Shawe squeezes past Trinity

MADISON — For a team that missed seven free throws in the final quarter of a close basketball game, Shawe Memorial apparently had luck on its side.

In Saturday’s championship game of the Shawe Memorial Tournament, Shawe had a five-point lead over Trinity Lutheran three times in the final 1:30 from free throws. Trinity didn’t give up, as a triple team near half-court at 1:03 resulted in a turnover and two Bradley Tabeling free throws for a 44-42 ball game.

With 11 seconds remaining and the score at 48-43 after Dakota Jones’ missed free throw, Trinity’s Brandt Frische grabbed the rebound and ran to the top of the key and sank a 3-pointer seconds before the buzzer sounded, but the Cougars were short, 48-46.

The lead never rose above seven in the game, but the Cougars gave up a seven-point lead right before halftime by allowing the Hilltoppers to close it to 23-21.

“We had some opportunities in transition that we didn’t convert,” Cougars coach Jon Sprengel said of the second quarter. “We allowed them to get back within two at halftime, and maybe if we could have extended our lead a little bit more, maybe we would have been in a better position down the stretch.”

The Cougars’ 6-4 postman Tyler Pottschmidt worked the middle in the first quarter, and his second lay-in at 2:02 put Trinity up 8-3. Shawe’s only answer was Michael Kring, who scored the team’s eight points in the quarter, and Trinity had a 9-8 lead after one.

The game was tied three times in the second quarter until Matt Stuckwisch scored, Cameron Hensley connected on a trey and Pottschmidt received a nice pass inside for a 23-16 score. The Hilltoppers, however, scored five straight to close out the half.

“I thought in the first half, we did a great job moving the basketball, really getting the ball inside in the post to Tyler Pottschmidt,” Sprengel said. “He did a nice job, too, kicking it out, and we had good balance inside and outside.”

After two ties and two lead changes, Mingione’s third 3-pointer of the game at 3:03 of the third quarter gave Shawe a 30-26 lead and Kring’s score off of a steal made it 34-28. The Cougars then outscored the Hilltoppers 7-2, with Derrick Shelley’s trey at the buzzer closing Shawe’s lead to one.

In the third quarter, the Hilltoppers were already in the bonus.

“We definitely missed some opportunities on our end where we did force some turnovers, got some stops, but just didn’t get very good offensive possession,” Sprengel said. “I think the biggest thing we can learn from today is we’ve got to learn to play some defense without fouling and try to limit some of those fouls.”

Pottschmidt led the Cougars with 10 points and 14 rebounds, which was his second double-double of the day.

Chad VanLiew and Shelley each scored nine points, and VanLiew pulled down eight rebounds.

Mingione had a game-high 16 points and Kring added 15.

The teams will meet again on Jan. 2 at Shawe.

“Shawe is a good, fundamental basketball team,” Sprengel said. “They expose some of your weaknesses and show you some things you need to work on. I think it shows that our guys are going to come out and compete and play hard every night, and I truly believe if we do that and have that type of attitude and effort that we’re going to be in every game that we play this year.”

Trinity Lutheran 66, Medora 27

To reach the championship game, the Cougars had to get by Medora in the first round.
That task wasn’t too tall for Trinity, as the Cougars jumped out to a 21-4 lead after one and limited the Hornets to single digits the rest of the way for a 66-27 win.

Once again, Pottschmidt was the answer for the Cougars in the paint. He towered over the Hornet defenders, scoring 16 of his 22 points and pulling down six of his 12 rebounds in the first half. Trinity had a 45-13 lead at halftime.

The Cougars made 18 field goals in the first half, compared to the Hornets’ five.

“We got good looks, but we didn’t knock them down,” Hornets coach Marty Young said. “We were pretty calm that game, but Trinity was just a lot more physical than us. My kids aren’t ready to play that physical of a game. As much as we can have that physical play in practice, it doesn’t compare to the play in a real game.”

Logan Smith, Derek Crossman, Brad Bozarth and Ethan Wheeler each scored a field goal for the Hornets in the third quarter, when they outscored the Cougars 8-5. But Trinity regained its composure in the fourth quarter with five players combining for 16 points.

Shelley was the Cougars’ next-best scorer with 14 points.

Fort Wayne Keystone 100, Medora 50

After only scoring 27 and 38 points respectively in their first-round games, Medora and Fort Wayne Keystone had something to prove in the consolation matchup.

However, it was the Eagles who had the hot hand all the way for a 100-50 win.

The Eagles’ full-court press caused many of Medora’s 15 first-period turnovers. Plus, half of Garrett Wiesenberg’s six field goals in the first quarter were from 3-point land, and Keystone led 29-13 after one.

The Hornets ended the game with 35 turnovers after committing 17 against Trinity.

“Once they sped us up more, our turnovers started coming,” Young said. “I’ve been beating into my kids’ heads to get the ball to the middle and go. Once we did that (later in the game), our turnovers were way down. You’re catching the ball in bad parts of the court, and with our guards so small, it’s hard to pass over top of (the defenders).”

Medora managed to score in double figures every period, but Keystone scored at least 23 points in every quarter, leading 52-25 at halftime and 77-38 after three.

Josh Leichty’s free throw at 45 seconds made it a 100-48 game, and Michael Powell pulled down an offensive rebound, scored and drew the foul to close out the Hornets’ scoring.

Bozarth led Medora in both games, scoring six against Trinity and 11 against Keystone. Wes Ray added 10 and Wheeler had nine.

