02-04-06
BY JACK BULLOCK
BENTON - It was bound to happen sometime and on Saturday afternoon it happened to the Waltonville Spartans for the first time since last February 23rd of last season.

Coach Mike Denault's club lost a basketball game.

The undefeated run of the 11th ranked Class A team in the state came to an end with a 72-64 loss to Salem at Rich Herrin Gym.

But what some experts might consider a funeral of sorts, as this club laid to rest its long run of success, the mood and attitude was far from gloomy in the Spartans camp.

In fact it was nearly festive in that the brain trust of the Waltonville program looked at the loss as almost a victory.

Despite a poor shooting afternoon and getting belted around pretty good by a more physical Class AA squad, Waltonville left with their confidence and pride intact.

Denault and his troops will likely look at this defeat as part of the maturation of a season that they hope will end with much more success after the regular season ends.

"We needed a game like this. We needed someone to push us and that is why we tried to strengthen our schedule this season to test us," said Denault, whose club now stands 24-1 after the defeat. "We set a lot of goals this season and going undefeated wasn't one of them."

Salem (16-8) had a tough road loss and long trip to Mount Zion on Friday night but they were the ones that looked fresh as the game began at 12:30 pm.

The Spartans trailed for the entire game, except for one tie at 2-2 in the opening moments.

Waltonville has a highly touted backcourt of Adam Kitowski and Anthony Lowery and, according to Salem coach John Boles; his backcourt crew of Daniel Knapp and John Fischer wanted to show just how good the Wildcats were as well.

Fischer topped all scorers with 27-point and Knapp tossed home 20 as they clearly won the backcourt skirmish.

"Our kids love a challenge and competition and they take games like this personally," said Salem head coach John Boles. "We played late last night and I wasn't sure how we would come out and play today physically or mentally, but we came out ready to play."

Taking advantage of a good start, Salem led 8-3 in an eye blink with Fisher and Knapp both scoring early.

A pair of drives from Fischer, one in the first few seconds and one on a fast break after a Waltonville turnover, got the Wildcats rolling.

It didn't help matters that Josh Ralls, the Spartans 6-foot-7 junior forward, picked up two quick fouls and headed for the bench.

His replacement in the lineup, 6-foot-8 Brandon Spotanski, picked up two fouls faster than Ralls did and suddenly Waltonville had to test its bench and resolve.

The Spartans hit a few shot early but missed far more than they made.

Kitowski and Derek Tepovich both scored late in the quarter.
Tepovich's 3-pointer and Kitowski's lay in cut the lead to 12-11 Salem with 1:06 left in the opening quarter.

However Knapp and Fischer scored on back-to-back trips to finish the frame with a five-point lead.

Waltonville hit just 4-of-16 attempts in the opening stanza while Salem was 'All-Vegas' rolling a blistering 7-of-11 from the field.

The Wildcats stepped on the accelerator to open the second quarter and reached a double-digit margin by the midway point of the period.

A 6-0 run by the 'Cats, with two free throws and a fast break lay in by Fisher along with two free throws by Jacob Tate, Salem's 6-foot-9 junior, made it 26-15 at the 4:52 mark.

Waltonville's Ralls came back off of the bench and hit a pair of second quarter buckets on drives through the Salem defense.

But Knapp, who started the second quarter scoring with a 3-pointer, did it again with just over a minute remaining before intermission.

His long bomb from the right wing extended the lead to 34-25.
Jon Kash hit 1-of-2 free throws for Waltonville, which trailed by nine at the break.

"I knew coming in that we had to get of the gates fast and stay out," added Boles, talking about his teams' opening half. "It is a tribute to our kids after a tough loss last night to come back with a big win today."

The Spartans came out in the third quarter with its best run, a 7-2 burst to cut the lead to 36-33.

Lowery closed the sprint with a wide-open 3-pointer with 5:47 to go.
But that run faltered when Waltonville came up empty on its next four possessions, with three turnovers and missed shot.

Salem capitalized with a 9-2 spurt of their own, finalized by consecutive Knapp scores to make it 45-35.

Waltonville made some additional runs at Salem, but none got them closer than six points the rest of the game.

Salem delivered the knockout blow of sorts early in the fourth quarter.

After a rebound basket by Ralls cut into the Spartans deficit, Fischer hit a pair of baskets.

His second one from behind the arc was a dagger in nature, ballooning the Salem lead to 55-43 with 5:49 remaining.

"The Fischer kid was by far the best guard we have played against this season and he hurt us early," Denault added. "We didn't want him to get to the foul line but his dribble penetration got him opportunities."

Kitowski, who was held in check for most of the game, scored eight points in the final minutes as he tried to lead his team back.

This senior, in just his second game back after a thumb injury sidelined him for five games, hit a pair of 3-pointers in his run.

The second one breathed some life into the Spartans optimism.

However the Wildcats put the game away from the free throw line late, hitting 7-of-10 free throws (11-of-17 in the quarter) to send Waltonville to its first loss.

Kitowski, Ralls and Kash all fouled out as the Spartans head into the final two weeks of the regular season with something else to think about.
"Our shots just didn't fall for us today," added Denault. "We are happy with the effort but we have to make those shots to win games like this. They (Salem) defended us and were physical with us but we had some wide-open looks early that didn't go in for us. If those shots go down who knows what happens."

Salem made the most of its trip to the Benton Shootout, sizzling 23-of-40 in its field goal attempts overall, including 3-of-5 from behind the arc.

Waltonville launched 68 shots in this game, hitting 26 of them (38 percent) along with a poor 5-of-21 effort from 3-point land.

Coach Denault's club did crash the boards well, out boarding the Cats 32-26. But many of those rebounds were offensive coming on their many missed shots.

Kash led Waltonville with 16-points followed by Kitowski with 15 and Ralls chipped in 12.

The Spartans head back to the court with a Mid-South Conference home game against Wayne City on Tuesday night.

	1	2	3	4		Final
Salem	16	18	14	24	-	72
Waltonville	11	15	15	23	-	64

Salem (72) - Knapp 6 2 2-6 20, Oglesby 1 0 0-0 2, Fischer 7 1 10-13 27, Hill 0 0 0-0 0, Terry 0 0 0-0 0, Hargis 1 0 5-7 7, Pontious 2 0 1-3 5, Williams 0 0 2-2 2, Tate 3 0 3-4 9.
2FG-20, 3FG-3, FT-23-35, PF-15.
Waltonville (64) - Owens 1 0 0-0 2, Ralls 6 0 0-2 12, Tepovich 0 2 0-0 6, Lowery 3 1 0-0 9, Kitowski 3 2 3-4 15, Kash 6 0 4-7 16, Kubiak 1 0 0-0 2, Spotanski 1 0 0-0 2.
2FG-21, 3FG-5, FT-7-13, PF-28.
Fouled Out - Kash, Kitowski, Ralls - Waltonville.
Technical Fouls - None.