02-18-05
BY JACK BULLOCK
WALTONVILLE - With a loss back on February 10, a rare Thursday night game on the road at New Harmony, Indiana, Webber Township gave the impression of being less that invincible.

After winning 12-straight games, the Trojans had a bit of a let down in dropping just their third game of the season.

Waltonville on the other hand was playing their best basketball of the 2004-05 campaign and were triumphant in 13-consecutive games heading into the Mid-South Conference finale for both teams Friday night.

Coach Clarence Gross' club appeared vulnerable while the Spartans were looking at taking the emotions of a senior night in front of a capacity crowd to hand the Trojans their first loss in MSC play.

However as had happened previously when the two teams met on January 11th, Webber Township jumped in front early and never let up in a relatively easy 70-48 victory, which gave them an undefeated league record at 12-0 and improved their overall mark to a sparkling 24-3.

Since dropping back-to-back games (Cisne 60-51 on December 17 in the title game of the Conrad Allen Holiday Tournament and Galatia 56-44 on January 4 at home after a 17-day layoff at home) the Trojans have won 15-of-16 contests.

The loss snapped that 13-game winning streak for Waltonville and in the process showed the huge difference in the teams.

Athletic and experienced Webber Township, with three senior starters and two juniors with understanding of the Coach Gross system, clearly outplayed the younger Spartans in both games this season.

"They have five players that are athletic and experienced and we knew it was going to be tough to deal with them on both ends of the floor," said Waltonville coach Mike Denault. "We couldn't do the things that we normally want to do on offense."

Joey Ullery and Jabe Michel paced the Trojans with 19 and 16 points respectively while Brad Porter and Bryce McKenzie added 11 apiece. Cody Swartz chipped in eight points for a Trojan club that continues to provide balanced scoring during this memorable season.

"We beat a pretty darn good ballclub that was coming in on a hot streak," said Webber coach Clarence Gross. "We wanted to pull one of their big guys out from the basket and spread the floor a bit so we could get some one-on-one matchups that we wanted. Then once we got rolling we started posting up their guards a little bit. Teams just can't handle our guards in the post."

The Trojans held Waltonville to just 16-of-56 from the field along with 4-of-14 from behind the 3-point line.

Adam Kitowski netted a team best 16 markers while Anthony Lowery chipped in 11.

Waltonville held just one brief first quarter lead as Lowery scored a pair of early baskets to give them a 4-2 advantage with 6:01 remaining.

But it didn't take long for the Trojans to take command.

A 10-0 run with four different Webber player contributions rocked Waltonville back in its collective heels.

Ullery, Michel, McKenzie and Swartz all added baskets on a run that began with defensive stops and finished with relatively easy baskets.

Ullery scored twice in the burst, once posting up and another time on a pull up jumper in transition.

When Swartz added his first basket of the game on a left baseline drive, Webber was rolling at 12-4 with 2:17 remaining.

After a Brandon Spotanski rebound basket cut into the Trojans lead, Michel used his quickness to get around the 6-foot-8 Spotanski for a conventional three-point play and a 15-6 lead.

Two free throws by Kitowski ended the quarter at 15-8 Webber Township.

Coach Gross' club gradually pulled away in the second quarter with the same cast of characters doing the damage to the Waltonville cause.

A steal and fast break lay in by McKenzie gave the Trojans a 17-10 lead with 6:45 until halftime.

This bucket also started a 15-2 run highlighted by an Ullery 3-pointer and Brad Porter backdoor lob from Michel for a lay up.

When the dust settled on this run after another Ullery baseline score, the lead had ballooned to 30-12 with 2:06 to play.

Kitowski and Lowery did manage six points between them to finish the half. But another Ullery basket (his eighth and ninth points of the quarter) on a spin move in the lane on a pass from Michel made it 32-17 with just a minute to play before intermission.

A Lowery free throw closed the half at 32-18.

