Paris rallies to win Class 2A Regional over Marshall

PARIS, ILL. — Paris rallied to defeat Marshall 43-41 to win the Paris Class 2A Regional in dramatic llinois boys high school basketball action Friday night in Ernie Eveland Gymnasium.

The Tigers outscored the Lions 17-12 in the third period and held off Marshall at the end for the victory.

Paris will meet the Shelbyville Regional winner — either Effingham St. Anthony or Teutopolis — on Wednesday in the St. Anthony Sectional.

Josh Griffin had a double-double for the 14-15 Tigers with 14 points and 16 rebounds and scored what turned out to be the winning basket in the final 30 seconds. He had eight of his points in the final period.

Marshall had two shots at the basket but they did not drop and the Lions closed out a 21-5 season.

Paris trailed the Lions 16-15 at the intermission, but Zach Henn scored 12 of his 16 points in the third period and the host team took a 32-28 lead into the final eight minutes.

Paris had its biggest lead at 41-34 but Marshall scored the next seven points to gain the final tie at 41-41 with Taylor Duncan hitting a 3-pointer to knot the score.

Duncan led the Lions with 18 points, seven rebounds and two assists and had all of Marshall’s points in the second period.

Marshall scored the first five points of the game and had an 8-6 lead after one stop. Dustin Morey had four of the points and seven for the game.

Griffin had four of his points in the second stanza as the Tigers outscored the Lions and Taylor Duncan 9-8.

Jake Tucker finished with seven points for the Lions. Jacob Duncan and Logan Cannady each had five.

Both teams hit 6 of 10 free throws and Paris canned 3 of 5 3-pointers while Marshall was 3 of 15 from trey range. Paris also had a 28-21 edge on the boards.

Marshall had beaten the Tigers by eight points in the regular season.



PARIS (43) — Mason 2 0-0 4, Temples 1 1-1 3, Cunningham 1 1-1 4, Griffin 6 2-2 14, Henn 6 2-2 16, Cary 1 0-0 2. Totals 15 6-6 43.

MARSHALL (41) — J. Duncan 1 2-2 5, Tucker 3 0-0 6, Cannady 2 0-0 5, T. Duncan 7 3-5 18, Morey 3 1-2 7, Strohm 0 0-0 0, Sanders 0 0-0 0. Totals 16 6-9 41.

Paris 6 9 17 11 — 43

Marshall 8 8 12 13 — 41

3-point field goals — Henn 2, Cunningham; J. Duncan, T. Duncan, Cannady. Total fouls — P 11, M 12. Fouled out — none.

Next — Paris (14-15) advances to the Effingham St. Anthony Sectional. Marshall concludes a 21-5 season.

Marshall takes opening game in IHSA tourney

PARIS, IL — Marshall got off to a good start Wednesday in the Illinois High School Association boys basketball tournament at Paris High School.

The Lions blitzed Georgetown-Ridgefarm 91-44 in the semifinals of the Paris Class 2A Regional to advance to the championship game on Friday. They will take a 21-4 record into the contest against Paris or Bismarck-Henning.

Marshall scored the first five points of Wednesday’s game and had a 12-0 run in assuming a 30-15 lead after one period.

The Lions had a 13-0 spurt in building a 43-17 advantage and took a 53-30 lead into the second half.

Marshall opened the third canto with another 13-0 run and had a 72-39 lead after three periods.

Most of the Marshall starters left the game early in the fourth quarter as the Lions led by 50 points at 91-41 in the final minute.

Marshall was good on 11 of 20 3-pointers while the Buffaloes were 9 of 36 from trey range. Marshall also outrebounded the losers 41-17.

Taylor Duncan had 23 points, eight rebounds, four steals and eight assists for the Lions while Logan Cannady had 17 points, five rebounds, six steals and three assists. Cannady had 15 of his points in the first period as he and Duncan combined for 26 of the Lions’ 30 points in the quarter.

Jake Tucker finished with 13 points, scoring 11 in the third period, and Jordan Grooms tallied 10 while Jake Tucker scored nine points and Andre Strohm had seven points and six rebounds.



Georgetown-Ridgefarm 15 15 9 5 — 44

Marshall 30 23 19 19 — 91

Next — Marshall (21-4) advances to Friday’s championship game. Georgetown-Ridgefarm finishes 18-12.

Area boys' basketball roundup

By JG/T-C staff

Marshall races past Neoga

NEOGA – Marshall outscored Neoga in every quarter en route to a 65-31 non-conference game Friday.

Neoga trailed 16-6 after the first quarter and 27-11 at the half.

Neoga fell to 16-11 overall, while Marshall improved to 20-4.

Taylor Duncan led the Lions with 24 points.

Bryn Price led Neoga with nine points. The Indians struggled from the free throw line, going 11-of-24.

Neoga is to play Windsor at 8 p.m. Tuesday in the IHSA Class 1A regional.

Marshall      16       11        16        22        65

Neoga       6         5        12         8        31

MARSHALL: Davidson 2-0-4; Wentight 1-0-3; J. Duncan 1-2-5; Strohm 2-1-6; Cannady 2-0-5; Tucker 1-0-2; T. Duncan 10-2-24; Morey 6-1-14; Bishop 1-0-2; Totals 26-6-65

NEOGA:  Blair 0-4-4; Cornell 3-0-6; Price 2-5-10; Roy 0-0-0; Snively 0-0-0; Robinson 3-1-7; Probst 2-0-4; McClellan 0-0-0; Warner 0-1-1; totals 10-11-31

3-point goals: Marshall 7 (Wetnight 1, Strohm 1, Cannady 1, Duncan 2, J. Duncan 1, Morey 1): Neoga 0

BASKETBALL ROUNDUP:

Staff report
The Tribune-Star

Neoga, Ill.— The Marshall Lions closed the regular season on a winning note Friday and will take a 20-4 record into the high school boys basketball postseason.

The Lions held host Neoga to 11 points in the first half in winning for the second time this week.

Taylor Duncan had 22 points, nine rebounds, one steal, five assists and two blocks for the Lions. Dustin Morey had 14 points.

Marshall boys rebound from Tuesday's loss

Albion, Ill. — Marshall rebounded from Tuesday’s loss to Cumberland in convincing fashion Thursday, defeating Edwards County 101-64 in a makeup Little Illini Conference boys basketball contest.

The Lions will take a 19-4 record into their final game of the regular season tonight at Neoga and finished LIC play 7-1 to claim at least a share of the conference title for the fourth straight season.

They defeated the EC Lions for the second time this season, having beaten them earlier in the LIC tournament.

Logan Cannady had a career night for the Lions with 24 points, seven steals, five assists and five rebounds in spite of sittiing out some time with early foul trouble.

Three other players were in double digits, Taylor Duncan with 22 points, Andre Strohm with 12 and Jordan Grooms with 10. Jacob Duncan finished with nine points and Jake Tucker tallied seven as every Marshall player scored in the contest.

Cannady had 10 of his points in the first period as the Lions assumed a 22-10 lead after eight minutes.

Marshall outscored EC 60-30 in the next two quarters and Marshall took an 82-40 lead in the final frame. Tyler Bishop hit a 3-pointer to put the Lions up 100-64. Marshall’s biggest lead was 48 points.

Marshall is the No. 1 seed in the Paris Regional next week with the host team seeded No. 2.


Marshall 22 31 29 19 — 101

Edwards County 10 18 12 24 — 64

Next — Marshall (19-4, 7-1 LIC) is at Neoga tonight. Edwards County is 16-10.

Prep Roundup:

The Tribune-Star

Illinois Prep Basketball Roundup: Marshall boys win 11th in a row

Marshall, Ill. — Marshall won its 11th game in a row Saturday night, holding off county rival Casey 52-46.

Casey led early and gained a 44-44 tie in the final minutes but the Lions outscored the Warriors 8-2 down the stretch to win, improving to 18-3 for the season and wrapping up another Little Illini Conference championship.

Casey had a 16-10 lead at the first stop but Marshall closed the half with a 15-0 run and had a 28-20 lead at the intermission.

The Lions took a 39-30 lead into the final frame but Chris Unsicker scored seven straight points and Kruz Kusterman hit a bucket to gain the 44-44 deadlock.

Taylor Duncan’s bucket put Marshall back in the lead and Jordan Grooms hit a free throw for a 47-46 Marshall lead before Unsicker scored again before fouling out to pull Casey within one at 47-46.

The Lions hit five free throws in the final 30 seconds to close out the scoring.

Duncan led the Lions with 19 points and Logan Cannady had nine while Clinton Scott had 10 points and 11 rebounds for the Warriors, now 16-6.

Marshall won its 10th straight game Friday night, defeating Hutsonville-Palestine 52-38 with Dustin Morey scoring 17 points.

The Lions will close out the season with three games this week, hosting Cumberland in the final home game Tuesday.



CASEY (46) — Carver 3 0-0 6, Unzicker 3 2-4 9, Scales 3 5-7 12, McVey 0 2-2 2, Shull 0 0-0 0, Scott 2 6-6 10, Kusterman 2 3-4 7, Barnart 0 0-0 0. Totals 13 FG, 18-23 FT, 46 TP.

MARSHALL (52) — Grooms 1 3-4 5, J.Duncan 2 2-4 7, Strohm 0 1-2 1, Tucker 2 2-2 6, Cannady 3 2-3 9, T.Duncan 6 6-11 19, Morey 2 0-0 5. Totals 16 FG, 16-26 FT, 52 TP.

