North starts slow, but finds way past Casey

By Andy Amey

TERRE HAUTE — No one could explain what happened to host Terre Haute North during the first half of its Pizza Hut Wabash Valley Classic opener against Casey in high school basketball Saturday afternoon.

But plenty of people were willing to say they never wanted to see it again.

“Somebody once told me to enjoy every win,” coach Todd Woelfle of the Patriots said after his team’s 52-26 win, which was nowhere near as decisive or impressive as that score makes it appear.

“But everyone in our locker room realizes it is essential for us to play much better — not only in this tournament, but the rest of the season.”

It was a record-setting performance for both teams, but not in a good way. Each now shares the Classic record for fewest points in a quarter — North getting four in the first period, Casey four in the second stanza — while Casey’s 10 points at intermission represented the lowest-scoring half in Classic history and the combined total of 25 first-half points also set a new standard for futility.

And in that lowest-scoring half in Classic history, Casey didn’t trail until the final minute before intermission.

“Give Casey credit. I thought their kids played really hard,” Woelfle noted later.

Neither team scored for almost three minutes, and Casey had leads of 2-0, 4-2 and 6-4 in a first quarter in which the Warriors hit 3 of 11 shots from the field and North just 1 of 11.

When Casey’s Riley Scales — a 5-foot-9 guard who would become the game’s leading rebounder — tallied with an offensive rebound near the midpoint of the second quarter, it gave the Warriors one basket from each of their starting players, and a 10-6 lead.

North got a basket from Thomas Anderson to cut the lead to two points, then forged the game’s third tie when Andrew Gauer got free for a layup on a pass from Chris O’Leary with 2:33 left in the half.

It was still 10-10 with 50 seconds left in the half when Casey’s Clinton Scott grabbed a defensive rebound and North’s Chase Jones was called for a foul by landing on his back. Scott threw an elbow and was called for a technical foul, and Jones sank two free throws to give the Patriots their first lead of the game.

Less than 20 seconds later another rebound scrum under the North basket ended with North’s Justin Gant tumbling over a pile of players and Casey’s Chris Unzicker whistled for another technical foul. Jones hit one of two free throws, and the Patriots scored on the ensuing possession to go up by five at the break.

Two free throws by Scott cut the lead to three points at the start of the third quarter, and another free throw by Kruz Kusterman followed a North basket to make the score 17-13. But then the Patriots figured out they had a huge size advantage inside, and a combined five baskets from the 6-8 Gant and the 6-6 Anderson contributed to a 14-2 run that put the game out of reach.

“We were finally able to get the ball in the post,” Woelfle said afterward. “In the first half we settled for outside shots. We have guys who can hit them, but we have to get the big guys touches.”

“Our kids never backed down,” said coach Brad Carrell of Casey. “Everybody knows we were outmanned at basically every position … but we were hustling, doing things we can control.”

The Warriors hadn’t played well in the first half either, Carrell agreed. “We didn’t knock down shots or take care of the ball,” the coach said, “and in the second half we forgot about attacking the basket.”

Gant led all scorers with 12 points, while Jones had 10 plus four steals and Anderson scored nine for North. Several Patriot reserves saw action, most of them earlier than usual. “We just tried to find somebody to give us a little spark,” Woelfle said later. “We just didn’t play well — in any aspect.”

Scott scored nine to lead the Warriors. “We came in here and competed against the No. 11 team in the state [of Indiana],” Carrell concluded, “and we did fairly well.”



Terre Haute North 56

Player fg 3pt ft r s pf tp

Gant 6-14 0-3 0-2 3 1 0 12

Shipley 0-2 0-1 0-0 2 0 4 0

Anderson 4-6 0-0 1-2 3 2 1 9

C.O’Leary 1-2 0-1 0-1 2 1 2 2

Jones 1-2 0-0 8-9 2 4 3 10

Blank 2-3 0-0 1-2 1 0 0 5

Sponsler 2-5 0-1 2-2 3 0 2 6

Gauer 2-3 1-2 0-0 3 0 1 5

Marshall 1-1 1-1 0-0 0 1 1 3

Newton 0-2 0-2 0-0 1 1 1 0

Bolden 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

M.O’Leary 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 0 0 0

Totals 19-40 2-11 12-18 *27 10 15 52

Casey 26

Player fg 3pt ft r s pf tp

Scott 3-9 0-0 3-4 4 2 2 9

Kusterman 1-8 0-1 4-6 5 0 2 6

Unzicker 2-3 0-1 0-0 4 0 4 4

McVey 2-4 0-2 1-3 3 1 2 5

Scales 1-4 0-0 0-0 6 0 5 2

Shull 0-1 0-0 0-0 1 0 0 0

Carver 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Blankenship 0-2 0-2 0-0 0 0 1 0

Bolin 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Babbs 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Barnhart 0-2 0-2 0-0 1 0 0 0

Nichols 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Totals 9-34 0-8 8-13 *30 3 16 26

Terre Haute North 4 11 18 19 — 52

Casey 6 4 7 9 — 26

FG Pct. — THN .475, Casey .265. 3-pt FG Pct. — THN .182, Casey .000. FT Pct. — THN .667, Casey .615. (*) Includes team rebounds — THN 6, Casey 6. Turovers — THN 9, Casey 19. Assists — THN 16 (C.O’Leary 4), Casey 5 (Scott 2). Blocks — THN 4 (Anderson 2), Casey 1 (Scales). Technical fouls — Scott, Unzicker.

Next — North (7-1) plays Marshall at 7 p.m. Monday. Casey (4-3) meets Rockville at 4 p.m. Monday.

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