Tigers edge Bears in back-and-forth battle
by Ryan Stonebreaker, Tipton Conservative · Sports · December 14, 2017
Last season, the West Branch boys basketball team faced the Tipton Tigers three times.
All three were victories, including a class 2A district final in West Liberty that sent the Bears to the substate final game.
On Dec. 5, the two teams met for the first time this season. Tipton. however, came away with a two-point win, 59-57.
The loss snapped a three-game losing streak to the Bears for the Tigers. Tipton and West Branch played three times in the 2015-16 season with Tipton winning two of three, including a last second, 71-69 win in the postseason.
Fouls played a big part in the game, especially on the West Branch side. Two Bears fouled out, starter Ben Thompson and Brady Lukavsky.
Another starter, Tanner Lukavsky had 4 and starters Beau Cornwell and Ted Bridges each had 3. The only Bear to play in the game without at least three fouls was Brett Schiele.
West Branch shot nearly 50-percent and made 14-of-20 free-throw attempts. Cornwell and Thompson each had 19 points to lead Bear scorers. Cornwell had 5 rebounds, 3 steals and 2 assists while Thompson had 4 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals. Tanner Lukavsky chipped in 10 points.
“Ben has picked up his game this year. With Cooper (Kabela) graduating, we told him that he would have to pick up his scoring a little. Tonight, he did. He has given Tipton all kinds of trouble in recent games and did again tonight with 17 of his 19 by halftime. He held his own and played good defense on Logan Hoffman. Fouls kind of caught up with him in the second half,” said West Branch Head Coach Tom Burger.
Thompson averaged 17.7 points a game and shot 72-percent from the field in the three wins against Tipton last season.
“We had individual meetings this past weekend. I thought by our play against Tipton, our talks worked. We had kids play good defense and we had a lot of guys get productive minutes. Every kid that came in did what we asked of them and that was good to see,” said Burger.
Tipton led by as many as seven points in the first quarter before West Branch trimmed the Tiger lead to three points, 15-12 by the end of the first quarter. Tipton built a six-point, 20-14 lead with 4:00 left before halftime, but West Branch came back and outscored them 14 to 6 over the last half of the quarter to take a slim, 28-26 halftime lead. Ben Thompson was on fire for West Branch in the opening quarter, scoring 17 of his 19 points in the ball game in the first half. Thompson was automatic at the free throw line, going there eight times and making seven.
The two teams played hard in the third quarter, but fouls mounted for the Bears with as many as three starters missing lengthy time with foul trouble in the quarter.
Tipton outscored the Bears by three points, 13-10 in the quarter and grab a 39-38 lead. West Branch grabbed a game high 8-point led (36-28) three minutes into the second half.
In the final quarter, the game tightened up with the score getting tied at 42, 44 46 and 53 points. Tipton would pull away, taking a 58-53 lead with a minute left in the game.
West Branch had a chance to tie the game at 58, but a Beau Cornwell three-point attempt under 30 seconds was off. West Branch fouled and Tipton’s Logan Hoffman made one of two free throws to give Tipton a 59-55 lead. Cornwell got a final bucket to fall as time expired to put the final at 59-57.
Tipton shot 43-percent from the field in the game and was 15-for-23 from the free-throw line.
Tiger leading scorer Logan Hoffman led Tipton scorers in the game with a 24-point night including a 9-for-10 at the free throw line. Hoffman recorded a double-double with points and 11 rebounds. Andrew Stewart scored 14 points and made a team-high three three-pointers. Jacob Tischuk had a good all-around game, scoring 9 points and grabbing 8 rebounds to go with five assists and two steals.
1 2 3 4 T
Tip 15 11 13 20 59
WB 12 16 10 19 57
Tipton stats: Trent Pelzer (g) 2-5 0-0 6, Frank Bierman (f) 2-5 0-0 4, Logan Hoffman (f) 7-13 9-10 24, Andrew Stewart (g) 5-10 1-4 14, Jacob Tischuk (g) 3-8 3-5 9, Bryce Deerberg 0-0 0-0 0, Luke Becker 0-3 1-2 1, Blake Wilkins 0-0 1-2 1, Blaise Thumma 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 19-44 15-23 59.
West Branch stats: Beau Cornwell (g) 7-19 3-5 19, Ben Thompson (f) 6-9 7-8 19, Tanner Lukavsky (f) 3-6 3-4 10, Brady Lukavsky (g) 0-4 1-3 1, Ted Bridges (f) 2-3 0-0 4, Brett Schiele 1-5 0-0 2, Cade Aspelmeier 1-1 0-0 2. Totals: 20-47 14-20 57.
