Posted: Sunday, January 17, 2010 12:10 am | Updated: 12:22 am, Sun Jan 17, 2010.
By Peter Adelsen staff writer padelsen@kokomoperspective.com | 0 comments
For the first time since the 2000 season, the Taylor High School Titans are Howard County Tournament Champions.
The Titans defeated the Eastern High School Comets on their home court Saturday 72-59.
It has been a tournament dominated by Northwestern and Western high schools for the past decade, but neither of those teams made it to the championship. They battled each other in the consolation game with Western winning 70-59.
In the championship game, the Comets jumped out to an early 4-0 lead over the Titans in the first quarter. Before the Titans could score their first points senior Reomey Northington, the Titans' leading scorer on the season, had to be taken out of the game after the air was knocked out of him with 6:14 to go in the quarter. Luckily for the Titans he returned with 5 minutes remaining in the quarter.
The Comets led 6-5 when Northington returned. From that point on, he scored 8 of the Titans last 11 points including a three-pointer at the end of the quarter. The Titans led after one quarter, 16-10.
The Titans added to their lead with a 10-3 run to begin the second quarter with a 26-15 lead. Eastern junior Wes Horner ended the run with a three-point basket with 4:38 to go in the quarter. The Titans later got an 11-point lead with 1:40 to go after two made free throws from junior Tyler Simmons. The Comets responded to end the quarter on a 6-2 run to bring the score to 33-26 Taylor lead at halftime.
The Comets made another push in the third quarter to cut the Titans' lead to three points with 6:08 to go after senior Brandon Hainlen made two foul shots. This was the closest the Comets would get. The Titans closed the third quarter strong to increase their lead to 55-41, including a shot from senior Drake Herr at the quarter buzzer.
There was no scoring in the fourth quarter for nearly two minutes until Eastern's senior Joby Renbarger made two free throws with 6:15 to go in the game to cut Taylor's lead to 55-43. However, this would end up to be the second-highest scoring quarter in combined scoring with Eastern scoring 18 and Taylor scoring 17 for 35 points. Of those points, 17 were from the foul line. Eastern made five of nine and Taylor made 12 of 16. The Titans went on to defeat the Comets 72-59.
"Our kids have done a nice job for the last four games," Taylor coach Jeff Fisher said. "I really thought we were set to win this and I told (the team) that. We played well at Hamilton Heights and Mississinewa and then again last night against Western."
The Titans had four players in double-figures scoring and were led by Northington's 22 points. The other players in double figures were Herr with 13, junior Tyler Simmons with 12 and senior Seth Vautaw with 10 points.
The Comets had two players in double-figures scoring and were led by Renbarger's 18. Sophomore Joey Price scored 17 points.
"We got to hand it to Taylor in terms of winning the county championship," Eastern coach Duane Keisling said. "I thought they really took us out of some things that we tried to do and I think especially defensively they did a good job. They need to be congratulated on a good tournament win."
Taylor (7-4) next takes the court at home against Mid-Indiana Conference rival and third-ranked Peru Tigers (12-1) in Class 3A on Friday at 7:30 p.m. Eastern (6-4) hosts conference foe Hamilton Heights (9-3) at 7:30 p.m. Friday.
Scores by quarter:
Eastern 10 16 15 18 =59
Taylor 16 17 22 17 =72
Western (7-5) and Northwestern (5-5) host conference foes as well on Friday at 7:30 p.m. Western hosts Maconaquah (4-6) and Northwestern hosts Lewis Cass (2-8).
Other scores from Saturday:
(4A-9)Carmel 56, (4A-16)Kokomo 45
Hamilton Heights 65, Western Boone 58
Logansport 68, Lewis Cass 61
(2A-3)Tipton 87, Twin Lakes 68
No comments:
Post a Comment