Casey 16 4 10 16 — 46

Marshall 10 18 11 13 — 52

3-point goals — Unzicker, Scales, J.Duncan, Cannady, T.Duncan, Morey. Total fouls — C 23, M 18. Fouled out — Unzicker, J.Duncan, Morey.

JV — Marshall 60, Casey 46.

Next — Both teams have home games Tuesday. Marshall (18-3) plays Cumberland. Casey (16-6) plays Edwards County.

Marshall wins fourth straight LIC tourney title

FLORA, Ill. — Marshall scored a fourpeat in Little Illini Conference boys tournament basketball action Friday night at Flora High School.

The Lions defeated Cumberland 61-42 for their fourth straight LIC tournament title — their 16th in the 40 years of the tournament and sixth in the past eight seasons.

Marshall never trailed in winning its eighth straight game and hiking its season mark to 15-3. The Lions led by as many as 10 points in the first period that ended with the Lions holding a 17-10 lead.

The Lions were ahead at halftime 36-22. Taylor Duncan had 13 points in the half, Logan Cannady 10 and Jake Tucker eight with nine boards.

Marshall led by as many as 22 points in the third canto and took a 52-32 lead into the last quarter.

Duncan led the champs with 21 points and five rebounds. Tucker had a double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds while Cannady had 12 points and five rebounds. Dustin Morey had 11 points and five rebounds and Jacob Duncan finished with seven points, three rebounds and five assists.

Silas Gabel led Cumberland, now 16-7, with 16 points.

Marshall has LIC road games next week at Oblong and Edwards County.

Marshall boys dominate Red Hill, reach LIC title game

Flora, Ill. — Marshall dominated the Little Illini Conference boys basketball tournament action from the start Tuesday as the Lions defeated Red Hill 70-42 to reach the championship game.

The Lions won their seventh game in a row and will take a 14-3 record into the title tilt, seeking their fourth straight LIC tournament championship.

They will meet the winner of the Flora-Cumberland contest in Friday’s championship contest that will tip off at 8 p.m. CST at Flora High School.

Taylor Duncan scored all of Marshall’s points as the Lions raced out to a 10-0 lead and had a 15-9 lead at the first stop. They outscored the Salukis 22-9 in the second stanza for a 37-18 halftime lead and they took a 59-35 lead into the final frame as a running clock was used for the final minutes with all of the Marshall starters on the bench.

Taylor Duncan finished with stellar totals: 26 points, five rebounds, five steals and three assists. He opened the third canto with a 5-0 run and twice had as many points as Red Hill, at 20 and 23.

Logan Cannady also was in double digits with 13 points and had six boards.

Marshall unofficially hit 10 of 23 3-pointers and had just six turnovers in the game. The Lions scored the most points allowed by the Salukis so far this season.

Matt Wirth had 13 points for Red Hill.

Consolation games will be played tonight in both the girls and boys games. Casey plays Edwards County in the boys tournament at 6 p.m.



Red Hill 9 9 17 7 — 42

Marshall 15 22 22 11 — 70

Next — Marshall (14-3) plays in the championship game Friday night. Red Hill (8-8) plays for third place Thursday night.

Marshall gets bid for fourth straight LIC crown off to solid start

FLORA, ILL. — Marshall successfully began its bid for a fourth straight Little Illini Conference boys basketball championship Saturday at Flora High School.

The Lions bested Edwards County 66-41 in the final game of the day and will meet Red Hill in the first semifinal game Tuesday night. Cumberland plays Flora in the other semifinal contest.

Red Hill defeated Casey in the first game. Casey plays Hutsonville-Palestine in a consolation-bracket game Wednesday.

Edwards County scored the first basket in this battle of Lions but Marshall tallied the next nine and had a 19-10 lead after one period. Dustin Morey had eight of his 10 points in the period.

The Lions had a 32-20 lead at the intermission and opened the third canto with a 13-0 run to assume a 45-20 lead and led by as many as 28 points in the quarter which ended with the Lions ahead 54-28 as Marshall outscored EC 22-8 in the quarter.

Taylor Duncan had 10 of the points in the 13-0 run and finished with 24 points in three quarters of action while Logan Cannady finished with 15 points, hitting five 3-pointers.

Marshall will take a 13-3 record into the semifinals. Edwards County defeated Oblong 55-48 in a tournament play-in game and is 13-6 for the season.



Edwards County 10 10 8 13 — 41

Marshall 19 13 22 12 — 66

Marshall takes physical game from West Vigo

MARSHALL, Ill. — It didn’t seem like a particularly big play at the time. It only resulted in one point, and didn’t create a tie or a lead change.

But when Marshall’s Dustin Morey went to the offensive glass in considerable traffic once, then twice, then three times early in the third quarter before finally drawing a West Vigo foul, the tone had been set for the second half of a high school basketball classic won 48-40 by the host Lions on Friday night.

“I was getting really frustrated,” the 6-foot-5 Marshall senior said after the game when looking back at that sequence that included three of his game-high 11 rebounds. “I should’ve put the first [offensive rebound] in, and I thought I got fouled on the second one, but then I finally got fouled on the third one.”

Morey hit just one of his two free throws, not surprising on a night ruled by defense and physical play, and cut a Viking lead to 26-25. That was the first of five straight Marshall points — the other four scored by Jacob Duncan — but the Vikings were back on top at the third stop after baskets by Cody Thornton and Jordan Houser.

If you’re wondering why you haven’t read the names Taylor Duncan or Tyler Wampler yet, it had become obvious by this time that the two stars weren’t going to determine the outcome by themselves. In a game-long one-on-one matchup that could be pictured in the dictionary beside the word “standoff” — probably in black and blue type — neither player approached his average in anything, with the possible exception of turnovers.

So it was two sophomores, Jacob Duncan and Houser, running their team’s offenses and, according to the elder Duncan, two other role players who decided the game.

Asked after the game about his team’s 33-percent shooting, Taylor Duncan said, “The two things that made up for [our bad shooting] were Jake Tucker and Dustin Morey. It seemed like they got 10 or 15 rebounds apiece. They played great tonight … without them we lose by 10 or 15.”

“We weren’t doing a very good job on the glass in the first half,” Morey said when asked if the topic of rebounding had come up in coach Tom Brannan’s intermission talk. “[The Vikings] aren’t a very big team, so our goal coming in [to the game] was to get more rebounds and second chances, and we did a good job in the second half.”

“We talk about [rebounding] about every other sentence,” Brannan agreed. “I thought we did a good job later in the game, crashing the offensive boards and securing defensive rebounds. Jake Tucker had some big rebounds late in the game.”

Morey hit a free throw to open the fourth quarter that tied the game at 30 and then Taylor Duncan, held to two field goals in the first three quarters, got free on an out-of-bounds play and buried a 3-pointer from the corner that gave Marshall the lead to stay with 6:17 left.

“[Wampler and Taylor Duncan] kind of offset one another,” Brannan said. “But Taylor hit that 3 that was big, and that’s what big-time players have got to do. You may struggle, but when it’s time to hit one you’ve got to hit it.”

It was still a three-point game at 35-32, but Tucker scored on an offensive rebound to put the Lions up by five and Logan Cannady took a handoff from Morey and hit drove for a basket that put the home team ahead by seven. Although Marshall struggled temporarily at the foul line, West Vigo never got the lead under five again.

“I thought defensively we played really well,” said coach Joe Boehler of the Vikings. “We took [the Lions] out of some of their offense, and we tried to keep the ball out of Taylor [Duncan’s] hands as much as possible. I thought we played hard enough to win, but we’re not making the plays right now at crunch time.”

West Vigo had an early 6-2 lead, Wampler twice getting to the basket early, but then Marshall closed out the first quarter with a 9-1 run.

The Lions had a 21-15 lead near the midpoint of the second quarter, but then it was West Vigo’s turn. A 3-pointer by Houser, two baskets by Thornton and a steal and layup by Zach Kent put the visitors ahead 24-21, and it was 24-22 at intermission. Two of the few easy baskets in the game — layups by Tucker and West Vigo’s Brodey McCalister — in the first 42 seconds of the second half preceded Morey’s show of strength on the offensive board.

Jacob Duncan led all scorers with 16, while his older brother finished with 13 thanks in part to five late free throws. Morey had nine points with his 11 rebounds; Tucker had six points, eight rebounds and two steals; and Cannady had three assists, three steals and a blocked shot.

Wampler still led West Vigo with 12 points, while Houser scored 11 with five assists and Thornton had nine points and seven rebounds.

The points for Wampler and Taylor Duncan were approximately 60 percent of their usual outputs.

“It was a great matchup,” Taylor Duncan said. “[Wampler’s] a great player; he goes to the basket hard and he plays with the tenacity you love to see. I enjoyed playing him.”

Some of the Marshall fans seemed to agree. When Wampler fouled out in the waning seconds, he got a standing ovation from the Viking fans — and from a considerable portion of the home crowd too.

“I’d like to think this atmosphere will help us in the long run,” Boehler said. “[Marshall is] a very good team.

“Our kids played tremendous … and we executed on offense good enough, we just couldn’t knock down shots when we needed to knock them down.”



