Newark, H-BR move to semifinals
By BRENT ROBINSON, Sports
Writer
The bruised, battered and
burned Newark Norsemen got just what they needed in their game against LaMoille at the Little Ten Conference Boys Basketball
Tournament Tuesday night: A decisive early lead and no more injuries. Paw Paw's
game with Hinckley-Big Rock was also decided early and that wasn't good for the Bulldogs who bowed out of the tourney with
a 1-1 record.
Newark 77, LaMoille 49
Newark (13-8) started the season with a short roster. These days its looking even
shorter.
David Thanepohn, who coach
Dale Skelton estimates is at 50 percent with an injured a knee, hobbled his way into the starting lineup and finished with
6 points.
Fellow starter Ron Poplawski
was not as nearly as lucky. He recently suffered a freak hand injury and did not dress for the game.
No matter, Matt Akre made
all six shots he took in the first half and helped his team build a 37-12 lead by the intermission. Akre combined some fastbreak
chances with three 3-pointers and scored 15 by halftime en route to a 17-point game. He led Newark with eight rebounds.
Newark handled LaMoille (7-14) and its zone, making 15 of 23 from the field in the
first half.
And the Norsemen were strong
on defense as well, holding LaMoille to four field goals in the first two quarters and forcing 13 turnovers.
"First half, I was real
pleased," said Skelton. "I thought that was a nice half of basketball for us at both ends of the floor. We didn't do any pressing,
we didn't need to. We were very consistent and had good position both on the offensive and defensive ends of the floor."
Play was much looser in
the second half. LaMoille won the third quarter, 21-19 as the Lions were able to more than double their total number of baskets
from the first half.
But Newark's cushion held until the final buzzer with the benches emptied during the fourth quarter.
The win propels Newark into a rematch with Somonauk Thursday at 7:30 p.m. The Norsemen won their earlier meeting
in Newark, but that was with Poplawski in the lineup, before he burned his hand a few
days ago in a cooking accident in a foods class.
"I hope Ronnie is ready
for Thursday, he's still got to talk the doctor into it. If anybody can do it, Ronnie can," added Skelton. "We would definitely
need him Thursday night against a very good Somonauk team. I know they play a very good zone and that they are very aggressive.
Sometimes you need that shooting edge and Ronnie gives that to us."
Dane Sleezer could be a
factor Thursday if Poplawski isn't ready to go. He started Tuesday and riddled LaMoille for 21 points, hunting down the Lions
in the open court. Eric Andersen also had a strong game for Newark with 19 points and Tim Gunier
added 11.
NEWARK (77) - Akre 7 0-0 17, Slack 1
-0 2, Sleezer 6 8-10 21, David Thanepohn 3 0-0 6, Andersen 8 3-4 19, Gunier 5 1-4 11, Dunlap 0 1-2 1, Janssen 0 0-0 0, Dan
Thanepohn 0 0-0 0, Monkmeyer 0 0-0 0. Totals 30 13-20 77.
LAMOILLE (49) - Finley 1 0-1 2, Clinton 0 0-0 0, Herzog 4 0-2 8, Weisbrock 0 0-0 0, King 1 0-0 2, Cole 3 2-2 8, Stamberger 0 0-0 0, Neill 4 3-5 11, Faber
0 4-4 4, Shrimplin 6 2-2 14. Totals 19 11-16 49.
Newark (13-8) 16 21 19 21 -- 77
LaMoille (7-14) 4
8 21 16 -- 49
Three-point baskets --
Newark 4 (Akre 3, Sleezer 1), LaMoille none. Team fouls (fouled out) -- Newark 13 (none), LaMoille 15 (King).
Hinckley-Big Rock 80, Paw Paw 43
Paw Paw coach Galen Noard
had his players concentrating on H-BR's leading scorer senior Tyler Klotz. But Klotz virtually took the night off with just
3 points, allowing Ryan Michael to take center stage.
Michael, a junior, stormed
into the spotlight with 18 points by halftime and a game-high 29 on four 3-pointers and a pair of dunks.
The Royals (13-6) tuned
up for their semifinal meeting with Serena at 6 p.m. Thursday by shooting 67 percent (30
of 45) from the field.
"They shot awfully well,
I'm not sure they shoot that well all the time," said Noard. "They shot well even when we had a hand up in their face. And
they take the ball to the basket, too.
