• LIC tournament — At Bridgeport, Ill., Casey and Marshall were two of the winners in Little Illini Conference tournament action Saturday in boys high school basketball games at Red Hill.

Casey defeated Red Hill 66-60, and Marshall bested Cumberland 69-39 to set up a matchup of the Clark County schools in one semifinal game to be played Tuesday night.

Flora is the defending champion and met Edwards County in the late game Saturday and likely will meet Hutsonville-Palestine in the first semifinal contest. Flora took a 19-2 record into the tournament.

Casey was up 46-35 going into the final frame and hit free throws, six by Scales, to pull away from the Salukis after they had pulled within three points in the final minutes.

Scales led the Warriors, now 10-5, with 22 points, three rebounds, three steals and two blocks. Matt McCown had 13 points and six boards for the Warriors.

Marshall’s Taylor Maurer had 17 points, eight rebounds and three blocks for the 14-5 Lions. Logan Cannady came off the bench to hit five 3-pointers and finished with 15 points. Jacob Duncan had nine points, five rebounds and six assists, while Thomas Sisson had nine points and four steals.

MARSHALL, Ill. — On a stormy night, winter style, Marshall had the recipe for a perfect storm inside on the basketball court.

Marshall ran off two — count ‘em — two 10-0 runs in the first quarter with “nary” a turnover to set the tone for an easy 64-38 victory over visiting West Vigo in a boys high school game in the Don G. McNary Gym on Friday.

The outcome was in stark contrast to these teams’ battle in the third-place game of the Pizza Hut Wabash Valley Classic, won by Marshall 49-47 on Dec. 30.

“Sometimes you have to earn the right to win and right now we’re not playing well enough to earn anything,” West Vigo coach Joe Boehler said. “Just making a lot of mistakes … mistakes offensively, mistakes defensively, can’t rebound. We’re making way too many mistakes to even deserve to win a basketball game right now.

“We need to look in a mirror and figure out what’s going on with our team, how we can try and fix some things. Until we do that, we’re going to continue to struggle.”

“The key to this ballgame was the circumstances [weather] around, you might have a tendency for your mind to wander,” Marshall coach Tom Brannan said. “I thought we came out with a focus, did a great job defensively … kept [West Vigo] from getting second shots. No. 2, I thought we executed our offense really well tonight.”

Jared Boyll scored on an old-fashioned three-point play, Taylor Maurer scored on a fast break, Jacob Duncan had a putback, then nailed a 3-pointer. Just like that, Marshall led 10-0 with two minutes, 15 seconds elapsed.

West Vigo stayed within 14-6, then the host Lions did it again.

Thomas Sisson made two free throws, Logan Cannady hit a trey, Sisson scored from inside, then Duncan nailed another trey. Just like that, again, Marshall was up 24-6 after the first quarter.

The beat kept rolling in the second quarter, with the Lions stretching their lead to 33-6, scoring the first nine points. Cannady and Boyll hit 3s, Duncan scored from inside and Cray Bloodworth hit one of two free throws.

West Vigo did score on its last five possessions of the first half, but was still down 39-18 at intermission.

The Vikings got within 53-35 early in the fourth quarter, but 3s by Sisson and Drew Morris brought the reserves in to close out the final four minutes.

Marshall showed great offensive balance as 11 of its 12 players scored. The Lions were red hot from beyond the 3-point arc too, firing at a 55-percent pace (11 of 20). Six different Lions made 3-pointers and the Lions committed just four turnovers, only two coming with the starters in the game.

Sisson, Duncan and Walker Berner scored 14, 12 and 10 points respectively. Cannady, coming back from an ankle injury, hit three 3s off the bench for nine points. Duncan also led the Lions with six rebounds and four steals.

Adrien Corenflos was the lone bright spot for the Vikings with 14 points — hitting 3 of 5 3-pointers — and six rebounds.

“Got off to a terrible start, then rushed ourselves on things,” Boehler said. “That just led us into an even deeper hole. We’re just going to have to figure some things out and figure out how we can move on.”

“Knock on wood [Brannan actually was knocking on some material other than wood when he tapped his knuckles on a bleacher seat], we are improving,” Brannan continued. “I feel really good about this team. Every night we’re stepping up, getting better. It’s a total team thing. One night it’s one guy, next night it’s another guy.

“Logan Cannady’s been injured, but I think in a way it’s kind of helped us by getting some young guys to step up. That’s been huge.”



WEST VIGO (38) — Thornton 3-6 0-2 6, Gregg 0-3 0-2 0, Corenflos 5-9 1-2 14, Lindsey 2-5 1-2 5, Houser 3-10 2-3 8, Stewart 0-4 2-2 2, Cardinal 1-1 0-1 2, Maples 0-0 1-2 1, West 0-0 0-0 0, Mackey 0-1 0-0 0, Kirby 0-1 0-0 0, Wilkinson 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 14-40 FG, 7-16 FT, 38 TP.

MARSHALL (64) — Maurer 2-7 0-2 4, Berner 4-7 0-0 10, Boyll 2-3 1-1 6, Sisson 5-11 2-2 14, Duncan 5-10 0-0 12, Cannady3-5 0-0 9, Bloodworth 0-0 1-2 1, Myers 0-0 1-2 1, Osborn 1-1 0-0 2, Morris 1-1 0-0 3, Davidson 1-1 0-0 2, Rice 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 24-47 FG, 5-9 FT, 64 TP.

West Vigo    6    12    13    7    —    38

Marshall-24    15    14    11    —    64

3-point shooting — WV 3-15 (Gregg 0-2, Corenflos 3-5, Lindsey 0-1, Houser 0-3, Stewart 0-3, Kirby 0-1), M 11-20 (Berner 2-5, Boyll 1-2, Sisson 2-4, Duncan 2-3, Cannady 3-5, Morris 1-1). Rebounds — WV 28 (Thornton 6, Corenflos 6, Gregg 5), M 26 (Duncan 6). Steals — WV 1 (Cardinal), M 8 (Duncan 4). Blocks — WV 0, M 1 (Duncan). Turnovers — WV 12, M 4. Total fouls — WV 8, M 12. Fouled out — none.