West Vigo 40

Player fg 3pt ft r s pf tp

Thornton 4-8 0-3 1-2 7 0 3 9

McCalister 1-1 0-0 0-1 3 0 1 2

Wampler 5-12 1-2 1-2 5 3 5 12

Houser 4-14 2-6 1-2 3 1 3 11

Mix 0-2 0-1 0-0 0 0 2 0

Kent 1-3 0-0 0-0 1 1 1 2

Crowther 2-3 0-0 0-0 4 0 4 4

Totals 17-43 3-12 3-7 *26 5 19 40

Marshall 48

Player fg 3pt ft r s pf tp

T.Duncan 3-11 1-4 6-10 6 0 1 13

Morey 2-8 0-2 5-8 11 2 2 9

Tucker 3-3 0-0 0-0 8 2 0 6

J.Duncan 4-12 2-7 6-8 3 2 4 16

Cannady 2-6 0-2 0-0 5 3 3 4

Grooms 0-2 0-1 0-0 1 0 0 0

Strohm 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Totals 14-42 3-16 17-26 *41 9 10 48

West Vigo 7 17 6 10 — 40

Marshall 11 11 7 19 — 48

FG Pct. — WV .395, Marshall .333. 3-pt FG Pct. — WV .250, Marshall .188. FT Pct. — WV .429, Marshall .654. (*) Includes team rebounds — WV 3, Marshall 7. Turnovers — WV 16, Marshall 15. Assists — WV 10 (Houser 5), Marshall 8 (Cannady 3). Blocks — WV 2 (Crowther 2), Marshall 2 (T.Duncan, Cannady). Technical foul — West Vigo, too many timeouts.

JV — Marshall 44 (Jordan Grooms 12), West Vigo 21 (Zach Lyon 6).

Next — Both teams play again tonight, West Vigo (7-7) at Gibson Southern and Marshall (12-3) against the winner of Friday night’s Oblong-Edwards County game in the Little Illini Conference Tournament at Flora.

Weekend Vigo County boys basketball matchups

Behind big third quarter, Marshall holds off Shakamak

MARSHALL, ILL. — Marshall was a winner Saturday evening in bi-state boys basketball action in Illinois.

The Lions outscored the Shakamak Lakers 27-5 in the third period to rally from a 34-27 halftime deficit and go on to win 70-55.

Marshall improves to 11-3 for the season with its fourth straight victory since the Pizza Hut Wabash Valley Classic while the Lakers are 9-4 and had their streak ended at four.

Shakamak concluded a full week of basketball that began with the Lakers winning the snow-delayed Greene County Invitational on Monday and ended with the Lakers dropping road decisions to North Daviess and Marshall.

“I can handle this loss better than Friday’s. We played much harder … Marshall is a good basketball team. We played [hard] in the first half and may have run out of gas,” said Shakamak coach Steve Brett.

Billy Newton had 17 points and seven rebounds for the Lakers and tallied eight of those points in the first period that ended with Marshall holding a 16-14 lead.

Dustin Morey had six of his 21 points in that quarter for the Lions and hit his first three shots.

Shakamak scored the first nine points of the second stanza to take a 23-16 lead and had a 34-27 lead at the intermission. “We were 3 of 8 at the [free-throw] line and could have been up more,” said Brett.

The Lakers hit 9 of 13 shots in the second period but went most of the third canto without a field goal as Jarred Van Horn hit a long 3-pointer at the buzzer.

Marshall, meanwhile, was good on 10 of 12 shots in the third quarter with four 3-pointers. Taylor Duncan began the period with his own 7-0 run and then Morey scored five straight points as the Lions took a 45-35 lead.

Duncan had 12 points in the quarter and Morey had seven as Marshall took a 54-39 lead into the final eight minutes.

“We came out in the second half on a mission. We changed our defense some and put on some pressure,” said Marshall coach Tom Brannan.

Taylor Duncan finished with 24 points and six rebounds while brother Jacob scored 14 to give the Lions three players in double figures. Morey was 9 of 11 from the field with three treys and hit six straight shots before missing his last shot in the fourth frame.

Logan Cannady scored four points and grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds.

Tyler Richardson, VanHorn and Justin Crody each had 10 points for the Lakers. John Smith had three steals and Justin Langford had six rebounds.

Both teams took good care of the basketball. Shakamak did not have a turnover in the first half and finished with eight while Marshall had seven miscues.

“This was a good win for us. We had a good weekend. We’re starting to click,” said Brannan.

The Lions will play host to another Indiana team, West Vigo, on Friday and then begin Little Illini Conference tournament action at Flora.

Shakamak is host to White River Valley on Friday and then travels to Covington for its first meeting with the Trojans.

Saturday’s game was the first regular-season game between the two Valley schools in recent seasons and they are scheduled to meet again next season.

“Marshall has a good program. The atmosphere was great here tonight. This is the type of team you want to play,” said Brett.

New players will be in the lineups when the teams meet next season. Four seniors started for both teams in Saturday’s contest played before a good crowd.

In Friday’s 56-49 defeat at North Daviess, Crody and Richardson each had 12 points and Newton scored 11.



Shakamak 55

Player fg 3pt ft r s pf tp

Newton 6-15 0-1 5-8 7 1 2 17

Richardson 2-8 1-2 5-9 3 2 4 10

Smith 1-6 0-1 0-0 2 3 4 2

VanHorn 3-5 1-1 3-6 3 1 0 10

Crody 5-7 0-0 0-0 4 0 2 10

Langford 2-3 0-0 0-0 6 0 1 4

Dowell 1-2 0-0 0-0 1 0 1 2

Sparks 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Totals 20-45 2-5 13-23 *28 7 14 55

Marshall 70

Player fg 3pt ft r s pf tp

T. Duncan 8-13 2-3 6-8 6 0 2 24

Morey 9-11 3-4 0-1 1 1 0 21

J. Duncan 4-12 3-10 3-4 2 2 4 14

Tucker 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Cannady 3-6 0-0 0-0 10 1 3 6

Grooms 1-2 1-1 0-0 4 1 0 3

Bishop 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Strohm 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Sanders 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Totals 26-45 9-18 9-13 *27 5 13 70

Shakamak 14 20 5 16 — 55

Marshall 16 11 27 16 — 70

FG Pct. -- Sh .444, Ma .552. 3-pt. FG Pct. -- Sh .400, Ma .500. FT Pct. -- Sh .565, Ma .692. (*) includes team rebounds -- Sh 2, Ma 1. Turnovers -- Sh 8, Ma 7.

JV -- Marshall 49 (Andre Strohm 11, Jordan Grooms 11, Taylor Maurer 10), Shakamak 26 (Kyle Schubla 8)

Next -- On Friday, Marshall (11-3) hosts West Vigo and Shakamak (9-4) hosts White River Valley.

Amey takes Aim: Classic’s best title game capped great tourney

If it weren’t for last year, we might be talking about the recently completed Pizza Hut Wabash Valley Classic as the best one ever — and it unquestionably had the most interesting championship game, only the 2003 Terre Haute North-Bloomfield matchup being anywhere comparable.

There wasn’t really a close game on the first day, but plenty of down-to-the-wire thrillers the rest of the way. Crowds, by my educated guess, were also second only to the 2008 tournament — nearly full for the 11:30 a.m. game on the first day (maybe a morning record, and a sign of discriminating taste since that was the Sullivan-South Vermillion matchup), full by the time Marshall and North played on the second day, and perhaps down early on the third day but filling the gym by the time Marshall was finishing its game and Sullivan and West Vigo were getting ready to go.

Two of my friends from Terre Haute South are no longer in the Classic’s top 10 in scoring, with Armon Bassett’s 155 points and Jeremy Lock’s 152 having been supplanted by West Vigo’s Tyler Wampler and South’s John Michael Jarvis.

R.J. Mahurin of Rockville leads the way with 292 points, and probably will for awhile. To put his numbers in perspective, to get to 292 points a player would have to average 18.3 points per game and play four games (which only half the teams do each year) in all four years of high school. Yes, that record is safe.

Unofficially, the rest of the top 10 now consists of Nate Blank of North (225), Adam Gore of Monrovia (214), Lucas Eitel of Marshall and Wampler (both 210), Phil Woods of Turkey Run (208), Logan Eitel of Marshall (200), Jarvis (197), Zach Keyes of Northview (179) and Tyler Morgan of Riverton Parke (162).

Other unofficial statistics and tidbits from 2009 are as follows:

• He played too early in the day — I had no qualms at all about the 10 players (Thomas Anderson and Justin Gant of North, Dreyson Boyd and Rhett Smith of Sullivan, Taylor Duncan of Marshall, Jarvis, Trent Lancaster of Northview, Billy Newton of Shakamak, Andy Walsh of South Vermillion and Wampler) named to the all-tournament team. All of them were under consideration on the ballot that I eventually whittled down to 10.

But the first player I wrote down on that ballot was Jake Weaver of Turkey Run, who averaged a little over 15 points per game (on a team that averaged a little over 46) and who does a lot more for the Warriors than just score. I also voted for Tyler Richardson of Shakamak and considered Anthony McGill of South and Chase Rhoten of Linton.

• Teams that helped themselves — The obvious first choices here are Northview and Linton, each of whom picked up their first win of the season and came close to getting at least one more. The Miners who lost to Casey on Tuesday were a vastly better team than the Miners who lost to Shakamak on Saturday. South also gained a shot of confidence from its three wins (and its Dec. 22 win at Indianapolis Arlington).

No team, however, got a bigger boost than consolation-bracket champion Casey.

