Banner Graphic, Volume 22, Number 122, Greencastle, Putnam County, 25 January 1992 — Page 4

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THE BANNERGRAPHIC January 25,1992

sports

South Putnam takes 54-47 win from Eminence

By T.R. HARLAN '■ Banner-Graphic Sports Writer I EMINENCE The South Putnam Eagles overcame a terrible first half shooting performance to pull out a 54-47 non-conference victory over the host Eminence Eels Friday night. ! The Eagles now take a 6-5 record to Danville Saturday (today) For a West Central Conference game. I ‘I THINK A game like tonight (Friday) is a battle of perseverance,” South coach Kieth Puckett said. “Two good defenses [were on the court. It was just a matter of outwaitmg the other team. The team that did the best job of being patient offensively and got Jthe best shots was going to win.” ; The Eagles shot a dismal 7 percent (1-13) from the floor in the second quarter, but trailed 23-22 as the first half ended. “We shot poorly in the first half because we took bad shots,” coach Puckett said. “We shot well in the second half because we took good shots.” DAMON SLATON staked South to an early lead, scoring 12 pf his game-high 31 points during the first eight minutes of action. But a six-point second quarter wasn’t good enough for South. Eminence took advantage of a rebound basket by Justin Saucerman with 40 seconds left in the half to take its first lead of the bailgame. That bucket capped off a 6-0 run over the final 5:28 of the second quarter. ; A quick basket by Jamey Eastes to start the third quarter gave the Eels their biggest lead of the night, A basket by Marie McKay ;and a three-pointer by Clay GasJway kept the Eagles in the [ballgame. • “WE ARE A very good basketball team when Mark (McKay), •Jeff (Haltom) and Clay (Gasway) •look to score to compliment JDamon (Slaton),” coach Puckett Jsaid. J Trailing 31-29 with 4:55 to play Jn the third quarter, Slaton went on [a six-point run of his own, putting jSouth on top for the first time since •midway through the second quarter. JA basket and ensuing free throw by Jthe Eels’ Josh Balay cut the Eagles’ •lead to one point, 35-34. ; Eastes rebounded a Mario [Medina miss and went the length of

Mariners sale still up in air SEATTLE (AP) Major league baseball’s ownership committee considered whether a Japanese-led investor group should be allowed to buy the Mariners, then punted the issue back to Seattle. Committee members decided Friday that they didn’t need to take up the issue unless the group reaches an agreement with Mariners owner Jeff Smulyan, an Indianapolis-based broadcasting executive who has been hit hard by the recession. HIROSHI Yamauchi, president of Nintendo Co. Ltd., heads a group that has offered to buy the financially troubled team for SIOO million, with the Japanese interests controlling 60 percent of the club. Several Seattie-area business executives would hold smaller shares. A spokesman for the group, the Baseball Club of Seattle, said he was encouraged. “The owners are telling Mr. Smulyan to meet with us,” Bob Hartley said in Seattle. “We are very pleased.” BASEBALL commissioner Fay Vincent softened his tone on Friday after initially saying it was unlikely such a deal would be approved. Only Americans and Canadians have ever been allowed to buy Continued on Page A 6

Friday at Eminence South Putnam Eagles 54, Eminence Eels 47 Eagles FG-FGA FT-FTA PF R TP Slaton 12-21 3-7 3 14 31 Haltom 3-8 0-0 3 4 6 Carter 2-10 0-0 4 8 4 Gasway 1-2 0-0 3 0 3 McKay 3-6 4-5 1 5 10 Medina 0-2 0-0 12 0 Foxx 0-5 0-0 2 2 0 Gregory 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 Team 0-0 0-0 0 4 0 Totals 21-54 7-12 17 39 54 Eels FG-FGA FT-FTA PF R TP Murrell 2-6 0-0 3 0 6 Saucemtan 2-4 0-0 15 4 Balay 6-10 1-1 0 4 13 Stockwell 2-8 2-2 1 5 8 Eastes 5-11 0-0 5 4 11 Holley 0-3 1-4 3 2 1 Benge 1-4 0-0 4 5 2 Peck 1-1 0-0 0 1 2 Wiesneth 0-0 0-0 10 0 Team 0-0 0-0 0 3 0 Totals 19-47 4-7 18 29 47 SCORE BY QUARTERS SOUTH PUTNAM 14 22 35 54 EMINENCE 13 23 34 47 3-Point FG: South Putnain 5-9 (Slaton 4-8, Gasway 1-1), Eminence 5-14 (Murrell 2-6, Stockwell 2-6, Eastes 1-1, Holley 0-1). Turnovers: South Putnam 11, Eminence 14. JUNIOR VARSITY Eminence 45, South Putnam 38 South Putnam Anderson 2, Gardner 8, Wells 12, Medina 2, Robertson 7, Van Sickle 7. Eminence Skojac 9, Sims 2, Ostium 17, Thrasher 9, Gibson 2, Eggers 4, Codalata 2.

