12/27/2021
BY JACK BULLOCK
VANDALIA - Heading into the 49th annual Vandalia Holiday Tournament, the Macon Meridian Hawks couldn't help but be a bit rusty.

After all, Coach Shannon Houser's group had not played a game since December 10th (17-days ago) before having to play two games within a few hours on the first day.

Although the defense could use a bit more work the Meridian offense looked in mid-season form.

In the Hawks second game of the day, the offense busted loose by knocking down 11-of-16 3-pointers (73 percent) and 24-of-40 inside the arc (60 percent) in an 89-82 high scoring victory over the host Vandals in Game Seven of the first day.

After dispatching the Teutopolis JV team earlier in the day, the Hawks are now 2-0 in Pool A with the victory.

Nearly everyone wearing Green and Black had a hand in the win.

Senior guard Grant Meisenhelter paced Meridian with 26-points while three other teammates also reached double-digits in the victory.

Riley Day, another senior guard, came up big from beyond the arc.

Day had the best night of them all from long range as he canned 5-of-6 3-pointers and ended up with 17-points.

Six-five senior forward Drew Hurelbrink delivered 17-points and six-rebounds for the Hawks with most of his points coming near the basket as he hit 6-of-7 from the floor.

Mekhi Phillips, a 6-0 senior, added 14-points and senior guard Lucas Clapp added two-points.

Coach Houser got quality minutes and rebounding help from two bench players; junior frontcourt players Roy Ralston and Brett Brown.

Ralston, a 6-6 forward, scored six-points and a grabbed five-rebounds for the Hawks.

Brown is a 6-4 forward who also snared five-rebounds and added four-points in the win.

“We have three big kids (Hurelbrink, Ralston, Brown) and I thought out two juniors came in and I thought they played really big tonight for us coming off the bench,” said Coach Houser. “As long as they keep battling inside we have shooters to go with them as you can tell.”

In a contest where defense was very much optional, the host Vandals also shot well for head coach Brian Buscher.

Six-three senior Chase Laack matched Meisenhelter with 26-points as the two shared high scoring honors.

Laack led Vandalia with eight-rebounds.

Like Meridian, the hosts also had three other double-digit scorers as the two teams put up incredible numbers for a 32-minute game.

Senior forward Connor Ray was next on the list with 17-points and 10-rebounds followed by senior forward Caron Ruot with 16-points and four-boards.

Senior guard Matthew Hagy added 12-points, nine of which came in a flurry of early 3-pointers by both teams.

The first 15-points of the contest were scored on five made shots from beyond the arc and Hagy nailed all three his shots in succession for a 9-6 Vandals' early advantage.

Meridian led briefly at 10-9 before Ruot finished off the first quarter with a pair of inside scores for a 23-20 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Vandalia got another good run in the second quarter (10-0) to take its largest lead.

Laack drilled home a pair of 3-pointers after Ray scored in the paint for a 37-30 lead.

Meridian closed the gap at intermission with Day hitting his second 3-pointer to go with a Hurelbrink basket inside.

Senior guard Mitch Ripple 'ripped' home a 3-pointer for the Hawks as they trailed 39-38 at the break.

“In the first half we were settling for one shot but once we started moving a bit and our bigs started doing the things they are supposed to do it helped us out tremendously,” said Coach Houser. “We just needed to settle down. It's a long day for us. I told them (kids) these guys are going to come out with their home crowd and they will be ready to play. We just have to continue to play hard and play team basketball.”

It's not very often a high school basketball team, especially a 1A squad, is going to score 51-points in a second half.

Meridian accomplished the feat on Monday night.

A 9-2 run to open the second half gave the Hawks the lead.

Phillips got things going with a 3-pointer, Clapp scored his only two-points of the night on a cut to the basket on a pass from Phillips and Hurelbrink added two inside scores, one of which was in transition as Meridian led 47-41.

One more run, 11-2, by Coach Houser's club pushed the lead up to double-figs.

Meisenhelter added seven-points in the move to make it 58-47.

In the final 1:33 of the third quarter, Vandalia were handed some points when the Meridian bench was assessed a technical foul on a play where Hagy was fouled.

