Banner Graphic, Volume 21, Number 150, Greencastle, Putnam County, 28 February 1991 — Page 7

Cougars, Rox win opening sectional games

North Putnam survives Branneman’s big finish

By STEVE FIELDS Banner-Graphic Sports Editor Brent Branneman scored 17 points in the fourth quarter and 29 points for Cloverdale in the second game of the Greencastle-IHSAA Boys Basketball Sectional Wednesday night. THE 5-8 SENIOR was impressive hitting three straight threepointers and scoring all of Cloverdale’s points in the final eight minutes. “Not to take anything away from the other kids, or any of the kids I have ever coached, but there is no bigger competitor than Brent Branneman. He simply refuses to lose,” Goverdale coach Jeff Cherry said. North Putnam coach Jim Brothers was impressed. “As a basketball fan, I was really glad to see the way Brent Branneman went out,” coach Brothers said. THE KEY WORDS are “went out.” The North Putnam Cougars placed four players in double figures to defeat the Branneman led Clovers 65-57 and advanced to Friday night’s semifinal contest. At 8 p.m., the Cougars will play the Rockville Rox, 61-52 victors over Grcencastlc in Wednesday night’s sectional opener. Chad Wchrman came off the bench to lead North with 17 points, followed by Daniel Johnson and Eric Pipes with 14 each and Michael Johnson with 10. North took an 18-12 lead in the first quarter, pushed it to 30-21 at halftime and increased it to 16 points in the first two minutes of the second half. “I THOUGHT THERE were a couple of stretches where we played well, then a couple of stretches where we weren’t setting solid screens and started standing around,” coach Brothers said of the Cougars. “But the most important thing at this time of year is we’re playing Friday night.” North seemed to have an answer for everything Cloverdale tried. Offensively, the Clovers tried to slow the game down and isolate Ryan Ford one-on-one inside and while he scored eight of his 13 points in the first half, he also picked up three fouls the opening half. AND WHILE GARY Cooper held Daniel Johnson to a seasonlow 14 points, North got big perimeter shots from Michael Johnson and Eric Pipes. With the Cougars leading just 98 in the first quarter, Pipes hit a three-point that triggered a 6-2 run. Daniel Johnson added a bucket, then Michael Johnson ran down a long rebound and took it coast to coast for a 16-10 North lead. Daniel J. capped the run with a

Martinsville and Bedford upset in tourney openers

By STEVE HERMAN AP Sports Writer Forget about a rematch between Martinsville and Bedford North Lawrence in the Final Four. Two other teams itching for revenge got to them first, and Bedford’s No. 2-ranked Stars and Martinsville’s No. 3 Artesians became the first major upset victims in the 1991 boys’ basketball tournament. “WE KNEW THIS game was going to be played with a lot of emotion,” said Bloomington South coach J.R. Holmes, whose Panthers reversed a regular-season loss to Martinsville with a 67-58 upset in the first round of the Martinsville sectional Wednesday night. And at Seymour, Bedford was held to only two points in the third quarter as Jennings County rallied to a 50-45 victory over the defending state champion Stars. Ironically, Jennings County lost to Bedford in the regular season on the same night Bloomington South lost to Martinsville. Then Bedford beat Martinsville three weeks ago, knocking the Artesians from the state’s No. 1 ranking, and the two teams could have met again in the tourney semifinals at the Hoosier Dome. BUT HOLMES SAID he knew what Bloomington had to do to reverse the 78-64 loss to Martinsville in January. ‘‘We figured if we controlled the tempo, we had a chance to win. They like to run with it, so we slowed it down to try and frustrate them.”

