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December 29, 2008

Pizza Hut semifinal: Marshall Lions roar back, upset South to reach title game

By Andy Amey

TERRE HAUTE — In the past 366 days, the outcome and scoring margin of Terre Haute South’s 64-33 win over Marshall for the 2008 Pizza Hut Wabash Valley Classic high school basketball championship may have come up a time or two in Marshall.

“We mentioned it some way or another,” coach Tom Brannan of the Lions admitted Monday night, after his team had avenged that loss exactly one year ago (it’s Leap Year, remember) by getting four free throws from Taylor Duncan in the final four seconds of the game for a 46-42 win over the host Braves.

“We really circled [the Classic dates] on the schedule,” Brannan added. “Last year we played scared basketball.”

“We wanted to prove we could do it.”

Mission accomplished, and that 31-point margin a year ago might be as good a reason as any to explain the Lions’ comeback from an eight-point deficit in the fourth quarter.

“We worked so hard, but we came up on the short end [last year],” said Duncan. “We kind of had a chip on our shoulder after that. We worked hard in the offseason, knowing we’d probably face [the Braves] again.”

All that work was threatening to be good only for a nice-try moral victory midway through the second half. South’s Jake Odum yo-yoed the ball near midcourt for the better part of a minute before draining a 3-pointer at the third-quarter buzzer for a 36-31 South lead, and John Michael Jarvis opened the fourth period with another trey.

Marshall wasn’t about to go away, however. Freshman Jacob Duncan drained his own 3-pointer, his older brother hit one of two free throws after a scrum that left South’s Adam Austin sprawled on the court for a minute or two, and Lucas Eitel fed Logan Eitel for a basket that cut the lead to 39-37.

It was past the midpoint of the fourth quarter in the hard-nosed defensive struggle when Lucas Eitel recovered a South fumble and started a fast break, Taylor Duncan converting at the other end. He missed a free throw for a three-point play and the lead, but the score was tied with 3:41 left.

Odum drove the lane and got the call as Logan Eitel tried to draw the charge, Logan Eitel’s fourth foul, and the South senior hit a free throw for the lead. When South got the ball back, he dropped a pass to Austin, who had returned from the injury, and Austin’s layup made it 42-39 — a lead that lasted only until Lucas Eitel nailed a 3-pointer at the other end with 2:08 to go.

Another South turnover gave Marshall the ball with 1:46 left and the Lions tried to hold it, having to use one timeout to escape a trap. As the clock ticked down under a minute, Austin got a deflection but Taylor Duncan dove into a pile and got it back for Marshall, calling his team’s final timeout with 39 seconds left to save the ball.

South had fouls to give and used two of them. After the second, with 17 seconds left, Lucas Eitel got the ball like he had in winning a semifinal game over Rockville two nights earlier. This time he passed to Taylor Duncan, who launched a turnaround jumper and drew the crucial foul.

“I asked Lucas why he didn’t go all the way to the basket, and he said he thought it was too early so he gave it up,” Brannan said later. “Taylor Duncan got fouled and knocked down some big free throws.”

“I knew time was running down and I saw [the South defender] jump after me,” Taylor Duncan said. “I tried to throw up a shot, but at the same time I tried to get under his arms a little bit.

“I started the season shooting pretty good at the foul line, but I’d missed two earlier,” he continued. “I came up short, so I tried to use my legs as much as possible … and went up there with confidence.”

South tried a long pass, but Taylor Duncan played it like a free safety and intercepted. That set off a noisy celebration, but officials put a second back on the clock and Duncan added two more free throws for the final margin.

“We had some critical errors there,” coach Mike Saylor of the Braves said in discussing the fourth quarter. “Ball-handling errors were the principal reason we lost our lead.”

Asked if last year’s outcome affected Marshall’s incentive, Saylor said, “I’m sure they were fired up and I’m sure they were motivated, but Tom Brannan’s teams usually are fired up and motivated. I just think [the Lions are] really good.

“Last year was an unusual circumstance,” Saylor continued, “and they’ve gotten better. They’ve got some role players who probably shoot it a little better.”

South had a 9-2 first-quarter run to take a 14-8 lead and was up 21-13 early in the second quarter. But then Marshall, playing maybe the best man-to-man defense the Lions have ever played, clamped down and finished the half with a 12-2 spurt. Logan Eitel’s rebound basket with 12 seconds left put Marshall ahead 25-23 at intermission.

“We were really worried about our [trapping defense],” Brannan explained later, “because of leaving people open. [The Braves] hiat a couple early, so we got out of [that defense]. And I thought Lucas did a great job on Odum.”

South fell behind 29-25 and 31-27 in the third quarter, but then Odum led the 12-0 South run prior to the Marshall comeback.

Odum had 20 points and four assists for South, but no other Brave scored more than eight.

“When you’ve got three or four guys taking their one or two bad shots [in a game], that causes enough deficit to lose a close game like this,” Saylor said afterward.

Lucas Eitel had 13 points while Logan Eitel and Taylor Duncan scored 12 each for Marshall. Logan Eitel had nine rebounds, Lucas Eitel five assists.

“This was a great win for our program, and a great win for our town,” Brannan said. “I can’t say enough about the boys. Effort? There’s not a single guy who doesn’t play their hardest or doesn’t believe in what we’re doing.

“But now we’ve got a huge game [against Terre Haute North for the championship]. We probably the underdogs again [tonight],” he added.



Terre Haute South 42

Player fg 3pt ft r s pf tp

Austin 3-6 0-0 0-0 7 3 2 6

Odum 6-14 1-3 7-8 3 5 2 20

Jarvis 2-9 2-7 0-0 3 5 4 6

McGill 0-5 0-4 0-0 1 0 3 0

McIntyre 3-6 2-3 0-0 2 0 0 8

Housley 0-0 0-0 0-0 3 0 0 0

Rose 1-2 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 2

Totals 15-42 5-17 7-8 *24 13 11 42

Marshall 46

Player fg 3pt ft r s pf tp

Morey 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 1 2

T.Duncan 3-6 1-2 5-7 7 3 2 12

Lu.Eitel 5-11 2-5 1-1 5 3 1 13

Lo.Eitel 6-10 0-1 0-0 9 1 4 12

Brashear 1-6 0-3 2-2 2 0 2 4

J.Duncan 1-5 1-4 0-0 2 0 1 3

Totals 17-39 4-15 8-10 *28 7 11 46

Terre Haute South 16 7 13 6 — 42

Marshall 11 14 6 15 — 46

FG Pct. — THS .357, Marshall .436. 3-pt FG Pct. — THS .294, Marshall .267. FT Pct. — THS .875, Marshall .800. (*) Includes team rebounds — THS 5, Marshall 3. Turnovers — THS 11, Marshall 14. Assists — THS 9 (Odum 4), Marshall 10 (Lu.Eitel 5). Blocks — THS 1 (Odum), Marshall 4 (Lu.Eitel 2, Lo.Eitel 2).

Next — South (8-1) plays Northview at 6: 15 today in the third-place game. Marshall (11-0) plays Terre Haute North at 8 p.m. in the championship game.

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