Bear hold off ‘Hawks push for 68-59 win
by Gregory R. Norfleet · Sports · January 04, 2018
A 9-0 run helped bring the visitors within two points of West Branch, but the effort fell short Dec. 19 and the Bears went on to defeat Mid-Prairie 68-59 right before Christmas break.
Junior Beau Cornwell lead West Branch with 30 points, followed by 18 for sophomore Tanner Lukavsky and 14 by senior Ben Thompson, giving the Bears three players in double digits.
The West Branch’s defense kept two of the Golden Hawks’ top three scorers contained, though others stepped up to also give the visitors three double-digit scorers in junior Dominic Pickard with 16, junior Tom Butters with 12 and sophomore Brad Tornow with 10.
“I was glad to see how we played down the stretch,” West Branch Head Boys Basketball Coach Tom Burger said. “We got open when we needed to. We got the ball into the right hands because we knew they were going to foul. … And I thought, defensively, we decided to lock down, which we hadn’t done well all night.”
In the final few minutes, the Golden Hawks fouled West Branch five times, with Cornwell going to the line four times and making both free-throws and Lukavsky making another. West Branch led by four points at the time of the first foul, which Mid-Prairie narrowed to two with 85 seconds left to go in the game. Yet the visitors could not sink another basket after that.
However, Golden Hawks Head Coach Daren Lambert felt his team, coming into the night 2-4, played one of its best games.
“Tonight was our best effort for all four quarters,” he said. “That’s something we’ve been harping on our guys. … we still gave up too many points, but for a complete game, I think that’s the first time we’ve seen that from our guys.”
West Branch improved to 4-5 with the win after playing five games in eight days.
The Bears used both a half-court and full-court press throughout the game, with mixed results.
“At times it gave them fits, but at times they burned us on it,” Burger said. “I thought Mid-Prairie did a pretty good job handling things. I just wasn’t really happy with the half-court defense tonight. We’ve been playing pretty good half-court defense.”
The Bears coach did like the offense the team delivered.
“We got three guys in double figures, and that was really good,” he said. “And we shot 18 for 23 from the line. Wow.”
Fourth-quarter free-throw shooting accounted for 13 of West Branch’s 20 points.
Lambert noticed that, too.
“West Branch hit some shots, some big shots in tough situations,” he said. “The thing we’ve got to improve on is we just turned the ball over too much tonight, and that kind of did us in at the end. In a crucial situation where we needed to hit a bucket — to either go ahead or make the margin a little bit smaller — we found ourselves maybe giving the ball up. But our overall effort was never a question. They did a good job.”
Closing the gap to two points in the fourth quarter gave the visitors hope, and Lambert said he told his players during time outs to keep that momentum going.
“We had to continue taking care of the ball,” he said. “We had a stretch there where we kind of forced some things, where we forced some tough shots for West Branch, and we capitalized. It takes good defense to follow up and close the gap. So during time-outs we kept harping, ‘Defend, defend — no second chances for West Branch’ and to capitalize on offense.”
Lambert hoped to see his team take the same level of play into their final game before Christmas against Williamsburg.
“What we saw tonight has to show up not only on Thursday, but … in practice,” he said. “If we play like we did tonight, we can win some basketball games.”
Burger said he was glad to see underclassman Lukavsky have a good night.
“He’s capable of doing it on defense and offense,” the coach said. “He missed some bunnies here and there, but once he gets (momentum), it’s actually too bad we’re going into Christmas break now.”
Burger called five games in eight days “really ridiculous,” especially with two games falling during finals week.
“I’m not blaming anybody, but we’ll have to look at that in the future. It’s not fair to the kids to have to do this, but they responded when they needed to down the stretch,” he said. “We came off a tough game (against Camanche the night before) and got home at 11:30 and got back up at it and thinking about finals is not easy, so we’re just happy to get out of here with a win, take a few days off and get after it and back on Jan. 2 with a conference game.”
Burger scheduled a scrimmage game during Christmas break in addition to regular practices.
The Bears shot 73.3 percent from the free-throw line and 40.3 percent from the field. The Golden Hawks shot 58.3 percent from the free-throw line and 46 percent from the field.
Mid-Prairie opened the game with 8-2 run, with five points from Pickard. West Branch then turned the momentum with a 5-2 run that included baskets by Cornwell and Lukavsky and a free-throw by Cornwell. Mid-Prairie called its first time-out with 3:39 left to the first quarter and a 10-7 lead.
Cornwell put in a putback basket, then Butters sank two back-to-back for a 14-9 lead. West Branch went on another run, this time outscoring the visitors 9-2 with Cornwell, Lukavsky and Thompson contributing to take an 18-16 lead in an aggressive first quarter.
In the second quarter, the Bears used the first six minutes to double up on the Golden Hawks and spread the scoring around. Cornwell opened with a basket, followed by a Thompson layup, then a Lukavsky three-pointer, a Cornwell layup, a basket by junior Brett Schiele, and a basket by Thompson, scoring 13 points. Mid-Prairie managed a layup by Pickard, a trey by Tornow and another layup for seven points. West Branch called a time-out with 2:02 left in the half and a 31-23 lead.
