Morrison shoots lights out, thumps Boilers

Kewanee’s Senior Night turned into a red-hot shooting night for the Morrison Mustangs.
The Three Rivers Conference team shot 70 percent from the floor on its way to dismantling the Boilers 93-64 Saturday night at H.F Brockman gym.
Prior to the varsity contest, all seniors participating in winter extra-curricular activities were introduced. When the game started, the show belonged Morrison’s Jason Smith and Travis McBride.
The duo combined for 60 points — Smith 35 and McBride 25 — on 23 of 28 shooting from the floor. As a team, the Mustangs were 37 of 53 on the night, including an efficient 4 of 6 from the 3-point line.
Kewanee Coach Tony Ramos heaped the most praise upon Smith — who went 13 of 15 from the field, 3 of 4 from the 3-point line and 6 of 7 from the free-throw line.
“He’s probably the best player we’ve seen all year,” said Ramos of the Morrison senior. “He can do it all.”
Even with Morrison shooting lights out, the Boilers were within striking distance entering the fourth quarter.
Smith scored eight straight points — highlighted by a reverse layup that resulted in a three-point play and a 3-pointer — for the Mustangs in the opening quarter to lift the visitors to a 15-6 lead.
The Boilers closed the first frame with a bucket from Angel Astorga and three-point play from Albert Fields to trim the deficit to 22-18.
The Mustangs scored the first seven points of the second quarter to stretch the lead to double digits, 29-18, but a nine-point flurry by Terry Mercer and a pair of Brandon LeSage free throws pulled the Boilers within 37-33.
Mercer also scored the final bucket of the half as Morrison led 44-37 at the break.
Smith opened the second half with a three-point play, but Kewanee continued to hang around, cutting the deficit to five points on two occasions. McBride scored Morrison’s final six points of the third quarter to give the visitors a 62-52 lead heading to the fourth quarter.
That’s when Smith and the Mustangs delivered the knockout punch. Morrison scored the first 10 points of the final frame, seven coming from Smith, to stretch its advantage to 72-52. The Mustangs hung 31 fourth-quarter points on the Boilers as Kewanee’s lone highlight in the period came on a 3-pointer from reserve Kyle Lunghofer.
“We scored enough points to beat most high school teams, but we couldn’t stop the barrage of amazing shooting from a pretty good Morrison team,” said Ramos.
Morrison’s high-powered offense consistently beat the Boiler defense in transition for easy buckets and when Kewanee did manage to slow the frenetic pace, the Mustangs simply answered by sticking their perimeter shots.
“It was like which poison do you want to take,” said Ramos.
Eleven Boilers scored on the night, led by Mercer with 17 points and Fields with 13.
The Boilers, now 9-16 overall, have three regular-season games remaining — at Rock Falls Friday, the NCIC Shootout Saturday and the finale at Princeton Feb. 20 — before the postseason arrives.
“I just keep telling these kids we have to keep our heads up and our eyes on the prize,” said Ramos.
The Boilers are the second seed in the five-team Class 2A Rockridge Regional Feb. 23-27. Monmouth-Roseville is the top seed, followed by Kewanee, Sherrard, Rockridge and Knoxville.
“That regional is wide open and we’re definitely one of the contenders,” said Ramos. “We’ll be ready.”

Riveters fall — Morrison also prevailed in Saturday’s fresh-soph opener, topping the Riveters 71-61.
Kewanee led 33-28 at the half, but the Mustangs went on a 24-9 tear in the third quarter to take control. Jordan Hart was the lone Riveter in double figures with 13 points. Morrison’s Nick Volokmann and Dylon Smith led all scorers with 17 points each.

http://www.starcourier.com/sports/x955251464/Morrison-shoots-lights-out-thumps-Boilers

Buckeyes Bounce Boilers in OT

It looked like Ohio State might let a resume builder slip through their fingers after losing a 64-59 lead with 1:53 in regulation but a 14-4 run to start the extra session allowed the Buckeyes to cruise to an 80-72 home victory over #13 Purdue.

Evan Turner was once again the best player on the floor backing up his Big Ten POW honor with a 26 point, 12 rebound, 7 assist effort. To Thad Matta’s credit, he installed Turner at the point for long stretches allowing him to bring the ball up and immediately create off penetration.