JV — Marshall 46 (Cray Bloodworth 19), West Vigo 38 (Alex West 17).

Next — West Vigo (9-7) plays host to Shakamak today. Marshall (13-5) opposes Cumberland in the Little Illini Conference tournament today.

TERRE HAUTE — Friday night’s high school basketball results pretty much assured a good weekend for both Marshall and Shakamak before they met Saturday afternoon in the second game of the Temple-Inland State Farm Insurance Union Sports Medicine Shootout in Hulman Center.

And the Lions, after holding off St. Joseph-Ogden by a point less than 24 hours earlier, continued on that success with a 45-32 win over the Lakers.

Shakamak, coming off a 20-point road win against Class A’s fourth-ranked North Daviess a night earlier, shot just 27 percent from the field in the second game of its back-to-back games. The Lakers, who don’t substitute often, may have also been affected by the longer college court.

Not an excuse for coach Steve Brett, however. “We played pretty dang well last night. But if you’re going to be a good basketball team, you can’t have letdowns,” he said after the game.

“We played a tough game last night. We fought pretty hard,” noted coach Tom Brannan of the Lions. “For our guys to come back and play like they did, I’m impressed and proud of the boys.”

Marshall never trailed after taking a 9-8 lead at the end of the first quarter on an alley-oop layup by Thomas Sisson from Jacob Duncan’s pass, but the score was tied 12-12 after a free throw by Shakamak’s Kyle Schubla with 2:34 left in the first half.

Duncan then put the Lions ahead to stay with a personal 7-0 run. He stole the ball and drove for a layup, set up a Taylor Maurer basket with another drive, then hit a 3-pointer to give the Lions a 19-12 lead at intermission.

Shakamak got within 24-22 in the third quarter and was within 29-24 at the third stop. But Duncan got assists on a basket by Maurer and a 3-pointer by reserve Drew Morris to open the fourth period and the lead was 10 points.

Shakamak quickly cut into that margin with a jumper by Jeb Batchelor, a sudden full-court press, a 3-pointer by Brodie Crowe and a free throw by Justin Crody. But once Marshall adjusted to the Lakers’ defensive change, there were some easy baskets to be had and the Lions closed out the game with an 11-2 run.

“Shakamak’s a good team,” Brannan said, “with a contrasting style [to St. Joseph-Ogden]. Give the boys credit for adjusting.”

“We didn’t shoot the ball as well today as we did [Friday],” Brett noted. “There was just too much inactivity on our part to challenge [Marshall’s] defense.”

That’s a good defense too, Brett acknowledged, better than the one that’s North Daviess’ pride and joy.

“Our boys take a lot of pride in [our defense],” Brannan said. “They’re bearing down on every possession.”

Walker Berner, who scored Marshall’s first seven points, led the Lions with 11 points and Maurer added 10; Duncan had nine points and six assists. Crowe led the Lakers with 10 points and nine rebounds.

 

MARSHALL (45) — Berner 4-5 1-2 11, Boyll 2-5 0-0 5, Maurer 5-9 0-1 10, Duncan 3-9 2-2 9, Sisson 2-4 3-4 7, Myers 0-0 0-0 0, Bloodworth 0-0 0-0 0, Morris 1-1 0-0 3, Rice 0-0 0-0 0, Osborn 0-0 0-0 0, Davidson 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 17-33 FG, 6-9 FT, 45 TP.

SHAKAMAK (32) — Crowe 4-12 0-0 10, Green 1-8 0-0 3, Crody 3-9 1-2 7, Dowell 2-10 2-2 6, Schubla 0-2 2-4 2, Collins 0-1 0-0 0, Batchelor 2-2 0-0 4, Morin 0-0 0-0 0, Yeryar 0-0 0-0 0, Cox 0-0 0-0 0, West 0-1 0-0 0, Burris 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 12-45 FG, 5-8 FT, 32 TP.

Marshall    9    10    10    16    —    45   

Shakamak    8    4    12    8    —    32

3-point shooting — Marshall 5-12 (Berner 2-3, Morris 1-1, Boyll 1-3, Duncan 1-4, Maurer 0-1), Shakamak 3-16 (Crowe 2-6, Green 1-3, Collins 0-1, Schubla 0-2, Dowell 0-4). Total fouls — Marshall 10, Shakamak 11. Fouled out — none. Turnovers — Marshall 15, Shakamak 14. Rebounds — Marshall 22 (Boyll 5), Shakamak 33 (Crody 10, Crowe 9). Assists — Marshall 12 (Duncan 6), Shakamak 9 (Dowell 4, Crowe 3). Steals — Marshall 9 (Maurer 5), Shakamak 7 (Crody 3, Crowe 2, Dowell 2). Blocks — Marshall 1 (Bloodworth), Shakamak 1 (Crowe).

Next — Marshall (12-5) has a home game Friday against West Vigo. Shakamak (8-5) is also home that night against White River Valley.

TERRE HAUTE — Shakamak and Marshall picked up big boys high school basketball victories Friday night, prior to today’s meeting between the Lakers and Lions in Indiana State’s Hulman Center.

The Lakers upset Class A No. 4 North Daviess by a score of 60-40, and Marshall beat perennial power St. Joseph-Ogden 54-53 at Marshall, Ill.

At Marshall, the Lions led by as many as 21 points in the first half and had a 20-point lead at halftime but needed Taylor Maurer’s free throw with five seconds left in the game to win for the 11th time.

Marshall had a 16-7 lead at the first stop and fronted 39-19 at halftime. The host Lions still had a 47-35 lead going into the fourth period but the Spartans used a 14-3 run to gain a 53-53 tie with 1 minute, 18 seconds to play.

Both teams missed a shot in the final minute. Maurer was fouled after the Spartans’ miss and hit one of two free throws to give the Lions the victory.

Jacob Duncan had 20 points, four rebounds and four assists for the 11-5 Lions. Thomas Sisson had 18 points, three rebounds and two steals while Maurer had seven points and five boards and Jared Boyll pulled down eight rebounds.

Brent Schluter tallied 16 points for the 13-6 Spartans, who lost their second game of the week.

