The Press-Dispatch
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The Press-Dispatch Sports Wednesday, Februar y 14, 2018 B- 5 However, a free throw by Booker and a three-point play by Tormohlen cut the deficit to 32-31 with 1:54 re- maining. Then, after Arnold hit one of two free throw attempts to extend the Marksmen's lead to 33-31 with 1:22 left, Pike Central pulled even on a basket by Nalley with 10 seconds remaining, forcing the game into overtime. The first overtime period started out as a free-throw shooting contest, with the Chargers hitting nine free throws – four by Nalley, two each by Western and Tor- mohlen and one by Benson – and Tell City hitting three – two by Arnold and one by Beard – as Pike Central took a 42-36 lead with 44.3 sec- onds remaining. A fter Beard hit a three-pointer to cut the defi- cit to 42-39 with 28 seconds left, Western – attempting to dribble the ball up the floor – was called for step- ping on the out-of-bounds line, turning the ball over to the Marksmen with 25.6 sec- onds remaining. "At that point and time, we just have to take care of the ball," Elliott said. "We kind of got in a rough situ- ation. I'll take that. I proba- bly should have called a tim- eout when Kyson got the ball over there in the corner. But ... live and learn." Beard, left open after Nal- ley made a diving attempt to knock the ball away, drib- bled up to the three-point line and sank another trey, tying the score at 42-42 with 10 seconds left to force the game into a second over- time. Following an exchange of baskets at the start of the third overtime, back-to-back baskets by Beard – includ- ing one on a put-back of a missed three-point shot by Arnold – gave the Marksmen a 48 -44 lead with 1:25 left. A fter a three-pointer by Nalley pulled Pike Central to within 48 -47, a steal by Tormohlen got the ball back for the Chargers with 49.4 seconds remaining. However, Tormohlen would miss three-point shot attempts on each of the Chargers next two pos- sessions as Tell City scored four straight points – on two free throws each by Arnold and junior Dustin Hunt – to extend its lead to 52-47 with 19.9 seconds left. "T-mo had some good looks," said Elliott, using Tormohlen's nickname. "I thought T-mo had some real- ly good looks off a couple of sets and, you know, they just didn't fall. And that's part of it. I want him shooting and he's got to shoot with con- fidence and, if I could do it again, I'd let him shoot it. I have confidence in him to hit it." A fter Tormohlen scored on a put-back of a missed three-pointer by Claridge to pull Pike Central to with- in 52-49, Arnold hit two free throws to give Tell City a 54- 49 lead with 5.6 seconds left. A three-pointer by Nalley cut the deficit to 54-52 with 0.9 seconds left. Following a timeout by Pike Central, Lyons inbounded the ball to Hunt, who held the ball as the clock expired. "I thought we made plays down the stretch," Elliott said. "It was a back-and- forth game. I knew it was going to be a defensive bat- tle coming in. That's kind of where we try to hang our hat, and they're doing the same thing." "But I thought we kind of made plays," Elliott contin- ued. "T-mo had a big play down there, got the three- point play, and then made some plays down the stretch to put us into overtime. Bry- ant had that big finish there right at the end of regula- tion. And then, in the first overtime, we had a six-point lead with 30 seconds to go." Nalley led Pike Central in scoring with 18 points while also grabbing a game-high nine rebounds. Tormohlen added 10 points and a game- high three steals. Claridge tossed in six points while Booker and Henson netted five points each. Benson and Western rounded out the scoring for the Char- gers with four points apiece. For the game, Pike Cen- tral made 17 of 39 field goal attempts – a 43.6 percent av- erage – and hit 13 of 19 tries from the free throw line while turning the ball over nine times. Arnold tossed in 15 points for Tell City. Beard and Fest both grabbed a team-high six rebounds. For the game, the Marks- men made 19 of 41 field goal attempts – a 46.3 percent av- erage – and hit 11 of 21 tries from the free throw line while turning the ball over nine times. Tell City out-rebounded the Chargers 24-20, convert- ing nine offensive rebounds into nine points. "That's something that's hurt us here lately, is just not finishing each posses- sion," Elliott said. "You know, when we don't finish with a rebound, sometimes we make ourselves have to get two, three, four stops in a possession. That's tough to do. We've got to make sure we're finishing each possession with a rebound. That kind of hurt us early. I thought we did a little bit better job later. But, early, we were missing block-outs or not going and getting it." • • • In the junior varsity con- test, sophomore Devin Pruitt scored 19 points and sophomore Joe Gaynor add- ed 12 points to lead Tell City to a 45 -33 victory over Pike Central. Junior Andrew Krieg paced the Chargers with nine points. ing if we hit any other shots that were good looks – all of a sudden, it's a 14-16 game after one instead of a 6 -16 game." The Patriots – current- ly ranked 17th in Class 3A – would ratchet up the pres- sure during the second quar- ter, stretching their lead to as many as 15 points while taking a 33-18 halftime lead. Heritage Hills scored the first three points of the sec- ond half – on a free throw by senior Mitchel Bech- er and a lay-up by Scherry – to stretch its lead to 36 - 18. A fter a basket by Book- er trimmed the deficit to 36 -18, Murray Becher hit a three-pointer to give the Pa- triots a 39 -20 lead with 5:38 left in the third period. Following another bas- ket by Booker – who caught a pass from senior Kaleb Claridge in mid-air with one hand before sending the ball through the hoop – Murray Becher buried an- other three-pointer, extend- ing Heritage Hills' lead to 42-22 with 5:13 remaining in the third quarter. The Chargers may have been down by 20 points, but they were not quite yet out, however. Pike Central responded with a 12-1 scoring run – on a basket and a three-point- er by senior Cameron Hen- son, a three-pointer