Published: December 31, 2008 10:15 am         

Mustangs fall in final to Orion

MVP Hutton takes charge in comeback

ERIE, Ill. — He was already voted Warkins Cardinal Classic Most Valuable Player by coaches and attending media, but Orion's Josh Hutton looked anything but the part in the first half of the tournament's championship game against Morrison on Tuesday night.

Hutton missed seven of his first eight shots, and while he struggled, his team struggled against a determined Mustang defensive effort, as Morrison took a 13-point lead just two minutes into the third quarter.

But when Hutton found his shot, his teammates found their footing, steadily climbing back into the game behind a 23-7 run that lifted the Chargers to a 55-46 victory and tournament title at the Erie High School gym.

And the performance — which saw Hutton make his final nine shots en route to a 21-point, five rebound effort — left his father and coach, Brent Hutton, somewhat mystified.

“I have no idea how we won that basketball game,” Coach Hutton said. “Morrison played very aggressive defense against us. I think we had 15 turnovers in the first half (actually 16).

“But we played a lot smarter team basketball in the second half, and Josh hit some big shots. It was a great job, overall, as a team effort, but especially when Josh gets the feel of it, it helps everyone else.”

Morrison (11-5) put the screws to the Chargers (13-2) early, jumping to a 15-6 lead with one minute left in the first quarter. It was the first time that any team in the Warkins field had thrown a serious challenge at Orion, the tournament's only undefeated squad.

And early on, Mustangs guard Jason Smith looked like the MVP instead of Hutton. Smith had 12 first-half points and had five steals, serving as the key instigator of Morrison's quick start.

But the Chargers started to make a move midway through the third quarter behind back-to-back 3-pointers from Danny Driskell and Hutton, and Morrison stopped attacking on the offensive side of the ball.

“We just didn't run our offense as well as we wanted to, but we came out in the second half and did a lot better job at getting into a flow,” Josh Hutton said. “We ran the same offense both halves, but shots just fell for us better (in the second). We were just getting better looks once the second half started.

“And we could tell that they had a little bit tougher time getting to their go-to guy.”

Morrison Coach Dale Trott agreed.

“I think we stopped being aggressive, not necessarily on defense, but on offense,” Trott said. “The Hutton boy is a nice player and he really hurt us. With them in foul trouble, we were in either the one-and-one or the super bonus for a long time there, and we just didn't make any free throws. We thought that was going to bite us in the butt, and it did.”

While Morrison faltered, Orion kept up the surge. Hutton knocked down three tough shots in the fourth quarter and then nailed down the victory with six free throws in the final minute to seal the victory.

“Jason had a great night. I'm sure he'd tell you that he took a couple of shots where he maybe wasn't patient enough. But we didn't have anybody else in double figures. We should, every night ... maybe not 20 points a game but at least 10, 11 or 12,” Trott said. “We want to get 30 from our big kids, and I think we had about 12 (13 actually)."

Smith and Travis McBride both earned all-tournament honors, as did Erie's Matt Temple.



Cardinals finish fourth

Host Erie (8-8) never trailed by more than five points against Three Rivers Conference rival Riverdale in the third-place game, but the Cardinals couldn't overcome the Rams' stern perimeter defense, falling 46-42.

”I was very excited because we played our style of basketball. Ultimately, what decided the game was that we turned the ball over too many times (15 in all, compared to Riverdale's seven),” Erie Coach Ryan Winckler said. “What I told our guys (after the game) was that last year we were 4-12 at this point and we only lost three the rest of the year.

“Everything we're doing wrong we can fix in practice. And between the weather and the tournaments we've had at Cambridge and getting ready for this, we haven't had a real practice for over two weeks. We'll have four practices a week the rest of the way. Now there'll be time to fix the fundamentals with what we're doing wrong.”

Matt Pyse led the Cardinals with 11 points, while Matt Temple added 10, with five rebounds. Jordan Garrison had six points and seven rebounds for the Cardinals. Riverdale was paced by the tenacious defense of Tyler Smeltzly, who had 20 points and six steals.

ORION 55, MORRISON 46

Score by quarters

Orion 8 5 20 22 — 55

Morrison 15 7 12 12 — 46

ORION (13-2) — Josh Hutton 6-15 6-6 21, Matt Knoll 0-1 0-1 0, Lucas Grymonprez 0-4 1-2 1, Ian Cooper 4-5 1-2 9, Cody Williams 4-6 3-3 11, Danny Driskell 4-5 0-0 9, Jared Simmer 2-3 0-0 4, Kevin Gladkin 0-0 0-0 0, Tyler DeDecker 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 20-39 11-14 55.

MORRISON (11-5) — Devin Mouw 2-4 2-4 8, Jason Smith 9-18 4-9 23, Ethan Goodenough 0-5 2-2 2, Travis McBride 2-4 0-0 4, Zach Stralow 1-3 3-6 5, Dustin Belt 2-4 0-1 4, Trevan Burn 0-1 0-0 0, Sean Smith 0-0 0-1 0, Patrick Wagenecht 0-0 0-1 0. Totals 16-39 11-24 46.

3-point field goals — Orion 4-12 (Hutton 3-8, Driskell 1-1, Williams 0-1, Grymonprez 0-2), Morrison 3-11 (Mouw 2-3, J. Smith 1-5, Goodenough 0-3). Rebounds — Orion 33 (Williams 7, Cooper 7, Hutton 5, Grymonprez 5), Morrison 17 (Goodenough 6). Fouls -- Orion 21, Morrison 20. Fouled out — Morrison (Goodenough). Assists — Orion 7 (Hutton 2), Morrison 12 (Goodenough 4). Steals — Orion 4 (Williams 2), Morrison 11 (J. Smith 5, Wagenecht 2). Turnovers — Orion 21, Morrison 8.

RIVERDALE 46, ERIE 42

Score by quarters

Riverdale 9 13 11 13 — 46

Erie 9 10 12 11 — 42

RIVERDALE (9-4) — Tyler Smeltzly 8-17 4-6 20, Wes DeClercq 1-9 4-7 7, Kyle Kupresin 3-8 0-0 6, Erik Cewe 4-5 0-0 8, Sean Coffey 0-2 0-0 0, Chase Young 2-3 0-0 4, Alec Huizenga 0-0 0-0 0, Zach Davis 0-1 1-2 1. Totals 18-45 9-15 46.

ERIE (8-8) — Matt Pyse 3-6 5-6 11, Lukas Jepson 3-7 0-0 8, Marty Temple 1-4 1-2 4, Matt Temple 4-11 2-2 10, Jordan Garrison 3-4 0-0 6, Jay Jackson 1-2 0-0 3, Dylan DeJonge 0-0 0-0 0, Deaken Reynolds 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 15-35 8-10 42.

3-point field goals — Riverdale 1-11 (DeClercq 1-5, Smeltzly 0-2, Kupresin 0-4), Erie 4-12 (Jepson 2-6, Jackson 1-1, Marty Temple 1-2, Reynolds 0-1, Matt Temple 0-2). Rebounds — Riverdale 28 (Cewe 7, Declercq 5), Erie 22 (Garrison 7, Matt Temple 5). Fouls — Riverdale 13, Erie 15. Assists — Riverdale 3 (3 players with 1), Erie 5 (Matt Temple 3). Steals — Riverdale 9 (Smeltzly 6), Erie 4 (Garrison 2). Turnovers — Riverdale 7, Erie 15.

     

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