01-25-07
BY JACK BULLOCK
WALTONVILLE - It took all 32 minutes of play for the Christopher Bearcats to secure a victory over Woodlawn on Thursday night at the Waltonville Invitational Tournament.

But the game was actually won long before that final horn went off.

Building a 22-point lead on a hot shooting performance in the first 16 minutes, Coach Gary Gischer's club survived a Cardinal comeback in the final quarter to preserve a 71-65 win while improving to 2-0 in the round robin format event and 14-5 overall.

Getting a game best 26 points from Nick Minor to go with three other double-digit performers - Zach Thomas (14) and 10 each from Justin Palmer and Josh Overturf - Christopher can win the tournament's title with two more wins on Friday and Saturday night.

Coach Shane Witzel saw his Cardinals slip to 1-1 in the tournament - 9-10 overall - despite four double-digit scorers topped by 17 points off the bench from freshman Casey Hammond.

“In the second half we made some mental mistakes and let them back in the game,” said Coach Gischer. “You have to give them (Woodlawn) credit. They played hard because Shane (Witzel) always has them playing hard and we knew that they would make a run. We just didn't know it would be that drastic.”

Hitting its first seven shots from the floor and 8-of-10 in the first quarter, Christopher trailed just once in the entire contest.

Woodlawn had its only lead at 6-4 when Scott McNeil scored on a drive to the basket with 5:11 to go.

But Coach Gischer's club wasted little time in getting on a quick run at the expense of the Cardinals' four first quarter turnovers – or in this case – four Christopher steals.

Seven consecutive points with the last two coming on a Minor steal and fast break score gave the Bearcats an 11-6 advantage.

Overturf hit a pair of late quarter shots for the 'Cats and Minor closed the frame with a spinning shot in the lane to make it 19-10.

“We have a lot of young kids out there and Christopher has some veteran players that overplayed passes at the right time,”said Coach Witzel. “Their kids made some good defensive plays.”

Christopher should have put the game away with a big second quarter but at the end of the stanza Woodlawn made a quick rally that got the momentum in the Cardinals' corner.

The Bearcats looked like a runaway victor after a 16-0 run pushed the lead to 37-15.

Minor scored the first five of those points on a 3-pointer and another steal and transition bucket.

Thomas, Palmer, Shane Menckowski and Todd Twitty all put up points in that scoring spree.

“We were stagnant offensively in the first half and they (Christopher) were dictating both ends of the floor,” said Coach Witzel. “They were doing what they wanted to do and that is how you get behind like we did. When you spot a team that kind of a lead it is going to be hard to come back.”

However Woodlawn scored seven of the last nine points of the second quarter and went to halftime on a bit of a roll.

Ethan Shurtz, Kyle Boldt and Jase Green all scored in the run.

Green took a pass from teammate Jesse Hart and turned a basket into a three-point play while being fouled by Thomas.

His made free throw ended the scoring at 37-22.

“We gave them some easy baskets late in the second quarter when we had some subs in there and we were also protecting some foul trouble,” added Gischer. “We also missed some shots in that final minute or so and that let them get going.”

It didn't take the Bearcats long to get the lead back to 20 points with Minor scoring five points on a basket and then a three-point play.

A 3-pointer by Palmer made it 47-27 Christopher with 5:54 left in the third quarter.

But Woodlawn gave a preview of things to come when they responded with a 9-0 run.

This was about the time that Casey Hammond stepped off the bench for the Cardinals and that move paid off quickly for Coach Witzel.

This 5-foot-9 freshman hit the first of his three 3-pointers as part of that run.

He later scored on a drive to the basket to make it 49-38 as the crowd in attendance started to feel like a comeback was looming.

Hammond and McNeil answered a couple of Christopher scores to close the quarter.

Both Woodlawn players took the ball to the basket for points as the scoring ended at 55-44 heading to the final eight minutes.

Woodlawn made a 13-2 run midway through the fourth quarter which made the Bearcats sweat the outcome.

McNeil and Hammond scored eleven of those points.

Hammond's fast break basket forced a Christopher timeout at 59-52 with 5:06 left.

The streak culminated when Hammond banked home a 3-pointer to cut the margin to 61-57.

Woodlawn got the lead down to three points when Jesse Hart went the length of the court for a fast break lay in to make it 62-59.

But already in foul trouble the Cardinals saw Shurtz, McNeil and Boldt get disqualified in the final 2:39 of the contest.