• Teams who hurt themselves — I’m not sure anybody’s on this list, although I imagine Bloomfield and Monrovia were fairly desperate teams before beating Riverton Parke and Rockville on Tuesday to salvage a win each, and Marshall’s Lions need the shots to start dropping pretty soon.

South Vermillion certainly suffered a setback when Cody Mumaw, one of the Wildcats’ three-year starters, was injured against Sullivan and missed the rest of the tournament. But if a couple of players take advantage of additional playing time until Mumaw’s return, the Wildcats might be a deeper and more versatile tournament team as a result.

Rockville didn’t win, but I don’t count the Rox as having hurt themselves either. They are 10 deep (as coach Dave Mahurin quipped, five offensive players and five defensive players), they were in all three of their Classic games and could easily have won two of them, and figure to keep getting better.

• Players who emerged — Maybe I should include West Vigo in the list of teams that helped themselves, because the Classic was a coming-out party for both Zach Kent, the hero of the Owen Valley win, and Ryan Crowther. Chance Talbot of Northview seems to be taking advantage of increased playing time too, and I thought Ike Worrell of South had a very solid week.

• Best mascot — Even with a little more competition, the Marshall Lion would have won this award paws down.

• All-name team addition — Kruz Kusterman of Casey makes any top-10 list in that regard.

n New favorites needed — This was the final Classic for David Parsons of Rockville, very possibly the most interesting player I’ve ever covered, and Dustin Morey of Marshall, one of my favorite people to interview.

I may have isolated a possible successor to Parsons in Dess Fougerousse of Linton, however.

• Best crossover dribble — I know a lot of you are picking Duncan, having watched him operate at the top of the key for Marshall for four days.

But the best single crossover I’ve seen all season — maybe for several seasons — was turned in by freshman Jeff Woods of Turkey Run (yes, that’s his brother who was mentioned earlier). Every time I’m in the North gym now I keep expecting someone to trip over that athletic supporter left there by Woods’ move against a surprised Owen Valley defender.

• Best one-on-one matchup — Nominations are pouring in for Duncan again, either being guarded by North’s Chris O’Leary or guarding Northview’s Lancaster the following night.

My vote, however, was set in stone early Monday when I watched Parsons — who would have thought he’d become an offensive threat as a senior? — being guarded by Casey’s Chris Unzicker. Parsons had Unzicker by about five inches and at least 50 pounds, but Unzicker — captain of the all-feisty team and the Classic leader in righteous indignation — did his best to match Parsons push for push and shove for shove.

Unzicker, in fact, might have been my favorite player to watch in this tournament, at least partly because after a couple of days — my 22 games plus halves of two others enabled me to see the Warriors four times — I figured out who he reminds me of: John McEnroe.

I can hear Chris now. “McEnroe? You cannot be serious!”

Marshall boys pull away late

Marshall, Ill. — The Paris boys basketball team had grit when it visited Marshall on Tuesday. The proof was the 13 lead changes and three ties as the Tigers and Lions tangled well into the fourth quarter.

The difference for Marshall in its 54-46 boys high school basketball victory is that it has been in those types of situations countless times in the last several seasons. The Tigers are still learning how to win.

“As the clock was kind of moving down, they had three big turnovers against our zone trap. Our guys came down against their defense, settled down, relaxed, and got a couple of good looks,” Marshall coach Tom Brannan said.

Paris scored only eight points in the fourth quarter. It was partly due to Marshall clamping down on top Paris scorer Zach Henn, who scored 12 of his game-high 17 points before halftime, but it also had a little to do with the Tigers not being able to convert on possessions that might have put the Lions back on their heels.

“Marshall used its possessions wisely. There’s a few times we rushed ourselves and didn’t take a good shot. That’s about knowing how to win these close games. Marshall deserves credit too. When they needed to, they got the rotation on defense and they got the rebound. Our kids are learning, we’re taking steps in the right direction, but we’re still not there yet to finish a good team like Marshall,” Paris coach Jim Virostko said.

With Marshall ahead 43-42, Paris had three chances to retake the lead for what would have been the fifth time in the second half, but couldn’t get a bucket. When Jordan Grooms drained a 3-pointer with 2:45 left in the game, Marshall finally broke through and gave itself a two-possession lead for the first time since the first half.

“That was probably the play of the game. Against their zone, we ran a little player screen. Jordan is supposed to sit in the middle of the zone. He stepped out and was wide open. They were worried about everyone else and he hit a big shot,” Brannan said.

After Grooms hit his shot, Paris had an unforced turnover. Marshall’s Jacob Duncan drove the lane and scored to make it 48-42 with 2:04 left in the game. After another Paris giveaway, Grooms buried a pair of free throws to give the Lions an eight-point advantage with 1:33 left.

“I think we got a little tired in the fourth quarter. I don’t know if it was fatigue or what it was. Maybe we need to do some more wind sprints to get over the hump, but we looked tired,” Virostko said.

Before the fourth quarter, Paris not only hung in there, but was the better team at times. Marshall led 23-16 with 2:36 to go in the second quarter, but the Tigers closed the half on a 6-0 run, with Henn converting a 3-point play and Josh Griffin making a layup to get the Tigers within one at halftime.

Paris (6-10) might have had its finest hour in the third quarter, when the lead changed hands five times. Other than a 3-pointer, Marshall kept Henn off the scoresheet, but Paris got scoring out of Cory Cunningham, Dalten Temples, Griffin, and especially, Josh Cary, who scored all six of his points in the period. Paris led 38-37 going into the final quarter.

Both Marshall Duncan’s — Jacob and Taylor — scored 15 to lead the Lions.

Marshall (8-3) has a big game Saturday as it travels to perennial power Tolono Unity. Paris gets back into Apollo Conference action as it visits Salem on Friday.



Paris 46

Player fg 3pt ft r s pf tp

Mason 0-3 0-1 2-2 1 2 2 2

Temples 3-5 0-1 1-2 4 0 0 7

Griffin 4-8 0-0 0-0 9 0 3 8

Henn 7-19 2-6 1-2 6 0 3 17

Cary 3-4 0-0 0-0 3 0 2 6

Cunningham 2-3 1-1 0-2 2 0 2 5

Ball 0-0 0-0 1-2 0 1 0 1

Totals 19-42 3-9 5-10 30* 3 12 46



Marshall 54

Player fg 3pt ft r s pf tp

J. Duncan 5-13 3-10 2-2 2 1 1 15

Tucker 1-1 0-0 0-0 5 0 5 2

Cannady 4-9 1-4 0-0 5 1 3 9

T. Duncan 5-18 1-5 4-4 3 2 0 15

Morey 3-4 1-2 1-3 3 0 2 8

Grooms 1-2 1-2 2-2 1 0 3 5

Strohm 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 1 0

Totals 19-37 7-23 9-11 22* 4 15 54

Paris 15 7 16 8 — 46

Marshall 16 7 14 17 — 54

FG Pct. — P .453, M .514. 3Pt. Pct. — P .333, M .304. FT Pct. — P .500, M .818. Blocks — P 1 (Griffin), M 2 (T. Duncan, Cannady). Turnovers — P 14, M 6. Team rebounds* — P 5, M 3.

JV — Marshall 33, Paris 30

Next — Marshall (8-3) will play at Tolono Unity on Saturday. Paris (6-10) will play at Salem on Friday.

Tournament winner Sullivan gets two All-Wabash Valley Classic nods

Player (School, Tournament

scoring average)

• Thomas Anderson (Terre Haute North, 10.3 ppg)

• Dreyson Boyd (Sullivan, 11.5 ppg)

• Taylor Duncan (Marshall, 15.3 ppg)

• Justin Gant (Terre Haute North, 13.8 ppg)

• Trent Lancaster (Northview, 20 ppg)

• Billy Newton (Shakamak, 22 ppg)

• Rhett Smith (Sullivan, 17 ppg)

• John Michael Jarvis (Terre Haute South, 14.8 ppg)

• Andy Walsh (South Vermillion, 19.3 ppg)

• Tyler Wampler (West Vigo, 19.5 ppg)

Shooting woes doom Marshall against South

TERRE HAUTE — Little did most of fans realize, but when South’s Anthony McGill drove directly to the basket for a layup in the game’s first 10 seconds? It was a preview of coming attractions.

The Braves modus operandi is being a team that likes to shoot 3’s early and often — seeking to penetrate opponent defenses then kick the ball out for wide-open 3-point shots.

But this time, the penetration was so well-executed that South was able to convert inside-shot after inside-shot in a 60-43 domination of Marshall in the fifth-place game of the Pizza Hut Wabash Valley Classic at North’s gym on Wednesday.

“It’s funny, people think it’s all about 3’s,” South coach Mike Saylor explained. “It’s about penetration and 3’s. To make the 3-point thing work, you’ve got to have penetration. Tonight, penetration was strong and it set up a lot of good shooting.”

Meanwhile, Marshall easily suffered through its worst shooting night of the season from beyond the 3-point arc — connecting on just 1 of 22 3-pointers for a dismal 4.5 percent.

The Lions also committed five turnovers in both the first and second quarter, 17 overall. Those miscues, added to their shooting woes, allowed South to pull ahead 30-10 by intermission — thanks to a 15-2 second quarter effort.

“It looked like our mental approach was lacking,” Marshall coach Tom Brannan said. “On top of that, when you come out and miss a lot of shots and turn the ball over … a lot of [turnovers] were uncontested.”

