CARMI-WHITE COUNTY INVITATOINAL TOURNAMENT
Mt. Carmel improves to 2-0 at CWCIT
Aces "ace" second straight test, top hosts, 57-46; Harrisburg beat MV
01-20-15
BY JACK BULLOCK
CARMI
  The Mt. Carmel Golden Aces are in the process of defending their 2014 Carmi-White County Invitational Tournament championship.

The Aces have gotten off to the best start possible.

Coach Tyler Buss has his club playing well as they have jumped out with two consecutive victories in the round-robin format.

Mt. Carmel topped the host Bulldogs by keeping the opposition at an arms length for most of the contest in the second game on Tuesday.

After battling to a 9-9 score at the end of the first quarter, Mt. Carmel got the separation they needed in the second quarter on the way to a 57-46 win.

Holding CWC without a point for nearly seven minutes in the second stanza, the Aces got the lead they wouldn't relinquish in picking up the important victory.

“Each night (in this tournament) presents a different challenge for us,” said Coach Buss. “Playing the home team after they had a night off last night and they did a good job of getting us to play at their pace (slower) because we like to get out an run more than we did tonight. But we had enough spurts there tonight that put us over-the-top.”

Following a big win over Harrisburg on Monday night, Mt. Carmel is in position to defend this title thanks to 22-points from senior guard Sam Deisher who became the fifth different Golden Ace to score at least 20-points in a game this season for the balanced club.

Levi Laws, the team's senior leader, added 15-points and five assists in the game for MC as the club improved their overall mark for 2014-15 to 12-7.

Six-foot-five sophomore guard Justin Carpenter added eight points while 6-foot-6 freshman Jackson Marcotte chipped in six points and a team-best nine rebounds.

The Aces were excellent from inside the arc, making up for a goose-egg (0-of-9) from beyond that line.

Mt. Carmel was 21-of-35 from the floor on the inside with Deisher setting the pace by hitting 8-of-10 shots.

They did all of this while committing just seven turnovers.

“When he (Laws) gets the ball in open space he is a special player. He finds open guys as well as being able to score,” said Coach Buss. “Deisher has always been our 'lock-down' defender and for him to step up and score 22-points was a big lift for us. I think we are now getting more balance in scoring with different guys stepping up each night.”

On the other side of the ledger the Carmi-White County club never quite got rolling on offense as the Bulldogs struggled.

Coach Eric Dixon's club made a couple of runs but none of which resulted in getting back the lead.

The Bulldogs were 17-of-39 overall (43 percent) and managed to hit 5-of-16 from downtown.

However they committed 12-turnovers, 10 of which occurred in the first half.

Six-foot-six senior Jordan Large came up big for the Dawgs, hitting for 14-points in leading the hosts.

He was the only Bulldog player in double-figures as CWC dropped to 8-8 on the season, 0-1 in the event.

Carmi-White County jumped out early, getting out to a 9-4 advantage.

Buckets by Large and Joe Matz, followed by a 3-pointer from Zach Vaught gave the hosts an early spread.

But turnovers began to mount for the Bulldogs and Mt. Carmel took advantage of these mistakes.

Marcotte grabbed an errant pass and went nearly the length of the court for a fast-break dunk; part of a 5-0 jump that got the game even at the first horn.

After a giving up a rebound basket to Matz at the 7:08 mark of the second quarter, Mt. Carmel went on a 12-0 gallop.

Laws made the rules in this run, turning a pair of steals into fast-break points for the Aces.

He took a pass from teammate Bryce Pavia and converted a lay in and, moments later, made a steal of his own which turned into another transition bucket that forced a CWC timeout at 14-11.

After 1-of-2 free throws by Carpenter; Diesher, a 5-foot-10 guard, scored the game's next six-points on a couple of baskets and a pair of free throws for a 21-11 lead.

CWC got two scores in the final minute of the half; a 3-pointer from the left wing by Zach Vaught and a steal and fast-break lay in by Tucker Grey to finish the second quarter.

Grey took the ball down the middle of the floor and his left handed lay in made it 21-16 at the break.

Nevertheless Coach Buss' club kept CWC from making any runs in the third quarter, as they kept the lead above one-possession throughout.

Running the offense in the half-court effectively, Deisher picked up some easy baskets on cuts to the goal.

Two of them were assists from Laws for lay ins.

When he hit his third shot in the quarter, Mt. Carmel led 33-27.

Carmi-White County got the first two baskets of the fourth quarter and appeared to be headed for a big run.

