Boone Grove OT win in 2A Region Semifinal leaves Wolves winded in 59-42 title game loss to Northfield
A USA-365.com Special Report By Mark Smith

Triton (2A) Regional Championship   -  Sat., 3-15-2003

BOONE GROVE (42)  Marcus Bannig 1-0-2, Nick Somers 0-1-1, Jeff Whiteside 3-0-6, Phil Bien 2-4-8, Michael Christensen 1-0-2, Will Mitchell 4-2-12, Danny Borys 3-4-11, Joe Faron 0-0-0, Jon Shurr 0-0-0, Kyle Krol 0-0-0, Luming Guan 0-0-0.    TOTALS: 14-11-42
FTS: 11-15, 73.3 percent  (Bien 4-5,  Mitchell 2-2, Borys 4-6, Somers 1-2)
TURNOVERS: 4
REBOUNDS: Phil Bien - 5
ASSISTS: Michael Christensen - 2
FOULED OUT: none
3-POINT GOALS (3) Will Mitchell 2, Danny Borys.

NORTHFIELD  (59)  Nathan Stouffer 3-4-11, Jay McCann 2-0-4, Jason Dawes 2-1-6, Chris Schuler 3-0-6, Josh Merrick 7-11-26, Todd McKillip 1-0-2, Nathan Culver 2-0-4, Adam Schenkel 0-0-0, Tyler Dawson 0-0-0, Jon Ridenour 0-0-0, Kurt Hammel 0-0-0. TOTALS: 20-16-59
FTS: 16-19, 84.2 percent  (Nathan Stouffer  4-4,  Josh Merrick 11-12,  Chris Schuler 0-3)
TURNOVERS: 7
REBOUNDS: Josh Merrick - 9
ASSISTS: Josh Merrick - 6
FOULED OUT: none
3-POINT GOALS (3) Jason Dawes, Josh Merrick, Nathan Stouffer

Triton (2A) Regional semifinals   -  Sat., 3-15-2003

BOONE GROVE (71)  Marcus Banning 3-1-7, Nick Somers 3-5-13, Jeff Whiteside 3-5-11, Phil Bien 4-11-19, Michael Christensen 2-5-10, Will Mitchell 0-0-0, Danny Borys 5-1-11, Matt Langbehn 0-0-0.    TOTALS: 18-28-71
FTS: 28-35, 80.0 percent  (Bien 11-13, Christensen 5-5, Whiteside 5-6,  Borys 1-2, Somers 5-8, Banning 1-1)
TURNOVERS: 11
REBOUNDS: Jeff Whiteside - 7
BLOCKED SHOTS - Jeff Whiteside - 4
ASSISTS: Nick Somers -6
FOULED OUT: none
3-POINT GOALS (3) Michael Christensen, Nick Somers 2.


TRITON (59)  Brandon Barton 2-0-5, Josh Moore 8-1-17, Bryan Watkins 0-0-0, Adam Wanemacher 2-4-8, Brent Savill 1-0-2, Todd Blackford 10-4-27, Danny Kuhn 0-0-0, Brian Moriarity 0-0-0, Cory McClarnon 0-0-0.     TOTALS: 23-9-59.
FTS: 10-13, 76.8 percent  (Wanemacher 4-7,  Blackford 4-4, Moore 1-2)
TURNOVERS: 12
REBOUNDS: Todd Blackford - 7, Josh Moore - 6
ASSISTS: Todd Blackford - 3
STEALS: Todd Blackford - 3
FOULED OUT: Brent Savill (3rd Q - 1:42 left); Brandon Barton (4th Q - :57 left);
Bryan Watkins (4th Q - 1:25 left).
3-POINT GOALS (4) Todd Blackford 3, Brandon Barton.

BOURBON (3-15-2003) -  Sometimes you go as far as you should go.  Sometimes you drive for hours for a 90-minute show.  Boone Grove did all they could do.  And the end was mercifully swift at last weekend's Class 2A Triton Regional.

After the Wolves battled for a memorable 71-59 overtime victory over the host Triton Trojans in the semifinals, Boone was outscored 17-3 at the start of the second half and blown out 59-42 in the regional championship game Saturday night.

"The draw is one of the things about Indiana basketball that is special," said Northfield coach Brian Tonsoni.  "Who do you get and when do you get them?  Do you get the bye.  Do you get the first game of the regional.  Sometimes it works out for you.  They played the second game, They went to overtime.  We thought with our defensive pressure that we could wear them down."

"Boone Grove is a good team but they had a tough game.  We thought we could go to the basket against them.  Giving due all credit to them, I think that's what happened."

Nobody in attendance would debate that.  Boone Grove, after rallying from a 47-36 third quarter deficit to beat Triton, was noticeably slower than Northfield.  With no common opponents, it's hard to tell if the Norsemen from Wabash were a better team than the Porter County Wolves.  But when the lead was at 20 points early in the final period, it sure wasn't difficult to tell who was the better team on this night.

