Hanover Central wraps first winning season since mid-90s, loses sectional opener to North Newton, 73-51
A USA-365.com Special Report By Mark Smith

Tuesday, March 4, 2003  at Boone Grove (2A) Sectional quarterfinal

NORTH NEWTON (73)   Michael Hanger 4-2-13, Jocque Sheldon 5-0-14, Brock Iseminger 1-5-7, Josh Hutsell 3-3-9, Brandon Hooks 1-0-2, Tim Brunton 0-2-2, Jonothan Corbin 8-8-24, Justin Lafoon 0-2-2, Kyle Barone 0-0-0.  TOTALS:  22-22-73

FGS: 22-43, 51.1percent (Sheldon 5-6, Corbin 8-15, Hanger 4-7, Iseminger 1-6)
FTS: 22-32,. 68.7%  (Corbin 8-10, Iseminger 5-8, Josh Hutsell 3-4)
ASSISTS: Michael Hanger - 5
REBOUNDS: Jonothan Corbin  - 12
FOULED OUT: none
3-POINT GOALS (7) Jocque Sheldon 4, Michael Hanger 3

HANOVER CENTRAL (51)  Brandon Hegg 2-0-4, Jeff Johnson 4-0-9, Jon Radosevich 4-1-11, Eddie Roberts 2-2-6, Greg Shroka 4-0-11, Aleks Case 1-0-3,  Doug Bilinski 0-1-1, Owen Goff 1-4-6, Adam Miller 0-0-0, Jeremy Peterson 0-0-0, Matt Jackson 0-0-0, David Ploetz 0-0-0.  TOTALS: 18-8-51.
FGS: 18-46, 39. 1 percent (Radosevich 4-7, Johnson 4-13, Case 1-8, Shroka 4-5)
FTS: 8-15,  53.3 percent  (Goff 4-4, Roberts 2-2, Radosevich 1-4) 
ASSISTS: Eddie Roberts - 3
REBOUNDS: Eddie Roberts - 5
3-POINT GOALS (9) Greg Shroka 3, Jon Radosevich 2, Aleks Case,  Jeff Johnson.

PORTER TOWNSHIP (3-4-2003) -  Sometimes you're not ready for prime time.
As promising as Hanover Central's season had been, you can't sugarcoat the five-game  season-ending losing streak, much less the stinging 73-51 dismissal by North Newton at Tuesday night's Boone Grove Class 2A Sectional quarterfinals.

A team that posted a winning season for the first time since the mid-90s and had a 12-5 record in late February, went out on a down note, getting soundly rejected by a team they had defeated earlier in the year.

"It leaves a bad taste in your mouth," admitted Hanover coach Dave Uran.

Whether they overlooked the Spartans (12-9) or whether the were looking ahead to a semifinal matchup with Porter County Conference (PCC) champion Wheeler doesn't matter now, it's baseball season in Cedar Lake and a couple of lessons may have been learned.

"The kids said they want next season to start tomorrow," said Uran, who completed his first season a tad prematurely for his taste.  "That's a real good sign."

Hanover led 15-11 at the quarter and were up 20-17 and 24-23 before the Spartans scored the final eight points of the second period in a telling sequence.

The Cats scrambled to tie the game 32-32  before 6-2 senior Michael Hanger sank three three-point shots in a row to give the Spartans a 41-32 lead.

"The last two games," said North Newton coach Tim Loughmiller, "we've shot the ball at 50 percent or better.  We're tough to beat when we do that.  The last part of the season we've been preaching to attack the basket.  When you do that, you can kick it back out and have an inside-outside game."

Down by nine, Hanover became shaky.  The Cats, who played much of the game without 6-4 forward Brandon Hegg, (foul trouble), closed to within 51-45 with 6:07 left in the game but they got no loser.

Corbin, the Spartans' 6-3 center, began to have his way inside.  He grabbed offensive rebounds for scores and freed himself up for layups as his teammates drove into the lane.  After scoring just five points with one first half rebound, Corbin finished with 24 points and 18 rebounds.

Greg Shroka's three-point basket was the only thing that interrupted a 17-3 Spartan run in the fourth quarter that sent many into the snowy weeknight parking lot.  North Newton paid HC back for a 70-51 HC win at the 2002 Wheeler 2A Sectional.

"Our weakness all year long was that we don't really have a post layer," admitted Uran.  Eddie Roberts and Aleks Case (HC's two tallest players) are really small forwards.  He (Corbin) took advantage of us inside."

