Tough times for Hornets, Cougars

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EDINBURGH

Trinity Lutheran and Medora fell into the losers bracket of the Edinburgh Holiday Classic on Tuesday to open holiday tournament play.

Medora didn’t have enough offense to match Jac-Cen-Del in the opening game of the tournament and fell 65-39. The Hornets also came up on the short end of a 71-25 score against Indianapolis Lutheran in the consolation bracket.

Trinity fell to South Decatur 57-50, then battled Christel House Academy late Tuesday night.

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The Cougars beat Christel 81-63 and will play in the fifth-/sixth-place game at 4 p.m. today.

Cougars fall

Trinity held a 48-44 lead on South Decatur following a layup by Jacob Rowe with 1:30 remaining.

South Decatur then went on a 7-0 run for a 51-48 lead with 43.9 seconds remaining.

After Kendall White hit a free throw with 38 seconds remaining to make it a 51-49 game, Decatur sealed the win with six free throws in the final 37 seconds.

Trinity coach Brian Stuckwisch said missed free throws and turnovers hurt his team.

“We had some pretty important free throws that we missed,” he said as Trinity missed three in the final minute, four overall in the fourth period and shot only 12-for-20 for the game.

“We had more turnovers than we’d like to have. We had 11 in the first half and usually we only have 11 for a game.”

Trinity had 20 turnovers for the game, and South had 15 overall.

South jumped out to a 9-5 lead before Colton Wischmeier scored five straight points, and Chad Stuckwisch added a 3-pointer to give Trinity a 12-9 lead.

A basket by Josh Rowe at 3:50 of the second period put Trinity on top 18-10, and the Cougars went into the locker room on top 21-18.

Wischmeier topped Trinity in scoring with 20 points, and Kendall White scored 11 and had a game-high 12 rebounds.

“Colton had a good game, and Kendall had a good game coming back off an injury,” Stuckwisch said. “We took it out on being aggressive to the basket and got them in foul trouble. I saw a lot of good things on offense and defense both. Our defense was decent until the end of the game. We missed a couple of plays.”

He said his team played much better this game than it did against Decatur in the opening game of the season.

“I saw some good things we’ll take away from this game. You don’t want to lose, but there are some good things to take away. We’ve just got to build off of them. ”

Matt Cornett was high scorer for Decatur with 19 points.

Hornets drop pair

Medora fell behind early in both of its games Tuesday.

Jac-Cen-Del opened a 17-10 lead after the first period, the increased its lead to 34-14 at the half.

Brandon Moore had an excellent offensive game for the Hornets with eight field goals, including four 3-point baskets, and he was 7-for-9 at the line for 27 points.

The Saints started the second period on a 11-2 run to lead 34-14 on a layup by Clayton Pittman with 3:20 on the clock.

The Saints increased their lead to 40-18 at the half.

Lutheran outscored Medora 16-3 in the third quarter. Medora’s points came on a 3-point basket by Gavin Henson with three minutes left in the period.

Hornets coach Mark Morin said he thought his team had its best game of the season against Jac-Cen-Del.

“We played two good teams,” he said. “Indy Lutheran was very athletic, and quicker and stronger. We had to sit back in that 2-3 zone, and they were hitting their shots.

“I thought we started off the game playing fairly well because I thought we were coming off our best game this morning against Jac-Cen-Del, and I think we just ran out of gas.

“We lean on Brandon quite a bit, and when he runs out of gas, the whole team runs out of gas.”

Moore topped the Hornets against Lutheran with 19 points.

Brandon Perry topped Lutheran with 13 points. A total of 11 players scored for the Saints, while three players scored for Medora.

“We’ve got to take the positives and build on them so hopefully we’ll come back (today) and play better,” Morin said.

Medora is 0-10 and plays at 2 p.m. today for seventh or eighth place.

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