"Some times you're the buzz saw and sometimes the buzz saw gets you," smiled a disappointed coach Matt McKay, who agreed that his team didn't commit many turnovers. "Our turnovers were our shots.  Marcus Banning had such a good run here for two years. But he couldn't get a shot to go down in the first half.  (Nick) Somers had some good looks and none of them went in."

"As we were missing the perimeter shots, their interior defense was closing tighter and tighter on our big guys.  It became tough to score points."

The third quarter showed that.  An offensive rebound basket by 6-6 Phil Bien and a free throw by Bien made the score 34-28 with 6:30 left in the third period.  But Northfield's Jay McCann hit a 15-footer and 6-4 Josh Merrick showed his versatility with a driving layup and a three point jumper.  The Norsemen scored 17 points in a row to put the game out of reach.

"He's a matchup problem," said Tonsoni, who insisted his team had not played this well all season.  "If you put a big guy on him, he can bring him out and go to the basket.  If you put a little guy on him, he can post up.  He makes a coach look good."

Merrick, who came in averaging 15 points per game, scored 26 with nine rebounds and six assists.  The tall, calm senior appeared to be playing two or three positions at the same time in Northfield's versatile spread offense.

"We knew there would be some match-up problems," McKay said.

Boone Grove doesn't have a state championship team, as the 8-11 regular season record indicated. Truthfully, with top-ranked, undefeated Lewis Cass (24-0) waiting at next week's Warsaw Semistate, neither Boone or Northfield was going much further than this regional title game.  But the Wolves may be wondering if they could have handled the Norsemen had the situation been different.

Boone's biggest problem was that they had to play Triton Saturday afternoon after Northfield had completed their 46-38 win over Central Noble Saturday morning.  The game did not go smoothly.  After a cutting a six-point half-time lead to 38-35 with 4:30 left in the third quarter, Boone got pushed to the brink of elimination with a 9-1 Triton run, led by athletic 6-4 junior guard Todd Blackford, who finished with 27 points.

But trailing 47-36, Bien started to back his defender in close to the basket and score or get fouled.  Triton fouls put Boone into a bonus shooting situation with over seven minutes left and the Wolves, who sank 28 of 35 foul shots, climbed back into contention.

After 6-4 senior Jeff Whiteside scored on a short turnaround bank shot to close the lead to 54-52 with 2:33 left, Blackford, a future Division I player, stole a pass and broke away for what could have been a game-clinching layup.

But instead of trying a layup, Blackford attempted to thrill the home fans with a dunk. The 6-4 boy didn't get up high enough and slammed the ball off the back of the rim.  Two foul shots by Whiteside and a three-point shot from Somers with 1:20 to play gave Boone a 57-54 lead.

"Well, I couldn't stop him from doing it," said Triton coach Mike McBride, when asked if that shot was okay with him.  "He has dunked before in games.  He can do it.  If he makes it, we're up four and our crowd is all excited and we probably go on to win."

"But that wasn't what lost the game for us.  We had a big lead.  We just didn't do what we needed to do with our possessions.  We did spread the floor and we took it to the basket and we missed some easy shots."

"In the first half, we shot-faked them and we got some easy shots.  In the second half we tried to alter our shots in mid-air and we missed them."

Triton tied the game 57-57 when Blackford hit two foul shots with 42 seconds left.  Boone held the ball for a final shot and Nick Somers might have been bumped on a 10-foot baseline jumper with two seconds to play but that's not a call you're going to get in the final five seconds of a tie game.

In the overtime, Christensen, a 50 percent three point shooter for the season, sank a 20-footer to start a 7-0 run for the Wolves, who pulled away to victory, shooting 10 of 12 from the line in the extra period.

Boone doesn't beat Wheeler in the sectional title game, or Triton in the regional without the improved play of Bien, the potential packed 6-6 post player who has averaged only about seven points and five rebounds during the season.

"It almost seems that Phil has been playing like this was a professional season," said McKay. "He didn't really start playing until the playoffs.  He's played so hard.  He did not really have a good year.  I don't  know what it is.  But at the end here, he has really developed.  "Once the game started, our strategy was to pound it inside.  We had not seen them in person.  We knew heights and weights, but until you see them you don't really know.  We pounded it in and they had problems with that."

But it was only Boone that had problems in the championship game.  It can be said that Boone reverted to mid-season form where they never posted more than three wins in a row.  The Wolves carried a three-game win streak in against Northfield.

It can also be said that the Wolves overachieved in the state tournament.  Boone was a sub.-500 squad that beat three winning teams in the tournament.  But the reality is that the state tournament is designed to eliminate you and you fight it off as long as you can with competitiveness and conditioning and coaching.  Until it's time for you to go.

Northfield coach Tonsoni may have spoken for everyone when he summed up his team's chances against top-ranked Cass in Saturday's Warsaw Semistate.

"Every time you advance," he said, "it's a privilege.  What better way?  If we beat number one, we go to the ultimate dance.  If we don't, we have nothing to lose."

The essence of the state tourney in a nutshell.
      
REGIONAL NOTES:  Boone's 3-1 playoff record and the six sectional titles in seven years is a testament to the schedule they play.  The Wolves annually meet six schools more than twice their size and it helps players like Mike Christensen handle the state tourney pressure.

