|
 Will Ewald led the Panthers with 18 points and Dustin Murphy led the
Bruins with 13 points.
The Panthers, the home team on the scoreboard and the No. 1 seed in
the regional, won the tip to start the game and Noah Funk wasted no
time scoring the first points on a layup. Murphy was quick to
counter with his own layup at the other end for the visiting Bruins,
the No. 2 seed in the regional.
Tip-off |
CEL in Action |
Accepting the plaue |
Then it was Brandon Kretzinger putting Mount Pulaski on top, 5-2
with a three from the corner, still all within a minute of play.
Murphy then stole the ball from the Panthers and he ran it all the
way in for another layup and the 7-2 Bruin lead. Meanwhile Ewald set
up from the beyond the arc for the Panthers and connected for the
first of what would turn into five threes on the night for
Chester-East Lincoln. Mount Pulaski added to the lead from here with
baskets by Murphy and Kretzinger to make the score 11-5.
After a timeout by Chester-East Lincoln, Isaac Dewberry was fouled
under the basket and he stepped to the free throw line and made both
shots to close the gap to 11-7. Dewberry would also camp out in the
corner the next Panther possession and nail a three to make it a
ballgame, 11-10 now the score.
The next minute of play was just riddled with turnovers by both
fast-paced teams. Eventually Murphy would successfully drive the
baseline and make a nice spin move under the basket that was good
for two points.
With 14.2 seconds remaining in the first quarter it looked like
Mount Pulaski was in the driver’s seat with a 13-10 lead until this
happened. Chester-East drove the ball up the court very patiently
and then the ball ended up in Ewald’s hands. With the black and gold
crowd yelling, “Four, three, two…” Ewald nonchalantly hoisted a
three in the air and it was a sweet sight to see as it swished
through the net at the buzzer.
With fists pumping, the Panthers headed to the break with a 13-13
tie with the Bruins.
Mount Pulaski was first to score in the second quarter as Drew
Martin spotted Murphy in the lane and dished it off to the big man
but Ewald quickly drove the other way for the Panthers and laid it
in for another tie, 15-15 with 4:51 on the clock. Mount Pulaski’s
Grant Davis entered the game in the second quarter and it was his
long two that gave Mount Pulaski the lead back, 17-15.
The next four minutes of play had to be a little frustrating for
both teams as it was dotted with missed layups, missed free throws,
a few blocks, missed three-point attempts and even a traveling call.
Finally Batchelder was able to dribble down the baseline with :13
seconds remaining in the half and put up a successful layup to put
Mount Pulaski up 19-15.
Chester-East Lincoln had the ball one more time and this set the
stage for another possible buzzer beater. It nearly happened again,
too. Ewald just missed a three as you could hear the crowd holding
their breath. It was oh so close, too.
With the halftime score set at 19-15 in favor of Mount Pulaski, both
teams headed to the locker rooms as all the fans stood up and
cheered for the tremendous effort put forth by the athletes in the
first half.
Chester-East Lincoln was quick to tie the game in the third with a
couple free throws from Ewald and then the tying basket by Jayden
Pollice. The Panthers continued to roll as Ewald got the rebound off
of a long miss on the three attempt by Dewberry and with that
offensive rebound he drove back thru the lane and laid it in for the
21-19 Panther lead.
Back and forth we go as Kretzinger was ready and set with the three
for Mount Pulaski and it was a 22-21 Bruin lead. Dewberry used his
athletic ability to dance thru the lane and make a nice move which
resulted in two points and the Panthers were back on top, 23-22.
Xavier Miller came up with the next big play for the Panthers as he
captured the offensive rebound while surrounded by blue uniforms and
he promptly put the ball back up and in for two points.
Meanwhile, Martin for Mount Pulaski was just not having any luck
getting his shots to fall. First the ball would be in the basket and
simply roll out at the rim. Ouch, that hurts, but sadly that’s how
the ball bounces sometimes.
[to top of second column] |
The Panthers streak continued though and Pollice drove baseline and
tossed a short jumper up and over the big men of Mount Pulaski. It
landed cleaning through the net and Chester-East Lincoln now had a
commanding 27-22 lead.
