12/18/2021
BY JACK BULLOCK
ALTAMONT - If you're looking for an example of the old basketball expression of how 'defense and rebounding' can overcome even the worst of shooting nights, the Altamont victory over Hillsboro Wednesday night at home should be considered the 'poster child' of that phrase.

The shooting touch for the Indians was MIA, and if the performance was any worse it would likely need an APB to find it.

A normally pretty good shooting team that uses its defense to turn into offense didn't happen very often in the 55-51 win over the Hiltoppers.

In fact without a big third quarter push Coach John Niebrugge's club might have walked out of the gym with a loss.

Finally getting some offense going, the Indians erased a 10-point halftime deficit with a 23-12 third quarter, including an 11-2 run in the first 3:52 of the second half.

Despite getting the Hiltoppers into foul trouble, the Indians were just as bad from the foul line as they were from the field.

Altamont made just 12-of-25 foul shots, a performance that would normally lead to disaster.

But the Tribe “D” was just good enough to bail out the “O” as the squad improved to 7-3 on the season.

“We pride ourselves on defense and I've had some really good defensive teams but usually our defense leads to something but for some reason this year we aren't transitioning out of that defense. This team needs easy baskets sometimes to get us out of a funk a little bit,” said Coach Niebrugge. “They (the kids) turned it up in the third quarter.”

How bad was it?At the end of the first half Altamont was just 6-of-29 from the floor and 1-of-10 from the 3-point arc.

That isn't the sort of formula for success at any level.

As things turned out, the Indians' defense stepped up and forced Hillsboro into mistakes and missed shots and they won the battle of the boards.

Although the ink on the stats' page of this victory won't be hanging in the Louvre, it counts as a win as Altamont heads into Christmas break with an 'escape type' home win.

When it came to the scoring totals 6-2 junior all-everything guard/forward Mason Robinson led the way with 18-points.

Noah Klimpel, a 6-1 senior, tossed in 14-points.

Those were the top two scorers but others added some key points.

Six-four Eric Kollman scored six-points, Coach Niebrugge got five points each from senior Mason Winn and 6-6 senior Will Schultz while junior Avery Jahraus added a couple of buckets for four-points

For Hillsboro it was another lost opportunity.

There were a lot of expectations for the Hiltoppers this season but so far they haven't lived up to them.

Coming off of a 14-0 Covid19 season under then head coach Joe Vanzo, new head coach Kyle McBrain inherited nearly everyone from that team but they have struggled to win games.

With the loss Hillsboro is now just 5-6 on the season.

Six-three senior Drake Vogel led Hillsboro with 15-points before fouling out while Gavin Matoush, a 6-3 senior, added 12.

Five-ten junior guard Will Christian scored 11-points for the Hiltoppers.

Blaine Stewart, a 6-0 senior, tossed in seven-points during a second quarter Hillsboro run that gave them a 10-point halftime advantage.

Six-two sophomore Jace Stewart added five-points and junior Blaze Helton added a single free throw to round out the visitors' scorebook.

Altamont had a bad omen from the very beginning and it couldn't have went much worse in the first half for the Indians.

The home team missed four consecutive shot attempts on their opening possession, getting rebounds on all four.

Finally Robinson cashed in one of his two 3-pointers in the game to give his team the lead.

Although the Indians ended up 5-of-19 from the floor in the first quarter, they managed to lead 12-9 at the first horn.

The Hiltoppers got three buckets from Christian, a score from Vogel and a free throw from Helton.

A 3-pointer from Klimpel gave Altamont back the lead late in the quarter before a rebound basket by Kollman closed the quarter just before the buzzer.

Hillsboro had 'motive and opportunity' to steal a win, especially in the second quarter.

Matoush got loose in the paint for a couple of nice spin moves for scores followed by Blaine Stewart and Vogel canning long distance 3-pointers.

Stewart added two consecutive baskets on a nice back door cut assist from Vogel and a transition score forced Coach Niebrugge to burn a timeout with :48.1 as the Indians were down 23-14.

A rebound basket by Winn ended the run but Vogel, in the final seconds of the half, drilled home a long 25-footer from the left wing as the Hiltoppers sprinted off of the court up 26-16 at the half.

As it turned out the Indians were fortunate to only be down by 10-points at intermission.

Altamont got out to a good beginning of the second half and they needed every bit of it.

Robinson got the crowd and his teammates going with a 3-point bomb to begin the quarter.

This triggered the run to close the gap to just 28-27 at the 4:08 mark.