the court to give Eminence a 36-35 lead with just eight minutes of play left in the game. Slaton and Eminence’s Jesse Murrell traded three-pointers to start the fourth. A frec-throw by Eminence’s Jarrod Holley tied the bailgame at 40 with 5:26 left. THAT’S WHEN SLATON picked his game up a notch. The 6-foot-4 senior scored five unanswered points, including a 22foot three-pointer from the right wing, to put South ahead for good. South began taking better shots and they finally started falling. After shooting just 31 percent through the first three quarters, South hit 7-of-9 shots from the floor in the final eight minutes. “Both teams are to be credited with playing a very intense game. They are just a very nice defensive ballclub,” coach Puckett said. “It was just a very pleasing win over a pretty good team.” In the junior varsity contest, Eminence grabbed an early lead and never trailed enroute to a 45-38 victory. After Saturday’s WCC game at Danville, South Putnam plays host to Greencastle on Tuesday night.

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Cloverdale’s Bill Byrd led the Clovers in scoring Friday night with 19 points against Tri-

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Tiger Cub Brad Resner shoots for three points over Cascade’s Paul Davis (50) during Greencastle’s first victory this season in the West

Hot shooters give GHS a 69-51 win

By STEVE FIELDS Banner-Graphic Sports Editor The Greencastle Tiger Cubs put it all together Friday night The Tiger Cubs put the inside scoring of Bryan Murray and Reid Snellenbarger together with the perimeter shooting of Brad Resner on the offensive end of the floor and shut down the Cascade Cadets on the defensive end to win their first West Central Conference high school basketball victory of the season. MURRAY SCORED 20 points, Snellenbarger 16 and Resner 13, and the Cubs held the Cadets to just 32 percent shooting from the floor in a 69-51 victory on “Tzouanakis Elementary School Night” at McAnally Center. The victory squared Greencastle’s overall record at 5-5 and gives the Cubs a 1-2 mark in the WCC going into Tuesday’s county and conference battle at South Putnam. “This was probably our best overall bailgame of the year,” Greencastle coach Doug Miller said. IT WAS THE fourth consecutive loss for Cascade, 4-6 overall and 4-2 in the WCC. Since Christmas, the Cadets have lost to No. 6-rankcd Brownsburg twice and Tri-West. “We really have not played well since before Christmas,” Cascade coach Don Zawlocki said. “It’s just a matter of confidence. Our kids played extremely hard

West. However, the Bruins took home a 61-58 win.

Central Conference. Resner scored 13 points in the game. (Banner-Graphic photo by Gary Goodman)

tonight, but again, we didn’t execute defensively or offensively in our fundamentals and if you don’t do that you don’t win.” Greencastle shot 49 percent (1939) from the floor for the game, but hit 10-of-19 in the second half. “I think you need to look at where they took their shots,” Zawlocki said. “We came down and pressed the panic button and took our shots from the perimeter off of one pass.” THE PATIENCE Greencastle has worked on in practice paid off. Murray hit 4-of-6 from the floor while scoring 12 of his 20 points in the second half, plus super sub Brian Branagin came off the bench for seven points and seven rebounds in the third and fourth quarters. Greencastle’s 6-foot-4 trio of Murray, Snellenbarger and Branagin was on the floor much of the second half. “People are having difficulty with our larger lineup and exactly what to do against it,” Miller said. “Those three people are playing awfully well and our perimeter players are recognizing, hitting the shots when they need to and getting the ball inside consistently.” And getting the ball inside consistently also put the Tiger Cubs on the free throw line. Led by Murray’s 8-of-10, Snellenbarger’s 6-of-6, Steadmon’s 4-of-4 and Branagin’s 3-of-4, Greencastle hit 27-of-37 free throws. Cascade hit just 8-of-16. “THAT’S AN indication of one

