Bulldogs persevere, defeat Chesterton on road, 69-64 in OT

A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith
01-07-2007

Friday, January 5, 2007 - Duneland Athletic Conference game at Chesterton

CROWN POINT (69)  Stephen Albrecht 4-5-14, Aleks Alavanja 7-1-15, Zach Cecich 8-2-18, Ben Derks 1-4-7, Kyle Hanaway 5-0-10, Derrick Garletts 1-0-2, CJ Mantel 1-0-3, Andy Krumwied 0-0-0, Billy Cox 0-0-0.  TOTALS 27 (13-16, 81.2%) 69.

CHESTERTON (64)  Adam Hutnick 3-1-8, Chase Saylor 1-0-2, Austin Bower 2-0-5, Jack Houpt 8-0-18, Zack Novak 12-3-28, Tommy Peller 1-0-3, Jordan Lewis 0-0-0, Alex Mennen 0-0-0.  TOTALS:  28 (3-8) 64.

FREE THROWS:  CP (13-16, 81.2%) Albrecht 5-5, Alavanja 2-2, Cecich 2-5, Derks 4-4;  CHESTERTON (3-8, 37.5%) Hutnick 1-2, Novak 3-6.

REBOUNDS: CP (23) Alavanja 8, Albrecht 7, Hanaway 4, Cecich 4;   CHESTERTON (20) Haupt 10, Novak 7, Mannen, Hutnick, Lewis.  

ASSISTS:  CP (13) Hanaway 8, Cecich 2, Derks 2, Mantel;   CHESTERTON (9) Lewis 6, Hutnick 2, Peller.

3-GOALS:  CP (2) Stephen Albrecht, Ben Derks;  CHESTERTON (5) Zack Novak 3, Jack Haupt 2.

CHESTERTON  (1-5-2007) - It was a good game to win and it wasn't that bad a game to lose Friday night at Chesterton.

"This was a great high school basketball game, wasn't it?" said CP coach Clint Swan.  "I'm just very pleased with how well we battled them."

Chesterton coach Tom Peller said, "I don't know if we played badly.  We allowed a little too much penetration on defense.  But they hit shots at the end of the game and we didn't."

In a game of ebbs and flows where no one ever led by a double digit amount, Crown Point did indeed hit shots at the end and beat Chesterton in overtime 69-64.  Crown Point (5-5) closed out the first half of the schedule showing they can, at least, play with anyone other than Valparaiso in the eight-team Duneland Athletic Conference.

Usually in high school games, substitutes play a major role.  That just was not the case in this nightcap of these two schools' annual girl-boy double-header as both teams' starters played in almost all key situations and you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who didn't play well.

CP held leads of 4-0 and 11-6 early on, but the game was tied 14-14 at the quarter.  The Bulldogs should have led at halftime but a 9-2 run by the Trojans in the final two minutes gave the home team a 29-25 edge.  Junior forward Jack Haupt, who had 18 points and 10 rebounds, sank a three-point shot to give the Trojans a 46-41 lead before a 7-0 run by Crown Point gave the Bulldogs the lead after three quarters.

CP was at a peak in the final 10 minutes as junior guard Kyle Hanaway directed the offense in the full and half court, zipping passes that helped four starters score in double figures.  Hanaway's driving lay up made it 61-58 with 1:50 to play, but an offensive foul call on Hanaway gave Chesterton (7-3) the ball.  Zack Novak, who played forward and guard, dropped in a high-arching three-pointer to tie the game 61-61 and the Trojans got a chance to win after a Bulldog turnover.  Novak got a three-point attempt off from the right corner in front of the CP bench.  It appeared that he was fouled by Albrecht, but the shot missed as did Jordan Lewis' follow shot.

Novak, who averages 21 points a game, was the beneficiary of a kindly referee seconds later as he complained vigorously to the men with the whistles.  A technical foul, which the referees also did not call, could have given CP the game.

A basket by Alex Alavanja and two free throws from Stephen Albrecht gave CP a 65-61 edge after no one scored in the first two minutes of overtime.  Novak, who missed two foul shots between the CP scores, tallied on a driving lay up and Adam Hutnick split two foul shots to make it 65-64 with 22 seconds left in the game.  The Trojans fouled Ben Derks, who sank both free throws with seven seconds left.  After Novak missed a potential game-tying 20-footer, Derks sank two more foul shots to create the final score.

"Give them (CP) credit," said Peller.  "They made their free throws at the end.  Coach Swan's got a good team and we'll see them again.  Maybe two more times."

DOG TALES:  Ben Derks is 13 of 14 from the foul line in 10 games.  Stephen Albrecht is 24 of 29 (82.7%).  Aleks Alavanja is 22 of 29  (75.8%).

Chesterton will go without guard Mark Babcock (8.7 ppg.) for the month at January at least.  Babock, who broke a foot in practice last month, was on crutches at the CP game Friday.

"He's a three-year starter," said coach Tommy Peller, "and he does a lot of things that don't show up in the scorebook.  So, obviously he makes a difference.  But we don't want to use that as an excuse.  We played pretty well tonight.  They just made plays at the end and we didn't."

CP's Zach Cecich guarded Chesterton's Zack Novak most of the time, and while Novak did score 28, he did not decide the game in the late going.  Cecich (6-2, 230) does not look like he could stay with the larger, quicker Novak (6-5, 215).  But he has done just that in the CP-Chesterton games the last two seasons.

"He's the toughest player I've ever coached," said Clint Swan.  "That's the only explanation I have.  I thought Zack had to work for everything he got."

The crowd of about 2,000 saw CP sweep the boys-girls double-header for the first time.  Next week, the CP-LC boys game will be at CP Friday and the CP-LC girls contest will be at LC Saturday.  There are only two more nights this year when the CP boys and girls will play the same foe on the same night in opposite locations.

Kyle Hanaway has 88 assists (8.8 per game) at mid season and Albrecht (17.8 ppg.) is the leading scorer.  Cecich (5.9 rpg.) is the team's top rebounder with Alavanja (5.4) a close second.  Albrecht (23) and Derks (21) lead in three point field goals.

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Revised: January 07, 2007 .