Greencastle-IHSAA Basketball Sectional Wednesday at Greemcastle H-S. Game No. 2 North Putnam Cougars 65 Cloverdale Clovers 57 Cloven FG-FGA FT-FTA PF R TP Ford 4-11 5-6 4 10 13 Cooper 4-5 0-2 3 4 8 Truss 2-6 0-0 3 6 4 Branneman 9-17 6-6 15 9 Byrd 0-3 0-0 3 1 0 McCunman 1-4 0-2 5 2 3 Figin 0-3 0-0 3 5 0 Thompson 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 Hall 0-0 0-0 0 1 0 Sees 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 Minton 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 Geriach 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 Team M 4-4 4 4 4 Totals 29-54 11-16 22 38 57 Cougars FG-FGA FT-FTA PF R TP D. Johnson 5-8 4-7 2 8 14 Runnells 0-0 0-3 3 2 0 Barnhart 3-11 1-13 4 7 Pipe, 6-9 0-0 13 14 ,VI Johnson 4-10 3-5 1 4 12 Wehnnan 7-12 2-5 1 7 17 Busch 0-1 0-0 0 2 0 Reed 0-0 1-3 0 2 1 Bums 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 Godwin 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 Mendenhall OO 0-0 0 0 0 Spear 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 T&m 40 4 5 4 Totals 25-51 11-24 11 37 45 SCORE BV QUARTERS CLOVERDALE 12 21 44 57 NORTH PUTNAM 18 30 47 45 3-Polnt FG: Cloverdale 6-17 (Branneman 5-10, McCammon 1-4, Ford 0-1, Byrd 0-2), North Putnam 4-11 (Pipes 2-5, Wehnnan 1-1, M. Johnaon 14, Busch 0-1). Turnovers: Cloverdale 12, North Putnam 6. another bucket and North took a 18-12 lead into the second period. Pipes hit a three-pointer that pushed North’s lead to 23-14 with 5:06 left in the first half. A deuce by Cooper and a three-pointer by Branneman brought the Clovers back to within four, 23-19, but Wehrman scored back to back buckets with the help of a Roger Busch bounce pass and the Cougars were once more up 27-19. WITH A MERE two seconds left on the clock Pipes turned a Cloverdale turnover into a layup and a 30-21 halftime lead for North Putnam. “We didn’t feci like we were out of it, but we knew it was going to be difficult to stop them consistently with their balance,” Cherry said of the second half. And the Cougars picked up where they left off right away in the third quarter, Pipes starting the scoring. An offensive rebound bucket by Daniel Johnson and a three-pointer by Wchrman gave the Cougars a 37-21 lead just 1:05 into the second half. GRADUALLY THE Clovers started coming back. McCammon hit a three-pointer to cut North’s lead to 10 and with 1:33 left in the quarter another Branneman trey made it a seven-point game. North held a 47-40 lead when the fourth quarter started and five was the barrier Cloverdale never penetrated. The Clovers closed to 51-46 only to see Brock Barnhart put back a rebound and hit a free throw and Michael Johnson add two more free throws to give the Cougars a 5646 lead with just 4:58

It worked. Martinsville, whose only other loss was to Bedford, had to foul, and after leading scorer Ryan Wolf fouled out with under two minutes to go, the Artesians were finished. “WHEN WOLF FOULED out, they panicked,” said Holmes. Chris Brand scored 20 points, Scott Grissom had 18 and Chris Miskel added 17 to lead South over the favored Artesians. Bloomington led 37-35 at halftime and broke from a 41-41 tie in the third quarter to a four-point lead going into the final period. South still led by four, 60-56, when Wolf fouled out, and the Panthers (14-7) steadily pulled ahead the rest of the way. Bob Denton led Martsinville (21-2) with 25 points and 14 rebounds, while Wolf finished with 19. Bloomington South will play Bloomington North, a 90-49 winner over Eminence, in Friday’s sectional semifinals. AT SEYMOUR, MICHAEL Deaton had 15 points, including six in the fourth quarter, as Jennings County ousted Bedford in its first tourney game since the departure of Mr. Basketball Damon Bailey. The Stars led 19-8 after one quarter and 27-20 at halftime before Jennings County’s defense helped give the Panthers a 34-29 lead going into the final quarter. Jennings County iced the victory with eight free throws, including five by Billy Shepherd, in the fourth quarter.