The visitors jumped right back in with three baskets in a row, followed by one from West Branch junior Ted Bridges, and the lead dropped to four with the home team still on top 33-29 when the half expired.
Returning after halftime, Lukavsky got things going with a three-pointer and the Golden Hawks responded with two of their own by Pickard and senior Cary Schaefer, putting Mid-Prairie within a point, 36-35.
Cornwell shot a basket, then broke away for a second, followed by a Thompson basket and another Lukavsky triple, widening the margin to 10 and bringing the score to 45-35 when the visitors called time-out with 3:52 left to the quarter.
After some back-and-forth without scoring, Butters put in a layup, then two fouls by the Golden Hawks resulted in four straight free-throws sunk by Schiele and Thompson. Butters put in another basket and the third quarter ended with another 10-point Bears lead, 49-39.
West Branch’s first points of the fourth quarter came off a Lukavsky one-and-one, which the visitors followed with a layup by Tornow. Lukavsky stole the ball for a layup and a Bear foul gave Pickard a chance to sink two at the line.
Thompson hit a basket, Mid-Prairie got two from free-throws, and Cornwell put in both on a one-and-one before West Branch called time-out with a 57-45 lead and 5:28 left to the game.
Butters capitalized on a shooting foul to sink both free-throws, then the Golden Hawks got a layup, then a trey by Pickard. Two more free-throws and then a Butters lay-up and the visitors cut the Bear lead to 59-55.
Two fouls by Mid-Prairie put Cornwell at the line, where he sank all four attempts. In that same stretch, Tornow dropped in a layup and a foul put him at the line to get a third point. A Bear foul put Pickard at the line, where he sank the back end of two attempts. This put Mid-Prairie within two, 61-59, as the visitors called time-out with 1:25 left in the game.
Cornwell put in a layup, and West Branch called a time-out with 1:02 remaining.
The visitors attempts at fouling led to the Bears shooting five-of-six at the line, four by Cornwell and one by Lukavsky, and no points by Mid-Prairie as time expired and the home team led 68-59.
1 2 3 4 T
WB 18 15 16 19 68
MP 16 13 10 20 59
West Branch stats: Cade Aspelmeier 3 rebounds, 2 steals, 3 fouls; Beau Cornwell 9 11-12 30, 1 3-pointer, 3 rebounds, 7 assists, 6 steals, 2 fouls; Brady Lukavsky 1 rebound, 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 foul; Brett Schiele 1 2-2 4, 1 rebound, 1 assist; Tanner Lukavsky 6 3-4 18, 3 3-pointers, 5 rebounds, 3 assist, 3 steals; Ben Thompson 6 2-5 14, 2 rebounds 1 steal, 1 foul; Ted Bridges 1 0-0 2, 1 rebound, 4 assists, 3 fouls; Jack Dragovich 1 rebound, 1 foul. Team totals: 23 18-23 68, 4 3-pointers, 23 rebounds, 17 assists, 13 steals, 11 fouls.
Mid-Prairie stats: Brad Tornow 4 1-2 10, 1 3-pointer, 5 rebounds, 6 assists, 1 steal, 3 fouls; Cary Schaefer 1 0-0 3, 1 3-pointer, 1 rebound, 1 assist, 1 block, 5 fouls; Grant Boyse 0 1-2 1, 1 rebound, 1 steal, 1 foul; Cale Robertson 3 0-0 7, 1 3-pointer, 1 rebound, 2 assists, 1 steal, 2 blocks, 1 foul; Ethan Trimpe 1 rebound; Josh Slaughbaugh 1 foul; Dominic Pickard 5 3-4 16, 3 3-pointers, 3 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal, 2 fouls; Kyle Miller 1 0-0 2, 1 rebound, 1 block; Tom Butters 5 2-2 12, 14 rebounds, 1 block, 2 fouls; Chaz Patterson 4 0-0 8, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 3 fouls. Team totals: 23 7-12 59, 30 rebounds, 14 assists, 4 steals, 5 blocks, 18 fouls.
West Branch 68
West Liberty 34
On Dec. 16, West Branch traveled south of the interstate and entered Comet territory, coming out of there with a 68-34 victory.
The Bears shot more than 45 percent from the field and 40 percent from the free-throw line.
1 2 3 4 T
WB 14 15 22 17 68
WL 4 7 8 15 34
West Branch stats: Cade Aspelmeier 2 0-0 6, 2 3-pointers, 1 rebound, 1 assist, 1 block, 1 foul; Beau Cornwell 8 0-0 18, 2 3-pointers, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 steals, 2 fouls; Ben Kyllingstad 2 0-0 4, 1 rebound; Brady Lukavsky 2 0-3 4, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals; Zach Thompson 0 2-2 2, 1 rebound, 2 fouls; Brett Schiele 1 0-0 2, 2 rebounds; Tanner Lukavsky 2 0-0 6, 2 3-pointers, 7 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 steals, 2 fouls; Ben Thompson 5 0-0 10, 3 rebounds, 2 assist, 1 steal, 2 fouls; Ted Bridges 4 0-0 9, 1 3-pointer, 3 rebounds, 1 assist; Trey Eagle 2 0-0 5, 1 3-pointer, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 steals; Matt Whaley 1 rebound, 1 assist; Jeff Bowie 1 0-0 2, 1 assist, 1 foul; Jack Dragovich 1 rebound, 2 assists, 1 block, 1 foul. Team totals: 29 2-5 68, 8 3-pointers, 33 rebounds, 14 assists, 10 steals, 2 blocks, 11 fouls.