In the decisive second quarter, McGill and Jermaine Smith drove for two baskets apiece, plus one more drive from freshman Jeffrey Turner. Combined with a 3-pointer from near the Bemis parking lot — slight exaggeration — from McGill, the Braves finished the first half on a 12-0 run.

A pair of timeouts by Brannan in the first quarter, a one-sided “discussion” with his assembled team after the first quarter and a timeout 16 seconds into the second half could not stem the Braves’ tide.

South’s lead expanded to a peak of 27 points at 52-25 early in the fourth quarter. Even South’s subs got into the action late in the game, including a pair of 3’s from an unlikely source in Joey Etling.

“I think we shot around 35 percent [10-of-29 in 3’s], which transfers to 54 percent [two-point production] … so it was a good shooting night,” Saylor said while invoking some Saylor-math to explain a winning equation.

McGill and Jarvis paced the Braves with 12 points apiece, but a big factor for their success was Worrell. The 6-foot-6 senior tallied eight points, but more importantly controlled the lane and glass with seven rebounds, and had two steals.

“I think Ike Worrell really gave us a spark,” Saylor said. “He was inspirational the way he was hitting the glass … and that’s been the Achilles’ heel of our team, really, throughout the season. It’s inspiring to see a kid get that much better quickly, and it’s important to our team.”

Dustin Morey led the Lions with 17 points and six rebounds. Taylor Duncan added 11 points, but was 0-of-7 in 3-pointers. Dalton Sanders tallied 10 points, all coming in the game’s waning moments against South reserves.

“This is maybe the best thing that can happen to our team,” Brannan said afterward. “I guess when you hit the low, the lowest low, there’s no where but up. We’ll be better the next time you see us. I guarantee you.”

But it was all smiles with the Braves, Saylor concluding, “We leave the tournament feeling really good.”



TH South 60

Player fg 3pt ft r s pf tp

Worrell 3-3 2-2 0-0 7 2 1 8

Tanoos 1-6 1-3 0-0 1 1 1 3

Smith 3-4 0-1 0-0 1 0 2 6

McGill 6-9 1-4 2-4 1 3 1 12

Jarvis 4-11 3-9 1-3 4 2 2 12

Ulrich 1-3 1-3 0-0 1 1 0 3

Turner 1-3 0-1 1-2 0 0 1 3

Schwartz 1-3 0-2 0-0 2 0 0 2

Etling 2-3 2-3 0-0 4 2 3 6

Weishaupt 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 0

McKenna 1-2 0-0 0-0 2 0 0 2

Hill 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Lookebill 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Totals 23-50 10-29 4-9 26* 11 11 60

Marshall 43

Player fg 3pt ft r s pf tp

T.Duncan 5-14 0-7 1-2 4 3 4 11

Morey 8-12 1-4 3-3 6 0 1 17

Cannady 1-6 0-4 0-0 4 1 1 2

J.Duncan 0-3 0-3 0-0 0 0 1 0

Tucker 0-1 0-1 0-0 3 0 2 0

Grooms 0-1 0-1 0-0 1 0 0 0

Strohm 0-2 0-1 0-0 1 1 2 0

Boyll 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Sanders 3-3 0-0 4-6 4 0 0 10

Schaefer 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 0 1 0

Wetnight 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 0 0

Davidson 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 0

Totals 17-43 1-22 8-11 30* 6 12 43

TH South 15 15 17 13 — 60

Marshall 8 2 13 20 — 43

FG Pct. — THS .460, M .395. 3P Pct. — THS .345, M .045. FT Pct. — THS .444, M .727. Blocks — THS 0, M 1 (Morey). Turnovers — THS 11, M 17. Team rebounds (*) — THS 3, M 6.

Next — TH South (5-5) travels to Warren Central on Jan. 8. Marshall (7-3) hosts Paris on Jan. 5.

North gets revenge against defending champ Marshall

TERRE HAUTE — Host Terre Haute North defined its high school basketball success in the Pizza Hut Wabash Valley Classic on Monday by what the Patriots weren’t hearing.

A year ago Marshall’s fans taunted the Patriots with chants — accurate ones — of “You can’t guard us” in the Classic championship game at Terre Haute South.

On Monday, the Patriots could — and did — in an impressive 47-31 win that moves the home team into tonight’s semifinals.

“The key to the game was a great defensive effort — a great team defensive effort,” coach Todd Woelfle of the Patriots said afterward. “Our motto is we do things together as a team.”

That apparently includes re-reading the accounts of last season’s game, Woelfle indicated. “We wanted to make sure our kids were very focused on not hearing that [chant from the Marshall fans] tonight,” he added.

“You’ve got to give a lot of credit to [the Patriots],” coach Tom Brannan of the Lions agreed. “They played great defense, and they had a pretty good scout on us.”

What worries Brannan right now is not the outcome of Monday’s game, but rather a trend that seems to be budding.

“We had a lot of pretty good looks,” he said after watching his team shoot 27 percent from the field, 19 percent from 3-point range — and just 43 percent from the foul line. “The free throw line is about as wide-open a look as you can get.

“We’ve had four or five games in a row [with subpar shooting] … but [being defended hard] is only going to make us better.”

The shooting percentages — North hit 50 percent of its shots from the field and nine of its first 10 free throws — were the main difference in the game, in fact. There was certainly no difference between the teams in intensity or effort or physical play.

North’s Thomas Anderson even gave the Lions an inadvertant compliment afterward when he noted, “This kind of game will get us ready for [Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference] opponents — pushing, shoving, bloody.”

But North’s shooting percentages improved over the ones achieved in their struggle Saturday against Casey because the Patriots were shooting from a different area.

“The guards did a nice job getting the ball inside,” Woelfle noted, after seeing 6-foot-8 Justin Gant score 16 and the 6-6 Anderson add 14. “It’s safe to say that was a point of emphasis from the coaching staff.”

“[Not getting the ball in other games] wasn’t a big deal to me, but Chase [Jones] did an excellent job getting me the ball tonight, and I was able to get it in the basket,” said Anderson.

Marshall had early leads of 3-0 and 5-2, but then North got a free throw from Chris O’Leary, a steal and layup from Logan Shipley and a rebound basket by Anderson to take a 7-5 lead. Marshall tied the score on a basket by Taylor Duncan with 3:38 left in the first quarter, but didn’t get another field goal for more than nine minutes.

Anderson had three more baskets in the 8-0 run that put the Patriots ahead to stay, and also scored the last basket of the first half to give North a 22-12 lead. Marshall was never closer than 10 points again.

Not only were the Patriots efficient, they were playing with a passion that was notably absent from their Classic opener two days before.

“Saturday [against Casey] we just didn’t come ready to play,” Anderson said afterward. “Tonight we were ready to play from the start.”

“The game can be a humbling experience,” added Woelfle, who said his players were well aware of their performances both Saturday night and a year ago against the Lions.

In addition to their combined 30 points, Gant and Anderson gobbled up 19 rebounds between them for North, while Jones and O’Leary had four assists each. Woelfle also praised O’Leary’s defense against Taylor Duncan, even though the Marshall star had more than half his team’s points with 16 and also five rebounds and two of its three assists.

“Chris O’Leary did a great job on Taylor Duncan,” Woelfle said. “He’s a great player, but Chris made him work … and the other guys did a great job covering [Marshall’s] shooters.”

Duncan got scoring help only from Jake Tucker, who had eight for the Lions. Dustin Morey also had five rebounds.

“It might have been different if we had made shots,” Brannan concluded. “But while we’re playing to win this tournament, we’re also playing to get better for the postseason.”



Terre Haute North 47

Player fg 3pt ft r s pf tp

Gant 6-10 0-1 4-4 11 0 2 16

Shipley 2-5 0-2 0-0 0 2 3 4

Anderson 7-11 0-0 0-0 8 0 1 14

C.O’Leary 1-4 1-3 1-2 4 0 4 4

Jones 0-2 0-0 2-2 2 0 1 2

Sponsler 1-2 1-1 2-2 0 0 1 5

Gauer 1-1 0-0 0-0 4 0 2 2

Blank 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 1 0 0

M.O’Leary 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Marshall 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 1 0

Bolden 0-0 0-0 0-2 0 1 0 0

Newton 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Totals 18-36 2-7 9-12 *31 4 15 47

Marshall 31

Player fg 3pt ft r s pf tp

T.Duncan 6-18 0-4 4-8 5 2 0 16

Morey 0-1 0-1 0-1 5 0 0 0

Tucker 3-5 2-4 0-1 2 1 2 8

J.Duncan 1-6 1-4 0-0 2 0 5 3

Cannady 0-6 0-3 1-2 1 2 1 1

Grooms 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Strohm 0-1 0-0 1-2 0 0 1 1

Wetnight 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 1 0

Schaefer 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 0 1 0

Boyll 1-1 0-0 0-0 3 0 0 2

Sanders 0-1 0-0 0-0 1 0 0 0

Totals 11-41 3-16 6-14 *28 5 11 31

Terre Haute North 13 9 15 10 — 47

Marshall 7 5 8 11 — 31

FG Pct. — THN .500, Marshall .268. 3-pt FG Pct. — THN .286, Marshall .188. FT Pct. — THN .750, Marshall .429. (*) Includes team rebounds — THN 2, Marshall 8. Turnovers — THN 10, Marshall 6. Assists — THN 14 (Jones 4, C.O’Leary 4), Marshall 3 (T.Duncan 2). Blocks — THN 6 (Gant 2), Marshall 1 (Cannady).

