12-22-09
BY JACK BULLOCK
WALTONVILLE - The Waltonville Spartans picked up another big win at home on Tuesday by surviving a 17-point, 22-rebound night from Hamilton County’s Duke Greisemer.

Coach Mike Denault’s club managed to improve to 7-1 on the season by getting to the foul line more often and being much more efficient when sent to the stripe.

The Spartans made 24-of-31 foul shots compared to the Foxes’ 6-of-13 in a 57-52 slugfest win in front of a big crowd at Waltonville.

The 6-foot-4 senior center Greisemer hit the boards from the outset and was the most effective on the offensive end of the floor.

But Waltonville managed to hit enough 3-point shots and got to the rim enough times to forge a second half lead that Hamilton County couldn’t overcome.

Three different times in the final quarter the Foxes had chances to tie or take the lead but were just 5-of-15 from the floor (18-of-53 for the contest) overall and never got back the lead.

In the meantime Waltonville rode the hot hand of Skyler Witges – a 6-foot-3 senior playmaker – who was “as cool as can be” 10-of-11 from the foul line.

Down the stretch Witges made 5-of-6 in the final :28.6 to salt away the game and Hamilton County’s victory chances.

Witges led all scorers with 21-points while teammates Joseph Lewis and Brock Wheatley added 11 and nine points respectively for the Spartans - who will enter the Sesser-Valier Holiday Tournament next week as one of the favorites.

“They (Hamilton County) are a physical team and we had some trouble getting shots to fall,” said Coach Denault. “We got some great shots all night but we did the job that we needed to do and got the win. We had trouble with Greisemer. When a kid that size gets planted down there (under the basket) you’re not going to move him. He grabbed a lot of offensive rebounds and stuck it back in.”

The Foxes (3-6) also received 14-points from Justin Webb to go with nine from Clint Hopfinger.

Greisemer was the reason that Hamilton County stayed in the game early and throughout the second half.

This senior scored four times in the first half on offensive rebounds.

In fact he scored Hamilton County’s first six points.

His putback with 2:24 left in the first quarter cut Waltonville’s initial lead to just 7-6.

“When you come up with 22 rebounds in a game and you can’t jump more than two inches off the floor, that tells you just a little bit about yourself,” explained Hamilton County head coach Curt Reed when talking about Greisemer’s great performance.

Lewis hit a pair of first quarter shots – a 3-pointer from the top of the circle and a drive to the basket with :37.7 left.

Witges canned a high arcing 3-pointer from out front that was wet when it came down that closed the quarter at 13-8 Spartans.

One of the Spartans problems was magnified early in the game - as they got zero second chances in the first half.

Hamilton County out rebounded the Spartans 26-7 in the first 16 minutes and opened the second stanza with a 7-1 run to get their first advantage on the scoreboard.

“What I tell the kids all the time is that we have to rebound by committee. We need all five of the kids out there to crash the boards and all of them are capable of getting rebounds,” Denault said. “But we have to do a better job in going and getting our missed shots. Tonight we stood around too much.”

Greisemer got the ball down low for a close in shot that was followed by a 3-pointer from the left wing by Hopfinger.

When Brandon Webb scored on a drive to the basket – Hamilton County led 15-14 with 5:42 to go before the half.

Hamilton County’s biggest lead of the night followed a 6-0 sprint in which both Webb’s sandwiched baskets around yet another Greisemer stick back.

When Brandon’s rebound shot found the mark with 2:20 to go – the Foxes led 24-19.

Waltonville’s 11-0 run to finish the second quarter turned the games’ momentum around.

Wheatley hit four consecutive free throws and Dylan Johnson made a key steal and scored in transition for a 27-26 Waltonville advantage.

With :02.1 to go Witges made two-straight free throws to push the Spartans lead to 29-26.

But Hamilton County made a huge mistake by throwing the ball inbounds the length of the floor.

The ball ended up going out of bounds.

Waltonville was awarded the ball underneath their own basket and Witges found Lewis with a pass out past the top of the key.

His fall-away 3-pointer beat the buzzer for a 32-26 lead.

“That was a big momentum boost for us getting that shot to fall,” said Denault about the Lewis 3-pointer that ended the half. “They (Ham Co.) took away our option of getting Skyler the ball back in the corner on the play but Joseph hit the shot.”

Waltonville wouldn’t relinquish the lead again.

Hamilton County did hang tough in the second half and cut the lead down to just 38-33 when junior Adam Irvin canned a 20-footer from the left wing with 3:00 to go in the third quarter.

Waltonville closed the quarter with a 6-0 push with Lewis again scoring with just a few seconds remaining on a 15-footer from the left side. His shot made it 45-35 heading to the final quarter.

The Foxes made it interesting in the final eight minutes – thanks to an 11-2 scoring march that cut the Spartans lead down to 49-48 with 1:24 left.

Two 3-point bombs by Justin Webb and sophomore Aaron Cravens on and inbounds play from the left corner followed by a free throw by Greisemer got Hamilton County in position for a come-from-behind road victory.

Nevertheless Waltonville was up to the challenge and closed the game out with Witges’ accuracy from the foul line.

The Spartans were just 14-of-49 overall (28 percent) from the field and were manhandled on the glass 46-22.

But they forced 14 Hamilton County turnovers and took care of the ball themselves – committing just six miscues.

Picking up a big win – Waltonville is right on track heading into the halfway point of the season.

“That (the physicality) is one of the reasons that we play them. We know that they are going to be bigger and stronger than us and tonight they came out and beat up on us. That makes us tougher,” explained Coach Denault. “I thought that we were able to do the things that we wanted to do. We put some pressure on them and turned them over several times. We made a good run to begin the second half and got it up to 10 or 12.”

Hamilton County (52) – Hopfinger 1 0 4-8 9, C. Lemmons 0 0 0-0 0, Rubenacker 0 0 0-0 0, B. Webb 2 0 0-0 4, J. Webb 5 1 1-2 14, Cravens 0 1 0-0 3, Griesemer 8 0 1-3 17, S. Lemmons 0 0 0-0 0. 2FG-16, 3FG-3, FT-6-13, PF-25.
Waltonville (57) – Bassett 2 0 1-2 5, Askew 0 0 2-2 2, Wheatley 2 0 5-6 9, Witges 1 3 10-11 21, Stanhouse 0 0 3-6 3, Johnson 2 0 2-2 6, Lewis 2 2 1-2 11.
2FG-9, 3FG-5, FT-24-31, PF-19.
Fouled Out – Griesemer, B. Webb, Rubenacker - Hamilton County.
Technical Fouls – None.