After another Vogel long range shot, Altamont got the lead back for good.

A 10-2 scoring run featured two 3-pointers by Klimpel and Schultz, a score in the lane by Winn and a pair of free throws by Klimpel for a 37-33 lead.

Hillsboro got two free throws by Vogel and a 3-pointer by Matoush wrapped around an Altamont bucket Jahraus as the two teams headed to the fourth quarter at 38-37 Altamont.

It might not be what you would consider a scoring run because it took nearly four minutes of clock time to do so, but the Indians netted the first eight-points of the fourth quarter.

Robinson scored the first three baskets, all in close range.

A spinning drive down the baseline, another move in the paint on an inbounds pass and a driving score on a pull up shot that banked home forced a Hillsboro timeout as the Hiltoppers trailed 45-38 with 4:33 remaining.

“Mason is our unicorn. He can play any position from our one to our four. He can get us a basket down low and he gets us baskets in opportune times,” said Coach Niebrugge. “Defensively he can guard a post player or a guard. He and Noah are the two-headed monster we've had in the past.”

In a normal situation, the Indians would spare everyone the drama and close out the game from the foul line.

But the Indians shooting struggles from the floor ended up affecting their free throw shooting as well.

A foul call on Vogel, his third personal, turned into a technical foul on the Hillsboro senior.

With a chance of making four-straight free throws, Altamont made just two (one each from Winn and Klimpel) as the lead reached seven-points.

Altamont attempted 21-free throws in the fourth quarter.

They made just eight of them.

Robbins helped out the cause by hitting 3-of-4 in that stretch.

This allowed the Hiltoppers to close to within three-points late in the game on a five-straight points from Jace Stewart.

Stewart made a steal off of the press and then banked home a prayer of a long 3-pointer in the final seconds to make it 54-51.

However Klimpel was fouled and, after missing the first of a double-bonus two-shot opportunity with :05.3 left, the senior nailed down the second attempt for the four-point margin of victory.

Altamont, who had fouls to give, used one of them to get the clock down to :02.0.

Hillsboro's desperation 3-pointer as the horn sounded was no good.

“We managed to get to the line and Tyler Robbins knocked down 3-of-4 late. But we didn't turn it over tonight. We made them foul at least. If we hit two more free throws this year we have two less losses,” said Coach Niebrugge. “We're not proud of our 12-of-25 but we'll take the win.”

The Hiltoppers ended up 20-of-44 from the floor overall and 7-of-21 from the 3-point line.

After taking pretty good care of the ball in the first half, Coach McBrain's club committed nine of their 14 turnovers in the second half, including six in the third quarter that helped lead to the Altamont rally.

The Indians won the battle of the boards 31-26, with 13 offensive rebounds being a clear factor in the victory.

Coach Niebrugge's squad only allowed four offensive rebounds by Hillsboro.

It helped bail them out after hitting just 19-of-55 shots overall.

“Defense and rebounding don't have any off nights. We dominated the offensive glass and the boys know that's how we are going to win ballgames,” said Coach Niebrugge. “If the ball doesn't go into the hole you have to go after it and get it off of the rim.”

Both teams head into holiday tournament action next week.

The Hiltoppers are part of the 54th annual Carlinville Holiday Tournament that begins on Monday.

Hillsboro will face South Central Conference rival Gillespie at 3 pm in the Pool Play event.

Altamont is the number-two seed at the 40th annual Sesser-Valier Holiday Tournament and they will face Zeigler-Royalton at 3:30 pm in the 16-team bracketed event.

Hillsboro (51) – Christian 4 1 0-0 11, Connor 0 0 0-0 0, B. Stewart 2 1 0-0 7, Vogel 2 3 2-2 15, J. Stewart 1 1 0-0 5, Matoush 4 1 1-1 12, Helton 0 0 1-4 1, Riggs 0 0 0-0 0. 2FG-13, 3FG-7, FT-4-7, PF-25.
Altamont (55) – Hammer 0 0 0-0 0, Jahraus 2 0 0-0 4, Robinson 5 2 2-4 18, Klimpel 1 2 6-11 14, Robbins 0 0 3-4 3, Cornett 0 0 0-0 0, Winn 0 2 1-4 5, Schulte 1 1 0-0 5, Kollman 3 0 0-2 6.. 2FG-12, 3FG-7, FT-12-25, PF-12.
Fouled Out – Vogel, Helton - Hillsboro.
Technical Fouls – Vogel - Hillsboro.