Marshall again played without leading scorer Logan Cannady, out with an ankle injury. Taylor Sanders and Baylor Myers also were out with injuries.

No further details were available on the Shakamak win.



ST. JOSEPH-OGDEN (53) — Hesterberg 5 0-0 10, Hovelyn 0 0-0 0, Acklin 2 0-1 4, Patton 6 0-0 14, Michael 3 1-1 9, Schluter 6 4-6 16. Totals 22 FG, 5-8 FT, 53 TP.

MARSHALL (54) — Osborn 1 0-0 2, Bloodworth 1 0-0 2, Sisson 8 1-4 18, Duncan 8 3-3 20, Boyll 0 0-0 0, Berner 2 0-0 5, Maurer 3 1-3 7. Totals 23 FG, 5-10 FT, 54 TP.

St. Joseph-Ogden    7    12    16    18    —    53

Marshall    16    23    8    7    —    54

3-point goals — Patton 2, Michael 2, Sisson, Duncan, Berner. Total fouls — SJO 12, Marshall 9. Fouled out — none.

JV — SJO 44, Marshall 29.

Next — Marshall (11-5) plays Shakamak today at Hulman Center. St. Joseph-Ogden is 13-6.

MARSHALL, Ill. — Fresh off its impressive third-place finish in the Pizza Hut Wabash Valley Classic last week, Marshall was hoping to earn its 10th win of the regular season with a solid start to 2012.

Meanwhile, Paris was seeking to make its New Year’s resolution of reaching the .500 mark – and hopefully beyond – come true against the Lions in their 2012 opener.

Well, it didn’t take long for Marshall to reach 10 wins and Paris to slip two games under .500. Did I say in a big hurry? With alacrity?

Marshall scored on its initial 11 possessions en route to a decisive 62-32 victory over visiting Paris in a nonconference boys high school basketball game at the Lions' gym on Tuesday.

Paris did its darndest to stem the tide, but to no avail, calling three timeouts in the first quarter alone.

Marshall’s ballhawking defense forced 19 Paris turnovers, creating several easy fast-break baskets. Individually, Taylor Maurer dominated the interior, leading all scorers with 27 points on 11-of-14 shooting accuracy.

“I thought our big man [Maurer] did a great job tonight . . . a monster game," Marshall coach Tom Brannan said.

The defense keyed Marshall assuming a 6-0 lead after just 73 seconds had elapsed – timeout No. 1.

The Lions duplicated that feat for a 12-0 lead, taking one minute, 41 seconds this time – timeout No. 2.

By the time Paris called its third timeout, the Lions were leading 20-3 with 2:08 left in the first quarter. One more Paris turnover later, Marshall was sailing with a 23-3 lead on a stepback 3-pointer by reserve Walker Berner.

“I thought we did a great job in our 1-3-1 [defense], got into the passing lanes, a lot of tipped balls,” Brannan noted. “But what I thought we did better than we have all year long was convert off those tipped passes We just haven’t made the layups on the other end this season. We did tonight.”

Marshall kept up the defensive intensity in the second quarter, its lead reaching 28 points on three occassions – including a 40-12 lead at intermission.

The dominance didn’t let up in the third quarter either, the Lions extending their lead to 43 points at its apex, before their bench played extensively in the final eight minutes.

Thomas Sisson was a disruptive force on defense for the Lions, while scoring 11 points on 5-of-7 shooting. Maurer had seven rebounds, two steals and a blocked shot. Jacob Duncan added nine points, all coming in the first half.

Paris was paced by Austin Temples with eight points. To be fair, the Tigers were playing without their senior center Josh Cary due to injury.

Marshall (10-4) will play in the Kessler's Shootout at Tolono Unity on Saturday. Paris (6-8) is at Salem in a Apollo Conference matchup the same day.

PARIS (32) – Spencer 2-9 1-3 5, Farnham 1-3 0-0 2, Temples 3-9 1-1 8, Hodgson 2-7 1-2 5, Larrance 1-6 0-0 3, Breeding 0-1 0-0 0, Malone 2-2 0-0 4, Murphy 0-2 1-2 1, Arp 2-3 0-0 4, Mason 0-1 0-0 0, Staley 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 13-43 FG, 4-8 FT, 32 TP.

MARSHALL (62) – Duncan 4-10 0-0 9, Maurer 11-14 3-4 25, CAnnady 2-4 0-0 5, Sisson 5-7 1-1 11, Boyll 1-2 0-0 2,l Berner 1-3 0-0 3, Sanders 1-5 0-0 2, Morris 0-1 0-0 0, Bloodworth 1-4 0-1 2, Myers 1-2 0-0 3, Davidson 0-0 0-0 0, Rice 0-0 0-0 0, Osborn 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 27-52 FG, 4-6 FT, 62 TP.

Paris    3    9    6    14         –32

Marshall    23    17    20    2        –62

3-point shooting – Paris 2-10 (Temples 1-5, Hodgson 0-2, Larrance 1-3), Marshall 4-14 (Duncan 1-3, Cannady 1-3, Sisson 0-1, Boyll 0-1, Berner 1-2, Morris 0-1, Bloodworth 0-1, Myers 1-2). Rebounds – Paris 23 (Hodgson 4), Spencer 3, Temples 3), Marshall 31 (Maurer 7, Duncan 5, Sisson 5, Boyll 4). Steals – Paris 5 (Temples 2), Marshall 12 (Duncan 2, Maurer 2, Sisson 2). Blocks – Paris 2 (Malone 2), Marshall 1 (Maurer. Turnovers – Paris 19, Marshall 14. Total fouls – Paris 7, Marshall 11. Fouled out – none.

JV -- Marshall 42 (Drew Morris 13, Walker Berner 11), Paris 31 (Bobby Staley 7).

TERRE HAUTE — There are more things to love about the Pizza Hut Wabash Valley Classic than could fit in this newspaper, but one of this year’s best things was that for an hour or so on Wednesday, it was Justin Paddock’s world and we were just living in it.

Justin, for those of you who don’t know him, is a freshman basketball player at Turkey Run. When you watch him warm up before the game you aren’t surprised by the freshman part, because Justin isn’t very tall (5-foot-3 seems to be the official height) and is very (sorry dude, I can’t avoid this description) cute.

