02-05-05
BY JACK BULLOCK
NASHVILLE - The recent trend by teams trying to defend the Nashville Hornets has been to overplay Lucas O'Rear.

But as it has been the case the last few games, Coach Darin Lee's club has been getting more scoring from other sources.

More specifically scoring from the other O'Rear on the team.

Lucas' older brother Calvin tossed in 17 points to share team honors with teammate Andrew Wilson while Lucas O'Rear added 10 points, all in the second half, during Nashville's 57-53 win Saturday night.

The victory was a good measuring stick for the Hornets while Steeleville also got a lot out of the game, despite coming up a bit short.

Coach Matt Laur of Steeleville was hoping for a good showing and the reviews of the game were good.

Seeing some great defense for the first time this season, Coach Laur's club never went away despite a poor shooting night caused by the Hornets' pressure.

"That was the best defense we have seen this season," said Laur, whose team now stands 21-6 on the season. "They knew what we were going to do tonight and we knew what they were going to do. It was a good ballgame for us. They did a good job of guarding our guys."

Adam Eggemeyer, as he has done for most of the season, topped Steeleville with 18 points while teammates Tyler Tiemann and Travis Schaber chipped in 14 and 12 points respectively.

But the story of the game was Calvin O'Rear, who took advantage of the defensive plan by Steeleville to exploit the Warriors with 12 first half points.

"We knew the other O'Rear (Calvin) could shoot the ball, we came and saw them play last night," added Laur. "He stepped up and hit some big shots for them tonight as did some other kids for Nashville."

But the key factor in the Warriors loss was an off night from the field, especially early.

Hitting on just 3-of-15 first quarter shots, Steeleville fell behind.

In the meantime, Andrew Wilson got the Hornets going early with six consecutive points, breaking a 2-2 tie to give Nashville a quick lead. His pair of free throws and two mid-range shots gave Nashville an 8-2 advantage with 3:21 to play.

After Steeleville's Eggemeyer responded with a 3-pointer from the right side, the Hornets scored the games next eight points.

Two shots from Calvin O'Rear and a basket each from Todd Kostecki and Stefan Price gave Nashville an 11-point advantage, its largest of the game.

Price's fast break lay in on a pass from Kostecki forced Coach Laur to burn a timeout at 16-5 with 1:08 left.

"I told the guys to relax and hang in there. I told them to 'play through it, they'll cool off soon' and we'll get back into the game," added Laur.

A 3-pointer from Schaber closed the first quarter scoring with Nashville leading 16-8.

After another Kostecki basket and a C. O'Rear score, Steeleville made its best run of the first half to get within four points.

A Tiemann drive to the basket and two 3-pointers from Matt Guebert and Schaber closed the gap to 20-16.

But Nashville answered with two 3-pointers from Clint Harre and Wilson and two more scores from C. O'Rear to make it 31-23 at intermission.

Those open shots by Harre, Price and Kostecki were a direct result of Steeleville's willingness to slough off of some of the Hornets shooters to concentrate on L. O'Rear and Wilson.

"If they are going to leave guys wide open then we have to be able to step up and shoot it," said Nashville coach Darin Lee. "Generally in my program we don't put many guys out there that can't hit a wide open 15-footer."

Steeleville outscored the Hornets 18-11 in the third quarter and even held a lead for a brief time.

Eight of those 18 came from Eggemeyer. His short lay in on a pass from Schaber gave the Warriors a 39-37 lead with 3:02 to go.

Lucas O'Rear, who was held scoreless in the first half, got his first basket of the game early in the quarter on a shot in the lane.

But his brother Calvin continued his hot streak with two more baskets in the frame. His rebound put back gave Nashville a 42-39 lead with under a minute left.

"Calvin has been playing well for us. He has scored a lot of points in 3-of-our-last-4 games and he has really stepped up for us," Lee said. "That has been the pattern the last few games with teams strictly guarding Andrew and Lucas."

Eggemeyer closed out the period with 2-of-3 free throws after being fouled by Wilson attempting a 3-pointer with :05 to go making it 42-41.

Wilson scored first in the final quarter for Nashville.

But a steal and fast break dunk by Eggemeyer was a big play as when he put the shot down he fell to the floor after hitting his head on the backboard.

He had to leave the game for a time being with a nosebleed at 6:18 to play but his teammates picked up the slack in his absence.

Two big three point plays; a drive to the basket by Tiemann and converted free throw and yet another Schaber 3-pointer from the top of the arc prompted a Nashville timeout at 50-49 with 3:08 left.

Lucas O'Rear scored perhaps his biggest basket of the night with a dunk on a spin move in the lane to give Nashville back a three-point lead.

The Hornets, although not outstanding from the line on this night, hit just enough shots from the charity stripe (5-of-10) to finish off Steeleville.

The Warriors had chances to tie the game in the final minute, but they missed their final four 3-point attempts.

Forys' final free throw with :02 remaining iced the game at 57-53.

"When they (Steeleville) are on, they can come off picks and shoot the ball like no team I have seen in a while," Lee added.

Nashville shot 50 percent from the field in hitting 22-of-44 shots in the game and overcame 12 turnovers by out rebounding Steeleville 34-24.

The Warriors were forced into a 19-of-53 shooting total (36 percent) in the game.

"We are post oriented and sometimes we don't make the right decisions with the ball," said Lee, referring to his teams' 12 turnovers.

Nashville, now 20-5, will play at Chester Tuesday night before hosting a SIRR Mississippi showdown with rival Pinckneyville next Saturday.

Steeleville will head back into action this week with games at home with Trico and Shawnee this coming weekend.

Steeleville (53) - Schaber 0 4 0-0 12, Guebert 0 1 0-0 3, Jausel 1 0 2-2 4, Eggemeyer 4 2 4-5 18, Tiemann 5 1 1-1 14, Wathan 1 0 0-1 2, Hochmuth 0 0 0-0 0, Uchtman 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-11, 3FG-8, FT-7-9, PF-16.
Nashville (50) - Price 1 0 0-0 2, Harre 0 1 0-0 3, Wilson 4 1 6-10 17, Kostecki 2 0 0-0 4, Forys 1 0 1-2 3, L. O'Rear 4 0 2-4 10, C. O'Rear 8 0 1-2 17, York 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-20, 3FG-2, FT-11-20, PF-12.
Fouled Out - Jausel, Steeleville.
Technical Fouls - None.