01-24-05
BY JACK BULLOCK
WALTONVILLE - Coach Joe Eddy of the Patoka Warriors has been waiting all season to get a solid effort from his club.

On Monday night against Christopher on the first night of the Waltonville Invitational Tournament, he got his wish.

The Warriors put together four quality quarters and overcame a poor shooting first half to post a 52-49 victory.

Behind the long range shooting of Justin Miller and Dustin Carbaugh, Patoka picked up the win and put themselves in the championship hunt at this 13th edition of the tournament that rotates between Waltonville and Woodlawn each year.

Miller connected on five 3-pointers in the game while teammate Carbaugh added four 'trifectas' for the 5-13 Warriors.

"We have five seniors on this team and I told them the other night after the Cowden-Herrick game that we have ten games left and then it is over unless you start playing hard and then we can go further," said Patoka head coach Joe Eddy, a Ramsey native in his first season as a head coach. "But I told them if you don't start playing hard now, the regional won't matter. Before you know it your high school career is over so you have to take advantage of the time that you have. I was good to see that sort of intensity for a whole game."

Christopher had chances to win this contest, but turnovers and missed shots doomed the Black Diamond Conference Bearcats from the outset.

"Intensity-wise we just got out played tonight," said Christopher coach Jeff Johnston, whose club blew a six point lead in the third quarter and had two different chances to tie the game late. "We didn't take advantage of the size advantage that we had. We weren't strong enough inside to deal with them."

Christopher had two chances in the final minute to tie the game but both times Jesse Martin couldn't find the range on 3-point attempts.

His first shot from the left corner hit the front of the rim and bounced off a Patoka player out of bounds.
Christopher had one more chance however Martin's second attempt, this time from the right corner, fell just short of the mark.

"It was frustrating tonight because we had chances to win the game but in the end we got out played," added Johnston, whose team now sits at 6-11 on the season.

Neither team played well offensively in the opening half.

The two clubs combined for 16-of-52 shooting in the first 16 minutes to go along with 14 total turnovers.

However it was clear that the Patoka game plan was to attack from the outside.

After spotting the Bearcats an early five-point lead, Miller and Carbaugh each connected on a combined three 3-point shots in the opening quarter.

After Miller's first bomb hit the target, Carbaugh hit back-to-back shots from behind the arc to give Patoka an early 9-5 edge.

"We knew their strength was the 3-point line and we didn't guard it very well tonight," Johnston said.

A pair of free throws by Will Toney and a rebound bucket by Matt Pasko, Christopher evened the score at nine.

Patoka's Mike Criner ended the first quarter with two free throws to make it 11-9 Warriors at the first horn.

The two teams were a woeful 6-of-32 from the field in those first eight minutes.

Patoka got to its largest lead of the evening early in the second quarter with a pair of drives to the basket by Criner and yet another 3-pointer from Miller pushed the advantage to 18-12.

Christopher did managed to hang close, thanks to five points by Martin and a late 3-pointer from Kyle Phillips.

When Phillips connected just before intermission, the Patoka lead was just a point at 22-21 at the break.

The Bearcats made their best move of the contest to open things up in the third quarter.

A 7-0 run to start things, highlighted by a pair of buckets from Frank Patalano, staked Christopher to a 28-22 lead.

However the Bearcats could do little to stop the outside onslaught by Patoka's trio of 3-point marksmen.

Miller, Carbaugh and Criner all hit shots from behind the line in the third quarter.

When the Warriors weren't connecting from the outside, they were slashing to the basket on fast break attempts.

Criner and Carbaugh each scored on fast break chances off of Christopher turnovers.

Then the rains came, in the form of 3-point shots that helped the Warrior get back the lead.

The total damage of the offense from Patoka was 19 third quarter points, 12 from four 3-pointers.

The stanza ended with Miller scoring the last five points on a trey and a lay in.

A Patalano rebound basket ended the interesting frame at 40-38 Patoka.

A 3-pointer by Christopher's Lucas rains early in the fourth quarter gave the Bearcats back the lead at 42-40.

However the Warriors got back the lead for good on a pair of fast break scores on long baseball type passes from Criner to Carbaugh.

Throw in a rebound basket by Criner in the run and it was 46-43 Warriors with 3:14 to play.

Christopher nearly had a steal on the Patoka offensive end, but when a mad scramble for the ball developed, Patoka came away with possession.

When Miller found himself with the ball 20-feet from the basket on the right wing, he drilled home his fifth and final 3-pointer of the evening.

Christopher was its own worst enemy in the final quarter as they connected on just 4-of-9 free throws went sent to the line by Patoka.

"We showed more patience in the second half but we just didn’t hit enough shots," added Johnston. "If you make a shot or two, it gets everybody fired up and you play harder. But when you are missing shots everybody gets kind of down."

Perhaps the key stat in the second half was that the Warriors did a much better job shooting the ball.
After hitting just 8-of-30 in the first two quarters, Patoka hit 12-of-24 in the second half (20-of-54 for the game) to earn the win for Coach Eddy.

Patoka was led by Carbaugh with 18-points followed by 17 from Miller and 15 from Criner.

Phillips and Patalano paced the Bearcats with 13 and 11.

"Our inside game worked more tonight that it has in the past. We are starting to go inside then back outside much better now," added Eddy. "We were forcing the issue too much in the first half offensively and it showed in some mistakes. But we settled down more in the second half."

