02/07/2022
BY JACK BULLOCK
JOHNSTON CITY - Monday night at Johnston City the visiting Vienna Eagles needed a spark in the second half of their Black Diamond Conference West Division contest.

The visitors were in deep trouble.

They had shot the ball horribly in the first half and had just surrendered an 11-0 run by the Indians to start the second half.

A quick look at the scoreboard showed the host team up 37-16 with 5:42 left in the third quarter.

After hitting just 4-of-26 field goal attempts in the first half, 1-of-17 from the 3-point arc, the Eagles were in big-time trouble.

It appeared that head coach Stephen Dreher and his club were heading towards an upset loss, in an important game in the conference race.

However sophomore Owen Treat, with his team needing an offensive spark, delivered a blast furnace type inferno.

The 6-1 shooting guard got hot and so did the rest of his teammates.

Treat 'treated' the large Vienna road fan base to a shooting exhibition in the final 13-plus minutes of play.

Treat led all scorers with 38-points, knocking down six 3-point bombs in the second half (seven for the game) and hitting 13-of-16 free throws overall to lead his teammates to a astonishing 68-58 come-from-behind win over a stunned Johnston City team.

In that offensive and defensive late game stretch Vienna outscored the Tribe, 52-21.

Using full-court pressure to force Indians' turnovers to fuel the offensive explosion, the Eagles improved their mark to 19-8 overall, 8-2 in the BDC West.

“I think it (the press) relaxed us and we made some adjustments at halftime that helped (offensively) and it doesn't hurt that we started making some baskets,” said Coach Dreher. “We were tentative in the first half and were just holding it some and just hoping the shots in instead of shooting them. They (Johnston City) are a good club and they are that close to winning games. I saw them at Goreville the other night and they led for three and a half quarters. They are just learning how to win.”

Johnston City head coach Scott Burzynski had seen this movie scene before, like in 'Groundhog Day'.

His club has now lost six games in 2021-22 in which they held fourth quarter leads.

The hosts committed 12-turnovers in the final quarter, 25 for the game, as they saw their mark drop to 6-15 and 2-5.

While playing good defense in the first half using a zone to confuse Vienna and forcing the Eagles into a cold start, Johnston City was in control and up double-digits at the intermission.

Part of the 11-0 start to the second half was pair of fast break dunks, one on a nice alley-oop pass, as the Indians were rolling and the Eagles were grounded.

Treat let his teammates know that although they were down they weren't finished in the third quarter.

“When you are down (21) at some point you have 'kick it on' and get back into the game,” said Treat. “In the third quarter I told them (teammates) we have enough heart to win this game. We got better in the second half. In the first half, not too much. But we put our heart into it and got the win. In the first half I don't know if it's us or these rims but 'oh my gosh' we could not hit. In the second half we did 'light it up'.”

Treat got some help in win with teammates Kaden Vaughn (11) and Dawson Hill (10) coming through with points.

Vaughn, a 5-9 junior guard, hit the other two 3-pointers on the night for Vienna and Hill, a 5-9 senior guard, added three scores and a couple of big late free throws.

Five-ten senior Sean Acree scored seven-points, all from the foul line (7-of-11) and he made some big plays defensively.

The Eagles were 27-of-39 from the stripe, capitalizing on trips to the line against the Indians.

In fact free throw shooting in the first half as a team (7-of-10) helped keep the Eagles from getting blown out early.

The Indians were led by 6-0 senior guard Heath Neibch with 24-points.

Neibch netted 13 of his points in the first half, including three 3-pointers, as Johnston City took an early lead.

One of his bombs in the early going started a 10-0 run to erase a Vienna lead to make it 12-5 Tribe with just under three-minutes left in the quarter.

Consecutive buckets by Hill and sophomore Tommy Holhubner to end the frame cut into the deficit.

As horrible as the beginning shooting the ball (3-of-14 from the field) was, things got substantially worse offensively for Coach Dreher's club.

Treat was the only Vienna player to hit a field goal in the second quarter, a 3-pointer from near the top of the circle.

The Eagles were just 1-of-12 from the floor in the eight minute stretch and but the good news was that they were down just 10 at the halftime break.

Coach Burzynski's squad controlled the boards in the first half (24-13) and were feeling pretty good up 26-16.

Gradually at first the comeback began in the third quarter and carried over into a big turnaround in the final eight minutes.

Vaughn hit the first of his 3-pointers to get things going and Hill added a score off of a nice assist from Treat.

Then Treat 'kicked it in high gear' to close out the third quarter.

Three consecutive 3-point bombs closed the frame on a 9-2 run.

Two of the shots came in the final :20 off of two JC turnovers (five for the quarter).

Consecutive bombs, both from the left wing in front of the Vienna bench, stoked the Eagles' crowd and cut the Johnston City lead to just 48-37 heading to the fourth quarter.

In spite of six third quarter turnovers, the Eagles were heating up.

Coach Burzynski got seven key points from 6-3 junior Logan Hunter, including a 'stop the bleeding' type conventional three-point play on an offensive rebound from a missed free throw.

His conversion made it 51-39 with 7:09 remaining.

That, in a nutshell, was the final Indians' highlight of the night.

In the next three-minutes of game clock, the Eagles outgunned JC 15-0 to take their first lead since early in the game.

Nine of those points came on three 3-pointers by Treat.

During this same stretch, Johnston City was 1-of-6 from the foul line.

The third trifecta from Treat tied the game at 51-all and Vaughn nailed down a trey from the left corner to give Vienna a 54-51 advantage at the 4:21 mark of the final quarter.

One of the long range bombs was from Treat was at least NBA range from the left side of the floor.

The Eagles, as most good clubs do, closed out the game by taking care of business at the foul line.

Coach Dreher saw hit kids knock down 10-of-14 in the final 4:09.

When the Indians needed their offense to appear again in the final period, they managed just 2-of-11 shooting to go with the dozen miscues.

After a dismal shooting exhibition in most of the first three quarters, the Eagles connected on 5-of-8 shots, 3-of-4 from the arc, in the fourth.

Others scoring for the Indians included seven-points from 6-7 junior Lane Hoxworth and six-points each from junior Connor Mowery and sophomore Keaton Fort.

Coach Burzynski also got four-points each from junior Isiah Watson and freshman Nolan Causey.

When you crunch the numbers the Vienna success at the foul line and the turnovers by Johnston City told the tale.

And of course the late 3-point shooting by Treat and Vaughn.

The Indians won the rebounding battle 44-31 with a lot of opportunities caused by the bad shooting night.

JC finished 21-of-53 from the floor overall, 4-of-18 from the arc but just 12-of-24 from the foul line.

“They (Vienna) turned up the pressure and turned us over. Treat is a good player and he hit some long 3's on us,” said Coach Burzynski. “They just kept hitting shots and then they made their free throws at the end. Give them credit. They came back and they won. They have some guards that can play and put pressure on you. They kept playing hard and they didn't give up. We've been in this situation five or six times this year and we're going to win one of them.”

Vienna survived its 16-of-54 shooting performance by taking advantage of the foul line, especially late.

The Eagles, after having lost three-consecutive games (Christopher, Sesser-Valier, Hamilton County) got another test on Monday night and overcame issues to get back on track heading into the final two weeks of the regular season.

Vienna hosts Cairo on Wednesday night in its next contest while Johnston City hosts Christopher Tuesday night.

“This was a great 'gut-check' for our kids and they showed their character. We looked just like this last week (against Sesser-Valier) and we never came out of it,” said Coach Dreher. “This one at least we finally righted ourselves and did a pretty good job on our defensive pressure.”