BEARDSTOWN - Carrollton defeated Rushville-Industry 50-49 in its second game of the Beardstown Tournament Thursday night. The Hawks avenged a gut-wrenching 44-39 loss to the Rockets two weeks ago in the Winchester Invitational Tournament.
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“I think it was with the consistent pressure and that’s been an emphasis for us for the last three weeks. That’s how we’ve wanted to play all season,” Carrollton head coach Matt Goetten said. “Rushville challenged us tonight.”
Gabe Jones led all scorers with 24 points and was mainly a force in the paint. He also drained 12-of-15 free throws. Kyle Waters finished with ten points, and Ethan Brannan added eight.
“It takes the weight off our shoulders as a team because we’ve always been in tight games like this,” Waters said. To pull one out is big momentum for our team to keep it going.”
Briar Stinson scored 16 points for the Rockets. Brady Klitz and Jacob Reller each chipped in 12.
Carrollton led 23-16 at halftime courtesy of a long three-pointer that Nathan Walker banked in at the buzzer. The Hawks scored the first points of the second half to lead 25-16, but Rushville-Industry’s offense came alive.
They went on a 26-11 run and led 42-36 with over four minutes to play. That’s when the Hawk’s made a run of their own and turned up their full-court press.
“It’s the drip, drip, drip of the pressure we try to exert. Nate and Ethan become very adept of that. Over time I think it wears on the other team's guards,” Goetten said. “Dimmit [is a] pretty good ball-handler, but it didn’t seem to us anyone else really wanted to handle the basketball, so our goal was to get it out of his hands.”
Blake Struble converted an and-one and Jones followed up with a short-range bucket to cut the lead to one. Kyle Waters intercepted a pass and mid-court and gave the Hawks the lead on a layup. On the next possession, he stole another pass and assisted to Jones to give Carrollton a 45-42 lead. Jones made four straight free throws to put the Hawks up 49-42 and complete a 13-0 run.
“We just had to pressure the ball,” Waters said. “They were running a sideline play where I got my first steal. Me and Ethan switched it and ended up getting my hand on the ball. The next one there was an errant pass where the guy tried to save it, and I just got it and had Gabe up front and passed it to him. It was a big momentum swing.”
It seemed the Hawks would run away, but they gave the Rockets a route back in.
Carrollton missed three straight free throws and Brannan fouled Tyler Dimmit, but it was whistled for an intentional foul. Dimmit sank both his free throws to cut the lead to 50-46 with 12.7 seconds left.
The Rockets got the ball back after the Hawks missed two more free throws and Stinson connected on a three-pointer, but the buzzer went off before they could call timeout.
The Hawks improve to 7-9 and are on a three-game winning streak, however starting guard Hunter Flowers is out for the remainder of the season after undergoing shoulder surgery this past Tuesday.
"I said before the season we’ll be better in February than we were in November,” Goetten said on the winning streak. “Even though Hunter is out and we certainly miss him and his talents, but we’re not taking this season for granted. My guys are bearing down now defensively.”
After beating Midwest Central 72-51 on Tuesday night, the Hawks are now 2-0 in the tournament.
North Greene 51, Midwest Central 42
The North Greene Spartans will play Carrollton tomorrow night at 6:30 p.m. after they defeated Midwest Central 51-42 and improved to 15-3 for the season. The matchup is essentially an unofficial semifinal as whoever wins will play in the championship game.
“It’s exciting. Not only are we playing a good rival team [we’re] playing in the semifinals of a tournament and a chance to go to the championship. It’ll be a lot of fun.” North Greene head coach Brett Barry said.
Josh Hopper scored a game-high 20 points, and Brett Whicker followed with 11.
The Spartans got to this position by not having the full capabilities of their star player Jonah Hopper who is playing with an injured back. In the first half, North Greene was out of sync compared to their usual selves this season.
“You take a kid like Jonah out of the rotation it makes a big difference. His back’s beat up, and we’re trying to ease him back into it. [We] ran a little more minutes than we wanted to tonight. At halftime, we talked, and he said it was good and loose,” Barry said. “We talked about keeping his game simple and not try to do too much, just be a role player.”
That meant the likes of Blake Dean, Justin Lawson, and Whicker had to step up alongside Josh Hopper. They ended up doing enough.
“[Blake] Dean and Whicker did a phenomenal job moving the ball around and attacking the zone. Justin Lawson stepped up, and Josh had a nice game,” Barry said. “With Jonah, not there we’re out of rhythm. It takes us off the system we’re doing.
The Spartans managed without Jonah fine on offense for the most part but struggled defensively. They trailed for the majority of the first quarter and were tied 16-16 until he entered midway through the second quarter.
“Defense is where we need to get back,” Barry said. “In the Winchester Tournament, I thought our defense was extremely high level. We were moving well, sealing the lane, and helping beautifully. We were getting away from that at times tonight.”
His impact was immediate as he swished a trey on his first possession in the game. That was part of a 10-0 Spartan run to end the half on top 26-16. Hopper would score seven points in the game.
North Greene expanded that run to 16-0 and led 32-16, but Midwest Central would outscore them the rest of the way and not go down easily.
With under two minutes to play, they cut the deficit to 47-37 and then to 47-42 on a three-pointer. The Spartans struggled to close the game out but ultimately would do so.
Calhoun 58, South Fulton 36
The Warriors go to 2-1 in the Tournament with a convincing 58-36 victory over South Fulton.
Chandler Sievers led the way for Calhoun with 22 points with 14 coming in the first half. Drew Baalman followed with 14, and Corey Nelson added ten.
Wyatt Lehman scored 15 points for South Fulton, and Dallas Malott finished with 11.
The score was tied at 13 after the first quarter, but the Warriors outscored South Fulton 17-6 and led 30-19 at halftime. The Calhoun defense surrendered just six more points in the third quarter and stretched their lead to 44-25.
Calhoun will play in the third-place game and will face the loser of Carrollton/North Greene.