He saw action at the end of all three of the Warrior games, but on Wednesday in the waning seconds against Terre Haute South he launched a 25-footer — and buried it. The cheers that followed might have been as loud as the tournament got until the championship game din between Terre Haute North and Sullivan, and North’s fans — who were in place to see their team play later, and who were seated next to the Turkey Run cheering section — adopted him immediately, to the point of serenading him (JUST-in PADD-ock, JUST-in PADD-ock) when he emerged from the locker room about a half hour after the game (which required a little research, since his name wasn’t in the program). Autographs were sought, I’m told.

If that was my favorite moment of this year’s tournament, however, it wasn’t my favorite play. This happened with 17 seconds left in Tuesday’s first-round game between Linton and Monrovia.

If you have your list of scores handy, you’ll realize Linton was leading by 30 points at the time. But when a ball got loose on the court, six players hit the floor going for it. Kudos to coaches Joey Hart and Chris Sampson for teaching their players how to compete.

Here are a couple of other oddities I noticed last week.

• Best fans, part one — He’s not Lew Drake yet (my former son-in-law’s father has seen more minutes of PHWVC basketball than any other paying fan, I’m willing to bet) but Rockville’s Joel Wittenmyer, for the second year in a row, was around quite a bit.

I arrived before 10 a.m. Tuesday, and Joel was in the stands when I got there (Rockville’s game was at 2:30 p.m.).

Before that game was over, the Sullivan fans were streaming in (they played Rockville, remember), and during the second game that day I saw some Northview people (the Knights were going to play at 8:30 p.m.).

• Best fans, part two — There were several big contingents of adult fans at the tournament, Shakamak and Rockville being particularly noticeable to me. But the folks from Sullivan and Marshall actually know their team’s cheers and yell right along with the cheerleaders.

(I mention this point out that, despite what at least one school seems to believe, it is not illegal for cheerleaders to actually lead cheers.)

Student fans? North’s Woelf Pack isn’t always polite or as clever as they think they are, but I give them props for being loud and well organized.

• Best sideline coaching — Early in the Wednesday game between Linton and Marshall (when the Lions were without leading scorer Logan Cannady), Marshall’s Walker Berner passed up a shot in the corner. Walker can stroke it (he is left-handed, after all), and coach Tom Brannan yelled out “Don’t be afraid to shoot it.” By the time the words were out of his mouth, however, the Lions had reversed the ball to the other corner to 6-5 Taylor Maurer. “Not you,” Brannan continued, not quite as loudly.

Maurer, of course, drained the 3-pointer he wasn’t supposed to take and added two more of them before the first quarter was over.

• Just lob it up there near the basket — With less than a second left before the end of a quarter in a Thursday game between Linton and Casey, Linton’s Sam Dyar was throwing an in-bounds pass from midcourt. Linton’s frontline, remember, includes 6-8 Austin Karazsia and 6-5 Dess Fougerousse, so the plan was to attempt an alley-oop pass.

Of course Dyar banked it in.

(And if you think an awful lot of unusual plays seem to happen when the Miners are playing, you are not alone.)

• Longest eight minutes of basketball in recorded history — Same game, Miners trailing, Hart trying to extend the game. Here are some stats for you: 13 of 30 field goal attempts, 21 of 45 free throw attempts, 26 personal fouls.

In the fourth quarter.

And now some awards:

• Best game — That 2:30 contest on the first day, Rockville vs. Sullivan was maybe the best PHWVC contest ever in terms of intensity and passion. The North-South game that followed, which was also a dandy, paled by comparison (and had a smaller crowd).

• Best teams to watch — Marshall and West Vigo, who staged a classic game of their own for third place, had four extremely solid performances that were a joy. Brannan might not consider this his best man-to-man defensive team, but I think I do. Which leads me to …

• Defensive players — There was plenty of hard-nosed play during the week, so this isn’t a complete list, but guys like Wittenmyer, Caleb Turner of Sullivan, Austin Lewis of North, Koye Kaiser of Linton and Josh Parker of Owen Valley take pride in their work at the other end of the court.

And at least twice I saw two of them guarding each other, which pretty much reduced those games to four-on-four, like overtime hockey.

Those defenders still weren’t guaranteed to stop …

• The penetrators — Jordan Houser of West Vigo and Brock Dowell of Shakamak wore out probably a dozen defenders each in the course of the week. Trying to stay in front of either one was a frustrating job (and probably means Marshall’s Jacob Duncan belongs on that previous list too).

And on Thursday, we wound up watching a battle of left-handed facilitators when Dowell (my choice as the most egregious all-tournament snub) and Owen Valley point forward Trent Whitten combined for 16 assists.

• Teams who helped themselves — Start with South, which was a first quarter against North away from going 4-0 after entering the tournament with one win. One win is what South Vermillion has now, which has to help the Wildcats, and Casey, Marshall and maybe even Sullivan (see below) are a little bit better now than they were a week ago. I’m willing to add the champion Patriots to this list too, on the nights when they’re not easily satisfied.

• A little inconsistent, perhaps? Linton had three games — one great, two not so good. Monrovia got blown out by Linton, then nearly beat Bloomfield. Bloomfield could have lost to Monrovia, then turned around to beat Rockville by 10. That game puts Rockville on this list — the Rox seem to have one weirdly bad PHWVC game each year, although it doesn’t seem to hurt them later in the year — and Sullivan’s pattern of overpowering spurts followed by lulls that let opponents get close again might need a little smoothing out.

Speaking of smoothing out …

• Unsung hero — Some of the computers at Terre Haute North are very similar to those at the Tribune-Star (not necessarily a compliment).

The graciousness of the Patriot staff, particularly Stacy Mason and Kris Painter, was complemented very nicely by North student Jessica Sotak, the nicest technical assistant I’ve worked with in quite a while.

TERRE HAUTE — If Sullivan vs. Terre Haute North was the main attraction for the final day of the Pizza Hut Wabash Valley Classic, the Marshall-West Vigo game for third place in the annual boys basketball tournament proved to be an excellent lead-in.