"We needed an officiating
crew that called hand checks and reaches and stuff and these guys weren't going to do that and we don't adjust very well when
that happens. Our kids hustled but they don't have the skill level. That skill level isn't going to be reached during the
season, it can only be built up during the off-season. Until we do, we're going to continue to be the doormats like we are
in the conference."
Rob Romanski led Paw Paw
(4-16) with 17 points. Jared Nicholson drained a pair of threes and ended with 13. Twenty-two turnovers hurt the Bulldogs
as did 34.2 percent shooting (12 of 35).
PAW PAW (43) - Bittner 0 0-0 0, Prawdzik 2 3-3 7,
Raymer 0 2-2 2, Nicholson 4 3-5 13, Romanski 6 5-9 17, A.Wolgast 0 1-2 1, Longoria 0 0-0 0, Eich 0 2-2 2, Slaughterback 0
1-2 1. Totals 12 17-25 43.
HINCKLEY-BIG ROCK (80) - O'Donnell 2 2-2 7, Galvan
1 0-0 2, Inman 1 1-2 3, Prevost 2 4-5 8, Klotz 1 0-0 3, Michael 11 3-4 29, Cook 1 0-1 2, Groch 1 0-1 2, Metzger 3 0-3 6, Koehling
3 1-1 7. Totals 30 12-19 80.
Paw Paw (4-16) 8 13 7
15 -- 43
H-BR (13-6) 27 14 20 19 -- 80
Three-point baskets --
Paw Paw 2 (Nicholson 2), H-BR 8 (Michael 4, Cook 3, O'Donnell 1, Klotz 1). Team fouls (none fouled out) -- Paw Paw 15, H-BR
20.
Royals, Norsemen Move On
By BRENT ROBINSON, Ottawa Times
During its worst shooting
quarter of the night, top-seeded Hinckley-Big Rock padded its lead and made a comeback impossible for Serena in the semifinals
Thursday at the Little Ten Conference Tournament.
In the other semifinal,
Newark withstood a fourth-quarter charge by host Somonauk and got past the Bobcats.
Hinckley-Big Rock 75, Serena 50
A window of opportunity
opened for the the Huskers when H-BR came up empty in its first 10 shots of the second half only adding a point to its 38-27
halftime lead on a free throw, "and we got nothing," observed Serena coach Randy Goodbred. "We got stopped or we turned it
over or whatever. There's the game. You've got to try and do something and we didn't. They caught a little fire at the end
of the third and finished us off in the fourth."
That window slammed shut
in the Huskers faces as they turned the ball over twice, made just one shot in seven tries, and added a pair of free throws
to pull within eight before Kody O'Donnell made a 3-point basket that ended the Royals' drought.
Hinckley-Big Rock then
went on a 14-8 run to stretch its lead to 56-39 to set up a fourth quarter that was largely about getting bench players some
playing time, despite only making 5 of 20 from the floor in the third quarter.
Serena switched between
man-to-man and zone to deal with the taller Royals on the inside, while trying hold down H-BR sharpshooters like O'Donnell
and Tyler Koltz on the outside.
Neither defense worked
very well. The Royals made 16 of 28 to build their 11-point edge by the intermission.
"We didn't stop them in
the first half," added Goodbred. "I thought they shot extremely well. Some of their shots they hit without someone with a
hand in their face, and some they did.
"We ran up against a better
team is what it amounted to as far as their shooting and our inability to finish. They have a much deeper offensive group
than what we have, especially from the perimeter. But I'm proud of our kids, they did cause one upset (over Indian Creek Monday)
and we were hoping we could get the second. Our goal is to come back and try to get third Friday night."
Klotz led H-BR with 22.
O'Donnell scored 18 and Ryan Michael tossed in 16.
Corbin Westvig led Serena
with 16 points. David Pinney chipped in with 13.
SERENA (50) - Finley 1 0-0 3, Vaughan 0 0-0 0, Gunderson 2 0-0 4, Pinney 6 1-2 13, Mason 4 0-2 8, Naggs 0 0-2 0, Westvig 7 1-2 16, Kempiak 1 2-2 4, Bristol 0 2-2 2, Hallett 0 0-0 0. Totals 21 6-12 50.
HINCKLEY-BIG ROCK (75) - O'Donnell 5 6-6 18, Galvan
1 0-0 3, Prochazka 1 0-0 2, Prevost 0 0-0 0, Klotz 8 2-3 22, Michael 5 5-6 16, Cook 0 0-0 0, Groch 1 0-0 2, Metzger 3 2-5
8, Koehling 1 1-2 3. Totals 25 17-22 75.