Mount Pulaski’s shooting woes continued with Kretzinger missing a
three and then it was more of the same for Martin. A great rebound
by Mount Pulaski’s other big man but then he put the ball up and it
was all good until the ball literally rolled around and around and
out of the rim yet again.
Finally Murphy landed at the free throw line and made one of the
shots to move the score to 27-23. Then Davis gave the Mount Pulaski
fans something to cheer about when he hit a huge three at the 1:33
mark to close the gap, 27-26 still in favor of Chester-East Lincoln.
That score would remain until the end of the third quarter, even
though Martin tried his best to change things. His three attempt at
the buzzer was just like his previous shot attempts in the quarter.
The ball looked great in the air, it even landed inside the rim and
then it just spun out of the rim, dashing the Bruins chance to take
the lead.
An excited crowd could not ask for a better game of basketball with
the score 27-26 at the end of the third quarter.
Hang on there is still six minutes left to play. While both teams
wanted to take home the Regional Championship plaque, it was the
Panthers who earned it by playing long ball early in the fourth
quarter. Ewald just wowed the crowd thirty seconds into the quarter
with a long three. He even might have been a little surprised with
how far out of range he was, but then again, maybe not.
That three was certainly a statement by the Panthers but this next
three, without a doubt, put the exclamation mark at the end of it.
Funk banked in his own long three from way beyond the top of the key
to stretch the Panther lead to 33-26. Holy cow!
Then the lightning-quick Panthers turned around and stole the ball
from Mount Pulaski and the crowd went wild. Things just escalated
from here for the Bruins and the Panthers knew how to take advantage
of the opportunity. As Miller landed at the free throw line for
Chester-East Lincoln he made two free throws and a very comfortable
late in the game lead now existed. The Panthers were up 36-26 with
3:33 left to play.
While the Panthers were calmly controlling the game, Mount Pulaski
was losing their fighting edge and really had no choice left but to
keep fouling. The Bruins were also scoreless in the fourth quarter
until Batchelder scored in the paint to make the score 37-28 at the
2:15 mark.
Things got so frustrating for Mount Pulaski after this, and at one
point while the Bruins were fouling intentionally, the Mount Pulaski
coach, Brian Erlenbush, was heard yelling, “Foul anybody BUT him.”
He was referring to Ewald, who already had 17 of his 18 points at
that moment. After Ewald sank his final free throw of the night it
was Funk’s turn at the line and he made 3 of 4 from the charity
stripe to complete the Panther scoring.
Murphy managed one more basket for the Bruins in the fourth quarter,
which meant the team only had four points in the final six minutes
of play.
As the buzzer sounded, the Panther fans jumped to their feet and
applauded the 41-30 Regional Championship victory.
The Panthers did an excellent job keeping Mount Pulaski from scoring
in the paint and Panthers Coach Josh Komnick had this to say about
the game with Mount Pulaski following his team’s win, "They’ve
(Mount Pulaski) been good for two years really now and we’ve had
trouble with them. We knew they score in the paint. Our big guys did
a pretty good job of limiting their touches in there for one, and
then when they did get the ball we didn’t try to block their shots,
where we normally try to do that. We just held our ground and our
hands were tall and we made them take tough shots. We rebounded
pretty well tonight and that was a big key for us. It’s been a bad
year for us shooting, then finally the last several games we’ve been
a lot better. We’ve really been practicing shooting in practice and
hopefully the guys are really hitting their strides because we are
really gonna need it going forward.”
The Panthers will take a 17-3 record into the Sectional Championship
at Morrisonville next Wednesday night.
The Bruins finish the season at 18-6.
Good luck to the Panthers next week!
Panthers scoring
Will Ewald 18
Noah Funk 8
Isaac Dewberry 7
Xavier Miller 4
Jayden Pollice 4
Bruins scoring
Dustin Murphy 13
Brandon Kretzinger 8
Grant Davis 5
Brian Batchelder 4
[Teena Lowery] |
