Wildcats
fall 74-60 in Sectional finals to Bishop NollWildcats
fall 74-60 in Sectional finals to Bishop NollA USA-365.com Special Report
by Mark Smith
03-02-2008
| Team/Record | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final |
| BISHOP NOLL (19-4) | 13 | 14 | 19 | 28 | 74 |
| HANOVER CENTRAL (11-11) | 21 | 10 | 14 | 15 | 60 |
Saturday, March 1, 2008 - 2A Hanover Central Sectional Championship game at CEDAR LAKE, IN
BISHOP NOLL (74) Eric Schooler 7-1-17, Antoine French 3-4-10, Jason Chorba 5-7-19, Kris Wilson 5-1-12, Joe Ulrich 2-0-5, Jorge Lopez 2-5-9, Xavier Santos 1-0-2, Khalid Muhammad 0-0-0, John Mullaney 0-0-0, Kevin Mullaney 0-0-0. TOTALS: 25 (19-28) 74.
HANOVER CENTRAL (60) Tim Kubiak 4-0-8, Andrew DeYoung 2-1-5, Jordan Rizo 8-2-21, Charlie Huffnagle 4-4-15, Aaron Jackson 3-2-8, Zach Rush 0-3-3, Kevin Mantel 0-0-0, Jerrod Howard 0-0-0, Vince Warren 0-0-0. TOTALS: 21 (12-14) 60.
FREE THROWS: NOLL (19-28, 67.8%) Schooler 1-2, French 5-10, Chorba 7-9, Wilson 1-2, Lopez 5-5; HANOVER (12-14, 85.7%) DeYoung 1-2, Huffnagle 4-4, Rizo 2-2, Jackson 2-2, Rush 3-4.
REBOUNDS: NOLL (26) Schooler 8, Chorba 8, Wilson 5, French 3, Lopez 2; HANOVER (32) Rizo 12, Kubiak 8, Huffnagle 3, DeYoung 3, Jackson 3, Howard 2, Mantel.
ASSISTS: NOLL (11) Chorba 4, Schooler 3, Ulrich 2, Wilson, John Mullaney; HANOVER (14) DeYoung 4, Rizo 3, Mantel 3, Howard 3, Huffnagle.
BLOCKS: NOLL (2) Wilson, French; HANOVER (1) Kubiak.
STEALS: NOLL (10) Chorba 6, Schooler 3, Lopez; HANOVER (4) DeYoung 2, Huffnagle, Rizo.
3-GOALS: NOLL (5) Jason Chorba 2, Kris Wilson, Joe Ulrich, Eric Schooler; HANOVER (6) Jordan Rizo 3, Charlie Huffnagle 3.
FOULED OUT: HANOVER (1) Andrew DeYoung (4th Q) 3:59 left.
TECHNICAL FOUL: NOLL (1) Kris Wilson (4th Q) 1:20 left.
| Team/Record | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final |
| RIVER FOREST (3-18) | 7 | 8 | 13 | 13 | 41 |
| HANOVER CENTRAL (11-10) | 9 | 17 | 19 | 19 | 64 |
Friday, February 29, 2008 - 2A Hanover Central Sectional Semifinal game at CEDAR LAKE, IN
RIVER FOREST (41)
Brandon Stack 4-2-13, Justin Fiscus 1-0-2, Ryan Smith 0-2-2, Phil Podrecca 3-1-7, Nate Parker 2-0-5, Mike Kosinski 2-2-7, Richard Perez 3-0-6, Jack Zambrana 0-0-0, Joe Rodriguez 0-0-0. TOTALS: 15 (7-15) 41.FREE THROWS: RF (7-15, 46.6%) Smith 2-2, Stack 2-3, Podrecca 1-2, Kosinski 2-4, Parker 0-4; HANOVER (16-23, 69.0%) DeYoung 7-7, Rizo 5-7, Longoria 2-2, Mitchell 2-2, Jackson 0-2, Cripe 0-2, Howard 0-1.
3-GOALS: RF (4) Brandon Stack 3, Nate Parker; HANOVER (6) Charlie Huffnagle 6.
CEDAR LAKE, IN (03-01-2008) - Few thought Hanover Central could challenge Bishop Noll for the Sectional championship late Saturday night. And about 12 minutes into the title game, a few more in a noisy crowd of about 1,500 thought there was a serious chance Hanover would beat Noll and grab the school's first sectional championship in 22 years.