Next — Marshall (6-2) plays Northview at 5:30 p.m. today. North (8-1) plays Shakamak at 8:30.

Big games on tap at Pizza Hut

TERRE HAUTE — Two relative upstarts — if you can call a high school basketball tournament’s defending champion an upstart — figure to provide the drama today as the Pizza Hut Wabash Valley Classic enters its second round at Terre Haute North.

Eight more games are on the schedule starting at 10 a.m. when Bloomfield — needing a win today to prevent a third straight departure from home just after dawn — meets South Vermillion.

The Wildcats, probably the biggest contender eliminated from championship contention on Saturday, will be like the seven other teams in the two losers’-bracket doubleheaders, hoping to start a two-game winning streak that will enable them to play on Wednesday for the consolation-bracket championship.

The other eight teams, the ones who won on Saturday, are in the four quarterfinal doubleheaders that start at 1 and 7 p.m. There might be a seat or two available for the 1 p.m. game, when Sullivan plays Terre Haute South, but the 2009 Classic’s first capacity crowd is almost assured by the time Marshall meets North at 7. It’s a rematch of last season’s championship game, won 64-48 by the Lions, and the storylines are numerous.

North has already faced one Illinois team in this tournament and would like to forget the experience.

The Patriots had probably their worst 15 minutes of the season in the first half of their 52-26 win over Casey on Saturday, finally taking the lead for the first time — and for good — in the last minute of the first half.

If they learned anything from that game, they’ll be pounding the ball inside to 6-foot-8 junior Justin Gant and 6-6 senior Thomas Anderson early and often — something they didn’t do for a long time against the Warriors.

“We were settling [for outside shots],” coach Todd Woelfle of the Patriots said disgustedly after that one.

Marshall isn’t a whole lot bigger than Casey — the Lions might not have a player as strong as the Warriors’ Clinton Scott, in fact, although Taylor Duncan comes closest.

“To be honest, [former Rockville star R.J. Mahurin] from last year plays a lot like Gant this year,” coach Tom Brannan of the Lions said Saturday. “They’re not strictly inside players; they will step out, so you need to guard him out there. We’re probably more concerned with a 6-8 guy who is constantly going to post up on you instead of a guy who’s going to float out.”

If the Lions can defend well enough to win today, they’ll still have to shoot better than they did Saturday in a win over Rockville.

“We have to hope and pray that we keep attacking and keep hitting that open guy. Maybe [today] the shots will fall, maybe that 6 for 21 [Duncan’s line against Rockville] will be a 13 for 20. You have to keep believing that’s going to happen. We have to stay on our toes and attack instead of playing on our heels,” Brannan added.

The 1 p.m. game also features something of a size problem, although this time the problem is for the larger school.

South, although regaining some badly needed shooting confidence in the past week with one-sided wins over Indianapolis Arlington and Bloomfield, will have to figure a way to nullify Sullivan’s 6-7 do-everything sophomore Rhett Smith, who flirted for a quadruple-double for awhile in the Golden Arrows’ win over South Vermillion on Saturday.

Reading the mind of coach Mike Saylor of the Braves is never easy, but the Braves might try to trap and press the young Sullivan ball handlers; Smith can help the Arrows there too, but if he has to that might take him away from the basket enough to be helpful to the Braves.

Sullivan’s defensive test will be reining in South’s veteran backcourt stars, John Michael Jarvis and Anthony McGill. Smith’s presence inside might be something of a deterrent for McGill’s penetration — or McGill’s penetration could create foul problems for Smith — but Jarvis is the most prolific 3-point shooter in Classic history and might be due for a breakout performance.

Today’s other quarterfinal games shouldn’t lack for drama either. The Owen Valley-West Vigo game at 2:30 p.m. is a rematch of a game won 45-37 by the Vikings on Dec. 5, but the Vikings are still adjusting to a lineup without injured guard Scott West. And the 8:30 p.m. Shakamak-Northview game pits a host of Laker veterans against coach Ernie Maesch of the Knights — who was coach of the Lakers as recently as two seasons ago.

Other consolation-bracket games today are Turkey Run against Riverton Parke at 11:30 a.m., the Warriors having beaten the Panthers 57-31 on Dec. 11; Casey vs. Rockville in an evenly matched 4 p.m. encounter; and Linton’s quest for its first win of the season at 5:30 p.m. against Monrovia.

All 16 teams play again on Tuesday, but half will be finished at the end of that day. The other eight return for trophy day on Wednesday which starts with the 3 p.m. consolation-bracket championship.

Rockville makes Marshall work for victory

TERRE HAUTE — Judging by the final score, it would seem that defending Pizza Hut Classic champion Marshall had it relatively easy in first defense of its crown with a 59-39 victory over Rockville in Saturday’s Pizza Hut Classic.

That’s not necessarily the case.

The Lions needed a 20-7 fourth quarter to pull away from the young Rox, who made Marshall work for its victory, even if the Rox had plenty of self-inflicted issues it had to fight through itself.

Marshall’s pressure forced 22 Rockville turnvoers, 14 coming in the first half. Despite that, Rockville trailed by just seven at the break.



Rockville 39

Player fg 3pt ft r s pf tp

Jeffries 1-7 1-7 0-0 4 3 3 3

McFall 0-1 0-0 0-0 6 0 1 0

White 3-9 1-3 0-0 5 0 0 7

Mahurin 2-6 0-1 2-3 3 0 1 6

Kelley 4-9 2-4 0-1 6 0 1 10

Lear 1-1 1-1 0-0 3 0 1 3

Parsons 1-3 0-0 2-3 2 0 3 4

Wheeler 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

McMullen 1-1 1-1 0-0 1 0 0 3

Wittenmeyer 1-1 1-1 0-1 0 1 2 3

Totals 14-38 7-18 4-7 33* 3 12 39



Marshall 59

Player fg 3pt ft r s pf tp

J. Duncan 3-9 1-5 3-3 1 2 0 10

Tucker 1-6 0-2 0-1 6 1 2 2

Cannady 6-13 3-8 0-0 5 3 2 15

T. Duncan 6-21 4-9 6-9 6 7 3 22

Morey 0-0 0-0 0-0 4 1 2 0

Grooms 1-3 1-3 0-0 3 1 1 3

Strohm 1-1 1-1 0-0 0 0 2 3

Sanders 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 0 1 0

Schaefer 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 0 0

Davidson 0-0 0-0 2-2 1 0 0 2

Wetnight 0-1 0-0 0-0 1 0 1 0

Boyll 1-2 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 2

Totals 19-56 10-29 11-15 32* 16 14 59

Rockville 10 10 12 7 — 39

Marshall 11 16 12 20 — 59

FG Pct. — R .368, M .339. 3P Pct. — R .389, M .345. FT Pct. — R .571, M .733. Blocks — R 1 (Jeffries), M 2 (Cannady, Grooms). Turnovers — R 22, M 7. Team rebounds* — R 3, M 4.

Next — Marshall (6-1) will play Terre Haute North at 7 p.m. Monday in the Pizza Hut Classic. Rockville (2-3) will play Casey at 4 p.m. Monday in the Pizza Hut Classic.

Last season’s WVC tourney will be tough act to follow

TERRE HAUTE — It can’t be as good as it was last year, can it?

The 10th edition of the Pizza Hut Wabash Valley Classic, which tips off at 10 a.m. Saturday at Terre Haute North with Bloomfield meeting Terre Haute South, was a high school basketball feast of truly classic proportions last December.

Its sauce was spiced with more than its share of down-to-the-wire thrillers and last-second shots, and it was topped when Marshall — the smallest school (but bringing one of the biggest crowds) to win it so far — wrapped up the championship and remained undefeated until an Illinois Class 2A state semifinal game in March.

There won’t be an undefeated winner this year. Coach Tom Brannan’s Lions had the last chance to do that again, but were beaten for the first time in 45 regular-season games on Monday.

There may not be quite as many teams with state-championship hopes as there were last season either, when South, Rockville and Shakamak were top-10 teams in their respective Indiana classes when the tournament began.

On the other hand, there are several teams who, with a good showing the next five days, might start thinking about higher goals. The host Patriots, who have crept to within one spot of Indiana’s Class 4A top 10, could be one of those. So could Turkey Run, or Casey, or Sullivan, or South Vermillion — or Shakamak again, considering that the Lakers are Class A’s No. 10 team this week.

And the classic games (among the Classic games), which long-time tournament observers realize can crop up at any time, may not wait long to start happening.

Two of those teams just mentioned, Western Indiana Conference rivals Sullivan and South Vermillion, play in Saturday’s second game at 11:30, so obviously only one of them will get a chance to play itself into contention.

“It’s a big game for both of us,” said Coach Jeff Moore of Sullivan, which suffered its first loss Saturday against Class 3A’s top-ranked Washington, “and it should be a great game. Both of us are looking to build momentum for the rest of the season.”

“We need to regroup right now,” said coach Rodney Idlewine of South Vermillion, which had its first loss of the season on the same night. “We tripped over our toes at Greencastle [Saturday], so we want to get back on the right path and get better.”

Moore, whose team is heavily laden with promising sophomores, hasn’t exactly been surprised with what’s happened to his Golden Arrows so far, but he has been pleased.

“We said if we were 4-4 at this point we’d be happy,” he said earlier this week, “so I’m pretty happy with our progress. This is always a great tournament for us.”