The Bearcats hit eight consecutive free throws which secured the win and kept their hopes of breaking the Waltonville/Woodlawn grip on the tournament titles of this 15th annual event.

“That is a typical game for us. For some reason we will get a good lead and then we let teams make runs,” Gischer explained. “I guess we can call it an ugly win, but we win.”

Although they cooled off some after the first quarter, the 'Cats finished at 45 percent from the floor overall (22-of-49 from the field – 5-of-13 from behind the 3-point line) in the win.

In securing the win, Coach Gischer's club connected on 20-of-28 free throws.

“That sort of thing seems to happen to us. We've had more banked-in three's this year against us,” Gischer said referring to Woodlawn's Hammond two 3-pointers off the glass. “We made some mental mistakes tonight. Took some three's when we really didn't need them.”

Woodlawn – after Hammond's 17 – received 16 points from McNeil, 13 from Green and 11 from Shurtz.

The Cards shot the ball well in hitting 27-of-58 overall (47 percent) and 4-of-12 from behind the arc.

But the early turnovers helped dig a deep hole that they never fully recovered from.

“I hate that (loss) for our kids because of the effort that we gave in the second half was outstanding. The bottom line is in the first half we let them pull away too far. I didn't feel like we were really getting after it on the defensive end and they (Christopher) shot the ball well and they are capable of doing that. Our effort and heart was there but we need to do that for an entire game,” finalized Witzel.

	1	2	3	4	-	F
Woodlawn	10	12	22	21	-	65
Christopher	19	18	18	16	-	71

Woodlawn (65) – McNeil 8 0 0-2 16, Hart 2 0 0-0 4, Shurtz 5 0 1-3 11, Boldt 2 0 0-0 4, Green 2 1 6-7 13, Smith 0 0 0-0 0, Hammond 4 3 0-0 17, Simmons 0 0 0-0 0, Gaither 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-23, 3FG-4, FT-7-12, PF-24.
Christopher (71) – Menckowski 2 0 0-0 4, Twitty 2 0 3-6 7, Minor 6 2 8-10 26, Overturf 1 1 5-6 10, Palmer 4 0 2-4 10, Thomas 3 2 2-2 14, Crnokrak 0 0 0-0 0, Threadgill 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-17, 3FG-5, FT-20-28, PF-12.
Fouled Out – Shurtz, McNeil, Boldt - Woodlawn.
Technical Fouls – None.

PATOKA 62, SANDOVAL 49
The Warriors kept the Black Hawks winless for the season with a comfortable win in the Thursday night opener.

Three Patoka players scored double-figures for Coach Joe Eddy.

Marcus Carroll muscled home 20 points in the paint for the Warriors while Jordan Potter hit for 17 points, mostly from the outside.

Derek Back scored 15 points as he and Potter connected for three 3-pointers each in the victory.

Sandoval Kenny Sprehe scored 14 for the Black Hawks who saw their record slip to 0-20 on the season.

Patoka broke away from their Marion County rivals with a 12-2 run to close the first half.

A 7-0 run midway through the third quarter made it 37-20 and ended most of the games' drama.

Sandoval won the rebounding battle 43-29 but their 25 offensive rebounds only fueled a poor shooting night.

The Black Hawks hit just 22-of-64 shots from the field – 34 percent - all but two of them were from two-point range.

On the other hand, Patoka 21-of-49 from the floor – 6-of-20 from behind the arc.

	1	2	3	4	-	F
Sandoval	08	10	15	16	-	49
Patoka	09	21	20	12	-	62

Sandoval (49) – Marcketti 2 0 0-2 4, Quick 0 0 2-2 2, Boatright 3 0 0-0 6, Kishbaugh 2 0 0-0 4, Sprehe 6 0 2-4 14, Jones 3 0 0-0 6, Carroll 0 0 0-0 0, Gambill 6 0 1-2 13.
2FG-22, 3FG-0, FT-5-10, PF-19.
Patoka (58) – Jenkins 0 0 0-0 0, L. Murfin 0 0 1-2 1, Towler 0 0 0-0 0, Belcher 0 0 0-0 0, Beard 0 0 0-0 0, Back 2 3 2-4 15, Potter 2 3 4-7 17, McKinley 0 0 0-0 0, Hames 3 0 1-3 7, Murray 1 0 0-0 2, Wimberly 0 0 0-0 0, Carroll 7 0 6-9 20, Whisler 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-15, 3FG-6, FT-14-25, PF-13.
Fouled Out – None.
Technical Fouls – Sandoval Bench.