But there's a reason Bishop Noll was 18-4 and Hanover was 11-10 and it was
not really playing ability. The Wildcats showed they had the skills
racing out to leads of 14-3 and 25-15. But Noll is a team steeled by a
difficult non-conference schedule and schooled to a fast breaking style that
led them to the Class 2A state top-10. Hanover had pushed the Warriors, but
Noll pushed back, wearing down the home team in the second half and won
74-60 in the climactic game of the first-ever Hanover Central Sectional.
The 10th-ranked Warriors' trapping defense and relentless running style
forced 19 HC turnovers and scored 28 fourth quarter points to win the
Hammond schools' 12th sectional basketball title 74-60.
Noll will take on No. 2 Westview (22-1), a 56-43 winner over No. 9 Jimtown
in the Sectional 35 championship game late Saturday.
Hanover will go back to work but they don't have to go back to the
stereotypical drawing board. This defeat will initially be seen as a huge
missed opportunity for HC since they
were the hosts with an 11-point lead in the final game. But it was
uplifting in that Hanover, Lake County's perennial boys basketball underdog
which has a dozen crushing season ending defeats in its 40-year history,
appeared worthy of being in a championship game with one of Northwest
Indiana's greatest basketball franchises.
"There seemed to be a perception that the championship game was held last
night," smiled young Noll coach Drew Trost, whose team beat highly-regarded
Wheeler 53-44 in the semifinals 24 hours earlier. "I tried to tell our
players that was not the case. I was confident we could come back when we
were down tonight, but I was a little worried at how well things were going
for them. At least we did cut it down by halftime."
Hanover coach Rod Bollenbacher, who finished a roller coaster rookie season
with a break-even 11-11 record, started what was really a four-forward
lineup with 6-foot-7
Tim Kubiak, 6-foot-1 Jarrod Howard, 6-foot-3 Andrew DeYoung and 6-foot-3
Jordan Rizo along with veteran shooting guard Charlie Huffnagle.
"For three quarters, we played well," he said. "Then they started hitting some shots. Some of our guys have not played that much (compared to Noll). They had seniors out there and it showed in the end. (Noll lead guard Eric) Schooler took charge of the game and the tempo. We took a couple of charges. We really didn't have a strong point guard like that."
After Noll's Kris Wilson began the game with a three-point basket, Hanover scored 14 consecutive points. Senior HC guard Charlie Huffnagle, who scored six three-point baskets in Hanover's 64-41 sectional semifinal victory over River Forest 24 hours earlier, sank two early three-pointers Saturday, the second of which gave HC a 21-10 lead with 1:20 left in the opening quarter.
But Noll, led by 6-foot-4 all-stater Jason Chorba and 5-foot-11 senior guard Schooler, scored seven of the last nine points of the first half. Hanover was pressured into eight second quarter turnovers that kept them from running away with the game.
DeYoung, the athletic 6-foot-3 Wildcat senior, was used at the point of the offense and he had four assists, his height allowing him to pass over the top of the Noll defense, which had Chorba out front and 6-foot-4 high jumpers Chris Wilson and Antoine French up front. But Noll countered by trapping whoever the HC ball-handler was, forcing fumbles and wild passes from HC, which had small lead guards in 5-foot-10 Kevin Mantel and 5-foot-7 Zac Rush on the bench much of the game. Rush, who had been a sparkplug throughout his freshman season, did not play until late in the fourth quarter, largely because Noll had players three years older and even senior lead guard Eric Schooler was half a foot taller.
"What can you say?" said Bollenbacher, who stayed with his top seven players
until the final moments. "For three quarters, we were right there.
But when we missed some shots and the breaks started to go the other way...
as strong and as quick as they are, I just didn't feel we could go any
deeper (into the bench) than that. We (the coaches) talked about that,
but we just didn't think we could do it."
Hanover scored 25 points in the first 10 minutes and 35 for the rest of the
game.
"That's kinda what we do in big games," said Trost, who went above the .500
mark (34-32) in his third year as a coach. "We come out and fall
behind. I don't know why. I guess we're overly excited. A
big part of our game plan was to put a lot of pressure on their guards.
We thought we could do that."
