By Todd Golden
TERRE HAUTE — If they’re having a Pizza Hut Wabash Valley Classic party, it’s a safe bet that Northview will be there.
The Knights are participating in their fifth Wabash Valley Classic boys high school basketball tournament and their 71-55 win over Marshall on Thursday in a quarterfinal game ensures they will be part of their fifth Wabash Valley Classic final four.
“You want to get those prime-time games. It prepares you for that sectional atmosphere later in the season,” Northview coach Mitch Lancaster said. “It’s definitely a goal to get in that final four, to get in that spotlight game.”
Northview (5-3) played smart to beat a good Marshall team. The Knights denied the Lions any easy passes off the perimeter with solid off-the-ball defense, switching to prevent Marshall from getting comfortable. The Knights were also heady off-the-ball offensively, taking advantage of several cuts to the basket to create easy buckets.
“We switched everything, which got us some tough matchups sometimes, but it took them out of their sets and took them out of their rhythm,” said Lancaster on Northview’s defense. “I thought our kids executed the gameplan really well, we never let them shoot set 3s and we played really well offensively with the lead.”
The Knights also controlled the boards, getting 10 offensive rebounds in the first half alone, on its way to a 30-24 advantage overall.
The versatility showed in Northview’s final stats. Matt Stuckey led the Knights with 19 points, making five 3-pointers. Austin Akers had 13, many opportunities created out of the Knights’ cuts, and Tyler Coltharp had 10 points, several on second-chance buckets from his six rebounds.
“We got good shots pretty much all night,” Lancaster said. “When we missed some, we got offensive rebounds and putbacks.”
For its part, Marshall never faded. The Eitels — Lucas (21 points) and Logan (15 points) — each hit key buckets to keep Marshall within arm’s length.
But Marshall coach Tom Brannan thought Lucas Eitel’s early foul trouble was a major detriment to the Lions’ cause.
“Their switches confused us a little bit, we weren’t reading screens well, but we also got in some foul trouble. Lucas is not only one of our scorers, but he’s also a point guard-type. He organizes us and leads us, so losing him hurt a little bit,” Brannan said.
Northview broke away from Marshall with a 6-0 run midway through the first quarter — Brian Meunier coming off the bench to score four of the Knights’ points during the run as Northview led 11-5.
Marshall briefly cut the deficit to three, but never got closer. Northview pushed the lead to 12 midway through the second quarter and held serve for the remainder of the half to lead 35-23.
Marshall (6-4) made a bit of headway in the middle of the third quarter, slicing Northview’s lead to nine, but a 3-pointer and a three-point play by Akers made it 48-34, and the Knights would keep the Lions at that margin for the remainder of the game. “You have to give Northview all the credit. They played hard, their defense was efficient and they kept us off the boards. We’ll learn from this and play hard the rest of the way,” Brannan said.
Northview will play Terre Haute South in a 7 p.m. semifinal today. Marshall will face Greencastle in a 4 p.m. contest.
Northview 71
Player fg 3pt ft r s pf tp
Timm 2-8 0-0 5-6 4 1 1 9
Coltharp 5-7 0-0 0-0 6 1 2 10
Miller 3-7 0-1 2-3 4 1 3 8
Stuckey 7-12 5-8 0-0 2 0 3 19
Akers 3-5 2-3 5-9 6 0 3 13
Meunier 2-5 0-2 0-0 3 0 1 4
Brock 3-5 0-0 1-2 2 0 0 7
Sanabria 0-1 0-0 0-0 1 0 1 0
Lancaster 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 0
Reynolds 0-0 0-0 1-2 0 0 0 1
Whitman 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Reberger 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 0 0 0
Totals 25-51 7-15 14-22 30* 3 14 71
Marshall 55
Player fg 3pt ft r s pf tp
Johnson 2-6 0-2 0-0 3 0 0 4
Lo. Eitel 5-13 1-2 4-8 9 2 1 15
Bullock 2-5 1-3 0-1 0 1 1 5
Boyer 2-3 0-0 0-0 3 2 3 4
Lu. Eitel 8-13 3-6 2-2 2 0 5 21
Brashear 1-3 0-0 0-0 2 0 2 2
Byrd 1-1 0-0 0-0 1 0 3 2
Burnam 1-4 0-2 0-0 1 0 1 2
Ooka 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 0 1 0
Wolter 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 0 0 0
Totals 22-49 5-16 6-11 24* 5 17 55
Northview 16 19 15 21 — 71
Marshall 10 13 11 21 — 55
FG Pct. — N .490, M .449. 3-pt FG Pct. — N .467, M .313. FT Pct. — N .636, M .545. Turnovers — N 8, M 12. Blocks — N 3 (Miller 3), M 0. (*) Includes team rebounds — N 1, M 2.