Hagy made 3-of-4 the four free throws as the Vandals trailed just 64-58 heading to the fourth.

When Laack added to his stats with a 3-pointer and a rebound bucket to start the final quarter gave the appearance of a potential seeding-upset.

After consecutive scores by Ray on drives in the lane, Vandalia was down just 71-69.

But Coach Houser's Hawks went on a game-clinching 12-2 run.

Day began the scoring with consecutive 3-point bombs; one from the right wing and another on a set play from deep in the left corner.

Hurelbrink then made a big defensive play stealing an inbounds pass off of the press and his lay in pushed the lead back to 10.

Meridian closed out the game by making four-straight free throws (two each from Meisenhelter and Hurelbrink) before Vandalia's Reid Well hit a 3-pointer in the final seconds.

Coach Buscher's club shot the ball well on the night as the Vandals connected on 30-of-59 (50.8 percent) including 10-of-22 from the 3-point line.

Vandalia held a slight 27-23 rebounding edge on the Hawks.

Both teams ended up with 10-turnovers in a fast paced contest.

Vandalia is now 0-1 in Pool A and 4-4 overall.

Both teams head back into action in Day Two of the event on Tuesday.

Vandalia will play twice, against Cumberland at 9:30 am and then against Okaw Valley at 6:30 pm.

Meridian's only game of the day will be against Cumberland at 5 pm.

“Like I told the boys (on long rebounds) you have to go out there and box them out,” said Coach Houser. “This was a big win for us.”

Macon Meridian (89) – Ripple 0 1 0-0 3, Phillips 3 2 2-2 14, Day 1 5 0-2 17, Hurelbrink 6 1 2-2 17, Ralston 3 0 0-0 6, Brown 2 0 0-0 4, Clapp 1 0 0-0 2, Meisenhelter 8 2 4-5 26. 2FG-24, 3FG-11, FT-8-11, PF-14.
Vandalia (82) – Ruot 6 0 4-6 16, Hipsher 0 0 0-0 0, Laack 4 5 3-3 26, Nestrick 2 0 1-2 5, Hagy 0 3 3-4 12, Well 0 2 0-0 6, Ray 8 0 1-2 17, McNary 0 0 0-0 0. 2FG-20, 3FG-10, FT-12-17, PF-13.
Fouled Out – None.
Technical Fouls – Macon Meridian Bench.

Nokomis (46) – Staudes 0 1 0-0 3, N. Himes 4 0 0-0 8, Aumann 7 1 2-4 19, Barker 0 0 0-0 0, Bertolino 2 0 2-4 6, Eisenbarth 2 2 0-0 10, Keller 0 0 0-0 0. 2FG-15, 3FG-4, FT-4-8, PF-14.
Pana (58) – Schmitz 5 1 0-1 13, Lynch 0 0 0-0 0, Schoonover 6 0 3-4 15, Kuhn 1 0 0-0 2, Armstrong 0 0 0-0 0, Peebles 6 3 0-0 21, Hackler 0 0 6-6 6, Hick 0 0 0-0 0, Hudlin 0 0 1-2 1, Bowkes 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-18, 3FG-4, FT-10-13, PF-13.
Fouled Out – None.
Technical Fouls – None.

Cumberland (31) – M. McElravy 1 0 0-0 2, McMechan 0 0 0-0 0, Martinez 0 0 0-0 0, E. McElravy 1 0 0-0 2, Magee 3 1 0-0 9, Peters 0 0 0-0 0, Boldt 1 0 3-4 5, Hendrix 5 0 3-3 13. 2FG-11, 3FG-1, FT-6-7, PF-10.
Okaw Valley (36) – Ruppert 1 0 0-0 2, McQuire 2 1 1-2 8, Harlin 0 0 0-0 0, Roley 0 2 4-4 10, Dickens 1 0 0-0 2, K. Miller 0 2 0-0 6, Montgomery 2 0 1-2 5. 2FG-6, 3FG-6, FT-6-8, PF-6.
Fouled Out – None.
Technical Fouls – None.