In front of a packed house Friday evening at North High School, the Lions from Illinois held off West Vigo 49-47.

Logan Cannady, Thomas Sisson and Taylor Maurer paced Marshall’s offense with 14, 11 and 10 points respectively and rugged defender Jacob Duncan helped hold West Vigo scoring ace Jordan Houser to seven points. The 6-foot-5 Maurer also grabbed a game-high eight rebounds and blocked three shots.

The Lions helped themselves by committing only six turnovers, including zero in the first quarter.

The Vikings’ top scorers were Cade Lindsey with 15 points (thanks in large part to 7-for-9 shooting from the field), Nathan Gregg with 11 and Cody Thornton with 10. The 5-9 Houser led West Vigo in rebounds with seven and he also had the only three steals for his team.

“I think Jordan Houser is one of the best, if not the best guard in this tournament,” Marshall coach Tom Brannan said afterward. “But Jacob Duncan denied the ball … and we blitzed all ball screens. Anytime there was a ball screen or a handoff, we blitzed it. You can give Jacob a lot of the credit, but also it was a team effort [defensively].”

“From the tournament perspective, I think we won some people over this week,” noted coach Joe Boehler, whose Vikings lost hard-fought battles to North and Marshall this week. “I think anybody who hadn’t really seen our basketball team and got a chance to see us in this tournament, I would think they walked away fairly impressed.”

After West Vigo’s Adrien Corenflos chalked up the first fielder one minute into the contest, Marshall rattled off 10 unanswered points — thanks to a three-point play by Duncan, an inside bucket by Sisson, a 3-pointer by Cannady and an inside bucket by Maurer — to seize a 10-2 advantage by midway through the first quarter.

Boehler’s squad rallied to tie the score at 18-18 on a spinning inside shot by Gregg with 4:02 left in the first half. The lead see-sawed a few times after that until Sisson buried a 3 to put Marshall on top 28-26 by halftime.

The Lions pulled away a little in the third period, using another trey by Sisson to pad their cushion to 39-30. But a 3 by Gregg before the end of the frame cut West Vigo’s deficit to 43-38.

A 16-foot jumper by Lindsey to open the fourth quarter said “game on” for West Vigo, which pulled within 43-40.

With 5:31 showing on the scoreboard, Lindsey drove through traffic for a layup that sliced the Vikes’ deficit to 45-44.

West Vigo never led in the fourth period, but it came close. After Marshall’s Jared Boyll sank a free throw with 45.7 seconds to go, the Vikings trailed 49-47 and had possession of the ball.

After working for what could have been the last shot, Houser put up a 3 that bounced off the rim. But teammate Lindsey tracked down the long rebound and West Vigo called timeout with 10.8 seconds left.

When action resumed, Marshall paid close attention to Houser, who managed to get off a long 2 at the buzzer, but it fell short of the rim and the Lions held on for the victory.

“It just seemed like we dug ourselves into a little bit of a hole early,” Boehler assessed. “We had several opportunities throughout the game, but we could never get the key stop that we needed or we could never get the shot to drop that would get us over the hump. Every time we would get an opportunity to get over the hump, we would shoot ourselves in the foot.”

“It’s been pretty hectic all week,” Brannan said from the Marshall perspective. “I loved the way we played defense. Our guys get after it… We’ve got to get better and get more efficient on offense.

“We’ve got to get better looks. When we start doing that, we’re really going to be a tough team to beat.”



MARSHALL (49) — Cannady 4-14 2-3 14, Maurer 5-6 0-0 10, Duncan 2-10 1-3 5, Sisson 4-8 0-2 11, Boyll 1-4 1-2 3, Berner 2-2 0-0 6, Sanders 0-0 0-0 0, Bloodworth 0-0 0-0 0, Myers 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 18-45 FG, 4-10 FT, 49 TP.

WEST VIGO (47) — Thornton 4-7 1-3 10, Gregg 5-7 0-0 11, Corenflos 2-7 0-0 4, Houser 2-10 2-2 7, Lindsey 7-9 1-2 15, Stewart 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 20-43 FG, 4-7 FT, 47 TP.

Marshall    13    15    15    6    —    49

West Vigo    7    19    12    9    —    47

3-point shooting — M 9-22 (Cannady 4-11, Sisson 3-6, Berner 2-2, Myers 0-1, Duncan 0-2), WV 3-14 (Gregg 1-1, Thornton 1-2, Houser 1-6, Corenflos 0-1, Lindsey 0-1, Stewart 0-3). FG Pct. — M .400, WV .465. 3-pt. FG Pct. — M .409, WV .214. FT Pct. — M .400, WV .571. Rebounds — M 24 (Maurer 8, Cannady and Sisson 4), WV 31 (Houser 7, Thornton 6, Corenflos 5, Stewart 4). Steals — M 4 (Cannady 3, Sanders), WV 3 (Houser 3). Turnovers — M 6, WV 9. Blocks — M 3 (Maurer 3), WV 2 (Corenflos and Lindsey). Total fouls — M 12, WV 10.

Next — Marshall (9-4) will be at home Tuesday to take on Paris. West Vigo (7-4) will play next Friday at Riverton Parke.

TERRE HAUTE — Unrelenting.

It’s the most apt description to describe Sullivan’s first-quarter domination of Marshall in a Pizza Hut Wabash Valley Classic boys basketball semifinal Thursday at Terre Haute North High School.

The Golden Arrows converted 8 of 12 from the field. Their defense was even better as Marshall missed all 13 of its opening period shots. Sullivan led 22-0 at the end of the period, and though there were bumps the rest of the way, rode that huge early lead to a 61-42 victory.

The unbeaten Golden Arrows have advanced to their second Pizza Hut Classic championship game. They will play Terre Haute North at 8 p.m. tonight.

“We came out hot. We worked the ball around for good shots,” said Sullivan’s James Lisman, who led the Arrows with 18 points and nine rebounds. “On the defensive side, we put enough pressure on them to really get us started.”

Sullivan’s early explosive was a team effort. While future Indiana State recruit Rhett Smith rightfully gains a lot of attention for the undefeated Arrows, its no surprise when his crafty teammates lead a run of their own, especially with Marshall collapsing down on Smith in the lane.