Serena (8-12) 15
12 12 11 - 50
H-BR (14-6) 15 18 18 19 - 75
Three-point baskets - Serena
2 (Finley 1, Westvig 1), H-BR 8 (Klotz 4, O'Donnell 2, Galvan 1, Michael 1). Team fouls (none fouled out) - Serena 16, H-BR
11.
Newark 55, Somonauk 48
The Bobcats got within
eight points several times in the fourth quarter after spotting Newark a 45-31 lead
going in. But it never happened for the defending LTC tourney champs
"We were fortunate to overcome
a very tenacious and scrappy Somonauk club," said Newark coach Dale Skelton.
Dane Sleezer led the way
for Skelton's crew with 20 points, scoring from a variety of places on the floor and going 8 of 11 from the foul line.
"Dane has knack for doing
that. He can find a way to score. He can do it all, he's a nice ball player and he plays hard defense. He's come a long way
this year. We knew that this was going to be a battle coming in. We beat Somonauk pretty good last time (53-33, Dec. 12) but
we knew that we weren't that much better than they were. We were fortunate to get the 10- to 12-point lead where it never
got close enough where the pressure would really hit us," added Skelton.
Sophomore Ron Poplawski
returned to service for the Norsemen and sank a pair of 3-pointer despite missing action for the first part of the week with
a burned left hand, an injury he suffered in foods class.
Newark got 9 points from David Thanepohn and 8 from Matt Akre.
Brett Smith paced Somonauk
with 17 points while Nick Woody added 10. It was not enough to fight back into the lead.
"Our kids didn't give up,"
said Somonauk coach Joe Hamilton. "They got down 14 or 15 and we got it to seven and then we had a layup at the end that could
have cut it to five, but we would have lost anyway there were only seven seconds left.
"We thought we had six
or seven shots from one or two feet in that we didn't get to fall which has been our nemesis all year. We've just got to get
those to fall. We're having a lot of problems with our easy ones."
SOMONAUK (48) - Smith 5 5-7 17, Woody 4 0-0 10, Johnson
3 3-5 9, Napolitano 3 0-1 6, Adrian 1 0-0 3, Hayes 1 0-0 3, Kossak 0 0-0 0. Total 17 8-12 48.
NEWARK (55) - Sleezer 5 8-11 20, Akre
3 2-3 8, Thanepohn 4 1-3 9, Slack 2 1-3 6, Anderson 1 0-0 2, Poplawski 2 0-0 6, Gunier 2 0-1 4. Total 19 12-21 55.
Somonauk (13-7) 19 4
8 17 - 48
Newark (14-8) 16 13 16
10 - 55
Three-point baskets - Somonauk
6 (Woody 2, Smith 2, Adrian 1, Hayes 1), Newark 5 (Sleezer 2, Poplawski 2, Slack 1). Team fouls (fouled out) - Somonauk 18,
Newark 13.
Norsemen capture LTC crown; Serena bounces back for third
By BRENT ROBINSON, Ottawa Times
Their task was simple:
All the Serena Huskers had to do was bounce back from a tough 25-point loss less that 24 hours earlier and beat the Somonauk
Bobcats on their home floor to claim third place at the Little Ten Conference Tournament Friday night.
Serena proved it enjoys
a challenge as it played 32 minutes of gritty defense and posted a 60-45 victory.
But it was the Newark Norsemen
who cut down the nets on Friday night. Behind 21 points from David Thanepohn and 20 from Eric Anderson they held off the Hinckley-Big
Rock Royals, 62-46 for the tournament championship.
Third-place game
Serena 60, Somonauk 45
The host Bobcats will see
Huskers swiping at the ball in their sleep. And the face they'll see the most, on defense as well as offense, is that of Corbin
Westvig.
The Serena senior had a
game-high 20 points. And when it mattered the most, he had the most, scoring 12 in the fourth quarter. Westvig also led his
teammates with five steals, eight assists and eight rebounds.
His ability to drive into
the heart of the Somonauk (13-8) defense and find fellow Huskers with meaty passes got the rest of the Serena (9-12) roster
involved in the game from the first quarter on as Serena went up, 17-8. His drives into the heart of the defense also drove
a steak into the heart of the Bobcats who fell behind by nine after the first quarter, and only made one meaningful run at
Serena.