"There's where our schedule helps us," said McKay.  "Mike has broken pressure against Merrillville and Lake Central.  Actually, we thought Lake Central had the best pressure defense we faced this year.  We pretty much give him the ball and let him go."

"We talked about keeping our composure and poise. We've got about 400 people (fans) here and they've got 1,200.  We had to stay poised.  It almost got away from us when they were up 11 but we held it in and followed through with the game plan."

"We went from Somers to Christensen against him and that seemed to work," said McKay of his defense against Blackford.  "We just wanted to limit his touches.  We thought he was getting the ball too much.  Mike's got a little more lift in his jump, too and that helped.  He's a very experienced player."

Bien added, " It helped me that we had been here before," he said. "The runs are amazing but you can't lose your head.  You get used to the crowd and just try to have fun out there."

"The Wheeler game changed things for us.  When we got by Rensselaer we knew we could do what we needed to.  It gave us a lot of confidence."

The future looks very good for Boone.  If 5-10 sophomore point guard Joe Faron develops, Boone can team him with 6-4 Danny Borys, a versatile low-post player, 6-3 freshman Will Mitchell as a wing shooter and defender, 5-7 Matt Langbehn in the back court and the 6-6 Bien up front.  The junior varsity had a winning season and playing four state tourney games only helps to keep things going.

"Any time you can extend your season it's a big deal.  Borys played well for us as a sophomore.  Mitchell came in and did some decent things as a freshman.  We've got a good chance to come back here next year."

"Again, our schedule is what helps us, said McKay.  "We're not intimidated when we walk into Chesterton and Valparaiso and Merrillville.  That's half the battle right there.  You don't have that 'Deer in the headlights.'"

The Boone fans kept up to date on the prospects of Merrillville and Morgan Township throughout the day.  Boone had hoped to join Morgan at the Warsaw Semistate but the Cherokees lost the Culver 1A Regional final game 54-46 to Blackhawk Christian of Fort Wayne after beating Caston 47-37 in the semifinals.

Hanover Cental coach Dave Uran and some of his players were on hand to cheer for Boone against Triton.  "Our kids are up there (in the stands) analyzing the game and talking about what Boone should do.  This is great for us.  Boone beat us by four.  Our guys see what's possible."

Merrillville, a 21-point winner over Boone in January, advanced to the Lafayette Semistate with two miracle victories, 57-53 over Michigan City and 69-68 over South Bend Riley in overtime.  The Pirates (15-10) may have lost junior scoring leader LaVell Cook (15.0 ppg.) to a broken toe, however, which would cripple them against DeKalb (25-1) at the semistate.

Gary Roosevelt (23-1), who pulled away from Highland 59-46 and blasted Knox 68-45, will play Fort Wayne's Elmhurst (21-5) in the Lafayette Semistate Saturday in the game following Merrillville at Jefferson High School.

In the 4A regional at Butler Fieldhouse, top-ranked Pike (25-0) beat No. 2 Lawrence North 55-47 and stopped Indianapolis city rival Ben Davis 65-52 to advance to the 4A Southern Semistate against Evansville Harrison.  The Sagarin computer rankings have Pike as an 11-point neutral site favorite over any team in the state at any level.

Class 1A power Lafayette Central Catholic, which plays much larger schools all season, overwhelmed Tri-Central 70-56 and Wes Del 64-46 to win the Tipton Regional.  Catholic and Cass are big favorites over Blackhawk and Northfield in the two Warsaw Semistates Saturday.

BOONE GROVE (11-12)
Coach: Matt McKay

11-27-2002:   36-73 at Valparaiso (17-4)
12-5-2002:    61-46 Washington Township (9-11)
12-13-2002:  63-36 River Forest (7-14)
12-20-2002:  58-62 (OT) Kankakee Valley (3-18)
12-21-2002:  59-49 Knox (21-5)

South County Tournament (at Kouts)
12-27-2002:  55-58 Hebron (9-11) semifinals
12-28-2002:  58-69 Morgan Township (17-8) 3rd place
1-10-2003:  58-54 at Hanover Central (12-10)
1-18-2003:  46-65 at Portage (8-13)

Porter County Conference (PCC) Tournament
1-23-2003:  49-66 Morgan Township (17-8) quarterfinals
1-31-2003:  65-60 Kouts (18-4)
2-1-2003:  43-64 at Merrillville (15-11)
2-7-2003:  49-52 at Morgan Township (17-8)
2-8-2003:  54-32 at North Judson (3-18)
2-12-2003:  56-53 Hebron (9-11)
2-15-2003:  52-57 Wheeler (21-3)
2-20-2003:  53-62 Chesterton (16-6)
2-21-2003:  at 72-48 LaCrosse (10-10)
2-28-2003:  50-75 Lake Central (14-8)

BOONE GROVE (2A) Sectional
3-7-2003:  64-58 (OT) Rensselaer (12-9)
3-8-2003:  69-66 Wheeler (21-3)

Triton (2A) Regional
3-15-2003:  71-59 (OT) Triton (14-10)
3-15-2003:  42-59 Northfield (15-10)

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Revised: July 10, 2004 .