The #1 FG% defense in the country couldn’t stop Turner without help and when they rotated the rest of the Buckeyes made them pay. Ohio State shot a blistering 60.4% from the floor (32/53) thanks to stellar ball movement creating wide open shots all night long. How great was the ball movement? Besides Turner’s seven dimes, Jon Diebler picked up seven and P.J. Hill six.

Wil Buford was a prime benefactor as he poured in 22 points, 17 in the second half, on 10/14 shooting.

B.J. Mullens also caught fire hitting 8/9 shots, all dunks or layups, on countless feeds following help side rotations.

It wasn’t all about the offense, however as the Buckeye defense came to play outrebounding the Boilers 34-19. In fact, Purdue didn’t register an offensive rebound until Keaton Grant’s o-board and putback gave the Boilers a 41-40 lead with 15:55 to play.

Purdue would finish with only three offensive caroms on the night while the zone harassed the perimeter shooters into a 6/21 (28%) effort from beyond the arc.

Even with those statistical advantages in hand and Robbie Hummel not playing due to injury, OSU allowed Purdue to force OT after Turner missed the front end of a one and one with 3:17 left, then missed another free throw failing to convert a three point play leaving OSU in front 62-59 with 2:45 left.

Turner would score again on a driving layup extending the lead to 64-59 at the 1:53 mark but Grant answered with a triple cutting the lead to 64-62 with 1:25 remaining.

Still, it appeared OSU was in good shape with possession but Hill inexplicably turned it over on the wing with a lazy pass to a covered Jon Diebler allowing Chris Kramer to tie the game at 64 with a breakaway layup.

Out of timeout, Turner had to force the issue and turned it over but Lewis Jackson’s long jumper with :03 failed to draw iron setting up the extra session.

Ohio State’s confidence wasn’t shaken, however as the quickly jumped on Purdue in overtime taking a 70-66 lead courtesy of a sweet drive and dish from Hill to set up a Dallas Lauderdale dunk followed by two free throws from Turner and a jumper from Diebler.

Following two free throws from JaJuan Johnson, who finished with a career high 30 points, the Buckeyes salted it away with an 8-0 run capped by a Diebler pass off the backboard to B.J. Mullens for the rim-rattler and a 78-68 lead with 20 ticks left. Me likey.

The victory moves Ohio State to 16-5 overall and 6-4 in conference with the Gophers coming to the Schott on Saturday night.
http://www.elevenwarriors.com/2009/02/buckeyes-bounce-boilers-in-ot.html

Boilers, Hawkeyes meet looking for consistency

Purdue is on a two-game winning streak but needed a furious late rally to beat Northwestern 63-61 on Thursday.

Despite having one of the Big Ten’s best defenses, Iowa can’t seem to manage enough points to win and has lost two straight.

All both coaches want is some consistency.

The No. 19 Boilermakers need it in the form of toughness and disciplined offense, coach Matt Painter said.

Iowa coach Todd Lickliter would like his team to be more efficient on offense, starting with today’s noon game at Mackey Arena. That may not be an easy task against Purdue, which is second in the NCAA in field goal-percentage defense (36 percent).

The Hawkeyes (11-6, 1-3 Big Ten) have scored at least 60 points only twice in the last six games and failed to reach 50 points three times in that stretch, including back-to-back, 49-point efforts in losses to Minnesota and Michigan.

Lickliter said he’s emphasized defense most of the season in practice – it’s helped his team lead the league in scoring defense (56.1) – but that has come at the expense of offensive productivity.

Though the Hawkeyes lead the league in three-point shooting (40 percent), they’re 10th in scoring offense (62.8).

“We have to address effectiveness and purpose on offense,” Lickliter said.

So do the Boilermakers (13-4, 2-2).

Perhaps it will help that Iowa typically relies on man-to-man defense, not the aggressive trapping zone that Northwestern produced 22 turnovers by Purdue on Thursday. The Boilermakers had trouble with the simple things – passing and catching – against the Wildcats. But they rebounded in the final minutes to pull out at victory on JaJuan Johnson’s two free throws with 2.2 seconds remaining.

“We’re hoping it will help us make some improvements, get us going in the right direction,” Painter said of the victory. “We’ve talked about just getting healthy and playing smart but also playing tough. I thought at the end of the game, we made some tough plays. We made some smart plays. We just have to show more consistency in those areas.”

http://www.journalgazette.net/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090118/SPORTS0303/301189884