MKI ,v fi l mt '<■- JPP* m ■ HI flip mr * ms H jßm . *

Brent Branneman (3) launches a shot from threepoint range for Cloverdale and North Putnam Daniel Johnson (front) turns to get position for the rebound. There were not many rebounds from Branneman’s shots, as the senior to play. Wchrman drove the baseline for a layup and the Cougars had a 6048 lead. WITH 1:51 TO play the Clovers had no choice but to shoot the three. Branneman swished three straight treys and the Clovers closed to within five one final time, 62-57, with 1:14 left to play. Free throws by Wehrman and Daniel Johnson provided the final cushion for the Cougars. “Cloverdale played the way we expected them to,” coach Brothers

James Elkins and Kevin Ritz backed Deaton with 10 points apiece for Jennings County (10-11). Bedford (19-2) was led by Chad Mills with 16 points and Alan Bush with 14. Jennings County will play host Seymour, an 88-35 winner over Medora, in Friday’s sectional semifinals. TOP-RANKED GARY Roosevelt’s first-round game is on Friday night against Gary Mann, while No. 4 Indianapolis Brebeuf opened with a 61-57 overtime victory over no. 19 Indianapolis Ben Davis Tuesday night. The first semifinals will be tonight, Fort Wayne South plays Dwenger and Fort Wayne Wayne meets Harding in the Fort Wayne I sectional. The second matchup of two ranked teams will be on Friday night, when No. 10 Muncie South plays No. 7 Muncie Central in the semifinals at Muncie. ON WEDNESDAY, CENTRAL got 22 points from Robert Scaife in an 83-57 rout of Cowan, while South’s Lamar Morton scored 40 points in an 84-56 victory over Muncie Burris. Eighth-ranked South Bend Riley had a trio of 20-plus scorers in its 102-64 romp over South Bend LaSalle. Scott Hecht scored 26, Andre Owens added 25 and Eric Ford had 20 for Riley. CHRIS PADDOCK SCORED 19 points and Craig Simmons added 18 as Fountain Central began defense of its own sectional title.

closed his career with a 29point performance, including 17 in the fourth quarter of the Greencastle-IHSAA Basketball Sectional contest. (BannerGraphic photo by Gary Goodman) said. “I have to give Jeff (Cherry) a lot of credit. Their kids played hard the whole game.” Cloverdale closed the year with a 6-15 record. ****** Tourney notes South Putnam, 15-5, and Owen Valley, 11-9, will play in the 6:30 p.m. game Friday, followed by North Putnam and Rockville. The doors will open at 5:30 p.m. and all tickets will be 53... Owen Valley and Rockville have never played one another in the Greencastle-IHSAA Sectional championship game.

& v_ & ~ \i L 4 V !|| _ v ; .4**.. 4 v >iJfe i.yi : -r'-'i- v $ % gpjppf g2jL* ~. mi n *sh ~ 1 * v Jili *• ▼ % ffP *B I \7n ■ Jf SSA Iri V isl Vrl v*~-c~ ’ *mwt' '^^wt - ' | Jiff * '• :> W^^mA^\ r

When Greencastle’s Steve Clark slipped to the floor, Rockville’s Jason Stewart (22) was in the right place to pick up the loose ball before Bryan Murray (24) or Monye Steadmon could get to it. Steadmon scored 12 points for Greencastle and

Rockville’s shooting keys Greencastle loss

By MIKE BECK Banner-Graphic Sports Writer The Rockville Rox picked the opening game of the GreencastleIHSAA Basketball Sectional to avenge a December defeat at the hands of the Greencastle Tiger Cubs. The Rox rode a 60 percent shooting game to a 61-52 victory Wednesday night at McAnally Center. The victory sends Rockville into Friday’s 8 p.m. semifinal game against the North Putnam Cougars, 65-57 winners over Cloverdale Wednesday night “IT WAS A struggle, especially against their size,” Rockville coach Russ Campbell said. ‘‘We can’t rebound against them, but the key was that we executed so well. We were patient and made some good decisions; on defense, too.” Mike Greenawald, leading scorer for the game with 21 points, started Greencastle out with a 2-0 lead. Rockville then went on top 8-4. A Monye Steadmon basket and two straight Greenawald steals enabled the Cubs to regain the lead, 9-8, at 5:19. The two teams traded one-point leads until another Steadmon hoop put Greencastle up, 13-12, at 3:06. THE ROX THEN went on an 80 run to lead, 20-13 with 1:03 to play in the first period. Again the teams traded baskets to close out the period with the Rox ahead 2215. When Jason Stewart hit a threepointer at the 6:09 mark of the second stanza Rockville led 27-17 and they elected to slow the game. Rockville scored only 11 points in the second period, cooling off to 3-of-8 shooting from the field, after a white-hot 11-of-13 first period. The Tiger Cubs shot a respectable 9-of-19 in the first half and bailed only 33-24 at halftime. “IN THE PRE-TOURNEY talk, I had said that Rockville would be a difficult team to play if we got behind,” Greencastle coach Doug Miller said. “That proved to be the case. “We were our own worst enemy again with too many careless turnovers, shooting ourselves in the foot. We missed some good shots, too. This game was kind of a summary of our season in January and February.” Steve Clark provided the Cubs with a little spark in the third period with three offensive rebounds. Despite shooting a horrendous 4-of-15, Greencastle managed to narrow the lead to 4538 by the end of the period, aided greatly by Greenawald’s 5-of-5 shooting from the charity stripe. ACTUALLY BEGINNING AT the 4:28 mark of the third quarter, the Cubs ran off nine unanswered