“It was a great start and a great first quarter,” Sullivan coach Jeff Moore said. “We ran our five-motion and we knew they wouldn’t help on it.”

Lisman set the tone with a 3-pointer on Sullivan’s first possession and Caleb Turner drained an easy bucket on the next one.

Sensing trouble, Marshall coach Tom Brannan called an early timeout, but it was to no avail. Sullivan’s points kept coming. A Turner 3-pointer, a pair of Lisman free throws and a Kaleb Pirtle 3-pointer pushed Sullivan’s lead to 13-0.

“We had five wide-open shots and they didn’t fall. It ballooned out. Yeah it got to 22-0, but it’s not like we weren’t getting any shots,” Brannan said.

Meanwhile, the Lions couldn’t get a bucket of their own. Some shots rimmed out, but others were contested, and still more were left for the waiting arms of Smith, who had three first-half blocks, including two emphatic swats.

Brannan did what he could. Senior guard Logan Cannady was inserted into the game after missing Marshall’s first two Pizza Hut Classic games with a sprained ankle, but nothing could stem the Sullivan tide.

“I think it was 15-0 when we put him in. We had to do something,” said Brannan on Cannady, who scored nine points. “He gutted it out.”

The first quarter had a fitting end as Lisman converted a 3-pointer at the gun. Sullivan led 22-0. Marshall was 0-for-13 from the field. Lisman had 10 of the points.

Marshall’s field goal drought ended at 14 early in the second half, and from that point, the Lions would make the Arrows work for victory. Marshall whittled its deficit to 30-15 halftime.

The Lions would slice the deficit to 10 early in the third quarter, but Sullivan wasn’t fazed. The Arrows answered with a 9-0 run to restore a large gap.

The pattern would repeat itself in the fourth quarter when the Lions (8-4) used a 15-6 run to cut the Sullivan lead to 45-35 with 6:30 to go. Thomas Sisson and Cannady each hit three’s during the run.

However, after a couple of chances to further cut the lead were left unrealized, Marshall hurt itself. Taylor Maurer, who had 11 rebounds, got tangled up in a loose ball scramble and was called for a technical foul.

It was never the same for Marshall from that point. Sullivan took a deep breath, refocused, and put together a decisive 11-2 run to put the game away. Smith scored five of the points.

“We weathered the storm. Once we started to get the ball into Rhett a bit, we figured they’d be worn out from guarding him,” Moore said.

Sullivan (11-0) has six players who were part of the 2009 Pizza Hut Classic championship team. Regardless of the opponent, the Arrows will have the experience edge in the championship game.

“I think that’s going to be really important. This isn’t our first time going to a championship game. It’s going to help us keep our cool and hopefully help us come out on top,” Lisman said.



MARSHALL (42) — Sisson 4-9 0-0 11, Duncan 5-19 1-4 12, Boyll 1-3 0-0 2, Berner 1-2 0-0 2, Maurer 1-7 1-2 3, Cannady 3-7 0-0 9, Sanders 0-1 0-0 0, Myers 0-1 0-1 0, Bloodworth 1-2 0-0 3, Morris 0-1 0-0 0, Osborn 0-0 0-0 0, Davidson 0-0 0-0 0, Rice 0-0 0-0 0. 16-52 FG, 2-7 FT, 42 TP.

SULLIVAN (61) — K. Pirtle 3-6 3-4 11, Lisman 6-11 4-6 18, Smith 5-7 1-1 12, Marx 0-1 0-0 0, Turner 4-6 0-0 9, Ellett 1-1 0-0 2, Weszely 1-5 0-0 2, Bement 0-0 2-2 2, N. Pirtle 1-2 0-0 3, Gregory 0-0 0-0 0, Willis 0-0 0-0 0, Kinnaman 0-0 0-0 0, Hutchcraft 1-1 0-0 2. 22-40 FG, 10-13 FT, 61 TP.

Marshall    0    15    12    15    —    42

Sullivan    22    8    11    20    —    61

3-point goals — M 8-24 (Cannady 3-6, Sisson 3-5, Duncan 1-7, Bloodworth 1-2, Berner 0-1, Maurer 0-1, Sanders 0-1, Morris 0-1), S 7-15 (K. Pirtle 2-4, Lisman 2-2, Smith 1-2, Turner 1-2, N. Pirtle 1-2, Weszely 0-3). Rebounds — M 26* (Maurer 11, Boyll 5, Sisson 3, Cannady 3, Duncan 2, Team RB 2*). S 28* (Lisman 9, Turner 6, Smith 4, Team RB 4*, K. Pirtle 2, Weszely, N. Pirtle). Steals — M 4 (Boyll, Maurer, Myers, Rice), S 4 (Weszely 2, Smith, Bement). Blocks — M 3 (Duncan 2, Cannady), S 5 (Smith 4, K. Pirtle). Turnovers — M 7, S 10. Total fouls — M 13, S 13. Fouled out — none.

Next — Sullivan (11-0) plays Terre Haute North or West Vigo in the Pizza Hut Wabash Valley Classic championship game. Marshall (8-4) plays Terre Haute North or West in the Pizza Hut Wabash Valley third place game.

TERRE HAUTE —

Marshall got by Linton 55-44 in Wednesday’s third game of the Pizza Hut Wabash Valley Classic to set up a matchup with unbeaten Sullivan in the first semifinal contest of the tournament this evening.

The Lions from Illinois will put an 8-3 record on the line against the 10-0 Arrows, ranked fifth in the Indiana Class 2A poll.

“It’ll be a tough game. We’ll have to withstand Sullivan’s pressure,” said Marshall coach Tom Brannan.

Linton hit three 3-pointers in the first quarter and held a 16-14 lead after eight minutes of action. The score was tied three times in the second period before Jared Boyll hit two free throws to put the Lions up 23-21.

They closed the stanza with a 7-0 run for a 28-21 lead at halftime and did not trail again in the contest, taking a 40-32 lead into the final frame.