That run came early in
the second quarter when the Bobcats cut the Huskers lead to 17-15, threatening to negate all of Serena's good work. But the
Huskers had an answer. Trent Gunderson reentered the game and found David Pinney with an entry pass that the junior turned
into a layup. From there, Serena regained its footing and momentum for the remainder of the first half with an 11-3 run.
For the night, Serena held
the defending tournament champs under 40-percent shooting (16 of 41) and had a hand(s) in 22 Bobcat turnovers.
"I thought our defensive
effort was tremendous," Serena coach Randy Goodbred said. "A lot of it was just hard work. It was hard to bounce back after
we kind of limped into the end of that game last night. But tonight I didn't think our kids showed any sign of letting down
and it was one of our better games of the year, without a doubt.
"I'm speechless. Tonight
it was a complete game. We disrupted a lot of the things they were trying to do, by design or not. We came up with so many
loose balls and deflections, we seemed to be everywhere tonight.
While getting its fourth
win in its last six games, Goodbred and Westvig had help as three other Huskers scored in double digits with 10 each: sophomore
Dallas Kempiak, Pinney, and senior Matt Bristol. Jon Napolitano led Somonauk with 12 points and Nick Woody scored 10.
SERENA (60) - Finley 0 0-0 0, Vaughan 0 0-0 0, Gunderson 1 0-0 2, Pinney 4 2-2 10, Naggs 0 0-0 0, Mason 4 0-0 8, Westvig 9 0-0 20, Kempiak 5 0-0 10, Bristol 4 2-4 10. Totals 27 4-6 60.
SOMONAUK (45) - Hayes 1 0-0 3, Kessler 1 0-0 2, Woody
4 1-1 10, Kossak 2 0-0 6, Smith 2 0-2 4, Napolitano 5 2-2 12, Adrian 0 3-4 3, Johnson 1 2-2 5.
Totals 16 8-11 45.
Serena (9-12) 17 11 15 17 - 60
Somonauk (13-8) 8 10
11 16 - 45
Three-point baskets - Serena
2 (Westvig 2), Somonauk 5 (Kossak 2, Hayes 1, Woody 1, Johnson 1). Team fouls (none fouled out) - Serena 10, Somonauk 12.
Championship Game
Newark 62, Hinckley-Big Rock 46
Take out a three-minute
stretch at the end of the third quarter and the No. 2-seeded Norsemen controlled the No. 1-seeded Royals for the entirety
of the title game.
Hinckley-Big Rock (14-7)
spotted Newark (15-8) a 20-5 lead at the beginning. The Norsemen took a 31-14 into the locker
room for halftime and were up 42-23 with 3:09 showing when H-BR coach Bill Sambrookes
called a timeout.
The Royals stormed out
of the break and assembled an 11-0 run using three 3-point baskets as fuel, and adding some drama to the impending fourth
quarter.
But H-BR quickly ran out
of fuel, missing five straight shots, and not getting any closer to the Newark in the
first four minutes of the fourth quarter.
The Norsemen played brilliant
defense the entire game, holding the H-BR perimeter game in check while keeping the Royals off the offensive boards.
"You couldn't draw up a
better scenario for us, having lost to them earlier," Newark coach Dale Skelton said
of his team's quick start. "Our whole focus for the ball game tonight was defense. If we came out here and just tried to outscore
them, we were going to lose. We had them a little frustrated and they missed a few shots that they usually make."
Along with Thanepohn and
Anderson, Matt Akre scored eight and Dane Sleezer seven for Newark. Tyler Klotz paced H-BR
with 15 points.
NEWARK (62) - Akre 1 6-7 8, Slack 1 2-2
4, Sleezer 3 0-0 7, Thanepohn 8 4-6 21, Anderson 7 4-6 20, Poplawski 1 0-0 2, Gunier 0 0-0 0. Totals 21 16-21 62.
HINCKLEY-BIG ROCK (46) - O'Donnell 4 2-2 12, Prochazka
0 0-0 0, Prevost 0 0-0 0, Klotz 6 1-2 15, Michael 4 4-6 12, Groch 1 0-0 2, Koehling 1 2-3 4. Totals 16 9-12 46.
Newark (15-8) 20 11 11 20 - 62
H-BR (14-7) 7 7 20 12
- 46
Three-point baskets - Newark 4 (Anderson 2, Thanepohn 1, Sleezer 1), H-BR 5 (O'Donnell 2, Klotz 2, Michael 1). Team fouls (none fouled out) -
Newark 11, H-BR 16.