Morgan eliminates Hanover 59-42 in Quarterfinals of PCC Boys Tourney

A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith
01-18-2007

Wednesday, January 17, 2007 - Porter County Conference Quarterfinals at Boone Grove

HANOVER (42)  Charlie Huffnagle 3-0-7, Josh Styx 1-0-2, Andrew DeYoung 2-3-7, Jordan Rizo 3-2-8,   Kevin Mantel 2-0-6, Scott Krager 1-0-2, Tim Kubiak 5-0-10, Jarrod Howard 0-0-0, Matt Kozlowski 0-0-0, Vince Warren 0-0-0.  TOTALS: 17 (5-7) 42.

MORGAN (59)  Steve Littrell 4-0-8, Jon Grubl 4-0-8, Eric Spaulding 3-2-8, Steve Melton 2-1-6, Troy Turner 10-7-27, David Sheets 0-2-2, Jarrett Washington 0-0-0, Dustin Scardina 0-0-0.  TOTALS: 23 (12-19) 59.

FREE THROWS:  HC (5-7, 71.4%)  DeYoung 3-4, Rizo 2-2.   MORGAN (12-19, 63.1%) Turner 7-8, Spaulding 2-4, Sheets 2-2, Grubl 0-3, Melton 1-2.

REBOUNDS:  HC (15) Rizo 5, DeYoung 4, Styx 2, Kubiak 2, Kozlowski, Mantel;   MORGAN (27) Turner 11, Spaulding 5, Grubl 5, Littrell 2, Washington 2, Melton 2. 

STEALS:  HC (5) Rizo 2, Mantel, DeYoung, Howard;  MORGAN (12) Spaulding 4, Turner 3, Grubl 3, Littrell , Scardina

ASSISTS:  HC (7) Huffnagle 2, Mantel 2, Styx, DeYoung, Rizo, Krager, Kubiak;   MORGAN (10) Littrell 3, Grubl 2, Spaulding 2, Melton 2, Washington.

TURNOVERS:   HC (5-5-3-7) 20;  MORGAN (4-4-4-3) 15.

3-GOALS:  HC (2) Kevin Mantel 2, Charlie Huffnagle; MORGAN (1) Steve Melton.

PORTER TOWNSHIP (1-17-2007) - Some teams are ready to win and some aren't.  On the opening night of the 84th Porter County Conference (PCC) Boys basketball tournament, first place Morgan Township played like the tourney favorite they are and Hanover Central looked like a team that wasn't ready to take down the division leader.  Morgan Township (8-3) jumped to a 10-1 lead, watched Hanover Central come back to forge a 21-21 tie and then pulled away for good, winning 59-42 to advance to Saturday's 11 a.m. semifinals to face LaCrosse (5-7), a 55-49 winner over Kouts.

Morgan junior Troy Turner scored 27 points, most of them are layups or offensive rebounds as the Cherokees patiently broke down the HC defense and dominated the second half.  Morgan targeted HC leading scorer Charlie Huffnagle and created long scoring droughts by HC and the Cherokee offense scored enough to win decisively.

"We're preaching defense," said Morgan coach Dustin Nelson.  "Huffnagle is a nice player.  He's the engine that makes them run.  We put (Steve) Littrell on him and made him work.  Have a hand in his face.  We did a nice job.  They adjusted and got the ball inside a little better for awhile.  They're a nice team.  I think they're on the brink of getting good.  This was a good win.  As well as we know each other, it's always a good win.  We see them in the summer.  We'll play them again in a week.  We all know each other so well here.  Every win is good."

Not every loss is bad, but this one was discouraging because the eight-team PCC playoffs offers a sub-.500 team a chance to reverse the entire season.  While HC admittedly drew the PCC's first place team in the quarterfinals, the Wildcats (4-9) did not step up and grab that once-a-season opportunity.

"Offensive rebounding was the difference in the game," said HC coach Dave Uran. "Turner scored 27 points and the majority of them were layups.  They did a nice job on Huffnagle. (soph Kevin) Mantel did a nice job at the point.  But they're the favorite here.  We didn't have the patience to stay with them for four quarters.  They'll make eight or nine passes to get the lay up.  We'll pass three or four times and then figure it's time to shoot.  They (Morgan) have a very solid work ethic.  We matched their work ethic for about a quarter and a half."

With the score tied 21-21, Turner scored two free throws after an offensive rebound to make it 23-21.  Turner, a six foot guard, then got down the baseline for a lay up and a 25-21 lead.  Steve Littrell then scored on a drive for a 27-21 lead before a fade away basket by Andrew DeYoung ended the half.  Hanover did not score a basket for the first 6 1/2 minutes of the game to fall behind 10-1, and at the start of the third quarter, they did not score a point for 6:41 while Morgan scored 14 points in a row.  HC could not execute passes into the post and they did not have the confidence to reverse the ball fast enough to beat the inside defenders.

Hanover made 20 turnovers, many trying to get the ball inside.  Morgan committed just 12 fouls and HC shot just seven free throws.  The Cherokees' 6-foot-2 'power' forward Eric Spaulding dominated the second half with eight points and four steals.  At least twice, he simply snatched the ball out of the hands of Hanover players for baskets or free throw chances.

"Eric is a beast," said Nelson.  "He plays like a man.  We always preach, if you play hard, good things will happen.  He snatched the ball out of other people's hands cleanly.  That's the thing he does well.  We had a lot of momentum going into the South County tournament and we lost it against Marquette.  We got some of it back tonight, but we're not totally where we were."

Hanover is still looking for that momentum and there's about six weeks left to find it.

PCC NOTES:  Morgan Township coach Dustin Nelson almost got his preferred draw in the eight team PCC boys tournament even though he didn't really want to open the tournament.

"I think we didn't have the chance to wait around and get nervous," said Nelson.  "But on the other hand, the 5:30 crowd isn't the most excited in the world.  They showed up late.  My No. 1 preference is to play at 7:30 on the first night.  We didn't want to play the second (Thursday) night.  Then we'd sit around watching a lot of teams we aren't going to play.  Now, we can watch these other teams knowing we'll definitely see one of them."

Hanover's Kevin Mantel came off the bench and contributed six points and two assist for the Wildcats.  The 5-foot-9 sophomore seems to give HC a viable alternative if foes gang up on junior guard Charlie Huffnagle, HC's leading scorer.

Morgan Township hasn't won the PCC tournament since they beat LaCrosse 68-55 for the title in 1988.  Hanover's last title came the previous year, when they beat Boone Grove 58-54 in 1987.

Hanover did not play 6-foot-3 freshman Aaron Jackson.  If you play in the varsity PCC tournament, you cannot play in the junior varsity PCC playoffs.  No one said this, but when HC drew top-ranked Morgan, a decision was made to hold out Jackson because it was much more likely that HC would play two or three games in the JV PCC tourney than it was they would play three times in the varsity PCC.

"He might have made a little difference," said HC coach Dave Uran.  "But if he played one second, he was out of the entire JV tournament and we didn't want that."

The opening night of the PCC tournament drew about 500 fans for the two games.  All four schools had small student cheering sections with the kids dressed up in funny costumes and painted faces.

LaCrosse was 19-of-26 from the foul line in the win over Kouts.  Jon Hand scored 18, including four three-point goals for Kouts (3-10).

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Revised: January 21, 2007 .