Cloverdale loses close game to Tri-West at home, 61-58

By GARY HAZLETT Banner-Graphic Sports Writer CLOVERDALE Tri-West basketball coach Jim Coon has a habit of sneaking in and out of the Cloverdale High School gym. He did as a boy growing up in Cloverdale and again Friday night, as his Tri-West Bruins snuck out with a 61-58 West Central Conference victory over the Clovers. “I scored the first basket in this place. The floor wasn’t even down and I snuck in here and put it in. It wasn’t in a game, but it was the first,” Coon said of his younger years in Cloverdale. THE CLOVERS WEREN’T lucky enough to get away with such a prank. Billy Byrd’s two three-point shots in the final 19 seconds wouldn’t go down. The loss dropped the Clovers to 1-3 in the WCC and 4-6 overall. The Clovers host the Southmont Mounties in a nonconference game Tuesday. “We got after it. We played well, albeit a few key turnovers and missed free throws, we might havwe walked out of here with a win tonight,” Cloverdale coach Jeff Cherry said. THE GAME STARTED close and stayed that way throughout, as six points was the largest margin by either team. The Bruins jumped out to 5-0 lead, but the Clovers came back to cut the lead to just one, 12-11 at the

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Greencastle’s Reid Snellenbarger goes between Cascade’s Todd Burch (32) and Mike Mcßride (45) on his way

of two things. Either we homered p ,or more the truth is the fact re were taking the ball inside consistently and they were having trouble getting the ball inside,” Miller said, throwing a joke into his answer. Cascade’s scoring was led by sophomore guard Todd Burch, who scored 18 points on 7-of-ll shooting from the floor, including 3-of-3 from three-point range. Greencastle’s zone and full-court pressure defense held Mike McBride to just four points and Tom Short to just nine, both well under their average. “When we got down six or eight points we rushed things offensively. We took bad shots, they came down and we didn’t do a nice job defensively,” Zawlocki said. LOOKING ON THE right side first, Jarrod Duff and Monye Steadmon, and many times Steve Clark, would reverse ball around the perimeter, or throw the skip pass, to the open Resner. The senior not only hit 4-of-7 three-point shots, but often found Murray and Snellenbarger open. Trailing 13-12 when the second quarter opened, Greencastle took the lead when Steadmon passed over Cascade’s defense to an open Resner, who burned his second three of the game. “Early on in the ball game, we established the fact they were going to have to play us on the perimeter and that was critical. Once they had to extend their defense a little bit, it

Friday at Cloverdale Tri-West Bruins 61 Cloverdale Clovers 58 Bruins FG-FGA FT-FTA PF R TP Miller 4-10 3-4 2 3 11 Phillips 2-7 3-5 4 4 7 Swehby 10-16 3-5 2 7 23 Gearld 1-5 6-8 4 3 8 Smith 1-4 3-6 5 2 5 Hughes 1-4 2-2 2 3 5 Jobe 0-2 2-2 0 5 2 Eads 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 Team 0-0 0-0 0 7 0 Totals 19-48 22-32 19 34 61 Clovers FG-FGA FT-FTA PF R TP Ford 5-9 4-7 3 15 14 Thompson 3-9 1-2 5 6 7 Jordan 2-5 0-0 4 1 4 Byrd 7-14 2-3 3 2 19 McCammon 3-9 0-0 5 1 8 Monnett 0-3 0-0 110 Burk 1-3 3-4 2 1 6 VanDeVanter 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 Team 0-0 0-0 0 7 0 Totals 21-52 10-16 24 35 58 SCORE BY QUARTERS TRI-WEST 12 30 41 61 CLOVERDALE 11 28 41 58 3-Point FG: Tri-West 1-7 (Hughes 1-2, Miller 0-2, Jobe 0-1, Gearld 0-1, Swenby 0-1), Cloverdale 6-19 (Byrd 3-7, McCammon 2-7, Burk 1-2, Monnett 0-3). Turnovers: Tri-West 15, Cloverdale 22. JUNIOR VARSITY Tri-West 33, Cloverdale 31 Tri-West Gray 11, Overton 7, Owens 6, Berg 5, Adams 2, Ray 2. Cloverdale Herbert 9, Branneman 7, Matthews 5, Wade 4, Powell 4, Wallace 2.