Both team are back in action Tuesday night when Patoka takes on Woodlawn at 6:30 pm followed by the Christopher/Waltonville match up at 8 pm.

Christopher (46) - Snyder 1 0 0-0 2, Martin 1 2 0-0 8, Phillips 3 2 1-4 13, Patalano 5 0 1-3 11, Toney 0 0 3-4 3, Pasko 2 0 2-4 6, Rains 0 2 0-1 6.
2FG-12, 3FG-6 FT-7-16, PF-11.
Patoka (52) - Cain 0 0 0-0 0, Criner 5 1 2-3 15, Carbaugh 3 4 0-1 18, Miller 1 5 0-1 17, Hames 1 0 0-0 2, Smith 0 0 0-0 0, D. Thompson 0 0 0-0 0, M. Thompson 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-10, 3FG-10, FT-2-5, PF-12.
Fouled Out - None.
Technical Fouls - None.

WALTONVILLE 68, SANDOVAL 40
In the second game of the night, the Spartans rode the hot hand of 6-foot-5 sophomore Josh Ralls in the first half and senior guard Adam Kitowski in the second half to pull away from the Blackhawks.

The Spartans improved to 10-7 on the season with Ralls scoring 14 of his 16-points in the opening quarter as Waltonville left little doubt in the outcome.

Kitowski scored 15 of his 21-points in the third quarter for coach Mike Denault, who saw ten Spartans get on the scoreboard in a game that had a continuous clock in the fourth quarter after the lead expanded to over 30 points.

"I am a little bit surprised about the outcome tonight. I thought we played extremely well and Sandoval is a good team," said Denault, who is in his second season at Waltonville. "It was a good win coming off of a week off after the Woodlawn game. We could have had a let down but we didn't. We did a nice job of handling their press and we got some easy baskets off of it. Our guys are focused on our game plan and it showed tonight."

Brandon Spotanski added nine points and Jon Kash scored eight for Waltonville.

Sandoval was led by James Norton with 12-points while Jeremy Conrad added eight.

The much bigger Spartans owned the glass on this night, holding a 35-20 rebounding edge.

Before Sandoval had a chance to take a second breath, Waltonville had a double-digit lead.

Six points by Ralls and an early 3-point basket by Kitowski set the tone.

By the time Jon Kash scored on a lay in on an assist from Kitowski, the rout was on at 13-2 with 4:03 left.

Ralls scored six more points in the quarter, two of the baskets on great moves underneath the basket for reverse lay ups.

He closed out the frame with a 15-foot shot from the left wing with :02 left to make it 21-8 Waltonville.

"We are happy to have the weapons that we have offensively and Josh (Ralls) is continually improving day-by-day," added Denault. "He is getting better defensively and he has a better idea of what we are trying to do out there."

Sandoval hit just 3-of-15 first quarter attempts, thanks to a stingy defensive effort by the Spartans.

After a Conrad basket opened the second quarter scoring on a lay in, Waltonville scored the next eight points.

Jon Kash hit two baskets, sandwiched around scores from Jordan Kabat and Seth McGovern, and the lead ballooned to 29-10.

Kitowski scored on a fast break lay up on a feed from Ralls who made a steal of an errant Sandoval pass.

Spotanski got in the scoring act with a two late baskets.

When his in close shot from inside the lane with :05 dropped through, the Spartans were in command at 38-14 at intermission.

While Ralls was the early game offensive gem, Kitowski entered the spotlight in the third quarter.

The 5-foot-10 junior guard scored six-straight points for the Spartans early in the quarter.

Two fast break lay ups and a rebound basket pushed the lead to 48-16 with 5:02 left.

His second scoring streak ended the quarter.

A mid-range shot and later a long 3-pointer from the right wing finished the quarter and the Blackhawks at 62-29.

The mercy continuous clock rule took effect in the fourth quarter as Waltonville emptied its bench.

"We have so many different ways that we can score and if the guys continue to not worry about who is scoring, we are going to be that much more tougher to defend," Denault explained.

The Spartans shot 43 percent from the field (29-of-68) while Sandoval was 14-of-46 (30 percent) on the night. Had the Spartans been more accurate from the foul line (6-of-11) the rout would have been worse.

Sandoval outscored Waltonville 11-6 in the final quickly played eight minutes.

Sandoval plays rival Patoka Thursday night in the Blackhawks next contest at the WIT.

Sandoval (40) - Bosler 1 0 2-5 4, Norton 2 2 2-2 12, Koch 1 0 0-0 2, Whipple 0 0 0-0 0, Irvin 3 0 0-0 6, Conrad 3 0 2-2 8, Michael 1 0 0-0 2, Gambill 1 0 1-1 3, Dahl 0 0 3-4 3, Wooters 0 0 0-0 0, Drovan 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-12, 3FG-2 FT-10-14, PF-14.
Waltonville (68) - Norris 1 0 2-2 4, Kitowski 5 3 2-4 21, Lowery 0 0 0-0 0, J. Kash 4 0 0-0 8, Talbert 0 0 0-0 0, Spotanski 4 0 1-3 9, Fairchild 0 0 0-0 0, Owens 0 1 0-0 3, Ralls 8 0 0-0 16, A. Kash 1 0 0-0 2, Tepovich 0 0 0-0 0, Kubiak 0 0 1-2 1, McGovern 1 0 0-0 2, Kabat 1 0 0-0 2.
2FG-25, 3FG-4, FT-6-11, PF-15.
Fouled Out - None.
Technical Fouls - None.