“We want to get better in this tournament,” repeated Idlewine, who may have the most experienced lineup in the 16-team field, “and we look at [Saturday’s game with Sullivan] as a chance to see a conference opponent without it being a conference game.”

If Sullivan-South Vermillion is the highlight of Saturday’s first round, a potential second-round masterpiece could occur with a rematch of last year’s championship game, Marshall against North.

The host Patriots, whose only loss was to defending Class 4A state champion Bloomington South on the road two weeks ago, have been anointed as the favorite in some places, particularly since they’ll be in familiar surroundings all week. But coach Todd Woelfle was making no such claims.

“Once again it will be a great tournament,” he predicted earlier this week, “with a lot of good individual players and a lot of teams who have gotten off to a good start.

“We look at our season in four segments — pre-Pizza Hut, the Pizza Hut Classic, then the bulk of our [Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference] season, then the state tournament. And after [the Classic] we’ll have a good idea of what type of team we are when it’s over.”

The other two Vigo County teams enter the Classic with slightly different agendas, although both South and West Vigo are possibilities to advance from a balanced top bracket — particularly after the Braves’ 40-point halftime lead in a victory Tuesday at Indianapolis Arlington.

“We’re looking forward to playing, as we always do,” said coach Mike Saylor of the Braves prior to that win, “but the fact that we’ve not gotten ourselves together yet makes we wish we have a couple more weeks to prepare and find our team identity.”

Finding a team identity will be something the Vikings will be doing on the fly in its Classic games, since starting guard Scott West will be out of the lineup for four to six weeks after breaking his collarbone and suffering a mild concussion during West Vigo’s game last Saturday at Brown County.

“Some guys are going to get more opportunites [to play] than they’ve had up to this point,” coach Joe Boehler noted earlier this week. “We think we have guys sitting there [on the bench] ready to play, and now they’ll have to step into new roles and get something done.”

As a result, Boehler will measure at least part of his team’s success the next few days by how often he gets to tinker with his new lineup.

“We just want to play as well as we can,” he said, “but we want to play four games so we can get some experience right now. We want to be playing on trophy day [Wednesday, when just four games are scheduled instead of the eight on Saturday, Monday and Tuesday].”

Defending champ Marshall still a force in Pizza Hut Classic

TERRE HAUTE — Two years ago, Marshall was poised to become the first “small” school to win the Wabash Valley Pizza Hut Classic — but they suffered through their worst shooting night of the season in falling to Terre Haute South 64-33 in the championship game.

For many high school teams, such a devastating loss would have a carryover effect. Not only for that season, but in future seasons when another big game arises.

But the Lions are nothing if resilient, returning to the same championship game stage last year. This time, Marshall became the first “small” school to win the PHWVC, toppling Terre Haute North 64-48.

“That season, we lost only two games all year,” Marshall coach Tom Brannan recalled. “The loss to Terre Haute South, then it happened again with St. Anthony in the regional championship game. Both games we had good looks, but the shots just didn’t fall.

“The good thing that came out of those losses? We learned how to play with adversity.”

Small schools have made runs in previous Pizza Hut Classics. Runner-up teams are Bloomfield (2000, 2003), Turkey Run (2001) and Marshall (2007).

Until the Lions won last year, the only team coming close to winning a championship was Bloomfield in 2003, dropping a 34-31 nailbiter to TH North.

“We are proud to be the first to break through that [small school] barrier,” Brannan stated.

Prep Roundup: Marshall boys hoops suffers first loss at IC Shootout

JACKSONVILLE, ILL. — Marshall’s Lions had their 44-game regular-season winning streak snapped in boys high school basketball Monday night, losing 57-35 to Quincy Notre Dame at the Illinois College Shootout.

Eleven different players scored for the highly ranked Raiders, who forced 23 Marshall turnovers and are now 9-1 for the season.

Taylor Duncan led the Lions, now 5-1, with 14 points and six rebounds.

Marshall returns to action at 5:30 p.m. EST Saturday — 4:30 p.m. CST — at Terre Haute North, facing Rockville in the first round of the Pizza Hut Wabash Valley Classic. Marshall is defending champion of that tournament.

Duncan, Marshall boys stay hot

Lions handle Providence St. Mel

Robinson, Ill. — Marshall won its second boys basketball of the week Saturday, defeating Providence St. Mel 72-53 in the Robinson Shootout.

The once-beaten host Maroons took on Morgan Park in the nightcap. Morgan Park took a 9-0 record into the contest.

Marshall hiked its record to 5-0 by beating Providence St. Mel and will shoot for a 6-0 mark and another shootout victory Monday in the Illinois College Shootout.

Logan Cannady scored 22 points for the Lions against the Knights from the Chicago area and hit two of his five 3-pointers in the first period in addition to hitting two free throws on the final possession of the quarter that gave Marshall a 14-13 lead.

The Knights held a brief 17-16 lead in the second stanza but that was their last lead of the night as Cannady hit another 3-pointer to put Marshall up 19-17 and start a 10-1 run that gave the Lions a 26-18 lead. They outscored Providence St. Mel 21-11 in the second period for a 35-24 lead at the half.

They led by at least 10 points the rest of the way and took a 49-36 lead into the final period.

Taylor Duncan had a double-double to lead the Lions with 28 points and 11 rebounds. He also had three steals and three assists.

Cannady was the other Lion in double digits and also had two blocks while Jacob Duncan had nine points and Jake Tucker tallied eight while Dustin Morey pulled down seven rebounds to help Marshall outrebound the Knights 33-22.

Both teams had played Friday night. Marshall bested Red Hill 54-41 and Providence St. Mel, now 6-3, defeated Cristo Rey 69-27.

“I am happy about this game. It shows we are getting better. We played smart basketball,” coach Tom Brannan said in his postgame comments on WMMC-FM.

Prep Roundup: Taylor Duncan gets to 1,000 points in Marshall victory

Bridgeport, Ill. — Marshall improved to 4-0 after defeating host Red Hill 54-41 in Little Illini Conference action Friday.

Taylor Duncan led Marshall with 17 points and joined the 1,000-point club. Logan Cannady had 15 as the Lions improved to 3-0 in the LIC.

Marshall will meet Providence St. Mel in a shootout at Robinson today and faces Quincy Notre Dame in another shootout Monday at Jacksonville, Ill.

Marshall responds in second half for victory

Martinsville, Ill. — Given how many pressure-packed games Marshall’s boys basketball team played in its run to the Class 2A IHSA state basketball finals last year, it’s easy to forget that the Lions haven’t played a true road game since last year’s regular season.

For a half, Martinsville reminded the Lions just how tough the road can be.

The Bluestreaks did not back down to the Lions, if anything, they dictated the flow at times in a first half where they outplayed Marshall. However, the Lions settled down in the second half and let their depth and pressure defense wear the Bluestreaks down as Marshall pulled away for an 87-45 nonconference victory.

“Not many people have outhustled us or out-scrapped us and there were points where they outscrapped us and outhustled us,” Marshall coach Tom Brannan said. “Our guys just needed to relax. I have disappointment in my voice and we won by 40, it tells you about our expectations, but this was a humbling experience for us.”

The Lions enjoyed the return of Taylor Duncan, who missed Marshall’s opener due to injury. He had 27 points and nine rebounds. He was dominant in Marshall’s 32-point third quarter that broke the game open. Duncan scored 17 points in the period, including all three of his 3-pointers.

“He’s a great player and it’s his first game in a while. He’s still trying to get his legs and playing basketball again, but he played a pretty good game,” Brannan said.

Marshall led 13-5 midway through the first quarter and seemed destined for its second rout in as many games (Marshall defeated Lawrenceville 61-26 in its season opener), but Martinsville had other ideas. The Bluestreaks matched the Lions’ scoring for the remainder of the period and a Bryce Doren bucket at the first quarter buzzer made it 19-12.

Doran’s field goal started a 9-0 Martinsville run as Jared Higginbotham tied the game with 5:19 to go in the half with a free throw. Higginbotham controlled the paint in the first half as he snared 11 of his 13 rebounds before the break. He went on to lead Martinsville with 19 points.

“The [area fans] need to rise up and look at Jared Higginbotham. He might be one of the best players in the area. It’s a small town and in Martinsville he can be overlooked, but he’s averaging 27 points per game and almost 14 rebounds a game. He proved tonight that he can do it against one of the best teams in the area,” Shelton said.

The Bluestreaks were within four as late as the 2:30 mark, but Marshall finished the half on a 7-2 run to open a slightly larger halftime gap of nine.

Scrappy though the Bluestreaks were in the first half, they were no match for the Lions in the third quarter. The rejuvanated Lions played more relaxed on the offensive end and forced eight third quarter Martinsville turnovers. The 32 points the Lions scored in the quarter matched their first half total as they stormed to a 64-33 advantage. Duncan (17 points in the period) outscored Martinsville (12) on his own.

Marshall forced 29 Martinsville turnovers overall and had 20 steals.

Marshall improved to 2-0 and will play host to Little Illini Conference foe Flora tonight. Martinsville fell to 1-6, but Shelton is pleased with the direction the Bluestreaks are headed in.

“We use the Marshall game as a measuring stick for our team, and for the first half, we answered the bell pretty well,” Shelton said. “I like our chances down the stretch. Our record isn’t as desirable as we’d like it to be, but I have a good feeling we’ll end up around that .500 mark.