"Michel was getting around our post players inside all night and we struggled guarding them tonight. He (Michel) is just a great athlete and he is a step faster than anyone we have that could try and guard him," added Denault. "Ullery is a guard that can post up and we just couldn't defend that tonight."

The Spartans managed a brief rally in the third quarter.

Kitowski hit a pair of 3-pointers in the frame and Jordan Kabat added a basket on a pass from Lowery.

When Kitowski hit his second long range shot, the lead had dwindled to 37-26, which prompted Coach Gross to use a timeout with 3:22 remaining.

Ullery combined with Swartz for a pair of buckets; first on a shot from the left corner and then on a pass to Swartz in the lane to make it 41-26.

At this point Waltonville started racking up fouls and Webber Township went to the line and hit 7-of-8 free throws to finish off the quarter at 47-30.

Despite committing six third quarter turnovers, the Trojans kept its double-digit lead by holding Waltonville to 5-of-15 from the field in the stanza.

Webber Township put the game out of reach early in the fourth quarter as the Spartans, who were in foul difficulty, were clearly worn down.

A 10-3 run with four points from Porter and four more by Michel made it 57-33 with 4:18 left.

Back to back baskets (an Ullery 3-pointer and a fast break lay in by McKenzie) gave Webber its largest lead of the night at 65-37 with 2:00 to go.

A Kitowski 3-pointer ended the scoring by the regulars as both coaches emptied their respective benches to finish out the contest.

"We were trying to compensate for so many things out there defensively that we knew we were going to have to give up some things," added Denault, whose team stands at 20-8 and will face Trico Tuesday night at the Pinckneyville Class A Regional. "It was a learning experience for us. They (the Trojans) are an exceptional team and I think they are going to give some people trouble in the postseason."

Webber Township was 23-of-48 from the field (48 percent) and 3-of-7 from behind the 3-point arc.
However they struggled at times from the free throw, as the normally hot shooting Trojans were a disappointing 21-of-34 (62 percent) toeing the line.

"The last couple of games we haven't shot free throws well but we know that we are going to have to do a better job at the line next week at Mount Carmel," added Gross, whose club is the favorite to win the Mount Carmel Class A Regional that starts Monday.

Waltonville wasn't very good from the line either, hitting just 12-of-21 opportunities (57 percent)
Of the 13 Waltonville turnovers, nine of them were a result of Trojan steals with four of them directly leading to points.

"We are not going to let this loss get us down. We are going to get back to practice tomorrow and get ready for Trico next week," finalized Denault.

Webber Township held a 35-29 rebounding advantage.

But eight of the Waltonville rebounds were offensive in the first half and Webber adjusted at halftime and didn't allow another Waltonville offensive board until the bench players were mopping up the game at the end.

"We were worried about hitting the boards tonight, they have some size on us and we worked hard in practice this week and I told the kids that if you want to win tonight we will do it with rebounding on the defense end," added Gross. "With Ullery and Michel if teams try to just shut them down we have three other guys that can step up and score."

Webber Township (70) - Porter 4 0 3-5 11, McKenzie 2 1 4-7 11, Ullery 5 2 3-6 19, Michel 6 0 4-6 16, Swartz 3 0 2-4 8, Braden 0 0 0-0 0, Scott 0 0 0-0 0, Loker 0 0 0-0 0, Truitt 0 0 3-4 3, Chambliss 0 0 2-2 2, Lowery 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-20, 3FG-3, FT-21-34, PF-18.
Waltonville (48) - Norris 0 0 1-4 1, Kitowski 1 4 2-2 16, Lowery 3 0 5-7 11, J. Kash 2 0 0-0 4, Talbert 1 0 1-2 3, Spotanski 1 0 0-2 2, A. Kash 0 0 1-2 1, Kubiak 1 0 0-0 2, Mcgovern 0 0 2-2 2, Kabat 3 0 0-0 6.
2FG-12, 3FG-4, FT-12-21, PF-23.
Fouled Out - Norris, Waltonville.
Technical Fouls - None.