by se- nior Kyson Western, a bas- ket by Claridge and two free throws by Booker – to close to within 43-34 at the end of the third period. A fter a three-point play by freshman Blake Sisley and a free throw by senior Carter Meunier stretched the Patriots' lead to 47-34 with 6:29 remaining in the fourth quarter, a basket and two three-pointers by senior Tyler Tormohlen fueled an 8 -3 scoring run as the Char- gers narrowed the gap to 50 - 42 with 4:34 left. Following a turnover and a missed front end of a one- and-one by Murray Becher on Heritage Hills' next two possessions, a three-point shot by Tormohlen rimmed out and was rebounded by Sisley. At the other end, Murray Becher hit a three-pointer – his fourth of the game – to extend the Patriots' lead to 53-42 with 2:59 remaining. "That was a huge pos- session," Elliott said of Tor- mohlen's missed trey. "Actu- ally, the possession before, Booker had gotten a steal, and he threw it up ahead to Cameron, and Cameron had his back turned, and it end- ed up being a turnover on us. We didn't get a shot, when we probably could have had a lay-up. So we could have turned that eight-point game to six. And if T-mo's three went down, it's a three-point game." "A fter being down so much to a team like that, I thought we did a nice job of battling back and giv- ing ourselves a chance," El- liott added. "If some shots would have fallen, it could have definitely turned out the other way." A basket and a pair of free throws by Booker pulled the Chargers to within sev- en points – at 53-46 – before Heritage Hills ended the game on a 9 -2 scoring run to win the contest, 62-48. "That was a situation where we had to shoot three's, and we weren't hit- ting," Elliott said. "But we were having to foul them, so they were shooting free throws." Booker led Pike Central in scoring with 18 points while also grabbing six rebounds. Western added nine points and Nalley had eight points and a team-high seven re- bounds. Tormohlen netted six points and Henson tal- lied five points while leading the Chargers with three as- sists and three steals. Clar- idge rounded out the scor- ing for Pike Central with two points. "Bryant didn't have a great game, but he's been so consistent all year long," said Elliott, whose team slipped to 8 -9 overall and 3-2 in the Pocket Athletic Conference. "I mean, he's carried us through a lot of these games. There's going to come times when he's go- ing to miss or have a little bit of an off night." "I thought Booker did a nice job of attacking," Elliott continued. "That's some- thing we've got to continue to get out of him. And then I thought Kyson stepped up and shot the ball when we needed him to. I thought T- mo played really well again. He had some shots that didn't fall, but I thought he played well." For the game, the Char- gers made 17 of 51 field goal attempts – a 33.3 percent av- erage – and hit eight of 11 tries from the free throw line while turning the ball over five times. A fter turning the ball over 17 times in a 40 -39 win at Te- cumseh on Tuesday, Feb. 6, Pike Central committed a total of 14 turnovers in the losses to Tell City and Heri- tage Hills. "I thought we did a nice job this weekend of tak- ing care of the ball," Elliott said. "I thought we passed up some shots at times in both those games, but, you know, it's one of those things where we're still trying to build and just continue to get better come sectional time." Murray Becher led Heri- tage Hills with a game-high 22 points. Scherry and Sis- ler added 12 points each while Mitchel Becher had 11 points. Sisler also had a game-high nine rebounds. For the game, the Patriots made 23 of 38 field goal at- tempts – a 60.5 percent av- erage – and hit 12 of 19 tries from the free throw line while turning the ball over seven times. "They're very talented and very athletic," Elliott said of the Patriots, who im- proved to 18 -2 overall and 6 - 1 in the PAC. "They got to the basket a lot in the first half." "I felt like we played about a quarter and a half of bas- ketball," Elliott added. "The first half, we were pretty stagnant and, defensively, we weren't very good, and then, the second half, about halfway through the third quarter, we decided to start playing a little bit." Pike Central, which host- ed Gibson Southern on Tues- day, Feb. 13, will play at For- est Park on Friday, Feb. 16, before returning home to host Jasper on Saturday, Feb. 17, for Senior Night. During halftime of Sat- urday night's varsity game, girls' basketball senior Eri- ka Hendrixson will be rec- ognized for having scored her 1,000th career point earlier this season. Making the presentation will be Tri- cia Deffendoll, who is the La- dy Chargers' all-time lead- ing scorer with 1,621 points. In addition, Deffendoll's uniform number will be re- tired, with her former coach, Jed Beadles, making the presentation. CHARGERS Continued from page 3 DROP Continued from page 2 Pike Central High School senior Bryant Nalley (40) goes up for a lay-in during varsity boys' bas- ketball action against visiting Heritage Hills on Saturday, Feb. 10. Nalley scored eight points in a 62-48 loss to the Patriots. Ed Cahill photo Pike Central High School senior Kyson West- ern (14) drives toward the basket during varsi- ty boys' basketball action against visiting Heri- tage Hills on Saturday, Feb. 10. Western scored nine points in a 62-48 loss to the Patriots. Ed Ca- hill phot Pike Central High School senior Cameron Hen- son (10) fires up a shot over Heritage Hills senior Carter Meunier (32) during varsity boys' basket- ball action on Saturday, Feb. 10. Henson scored five points in a 62-48 loss to the visiting Patriots. Ed Cahill photo Pike Central High School senior Breyton Booker (11) goes up to take a shot during varsity boys' basketball action at Tell City on Friday, Feb. 9. Booker scored five points in a 54-52 double-overtime loss to the Marksmen. Ed Ca- hill photo Pike Central High School junior Judah Leathco (20) fires up a three-point shot during junior varsi- ty boys' basketball ac- tion at Tell City on Fri- day, Feb. 9. Leathco scored three points in a 45-33 loss to the Marksmen. Ed Cahill photo