The Spartans played a 1-3-1 defense against Hanover to help cover up long range shooter Jeff Johnson (14.1 ppg.), who scored only nine points.  Johnson had not played in the Wildcats' earlier 61-58 win at North Newton in January.  That game may have worked in the Spartans' favor.

"We looked at the tape of that game," Loughmiller said, "and we missed a lot of shots.  We usually play a 1-3-1, but we couldn't do it a lot in that game because we fell behind. They (HC) are a lot better than they showed tonight.  I know they've had a good record this year. Their shots didn't fall tonight.  We were fortunate.  I felt like we owed them one.  We beat them during the regular season last year and then they whomped on us at the sectional.  To tell the truth, I thought this would be a close game."

Uran added, "I don't know if we took them lightly," he wondered. "Maybe because we beat them before without Jeff we thought it would be easy tonight.  I don't know."

Hanover Central was hurt badly when Brandon Hegg picked up a questionable offensive foul (his third) in the middle of the second quarter.  Then, just 29 seconds into the third period, Hegg, HC's redheaded floor leader, drew his fourth foul and had to sit down.

"I thought the offensive foul call was really bad," said Uran. "And when he drew the fourth foul, we had an inexperienced team out there.  Brandon's our best player.  He's the MVP of our season.  You could see that we missed him out there."

The final moments of the game were a little bizarre as Corbin and HC's Eddie Roberts tried unsuccessfully to dunk the ball on lobs and drives.  Neither coach was thrilled with the final minute silliness but it gave some boys on the losing side a bit of a laugh in an otherwise dismal finale.

"We should've been ahead early and then we wouldn't have been chasing them," said Uran.  "Sheldon (14 first half points) was hurting us early, and we went to a box and one to take him out.  But that leaves something else open."

"You've got to give them (North Newton) credit.  We beat them down there and they came out hard here tonight."

"It was a step forward," he said.  "We end up with a winning record.  But we lost our last five and when you get in the position we were in, you want more.  We don't want to be a marginal .500 team and we didn't get over the hump.  We saw it but we didn't get over it."

CAT NOTES:  Hanover missed Adam Suarez, a 6-1 inside player who broke his leg at Boone Grove in the PCC tournament.  "He was an inside presence for us," said Uran. "We got pushed around inside tonight."

Uran said that Friday night's 54-53 upset loss with River Forest didn't have an effect on the sectional game.  The Cats lost on a three-point basket with three seconds to play by Josh Elea.

"I was trying to tell the kids all week long don't look past these guys," said Uran. "I don't know if they did."

Wheeler beat Lake Station 71-51 in Tuesday's first 2A Boone Grove sectional quarterfinal game.  The BearCats (20-2) led 44-22 at the half.

This will be the final North Newton-Hanover Central sectional game for some time.  The new IHSAA sectional alignment came out Tuesday and HC is now grouped with Boone Grove, Lake Station, Wheeler and Bishop Noll in the five-team 2A region sectional until 2007.

2003 HANOVER CENTRAL (12-10)
FINAL   -      Coach Dave Uran (1st year)

11-26-2002:  60-34 at Lake Station (1-20)
11-29-2002:  49-38 Elmwood Park, Ill. (11-15)
12-6-2002:  49-38 vs. HEBRON (9-11)
12-13-2002:  52-61 at WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP  (9-12)
12-21-2002: 59-45 at Kankakee Valley (3-18)
12-28-2002:  41-40 Gavit (1-20)
1-3-2003:  44-48 Lowell  (10-12)
1-7-2003:  62-56 Whiting (8-13)
1-10-2003:  54-58 BOONE GROVE (8-11)
1-14-2003:  45-42 at Beecher, Ill. (6-10)

Porter County Conference (PCC) Tournament
1-23-2003:  77-70 (OT) Hebron (9-11) quarterfinals
1-25-2003:  60-59 Morgan Township (12-7) semifinals
1-25-2003:  67-98 Wheeler (21-2) championship
1-31-2003:  60-78 MORGAN TOWNSHIP (15-7)
2-1-2003:  61-58 at North Newton (12-10)
2-4-2003:  64-62 Clark  (6-14)
2-7-2003:  84-77 LaCROSSE  (10-9)
2-13-2003:  55-85 at Wheeler (21-2)
2-21-2003:  70-84 at KOUTS (19-3)
2-25-2003:  64-67 (OT) Morton (12-9)
2-28-2003:  53-54 at River Forest (7-14)

Boone Grove (2A) Sectional
3-4-2003:  51-73 North Newton (10-11)

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Revised: July 10, 2004 .