Local Sports

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Division IV Boys District: P-G, Miller City win

By NATHAN INNIGER

sTAFF WRITER

Pandora-Gilboa's Nate Lee didn't score until he hit the second of two free throws with 1:20 left in the game.

But that didn't matter to P-G head coach Joe Braidic Tuesday night as the 5-foot-8 senior guard made life tough for Vanlue star Jordan Cook and the Rockets walked away with a 54-41 Division IV boys district semifinal victory at Liberty-Benton Tuesday night.

P-G (17-5), which had not won a district tournament game since 2002 when the Rockets beat Northwood 43-34, will move on to face Miller City (19-4) on Friday at 7 p.m. at Liberty-Benton.

Miller City eliminated Van Buren 56-44 in the first game, recording its first district win since 2001 when they beat Cardinal Stritch 42-31.

Lee, who guarded Cook for most of the night, held the second best scorer in the Blanchard Valley Conference to only 2 of 15 shooting from the field over the first three quarters.

"I thought (Nate Lee) did a fantastic job," Braidic said. "We talked at halftime that offensively he missed a couple things early, but we got him to realize that it is really hard to play that intensely on defense and then play offense, too.

"He is playing the point, which is also the toughest position to play and then he is guarding their best player. You figure that Jordan Cook is one of the best players in this area and he didn't get his points until this game was basically over."

Cook scored 18 points in the game, but 12 of them came in the fourth quarter.

"Jordan Cook is really a great player," Nate Lee said. "It is hard to shut him down completely because he is going to get his shots he wants.

"I just tried to make shots tough for him. My goal was not to give him many easy looks and keep the ball out of his hands as much as possible."

Without Cook's usual offensive production, Vanlue (15-7) had a difficult time scoring at times. The Wildcats only tallied 11 points over the middle two quarters.

"I thought their defensive pressure really affected us from the offensive standpoint," Vanlue coach Jeff Kleopfer said. "They really got after it. You have to credit their defense. They really hounded (Cook)."

With P-G holding a 21-14 lead coming out of halftime, the Rockets' twin towers made sure Vanlue wouldn't hang around for much longer.

Tyler Gratz scored eight points during a two-minute stretch early in the third quarter and Josh Lee followed with two buckets giving P-G a comfortable 33-16 lead late in the quarter.

Gratz finished with a game-high 20 points and had six rebounds, while Josh Lee ended up with 17 points and seven boards.

In the first game, it was all Cody Vennekotter all of the time as the 6-foot-3 senior dominated the paint with 27 points and eight rebounds in Miller City's win.

"He is just a workhorse," Miller City head coach Tyson McGlaughlin said. "You can't say enough good things about him.

"He's not the tallest, not the fastest, he can't jump the highest, but you're not going to outwork him and he has just a mindset that every time that ball goes up in the air that he is going to get the ball. He was hot and we just kept trying to get him the ball."

Vennekotter scored the Wildcats' first 10 points of the game. He and fellow senior Kyle Niese combined to score all of Miller City's 27 first-half points as the Wildcats held a slim 27-24 lead at the break.

Van Buren (11-12) was able to hang around in the first half as Andrew Bell, Clay Sudlow, Drew Ashcraft and Riley Damon were able to bury 3-pointers.

But when the chips were down in the second half Van Buren was unable to get much production inside and the "3s" stopped falling against Miller City's 3-2 zone defense.

"You have to have balance with your inside scoring and we didn't," Van Buren coach E.J. Frost said. "Our inside game was not productive. If we were productive on the inside than we've got the balance we're looking for and the offense is a lot more easy than it was."

Clay Sudlow led a balanced Van Buren offensive attack with 10 points.

The Black Knights' second half offensive struggles allowed Miller City to pull away with a 13-4 run over the final three minutes in the third quarter.

game 1

van buren (44)

Sudlow 4-1--10, Bell 2-3--8, Iliff 2-3--7, Damon 3-2--9, Palmer 1-0--2, Meyer 0-1--1, Ashcraft 3-0--7. TOTALS: 15-10--44.

miller city (56)

Lammers 3-0--7, Jo. Niese 0-0--0, Simon 0-0--0, Huerman 0-0--0, Ja. Niese 0-2--2, D. Niese 0-0--0, Hermiller 1-0--3, K. Niese 7-3--17, Kaufman 0-0--0, Vennekotter 10-7--27, R. Vennekotter 0-0--0. TOTALS: 21-12--56.

Van Buren 12 12 10 10 -- 44

Miller City 14 13 18 11 -- 56

3-Point GOALS: Van Buren 4 (Sudlow, Bell, Damon & Ashcraft); Miller City 2 (Lammers & Hermiller).

rebounds: Van Buren 21 (Sudlow 5).

turnovers: Van Buren 9, Miller City 9.

game 2

pandora-gilboa (54)

Stevenson 0-0--0, Schutz 1-3--5, Fenstermaker 0-0--0, Hall 1-0--2, N. Lee 0-3--3, Hochstettler 1-2--4, J. Lee 6-5--17, Niese 1-0--3, Gratz 10-0--20. TOTALS: 20-13--54.

vanlue (41)

Wisner 0-0--0, Chiow 3-0--6, Kliesch 1-0--2, Amesquita 0-0--0, Stone 0-0--0, Blair 0-0--0, Cook 5-6--18, Bostic 2-0--5, Kloepfer 2-0--5, Garber 2-0--4. TOTALS: 15-6--41.

Pandora-Gilboa 8 13 12 21 -- 54

Vanlue 7 7 4 23 -- 41

3-Point GOALS: Pandora-Gilboa 1 (Niese); Vanlue 4 (Cook 2, Bostic & Kloepfer).

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