With their big crowd roaring on every play, Noll got a boost from French, a
quick-jumping forward, who scored all 10 of his points in the second half.
Senior guard Jorge Lopez also came off the bench with nine in the second
half. Schooler and Chorba were able to maintain the dribble in traffic and
fight their way to the basket for key scores.
Noll
had to win three games in five nights to win the sectional title, but the
Warriors always play an up-tempo game. They average 71 points a game
and they wore down Hanover Central in the fourth quarter. After Jordan
Rizo's layup gave HC a 47-46 lead with 7:34 to play, Noll responded with
baskets by Chorba, Wilson and French to go ahead 52-47.
Rizo hit a jump shot to cut the lead to three, but a driving layup by Schooler and a foul shot from French made it 55-49 with 5:30 left. Rizo sank two foul shots, but Noll scored 12 more in a row, including seven by Lopez, who played only briefly in the first half. Hanover didn't have much offense other than Rizo, who scored 14 of Noll's 29 second half points, in the late going.
What the Wildcats will take from this game is their big forwards who are a key to next season. In the first quarter Kubiak, a junior, scored three quick baskets and in the second period, 6-foot-4 sophomore center Aaron Jackson, also had three quick hoops.
"Kubiak really does have a soft touch," said Bollenbacher. "He's just
got to play with confidence like he did tonight.
Kubiak
didn't play like anything last night (both Kubiak and Jackson were scoreless
against RF). I didn't even know if we were going to play him. I told
him that if you get a shot, you've got to shoot it. You've got to have
confidence in yourself."
"We got our shot blocked a couple of times and that makes you lose your
confidence."
The Bishop Noll coach seemed a little relieved to win the sectional.
"So of our people have been saying that Noll's going to the state finals,"
said Trost. "I said 'wait a minute'. Let's just play the
sectional first. We had to beat three good teams here. We'll
play Westview now and they're very tough. The other half of that
bracket (the 2A Rensselaer regional) isn't that tough. We'll see."
Hanover will see about next year and with Kubiak, Mantel and Rizo becoming
seniors, this will be a peak season.
"We lost five by a total of nine points. We could easily be 15-5. I think we learned a lot this year and we'll be ready for next season."
SECTIONAL NOTES: The final night crowd was at least 1,500 but nowhere near the capacity, which is 2,400. Noll brought a student cheering section both nights dressed up with costumes and painted faces. Hanover did not have a good turnout on semifinal night, but the students were well represented for the championship game.
Hanover Central will host a girls sectional in 2009 or 2010, but when they
host another boys sectional tournament is hard to figure. Sectional
hosting duties in 2A Sectional 33 have rotated between all sectional
members. But by the time that rotation comes back to Cedar Lake, Hanover
Central will probably be a Class 3A school (the next reclassification is in
2011) and HC will be grouped with 3A schools like Griffith and Kankakee
Valley.
Charlie Huffnagle sank nine three-point baskets in the tournament, giving
him 45 for his senior season.
Huffnagle
scored 24 points, including six three-point goals in the 64-41 semifinal win
over River Forest.
Bollenbacher made an unusual point about his junior forward Jordan Rizo, the Porter County Conference's leading scorer.
"There's something we can do with his conditioning," said the first-year
coach. "When he runs he doesn't pick his knees up, which slows him
down. We're going to work on his athleticism and his jumping. If he grows
another inch and works hard, who's going to stop him in the PCC next year?"
Hanover's Jerrod Howard, who moved into the starting lineup late in the
year, was disappointed that HC came up short again.
"We had them on the ropes," he said. "I've got one more chance, but I feel bad for the seniors (Andrew DeYoung, Charlie Huffnagle and Vince Warren) and I'm disappointed we couldn't win for them. We really didn't win anything this year."
Bollenbacher clearly planned for the foe HC got in the finals.
"We wanted to play Bishop Noll," he said later. "We really did. Chorba's a helluva kid. But as strong as they are, we were right there."
Hanover Central's win over River Forest was the first post-season victory for the Wildcats since a 70-51 win over North Newton. That 2002 team, which included seniors Aaron Rush and Erik Mantel, was the first post-season win for Hanover since the 1986 Sectional title team, which went 20-6 for coach Terry Strawbridge. Hanover Central has had only 10 winning seasons in 40 years and they have won more than 12 games only three times in the last 25 years.
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