West Liberty stats: Colton Kaalberg 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 fouls; Seth Feldman 3 2-4 9, 1 3-pointer, 10 rebounds, 1 block, 2 fouls; Tanner Iske 2 4-4 8, 3 rebounds; Austin McMichael 1 rebound, 2 fouls; Gavin Chown 1 0-0 2, 1 assist, 1 foul; Brent Meyers 1 1-2 3, 2 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 foul; Spencer Daufeld 4 4-7 12, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 3 fouls. Team totals: 11 11-17 34, 1 3-pointer, 22 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, 1 block, 11 fouls
West Branch 41
Regina 57
The Bears hosted Regina Dec. 15 and lost to the undefeated Regals, 57-41.
West Branch shot just under 27 percent from the field and more than 57 percent from the free-throw line.
1 2 3 4 T
WB 0 7 18 16 41
Reg 17 11 18 11 57
West Branch stats: Cade Aspelmeier 1 0-0 3, 1 3-pointer, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal; Beau Cornwell 4 6-7 15, 1 3-pointer, 3 rebounds, 2 fouls; Brady Lukavsky 1 0-0 3, 1 3-pointer, 1 rebound, 1 foul; Zach Thompson 1 rebound; Brett Schiele 1 0-1 2, 1 foul; Tanner Lukavsky 2 0-0 4, 2 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 foul; Ben Thompson 2 4-6 8, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, 2 fouls; Ted Bridges 0 1-2 1, 2 rebounds, 1 steal; Trey Eagle 0 0-2 0, 1 assist, 1 foul; Jeff Bowie 1 1-3 3, 2 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 block, 1 foul. Team totals: 13 12-21 41, 3 3-pointers, 21 rebounds, 7 assists, 3 steals, 1 block, 9 fouls.
Regina stats: Zach Seamen 0 1-2 1, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, 4 fouls; Bryce Barnett 2 2-2 6, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 fouls; Masen Miller 2 0-0 5, 1 3-pointer, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 fouls; Jacob Sueppel 1 rebound, 1 assist, 2 fouls; Jocoa Kerschen 5 0-0 13, 3 3-pointers, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 fouls; Jake Phillips 4 0-2 9, 1 3-pointer, 1 rebound; Even Brauns 7 1-2 15, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, 3 blocks, 4 fouls; Alex Moore 1 foul; Luke Stein 2 0-0 4, 2 rebounds, 1 foul; Blake Berns 2 0-1 4, 4 rebounds, 4 fouls; Jacob Clark 1 rebound, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 foul. Team totals: 24 4-9 57, 31 rebounds, 14 assists, 2 steals, 3 blocks, 25 fouls.
West Branch 71
Camanche 79
The Bears traveled Dec. 18 to Camanche, but fell to the Panthers 79-71.
1 2 3 4 T
WB 15 26 14 16 71
Cam 16 28 10 25 79
West Branch stats: Cade Aspelmeier 1 0-0 3, 1 3-pointer, 2 assists, 3 fouls; Beau Cornwell 15 3-4 38, 5 3-pointers, 12 rebounds, 1 assist, 3 fouls; Brady Lukavksy 1 0-0 2, 1 rebound, 3 steals, 5 fouls; Brett Schiele 1 0-0 2, 2 rebounds, 1 steals, 1 foul; Tanner Lukavsky 2 3-4 7, 5 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 block, 4 fouls; Ben Thompson 3 5-13 11, 18 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal, 4 fouls; Ted Bridges 2 2-4 6, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, 4 fouls; Jack Dragovich 1 rebound. Team totals: 25 15-27 71, 6 3-pointers, 44 rebounds, 10 assists, 7 steals, 1 block, 24 fouls
Camanche stats: Carson Seeser 4 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals, 2 fouls; Caleb Delzell 4 0-2 4, 9 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 foul; Jordan Lawrence 3 4-4 10, 4 rebounds, 1 assist, 4 fouls; Jordan Lawrence 3 4-4 10, 4 rebounds, 1 assist, 4 fouls; Dev Patel 11 5-10 32, 5 3-pointers, 13 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals, 3 fouls; Cameron Sorkensen 7 10-13 29, 5 3-pointers, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, 4 fouls; Jaxson White 1 rebound, 3 fouls; Evan Hall 1 0-0 2, 1 assist; Calvin Ottens 1 0-0 2, 5 rebounds, 3 blocks, 4 fouls; Unknown: 2 rebounds. Team totals: 25 19-29 79, 10 3-pointers, 42 rebounds, 18 assists, 3 steals, 3 blocks, 21 fouls
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