PREP ROUNDUP: Marshall boys open with 85-28 win

MARSHALL, ILL. — Marshall was 12 of 16 from 3-point range as they bombarded Lawrenceville 85-28 in a boys basketball game on Friday.

It was the season opener for Marshall and the Lions picked up where they left off from the 2009 season, which ended in the Class 2A state finals in Peoria, Ill.

Logan Cannady led Marshall with 25 points and drained three of the Lions 3-pointers. Jacob Duncan added 15 points and Jake Tucker had 14.

Marshall did it all without Taylor Duncan, who missed the game due to an injury.



LAWRENCEVILLE (28) — Shuff 0 1-2 1, McClure 0 0-0 0, Horner 0 0-2 0, Benson 0 3-6 3, Cummins 0 0-0 0, Leighty 2 2-2 6, Goins 0 0-0 0, Kelly 2 4-4 9, Volkman 0 0-0 0, Potts 4 1-5 9, McCullough 0 0-0 0. Totals 8 11-21 28.

MARSHALL (85) — Davidson 1 0-0 2, Schaefer 1 0-1 2, Wetnight 0 0-1 0, Grooms 2 0-0 4, J. Duncan 6 0-0 15, Strohm 3 0-0 9, Tucker 6 0-0 14, Cannady 10 2-4 25, Sanders 1 0-2 2, Morey 3 2-5 9, Boyll 0 3-4 3. Totals 21 7-17 85.

Lawrenceville 5 12 6 5 — 28

Marshall 26 20 26 13 — 85

3-point field goals — Kelly; J. Duncan 3, Strohm 3, Cannady 3, Tucker 2, Morey.

Total fouls — L 16, M 21.

JV — Marshall won 61-26.

Next — Marshall (1-0, 1-0 Little Illini) is at Martinsville on Friday.

Marshall, Robinson on collision course again this season?

TERRE HAUTE — High school basketball fans in east-central Illinois have probably already circled the date: Dec. 19, when two of the state’s Class 2A powers convene at Robinson to play bigger schools from farther north.

Junior varsity teams from Marshall and Robinson play first, but then the varsity Lions play Providence-St. Mel and the host Maroons face Morgan Park, two Chicago teams to be reckoned with.

The Marshall-Robinson meeting, when it occurs, might be even better — and could easily happen again in postseason play.

Coach Tom Brannan’s Lions had to stage a monumental comeback last year to overhaul coach Bob Coffman’s Maroons, maybe Marshall’s toughest test until losing a semifinal game at Peoria and finishing third in the state.

Also competing at the Class 2A level are Casey and Paris, while Hutsonville-Palestine and Martinsville are in Class A competition. Here’s a look at what those teams have to offer this winter.

• Casey — Brad Carrell played for Casey 10 years ago, when the Warriors topped the Tribune-Star prep poll for awhile, and he gets his first opportunity as head coach this season.

If the Warriors, 1-0 so far, are to become one of the best teams in the area again, or even better last season’s 10-14 record, someone will have to replace the points scored in large bunches by Mitch Snyder a year ago.

Actually, Carrell says, that could be several someones.

“We want to play under control and realize that our strength is team play,” he said earlier this week. “We need all eight or 10 guys playing well together.”

Clinton Scott, a 6-foot-4 junior, averaged nearly 10 points per game last year and had 14 points and 13 rebounds Tuesday in the Casey opener. Other veterans back are 5-9 senior Riley Scales, 6-2 senior Kruz Kusterman, 5-11 senior Lucas McVey and 5-8 senior Chris Unzicker. Recent additions to the team who also played last year are 5-10 senior Kaleb Barnhart, 6-3 senior Seth Brewer and 5-9 senior Ryan Shull.

“The thing I’ve really liked is that [the Warriors] really work hard, and they haven’t backed off anything we’re trying to do,” Carrell said. “The senior have stepped up and are being good leaders, and the underclassmen we have will turn this team back into a winning program.”

• Hutsonville-Palestine — Travis Titsworth, another first-year coach, has his Tigers flying somewhere under the radar with a 5-0 record so far and some high hopes for the upcoming season.

Although Hutsonville-Palestine had just a 5-19 record a year ago, it started the season by winning the Central Illinois Thanksgiving Tourney hosted by Atwood-Hammond and Urbana University High.

Starters for the Tigers so far have been 6-1 senior Blake Callaway, a double-figure scorer a year ago; three more seniors in 5-9 Jenson Martin, 6-5 Jevon Pearse and 6-0 Luke Mehler; and 6-4 sophomore Austin Callahan.

All except Mehler, who didn’t play last year, are returning veterans, as is 5-9 senior Jaryd Webster. Also contributing have been 6-5 junior Alex McDaniel and two 6-0 sophomores, Kasey Newlin and Jerry Wilson. Callahan and Martin each had 24 points Tuesday in a win over Martinsville.

“Our goal is to win a regional,” Titsworth said this week. “Hutsonville never won one, and Palestine won one once, back in 1984. We’d also love to get 20 wins, and we’d like to compete for the [Little Illini] Conference.

“If you’re going to set goals, you might as well set some that mean something.”

Hutsonville-Palestine plays tonight at Casey.

• Marshall — The Lions, 32-1 a year ago, finally have their season opener tonight against Lawrenceville. Most of their players were members of the school’s Class 2A Final Four team in football.

“It was just a great year [last winter],” said Brannan recently. “Everything came together, and everything you’ve talked about as a coach, the kids did.”

Marshall has a few pieces available to make this season a good one too, starting with 6-3 senior Taylor Duncan and 6-6 senior Dustin Morey, the two returning starters, and 6-0 sophomores Logan Cannady and Jacob Duncan, who played regular minutes too.

Also winning letters were 6-1 senior Tyler Bishop, 6-4 senior Dalton Sanders, 6-2 senior Jake Tucker, 6-0 senior Austin Wetnight and 6-0 sophomore Jordan Grooms. Newcomers are 6-2 senior Nolan Schaeffer, 6-2 junior Andrew Davidson and 5-9 sophomore Andre Strohm.

“The young players are ready to step up,” Brannan predicted. “They learned how to win … and there are a lot of different ways to get a win.”

The coach isn’t kidding about that learning-how-to-win statement. That one loss gave the Marshall varsity more setbacks than either its junior varsity or freshman team had last year.

• Martinsville — Coach Kyle Shelton has one of the best players in the area in 6-1 senior Jared Higginbotham, who had 35 points and 17 rebounds in Tuesday’s loss at Hutsonville and who is averaging well over 20 points and 10 rebounds a game so far.

The problem is, he can’t keep that a secret for very long.

“We’re hoping to be better [than last year’s 7-20 team], and I think we can be,” Shelton said recently. “But other players have to contribute to our cause. Teams key on Jared, because teams have learned he’s very solid.”

The Bluestreaks, 1-4 so far, have suffered three of their losses against teams that are either unbeaten or have just one loss.

Martinsville’s other top returnees are 6-4 senior Josh Cribelar and 5-9 senior Bryant Washburn, with two sophomores — 5-7 Blaine Washburn and 6-3 Kyle Perisho — also making big contributions. Two more seniors, 6-1 Matt Sanders and 6-2 Ryne Davidson, complete the team’s usual rotation.

Martinsville will be in the Little Okaw Valley Conference for the second year this winter after finishing 5-7 in league play last year. Arthur and Arcola look to be preseason favorites there, Shelton predicted.

• Paris — The Tigers lost nine seniors from a 17-12 team a year ago, but are off to a 4-2 start as they begin Apollo Conference play tonight at home against Charleston.

“We’re a little short right now on experience,” coach Terry Elston said recently, “but we’re working hard.

“We’ve been in every game so far, and we look to improve as the year goes on.”

Paris isn’t short on much of anything but experience, and enjoys one of the area’s taller front lines when 6-6 sophomore Josh Cary joins two returnees, 6-3 senior Zach Henn and 6-6 junior Josh Griffin, in the starting lineup.

Dalton Temples, a 6-2 junior, is the only returning starter, but the Tigers’ junior varsity team last year was 15-3. Moving up from there have been 5-11 junior Cory Cunningham, currently starting at the point, plus 6-5 senior Aaron Peel, 6-3 senior Kody Waggoner and 5-10 junior Ethan Mason.

• Robinson — University of Illinois recruit Meyers Leonard might be the Apollo Conference’s first 7-footer since Uwe Blab played for Effingham more than 30 years ago, and is obviously the first thing opponents think about when getting ready to face the Maroons.

He’s not the only weapon in Robinson’s arsenal, however.

Two other returning starters for Coffman’s team are 6-1 seniors Derek Hannahs, the team’s playmaker, and Ben Jones. Jones has led the Maroons in scoring in two of the first three games, including a 35-point outburst.

Two other veterans are 5-10 senior Austin Siler and 6-4 Devan Dirks. Siler was a regular contributor to a 20-8 team, and Dirks might have been except for an injury that restricted him primarily to junior varsity play when he was available. Also in this year’s mix are 6-1 senior Cody Chamblin, 6-0 senior Jimmy Stevens and 5-10 freshman Aaron Siler.

“We have high expectations every year, and we want to go as far in the postseason as possible,” Coffman said recently. “We’re still trying to make improvements and trying to work as hard as we can.

“We won the Apollo last year and we’re looking to defend that title,” continued the coach, whose team begins conference play tonight against Effingham. “Defense is our key; we’ve got ways to get the ball in the basket and score.”