seconds left. That was matched by Valpo's Jordan Heckhard, who also missed two foul shots with four seconds left.

CP ran the ball up the floor and Sam Henderson, who sank four three-pointers four days earlier against Lake Central, got a shot off but could only hit the rim at the buzzer.

"It's very important to score the first basket in overtime," said Punter. "They play something called 'Oakland'  which is basically a stall. If you have to get out in the passing lanes, they go back door and lay it in. But if we get the lead, we don't have to guard their stall. The biggest concern for a coach is to win the tip and score the first basket."

Michigan City (1-4) lost 66-43 to Merrillville Tuesday and, like CP, are 0-3 in the Duneland Conference. But Johnson said, "They always give us trouble over there. That's a game we really need to win."

But it's game number six of a 20-game season.    

DOG NOTES:  CP coach Tom Johnson could not explain why his team trailed 15-0 and got bombed at LaPorte but led LC and Valpo, both probably better teams than LaPorte, in the third quarter.

"Back in 2000, we were something like 7-14," Johnson recalled. "Chesterton beat us by 27 in the holiday tournament. And it could have been worse. They led us by 35. Then we came back six weeks later and beat them. To put your finger on exactly what it is, you can't. There are so many variables."

CP's Chachi Albrecht (13.0 ppg.) had his fourth consecutive double figure scoring game and rolled his three-point goal total to 17. The second year varsity player appears to be the the next in the long line of top-level Crown Point distance shooters.

"This is the kind of play we expect out of Chachi," said Tom Johnson. "Last  year, he was just coming off a serious back injury. He's finally healthy now and a lot of people don't know about him. But they're beginning to hear about him. We've got some other guys that play well, too. We were looking for Sam Henderson at the end because they were overplaying Chachi."

"We've got some kids tonight who didn't get a lot of time because we've got 10 guys who can play. As long as they're happy with some nights we'll give them more time and other nights they get less, we'll win some games."

CP had 43 three-point baskets after five games, the top total in northwest Indiana. The Bulldogs made 133 three-point baskets in 22 games last season.

CROWN POINT (2-2)
Coach Tom Johnson (8th year)

Nov. 26:  W, 56-50 Gavit  (1-5)
Nov. 29:  W, 62-40 Griffith  (3-2)
Dec. 5:  L, 48-78 at LaPORTE (4-1)
Dec. 12: L, 59-60 LAKE CENTRAL (5-0)
Dec. 16: L, 53-56 Valparaiso (5-1)
Dec. 19 (F) at MICHIGAN CITY (1-4) 7:30 pm
Jan. 2 (S) at MERRILLVILLE (1-5) 7:30 pm
Jan. 6 (Tu) at PORTAGE (3-1) 7:30 pm
Jan. 9   (F) CHESTERTON (4-1) 7:30 pm
Jan. 16 (F) at LAKE CENTRAL (5-0) 7:30 pm
Jan. 17 (S) South Bend Adams (6-0) 7:00 pm
Jan. 23 (F) MICHIGAN CITY (1-4) 7:30 pm
Jan. 24 (S) at East Chicago (4-2) 7:30 pm
Jan. 30 (F) at VALPARAISO (5-1) 7:30 pm
Jan. 31 (S) Munster (5-1) 8:00 pm
Feb. 6 (F) MERRILLVILLE (1-5) 7:30 pm
Feb. 12 (TH) LaPORTE (4-1) 7:30 pm
Feb. 20 (F) PORTAGE (3-1) 7:30 pm
Feb. 21 (S) at Lowell (5-0) 7:30 pm
Feb. 27 (F) at CHESTERTON (4-1) 7:30 pm

PORTAGE (4A) SECTIONAL
March 3 (Tu)  quarterfinals - 6 p.m.
March 6 (F) semifinals - 6 p.m.
March 7 (S) championship

MICHIGAN CITY (4A) REGIONAL
March 14 (S) semifinals - 11 a.m.
March 14 (S) championship - 8 p.m.

Lafayette (4A) Semistate
March 21 (S) one game championship (TBA)

State (4A) Championship
March 28 (S) 7:15 p.m.
at the Conseco Fieldhouse - Indianapolis

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Revised: June 08, 2004 .