Guards Drew Lucas and Clay Vaught each scored to cut the lead down to 34-31 with 6:57 remaining.

But a 9-0 run, with Laws scoring five of the points, got the lead back up to double-figures for MC.

Laws converted a conventional three-point play on yet another drive to the basket.

When Deisher padded his stats with fast-break score while being fouled Zach Vaught, the spread had reached double-digits at 43-31.

Tyler Barbre stepped off the Bulldogs' bench and scored five points in the fourth quarter on a 3-pointer and drive to the basket.

Zach Vaught added another basket on a drive down the baseline to cut the MC lead down to just 49-42 with 1:42 left.

The Aces, at this point, had seen enough of this comeback attempt and closed out the game strong.

Deisher again scored on a fast-break that turned into a three-point play.

Mt. Carmel hit 6-of-7 free throws to close out the contest for the win that put the Aces in the front-runner's position to win the tournament title.

The Aces won the rebounding battle, edging the hosts 24-21 while getting to the foul line more often.

MC was 15-of-23 from the stripe while CWC was just 7-of-10.

Mt. Carmel will take on Fairfield on Thursday night while Carmi-White County will face Harrisburg in the Thursday night opener at 6:00 pm.

“We threw a couple of different defenses at them tonight and we are working on at getting better at all of them,” added Coach Buss. “We are getting there defensively but we have a long way to go.”

1
2
3
4
-
F
Mt. Carmel
09
12
13
23
-
57
Carmi-White County
09
07
11
19
-
46

Mt. Carmel (57)
– Laws 6 0 3-3 15, Wright 0 0 0-0 0, Deisher 8 0 6-8 22, Margelin 3 0 0-2 6, Marcotte 2 0 2-4 6, Jamison 0 0 0-0 0, Murk 0 0 0-0 0, Moore 0 0 0-0 0, Carpenter 2 0 4-6 8, Pavin 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-21, 3FG-0, FT-15-23, PF-15.

Carmi-White County (46) – Large 4 0 6-6 14, C. Vaught 1 0 0-0 2, Gray 1 2 0-1 8, Matz 2 0 0-0 4, Z. Vaught 1 2 1-2 9, Barbre 1 1 0-1 5, Lucas 2 0 0-0 4.
2FG-12, 3FG-5, FT-7-10, PF-16.

Fouled Out – None.
Technical Fouls – None.
HARRISBURG 70, MT. VERNON (IN.) 63
The Bulldogs evened their slate at the CWCIT with a win over the Wildcats behind 25-points and 11-rebounds from Bahari Amaya in the victory.

After dropping a decision to Mt. Carmel on Monday night, Harrisburg got back in the win column with 14-points coming from Anfernee Houston and 13-points from Carson Batts.

Jordan Bartok added 11-points for Harrisburg (13-6, 1-1) as they “RUSH-ed” out to a 21-12 lead at the end of the first quarter and held that advantage the rest of the way in the victory.

Mt. Vernon (3-10, 0-2) got 18-points from Luke Steinheart as he nailed five 3-pointers on the night.

The Wildcats, using a “No-Three-Pointer-Left-Behind” style of offense, launched 33-shots from beyond the arc, hitting 10 total.

MV hit 14 treys in their 82-80 loss to Fairfield on Monday night to set a tournament record for most made.

The 33 attempted is also a record for the CWCIT.

Damon Collins added 14-points in the defeat

1
2
3
4
-
F
Mt. Vernon (IN.)
12
17
10
24
-
63
Harrisburg
21
14
17
18
-
70

Mt. Vernon (IN.) (63) – Collins 2 3 1-2 14, A. Krizan 3 0 2-2 8, Duckworth 1 0 2-2 4, Steinhart 1 5 1-2 18, French 1 0 2-2 4, B. Krizan 1 0 2-2 4, Paris 2 0 0-0 4, Brooks 0 0 1-2 1, M. Jackson 0 0 0-0 0, Merrick 0 1 0-0 3, Wilson 0 0 0-0 0, Curtis 0 1 0-0 3, B. Jackson 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-11, 3FG-10, FT-11-14, PF-18.

Harrisburg (70) – Drue 0 0 4-9 4, Amaya 4 4 5-6 25, Houston 5 0 4-7 14, Bartok 2 0 7-12 11, Batts 6 0 1-2 13, Smith 0 0 0-0 0, Saulsberry 1 0 1-2 3.
2FG-18, 3FG-4, FT-22-38, PF-12.

Fouled Out – None.
Technical Fouls – Brooks - Mt. Vernon (IN.).