“The end of the second quarter [was the difference] and we let 32 [Taylor Maurer] get away from us. We played hard enough to win … we lost to a good team with a good program,” said Linton coach Joey Hart.

Linton cut the deficit to five points in the closing minutes but got no closer as Marshall connected on 8-of-9 free throws in the last period; Walker Berner was 6 of 6.

Jacob Duncan led the winners with 23 points and nine rebounds. He was 7 of 8 from the free-throw line and the team plunked in 19 of 23 at the stripe after going 10 for 17 in Tuesday’s game.

Maurer added 14 points to the Marshall total and also had nine rebounds.

“His game was huge for us, stepping out and knocking down those shots. It was a turning point because the big guys had to come out [on the perimeter] and Jacob was able to drive the lane more,” said coach Brannan.

Dess Fougerousse scored 15 points and had nine boards and a steal for the Miners, now 3-4, while Austin Karazsia had 10 points and nine boards.

Marshall was 15 of 38 from the field and 6 of 18 from 3-point range. Linton cashed 16 of 44 fielders and made 3 of 11 3-pointers while holding a 31-25 edge on the boards.

“I thought we did a good job of keeping Linton off the glass. We were switching defenses a lot . . . we played about seven different defenses in the game . . . and I thought our guys did a good job of handling that. That’s kinda tough to do,” said Brannan.

Linton faces Casey today.



MARSHALL (55) — Duncan 7-13 7-8 23, Sisson 2-4 2-3 7, Maurer 5-10 1-2 14, Berner 0-5 6-6 6, Boyll 1-5 3-4 5, Sanders 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 15-38 FG 19-23 FT 55 TP

LINTON (44) — Karaszia 4-9 2-2 10, Fougerouse 6-10 2-4 15, Dyar 3-9 3-5 9, Eaton 1-5 2-2 4, Kaiser 2-10 0-0 6, Brown 0-1 0-0 0, Bohnert 0-0 0-0 0, Woodward 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 16-44 FG 9-13 FT 44 TP

Marshall    14    14    12    15    —    55

Linton    16    5     11    13    —    44

3-point goals — M 6-18 (Duncan 2-6, Sisson 1-2, Maurer 3-4, Berner 0-5, Boyll 0-1), L 3-11 (Fougerousse 1-3, Kaiser 2-7, Brown 0-1). Rebounds — M 25 (Duncan 9, Sisson 2, Maurer 9, Berner 2, Boyll 1, Team 2), L 31 (Karaszia 9, Fougerousse 9, Dyar 2, Eaton 4, Kaiser 4, Brown 1, Team 2). Steals — M 3 (Sisson 2, Boyll 1), L 5 (Fougerousse 1, Dyar 2, Kaiser 2). Turnovers — M 7,  L 12. Total fouls — M 11, L 18. Fouled out — Fougerousse.

Next — Marshall (8-3) plays Sullivan at 7 p.m. today. Linton (3-4) plays Casey at 4 p.m. today.

ROBINSON, Ill. — Host Robinson outscored visiting Marshall 17-6 in the fourth quarter of a nonconference boys basketball game Saturday to pull out a 52-44 win.

Marshall had a 14-12 after one period and was ahead 24-23 at halftime. The Lions led by seven points in the third quarter and took a 38-35 lead into the fourth frame.

Taylor Maurer gave the Lions their last lead at 40-39 and the Maroons then ran off eight unanswered points.

Four players were in double digits for the 5-5 Maroons. Aaron Siler led with 14, Bryant Scott and Zach Danks each had 13 and Cory Blount tallied 11.

Jacob Duncan had 15 points for the Lions. Maurer had 12 points and eight rebounds and Thomas Sisson scored 11. Marshall was without leading scorer Logan Cannady, out with an ankle injury.

Robinson was good on 16 of 20 free throws while Marshall shot 3 and hit 1. The Lions had beaten Robinson in the Capital Classic.



MARSHALL (44) — Sisson 5-12 0-0 11, Boyll 1-1 0-0 2, Maurer 6-7 0-0 12, Duncan 6-20 0-1 15, Berner 1-2 0-0 3, Sanders 0-0 1-2 1, Bloodworth 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 19-43 FG, 1-3 FT, 44 TP.

ROBINSON (52) — Danks 5-7 3-4 13, Bry.Scott 4-7 5-6 13, Bra.Scott 1-3 0-0 2, Siler 5-8 1-2 14, Blount 2-6 6-8 10, Akande 0-2 0-0 0, Riddle 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 17-33 FG, 15-20 FT, 52 TP.

Marshall    14    10    14    6    —    44

Robinson    12    11    12    17    —    52

3-point shooting — Marshll 5-15 (Duncan 3-8, Berner 1-1, Sisson 1-6), Robinson 3-9 (Siler 3-5, Blount 0-4). Total fouls — Marshall 14, Robinson 8. Fouled out — none. Rebounds — Marshall 17, Robinson 18 (Blount 6, Danks 5). Assists — Robinson 10 (Bry.Scott 4).

JV — Marshall 54 (Berner 16, Bloodworth 15), Robinson 42 (Richart 18).

MARTINSVILLE, Ill. — Marshall defeated Clark County rival Martinsville by an 83-54 count Friday in Illinois boys high school basketball at Martinsville.

The Lions improved to 5-1 and are back in action tonight, meeting Little Illini Conference preseason favorite Flora at Marshall.

Logan Cannady led the winners in scoring with 23 points and had 15 of them in the first period. He had a personal 11-2 run as the Lions took a 27-13 lead into the second stanza.

Martinsville got within eight points at 29-21 in the second period but the Lions had a 44-30 lead at intermission and were up 68-38  going into the final frame.

Cannady had his 23 points, five rebounds and four steals for the Lions. Taylor Maurer had a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds while Jacob Duncan tallied 14 points and dished out four assists.

Zack Mulkins led the 1-6 Bluestreaks with 23 points while Kyle Perisho had 16 and Blaine Washburn nine.



Marshall    27    17    24    15    —    83

Martinsville    13    17    8    16    —    54

JV -- Marshall 65, Martinsville 18

MARSHALL, Ill. — Marshall defeated Lawrenceville 68-26 in the Little Illini Conference opener for both boys high school basketball teams Friday.