3-Pt. FG: Tipton 6-15 (Stewart 3-6, Pelzer 2-3, Hoffman 1-2, Becker 0-2, Tischuk 0-2). West Branch 3-15 (Cornwell 2-9, T. Lukavsky 1-2, B. Lukavsky 0-2, Schiele 0-2). Rebounds: Tipton 36 (Hoffman 11, Bierman 9, Tischuk 8, Stewart 3, Pelzer 2, Becker 1, Wilkins 1, Thumma 1), West Branch 21 (Cornwell 5, Schiele 4, Thompson 4, B. Lukavsky 3, Bridges 3, T. Lukavsky 1, Aspelmeier 1). Assists: Tipton 13 (Tischuk 5, Pelzer 3, Bierman 2, Hoffman 2, Stewart 1), Tipton 9 (Thompson 3, B. Lukavsky 2, Cornwell 2, T. Lukavsky 1, Bridges 1). Steals: Tipton 5 (Tischuk 2, Becker 1, Stewart 1, Deerberg 1), West Branch 9 (Cornwell 3, Schiele 2, T. Lukavsky 2, Thompson 2). Blocked Shots: Tipton 1 (Bierman 1), West Branch 3 (T. Lukavsky 2, Bridges 1). Total Fouls: Tipton 21, West Branch 23. Fouled Out: Tipton none. West Branch Brady Lukavsky, Ben Thompson.
West Branch 89,
Winfield-Mt. Union 27
The Bears played Winfield-Mt. Union the Dec. 8 in Winfield in their first non-conference game of the season.
There, the Bears scored a season-high 89 points, in a lopsided 89-27 road victory. The Bears snapped a two-game losing streak with the win.
Brady Lukavsky had a career high 20 points on 8-of-11 shooting while adding four three pointers to his point total. Other Bears reaching double figures were Beau Cornwell 15, Cade Aspelmeier 13 and Brett Schiele 10.
West Branch led 27-5 after the first quarter and used a 20-9, second quarter run to take a 47-14 halftime lead. West Branch scored 20 or more points in each of the four quarters of play. B.J. Rogers led the Wolves in scoring with 11 points.
The Bears improved to 2-2 with the victory while WMU fell to 1-3.
1 2 3 4 T
WB 20 27 21 21 89
WMU 5 9 6 7 27
West Branch stats: Jeff Bowie 2 0-0 4, 1 rebound, 1 steal, 1 block; Cade Aspelmeier 5 0-0 13, 3 3-pointers, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal; Beau Cornwell 5 3-3 15, 2 3-pointers, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal, 2 turnovers; Ben Kyllingstad 0 0-2 0, 1 steal, 1 foul; Brady Lukavsky 8 0-1 20, 4 3-pointers, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 foul; Zach Thompson 1 0-0 3, 1 3-pointer, 3 assists; Brett Schiele 4 0-0 10, 2 3-pointers, 1 rebounds, 1 assist 5 steals; Tanner Lukavsky 1 0-0 2, 1 rebound, 4 assists, 4 steals, 1 foul; Ben Thompson 1 2-5 4, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, 2 fouls; Ted Bridges 3 2-2 8, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 turnover; Trey Eagle 1 0-0 3, 1 3-pointer, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 turnover; Matt Whaley 1 0-2 3, 1 3-pointer, 1 assist, 1 foul; Jack Dragovich 2 0-0 4, 4 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 block. Team totals: 34 7-15 89, 14 3-pointers, 29 rebounds, 21 assists, 17 steals, 2 blocks, 5 turnovers, 5 fouls
Winfield-Mt. Union stats: Nick Davis 1 0-0 2, 2 fouls; Cody McCreight 2 1-2 5, 3 rebounds, 3 blocks, 3 fouls; Tristan Kauffman 1 steal; B.J. Rodgers 4 0-0 11, 1 3 3-pointers, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 fouls; Christian Gerot 1 rebound, 2 assists, 1 steal; Bryant Holtkamp 2 0-0 4, 9 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 foul; Daunte Oepping 2 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 foul; Jared Arnold 1 2-2 5, 1 foul. Team totals: 10 3-4 27, 4 3-pointers, 17 rebounds, 6 assists, 4 steals, 3 blocks, 10 fouls.
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