02-24-06
BY JACK BULLOCK
WOODLAWN - The rumors of the Nashville Hornets' demise have been greatly exaggerated.

Having went through a tough couple of weeks back in January in which coach Darin Lee's club looked lost and uncertain, this team responded with a big run in the first week of the postseason.

The only thing that they dispatched faster than that rumor was their opponent's - the Waltonville Spartans - on Friday night.

A big run to start the third quarter broke open a close game as the 21-9 Hornets ended the dream season of the one time state-ranked Spartans, 71-41 Friday night in the title game of the Woodlawn Class A Regional.

Even with Lucas O'Rear being held scoreless in the first half and Waltonville hanging close, the Hornets' locker was far from a 'panic room.'

Nashville had the Spartans right where they wanted them and took little time to swat away the pesky Mid-South Conference champs in the second half to roll to the regional title win.

An 8-0 run to open the third quarter sent a stinging knockout blow that took the wind out of the sails of the Spartans.

As Waltonville tried to cover up O'Rear in the middle with two and sometimes three players guarding him the whole night, the rest of the Hornets stepped up in a big way.

Dylan York came off of the Nashville bench and took advantage of some wide-open looks at the basket and Tommy Pelczynski added some long-distance points.

"There is no doubt that this is our best performance," said Nashville head coach Darin Lee, whose team will play Murphysboro Tuesday night at the Pinckneyville Sectional. "This game two guys came of the bench for us, Tommy (Pelczynski) and Dylan (York) drilled some shots for us. They (Waltonville) were putting two and three guys on Lucas and somebody else had to knock some shots down to open it up for him."

With O'Rear getting most of the Waltonville attention, York scored 14-points on mostly midrange shots.

While Waltonville was pumped up to start the game, the reality of the situation began to set in the second and third quarters.

Adam Kitowski led all scorers with 23-points for the Spartans and he hit a pair of shots in the opening minutes to give his team a lead.

But after getting out to an early 6-2 advantage, turnovers and missed opportunities began to add up.

Seven turnovers in the first quarter kept the Spartans from extending their lead.

Nashville was struggling as well but that all changed midway through the opening quarter.

The Hornets 6-foot-6 junior Ryan Keller, who seldom is asked for much offense, hit two shots in the lane taking advantage of O'Rear being blanketed.

Then York came off the bench for some instant offense.

This 6-foot-3 junior hit a pair of shots as Nashville finished the quarter on a 12-1 run.

His wide-open 3-pointer from the right wing with :05 left closed the stanza at 14-7 Hornets.

"Tonight we just played good defense and whenever we got shots we knocked them down," said York. "They were really on Lucas and when they doubled him we knew someone was open and we just found that other guy."

Kitowski and teammate Derek Tepovich attempted to keep their club close in the second quarter.

Kitowski scored twice on a drive to the basket and a fast break lay in on one of the few times that the Nashville defense was caught napping.

Tepovich drained a 3-pointer from the right corner that cut the lead to 16-12.

However York hit four shots in the period, all within the range of a run of the mill house ladder.

Three jump shots within 12-feet and also a fast break lay up on a pass from O'Rear gave Nashville a 22-16 lead at intermission.

It was clear that although O'Rear had zero points at the half neither he, nor his teammates, were frustrated.

"I kept telling the guys to be patient and don't force it," said O'Rear. "I thought we played good team basketball tonight and it was one of our top two or three games we have played this year. We knew that they (Waltonville) were state-ranked and we really wanted to knock them off. We wanted to come out and show them what Nashville basketball is all about."

With a second half spurt, Nashville laid down the law.

O'Rear finally dented the scoreboard with a pair of free throws just :11 seconds into the third quarter.

Those points started the run that put the game away as Blaine Morris scored on a fast break lay in which was followed by two more York buckets to make it 30-16 Nashville at the 6:14 mark.

"The first three or four possessions in the third quarter were the key to the game," Lee explained. "We got points and kind of got them (Waltonville) back peddling a little bit."

O'Rear got his first two baskets of the game on lob passes and his second one on an easy inbound play made it 34-20 and forced a Waltonville timeout.

"I think the kids were sky high when we came out. Our energy was great but I think that the nerves got the better of us in the first half and our frustrations from them defending us got the better of us in the second half," said Waltonville coach Mike Denault, who saw his team close out a fine campaign at 28-3.
"We hung in there for a while but you got to make shots and you got to make free throws and we didn't do that tonight."