The Lions improved to 4-1 in their home opener. They outscored the Indians 44-13 in the second and third periods and took a 57-22 lead into the final frame.

Logan Cannady had 24 points — getting 14 in the third canto — to lead the winners. Jacob Duncan tallied 12 points for Marshall with 10 coming in the second quarter. He also had six steals and Cannady had five for the game.

Austin Dorney had 10 points for the Indians, winners over Paris on Tuesday.

 

LAWRENCEVILLE (26) — Hulen 2 0-0 4, Bolkman 1 0-0 2, Horner 0 0-0 0, Potts 0 0-0 0, Benson 1 1-2 3, Cummins 0 0-2 0, Loeb 1 4-6 7, Steffey 0 0-0 0, Dorney 3 4-4 10. Totals 8 FG, 9-14 FT, 26 TP.

MARSHALL (68) — Sanders 3 0-0 7, Osborne 0 0-0 0, Bloodworth 0 0-0 0, Rice 0 0-0 0, Sisson 4 0-0 9, Duncan 5 0-0 12, Myers 1 0-0 3, Boyll 3 0-0 6, Cannady 8 2-2 24, Berner 0 0-0 0, Maurer 2 3-4 7, Morris 0 0-0 0, Davidson 0 0-0 0. Totals 26 FG, 5-6 FT, 68 TP.

Lawrenceville    9    5    8    4    —    26

Marshall    13    19    25    11    —    68

3-point goals — Loeb, Sanders, Sisson, Duncan 2, Myers, Cannady 6. Total fouls — L 13, M 14. Fouled out — none.

JV — Marshall 39 (Bloodworth), Lawrenceville 25

Next — Marshall (4-1, 1-0 LIC) is at Martinsville next Friday. Lawrenceville is 2-4, 0-1 LIC.

TERRE HAUTE — The 12th Pizza Hut Wabash Valley Classic boys high school basketball tournament draw was conducted at host site Terre Haute North early this afternoon.

The tournament runs from Dec. 27 to 30.

Further details will be available in Wednesday’s Tribune-Star.



13th Pizza Hut WV Classic draw

Dec. 27

10 a.m. — Marshall (Ill.) vs. Bloomfield

11:30 a.m. — Monrovia vs. Linton

1 p.m. — Casey (Ill.) vs. Riverton Parke

2:30 p.m. — Sullivan vs. Rockville

4 p.m. — Terre Haute South vs. Terre Haute North

5:30 p.m. — Turkey Run vs. Owen Valley

7 p.m. — South Vermillion vs. West Vigo

8:30 p.m. — Northview vs. Shakamak

BRIDGEPORT, Ill. — Marshall won two boys high school basketball games Saturday to take third place in the Capital Classic.

The Lions began the day with a 54-31 victory over the host Red Hill team, then bested Robinson 66-57 in the battle for third place.

Olney met Teutopolis in the championship game. Teutopolis handed Robinson its first defeat 60-46 in an early game Saturday while Olney bested Marshall 52-49 on Friday.

Against the Maroons, Marshall ran off 12 unanswered points and held a 23-11 lead after one period. The Lions led by as many as 20 points in the second stanza and were up 37-23 at the intermission.

They took a 43-34 lead into the final frame and held off Robinson to take third place.

Logan Cannady led the 3-1 Lions with 24 points, four steals and four assists. Jacob Duncan had 15 points and had three assists and two steals in the first half.

Taylor Maurer tallied 12 points and had 10 rebounds and five assists, while Thomas Sisson had 13 points for the Lions.

Aaron Siler had 14 points for the 2-2 Maroons and Zach Danks had 12. Danks scored Robinson’s first eight points.

In the first game of the day, the Lions trailed 16-14 at the first stop against Red Hill but used an 18-0 run to assume a 37-22 lead at halftime and took a 47-27 lead into the final period.

Marshall opens Little Illini Conference play against Lawrenceville this week while Robinson will be at Effingham for Apollo Conference action.



Marshall    14    23    10    7    —    54

Red Hill    16    6    5    4    —    31

 

Marshall    23    14    10    10    —     66

Robinson    11    12    11    23    —    57

Next — Marshall (3-1) is host to Lawrenceville on Friday. Robinson (2-2) is at Effingham the same night.

TERRE HAUTE — Pairings have been made for three high school basketball tournaments to be played this week in Illinois.

Boys teams will compete in the Cumberland Thanksgiving Tournament that began Monday and in the Capital Classic set for Friday and Saturday at Red Hill and Lawrenceville.

Boys basketball

Cumberland Tournament

Monday’s games — Cumberland vs. Martinsville, Dieterich vs. Shiloh, Newton vs. Oblong.

Tuesday’s games — Cumberland vs. Oblong 5 p.m. followed by Shiloh vs. Newton, Martinsville vs. Dieterich.

Wednesday’s games — Shiloh vs. Martinsville 5 p.m. followed by Oblong vs. Dieterich, Cumberland vs. Newton.

Friday’s games — Oblong vs. Shiloh 1 p.m. followed by Cumberland vs. Dieterich, Newton vs. Martinsville.

Saturday’s games — Cumberland vs. Shiloh 1 p.m. followed by Martinsville vs. Oblong, Dieterich vs. Newton.

Capital Classic

Friday’s games

At Red Hill

11 a.m. — Red Hill vs. Olney.

12:30 p.m. — Marshall vs. Neoga.

6 — Olney vs. Marshall.

7:30 — Neoga vs. Red Hill.

At Lawrenceville

11 a.m. — Lawrenceville vs. Robinson.

12:30 p.m. — Fairfield vs. Teutopolis.

6 — Robinson vs. Fairfield.

7:30 — Teutopolis vs. Lawrenceville.

Saturday’s games

At Lawrenceville

10 a.m. — Fairfield vs. Lawrenceville.

11:30 — Robinson vs. Teutopolis.

At Red Hill

10 a.m. — Red Hill vs. Marshall.

11:30 — Olney vs. Neoga.

3:30 p.m. — Seventh-place game.

5 — Fifth-place game.

6:30 — Third-place game.

8 — Championship game.