Murray pulled down seven rebounds. Stewart scored nine points to help Rockville advance to Friday night’s semifinal game of the Green-castle-IHSAA Boys Basketball Sectional. (Ban-ner-Graphic photo by Gary Goodman)

February 28,1991 THE BANNERGRAPHIC

Grecncastle-niSAA Basketball Sectional Wednesday at Greencastle H.S. Game No. 1 Rockville Rox 61 Greencastle Tiger Cubs 52 Rox FG-FGA FT-FTA PF R TP Miller 6-10 1-3 1 8 13 > Olsen 4-6 0-1 2 1 8 McMullen 4-5 5-6 1 3 13 Gambaiani 3-6 1-3 0 2 7 Obeiholtzer 4-7 3-5 2 7 11 * Stewart 3-6 2-5 2 4 9' Jacob 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 Totals 24-40 12-23 8 25 61 Tiger Cubs FG-FGA FT-FTA PF R TP Murray 0-5 2-2 1 7 2 i Steadmon 6-12 0-0 4 2 12 Amis 1-2 0-0 3 4 1 \ Greenawald 6-11 9-9 4 7 21 Resner 2-14 0-0 3 2 4 J.Duff 3-4 0-0 0 1 9 Calbert 1-1 0-0 4 2 2 Homier 0-0 0-0 0 1 0 Clark 0-4 0-0 2 3 0 Totals 19-53 11-11 21 29 52 SCORE BY QUARTERS ROCKVILLE 22 33 45 61 • GREENCASTLE 15 44 38 52 *. 3-Point FG: Rockville 1-4 (Stewart 1-3, Gam- - baiani 0-1), Greencastle 3-16 (Greenawald 0-1, J. * Duff 3-4, Resner 0-11). Turnovers: Rockville 18, Greencastle 18. points on two Steadmon buckets, two Greenawald free tosses, and a ; Jarrod Duff three-pointer to trail. ; 41-38, with 3:04 to play. They even got a break when Rockville’s Grant Olson missed a wide open bunny in the middle of the streak. The Rox just bent, they did not break. They scored the last two buckets in those last three minutes for that 45-38 quarter-ending lead. Twice in the fourth quarter the Tiger Cubs pulled within three points. Duff hit a trey at 5:06 to cut the gap to 51-48, and again, at 3:00, when the second of two straight Steadmon jumpers brought them to 55-52. ROCKVILLE REFUSED TO panic and its 8-of-13 free-throw r shooting proved adequate to hold off Greencastle. Rockville’s biggest break may have come inside the j two minute mark. Leading 58-52, Rockville’s little | Tony Gambaiani drove into the lane ; and put up a shot that missed, but j he gathered in the rebound among the trees and dribbled back out to eat more precious time off the clock before being fouled at 1:15. Grcencastlc’s second half shoot- : ing woes continued. The Tiger : Cubs were 6-of-19 in the final period, although they did cut the , turnovers in half with six in the final 16 minutes as opposed to 12 in the first 16 minutes. Greencastle closed the season » with a 4-17 record and 12 straight i losses. “I feel for our kids,” coach Miller said. “I don’t want them to think they were a disappointment to • me, because they were a pleasure to • work with all season. “I was happy for Michael ; (Greenawald) tonight. He played ; extremely well and gave us good ; leadership tonight. The team didn’t ; fare well tonight, but he performed ; well, individually.”

A7