end of the first quarter. Both teams shot poorly in the quarter. The Clovers hit on just 5-of-15 shots, while Tri-West connected on only 4-of-13 from the field. THE BRUINS outscored the Clovers 8-1 in the first 3:02 of the second quarter behind two Kit

to scoring 16 points in Friday night’s home court win of 6951. (Banner-Graphic photo by Gary Goodman)

Friday at Greencastle Greencastle Tiger Cubs 69, Cascade Cadets 51 Cadets FG-FGA FT-FTA PF R TP Short 2-10 5-9 213 9 Pl. Davis 2-5 1-3 4 2 5 Mcßride 2-9 0-0 4 8 4 Burch 7-11 1-1 4 2 18 Brezko 1-7 0-0 2 1 2 Scbanc 2-12 0-0 2 4 4 Pt. Davis 3-5 0-1 5 3 6 Branch 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 Sullivan 0-0 0-0 3 1 0 Doran 1-3 1-2 2 0 3 Team 0-0 0-0 0 2 0 Totals 20-62 8-16 28 36 51 Tiger Cubs FG-FGA FT-FTA PF R TP Murray 6-10 8-10 1 4 20 Steadmon 1-4 4-4 13 6 Snellenbarger 5-7 6-6 5 8 16 Resner 4-8 1-3 3 4 13 Duff 0-2 4-7 3 3 4 Branagin 2-5 3-4 2 8 7 Clark 0-0 1-2 4 2 1 Dobson 0-1 0-1 0 0 0 Manion 1-2 0-0 0 2 2 Team 0-0 0-0 0 3 0 Totals 19-39 27-37 16 37 69 SCORE BY QUARTERS CASCADE 13 27 38 51 GREENCASTLE 12 32 50 69 3-Point FG: Cascade 3-13 (Burch 3-3, Brezko 0-4, Scbanc 0-5, Doran 0-1), Greencastle <*-9 (Resner 4-7, Duff 0-2). Turnovers: Cascade 13, Greencastle 13. JUNIOR VARSITY Cascade 32, Greencastle 24 Cascade Middleton 8, Burch 7, Partlow 6, Benton 4, Sullivan 3, Anderson 2, Fish 2. Greencastle Paris 8, Middle 7, Peterson 4, Bonebrake 3, Brown 2.

began to open us up inside,” Miller said. THE SCORE WAS locked up 21-21 when Murray and Sncllcnbargcr shot for four straight free throws that put the Tigers Cubs ahead for good with 2:53 left in the second quarter. Snellenbarger put back a Continued on Page AS

Swenby dunks. The 6-foot-8 center scored 11 of his game-high 23 points to put Tri-West into a sixpoint lead. Cloverdale’s leading scorer, Ryan Ford, spent most of the second quarter on the bench in foul trouble. Byrd kept the Clovers in the game by matching Swcnby’s 11 points in the quarter. “Billy did a super job when Ford went down with foul trouble. He stepped up and kept us in the game offensively in the second quarter,” Cherry said. THE CLOVERS managed to cut the lead to two points, 30-28, heading into the loekerroom at halftime. Ford came back with vcngence in the third quarter. After not scoring a point in the first half, Ford scored six points and pulled down six rebounds in leading the Clovers back to tie the score at 41-41 at the end of three periods. The Clovers took a five point lead in the quarter, but the Bruins came back to tic the score on Swcnby’s tip-in at the buzzer. Tri-West jumped back out to a four-point lead early in the period and held it until Dan Burk hit a three-pointer with 57 seconds left to play in the game. TO THIS POINT Tri-West had hit 7-8 free throws in the fourth quarter. But the Bruins hit only two of their last six attempts from the Continued on Page AS