Wiesenberg led all scorers with 24, followed by Bret Vanlandingham with 21, Leichty 17 and Shawn Moore 15.
“We shot the ball poorly (32 percent),” Young said. “We were point-blank range and missed a lot of shots. You can’t give up 100 points in a game. I tried every defensive strategy I know, but until the kids put the effort into it and get rotation down and understand the fundamentals of defense, it’s going to be a struggle on the defensive end.”

But now that the season has begun, Young said, “It helps that we know what to go work on. I have a lot of young kids playing, new kids playing, so it’s good to get them in an atmosphere of what varsity basketball is actually about. Last year, we were in the same spot. We had a lot of kids that hadn’t played a whole lot, and throughout the season, we gradually saw improvement, and that’s what we’re looking for this year.”

The Hornets (0-2) will travel to Crothersville on Friday and the Cougars (1-1) will travel to Hauser on Tuesday.

Box scores

Shawe Memorial Tournament at Madison
First round
Trinity Lutheran 21 24 5 16—66
Medora 4 9 8 6—27

Trinity Lutheran: Matt Stuckwisch 2-4 0-0 6, Chad VanLiew 1-4 2-2 4, Tyler Pottschmidt 9-16 4-8 22, Derrick Shelley 6-14 1-1 14, Brandt Frische 3-6 0-0 8, Tyler Gray 1-6 0-2 2, Bradley Tabeling 3-5 1-1 7, Daniel Stuckwisch 0-0 2-2 2, Cameron Hensley 0-1 0-0 0, Jacob Newkirk 0-2 1-2 1, Zach Flinn 0-2 0-0 0, Andrew Pinnow 0-2 0-0 0, totals 25-66 11-18 66

Medora: Logan Smith 2-14 0-2 4, Wes Ray 1-7 2-2 4, Michael Powell 0-1 0-2 0, Brad Bozarth 3-8 0-0 6, Ethan Wheeler 2-7 0-0 5, Derek Crossman 1-5 0-2 2, Tyler Ault 2-7 0-0 4, Corey Hanson 0-0 2-2 2, Alex Thompson 0-0 0-1 0, Glen England 0-1 0-0 0, Shade Fisher 0-0 0-0 0, totals 11-50 4-11 27

3-point goals: Trinity Lutheran (Frische 2, Stuckwisch 2, Shelley), Medora (Wheeler)

Rebounds: Trinity Lutheran 40 (Pottschmidt 12, Shelley 6, VanLiew 5), Medora 24 (Bozarth 5, Ray 4, Ault 4)

Turnovers: Trinity Lutheran 17, Medora 19
Fouls: Trinity Lutheran 14, Medora 16

Shawe Memorial 70, Fort Wayne Keystone 38
Consolation
Medora 13 12 13 12—50
FW Keystone 29 23 25 23—100

Medora (0-2): Smith 3-12 0-4 7, Ray 3-6 4-4 10, Powell 2-5 1-5 6, Bozarth 4-10 3-4 11, Wheeler 4-7 0-2 9, Crossman 0-2 0-2 0, Ault 1-9 5-8 7, Hanson 0-2 0-0 0, Thompson 0-0 0-0 0, England 0-0 0-0 0, Fisher 0-0 0-0 0, totals 17-53 13-29 50

Fort Wayne Keystone (1-1): Garrett Wiesenberg 9-13 1-3 24, Josh Leichty 6-18 1-3 17, Bret Vanlandingham 8-19 0-0 21, Michael Grier 4-8 0-3 8, Jacob Leonhardt 2-5 0-0 4, Chris Becker 1-4 0-0 2, Shawn Moore 6-12 2-3 15, Jon Glover 3-6 0-1 6, Demetri Fincher 1-6 1-3 3, Arucha Rachatachaiudom 0-1 0-0 0, Li Yuanjie 0-0 0-0 0, totals 40-92 5-16 100

3-point goals: Medora (Wheeler, Powell, Smith), Fort Wayne Keystone (Wiesenberg 5, Leichty 4, Vanlandingham 4, Moore)

Rebounds: Medora 33 (Bozarth 7, Ault 7, Ray 7), Fort Wayne Keystone 43 (Wiesenberg 8, Becker 7)

Turnovers: Medora 35, Fort Wayne Keystone 17

Fouls: Medora 14 (fouled out: Wheeler), Fort Wayne Keystone 24

Championship
Shawe Memorial 8 13 15 12—48
Trinity Lutheran 9 14 12 11—46

Trinity Lutheran (1-1): M. Stuckwisch 2-5 2-4 6, VanLiew 3-10 3-6 9, Pottschmidt 4-7 2-4 10, Shelley 4-9 0-0 9, Frische 1-7 0-0 3, Gray 0-0 0-0 0, Tabeling 1-10 4-6 6, Hensley 1-2 0-0 3, totals 16-50 11-20 46

Shawe Memorial (3-0): Nico Mingione 6-10 0-0 16, Michael Kring 4-13 5-7 15, Dakota Jones 0-3 3-5 3, Brandon Scroggins 1-6 6-8 8, Matt Armstrong 1-7 2-6 4, David Grote 1-2 0-0 2, Campbell Higbie 0-1 0-0 0, totals 13-42 16-26 48

3-point goals: Trinity Lutheran (Hensley, Shelley, Frische), Shawe Memorial (Mingione 4, Kring)

Rebounds: Trinity Lutheran 30 (Pottschmidt 14, VanLiew 8), Shawe Memorial 38 (Scroggins 9, Armstrong 5, Kring 5)

Turnovers: Trinity Lutheran 11, Shawe Memorial 11

Fouls: Trinity Lutheran 19 (fouled out: Gray, VanLiew), Shawe Memorial 13 (fouled out: Kring)