Kitowski was the only Spartan that was able to do anything offensively in the third quarter, scoring six consecutive points for his team.

However Waltonville couldn't get the defensive stops in needed as the Hornets kept a comfortable double-digit lead.

An O'Rear play at the end of the quarter summed up much of the night for Waltonville.

After being fouled and sent to the line for a pair of free throws, O'Rear made the first toss.

But with just two Spartans stationed for a rebound, O'Rear saw that he had missed the second shot and grabbed the rebound for a stick-back score to end the stanza at 43-26 Nashville.

"I saw that they just had two guys down there. I tried making it (the free throw) but it ended up working out pretty good," explained O'Rear.

The fourth quarter proved to be a dominating stanza, with Nashville pulling away while the frustration set in the Waltonville camp.

O'Rear scored twice on a rebound and a conventional three-point play.

Lowery, after being called for a foul on Kostecki just with 4:49 left, was whistled for a technical foul.

Kostecki hit 4-of-4 free throws and the outcome wasn't in doubt from that point on at 56-35.

O'Rear scored his final two points of the game on a reverse lay in with 3:57 to go, making it 63-38.

The reserves from both teams finished out the final minutes as Nashville saw its season extended for at least one more game while the Spartans ended a memorable campaign with a crushing defeat.

The defensive effort from Nashville forced Waltonville into a horrendous shooting night as the Spartans hit just 14-of-49 shots overall (29 percent) and just 3-of-17 from behind the 3-point line.

Their overall performance wasn't helped by a pitiful 10-of-23 free throw line exhibition.

Nashville hit 25-of-51 from the field (49 percent) and although they missed a lot of early long range shots, the good midrange looks were converted into points.

The Hornets out rebounded the big front line of Waltonville, 30-23 and the defense forced 12-turnovers, including those critical seven in the opening eight minutes.

O'Rear's 19-points led the Hornets with York's 14 and Pelczynski's 11 as those 44 outscored Waltonville themselves.

Kostecki scored seven points but his defensive work on the night on Lowery ignited the Hornets early defensive stand and set the tone for the entire contest.

"We got up and got after it tonight defensively and I didn't know that we could do that," added Lee. "Todd (Kostecki) got up and started putting the heat on him (Waltonville's Anthony Lowery) and the rest of the kids just followed suit."

Kitowski led all scorers with 23 but no other Spartan hit for double-figures. Jon Kash scored nine points for Waltonville.

For Kitowski, Lowery, Kash, Brandon Spotanski and Jarod Talbert, it was the final varsity contest in a run of back-to-back 20-win seasons for those seniors.

"We rolled the dice tonight on double-teaming O'Rear because we had another big kid at Dieterich (Cliff Westendorf) put 27-points on us a couple of weeks ago so we had to stop O'Rear and make their other kids hit shots," said Waltonville coach Mike Denault.
"Every time we saw them (Nashville) play this year they struggled to shoot the ball. I don't know what they shot tonight but it seemed like they made a lot of them. I don't think that this diminishes our season. We've enjoyed it and told the kids to keep their heads up because we had a great record setting year for our school. It didn't end like we wanted it to, but we got here and had an opportunity."

Nashville will take on Murphysboro Tuesday night in a rematch of a 63-60 double-overtime Hornets win back on January 10.

	1	2	3	4	-	Final
Nashville	14	8	21	28	-	71
Waltonville	7	9	10	15	-	41

Nashville (47) - Reckmann 0 0 0-0 0, Morris 4 0 0-0 8, Engele 0 0 1-2 1, Pelczynski 0 3 2-2 11, Kostecki 1 0 5-5 7, Patton 1 0 3-4 5, Conner 0 0 1-2 1, York 7 0 0-0 14, O'Rear 7 0 5-7 19, Keller 2 0 1-2 5.
2FG-22, 3FG-3, FT-18-24, PF-18.
Waltonville (41) - Owens 0 0 1-1 1, Ralls 0 0 1-2 1, Tepovich 1 0 0-2 2, Lowery 1 0 0-2 2, Kitowski 7 2 3-4 23, Kash 2 0 5-7 9, Kubiak 0 0 0-2 0, Kabat 0 1 0-2 3, Spotanski 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-11, 3FG-3, FT-10-23, PF-19.
Fouled Out - Kostecki, Nashville.
Technical Fouls - Kostecki, Nashville; Lowery, Waltonville.