Carrollton bounces back with win over Bunker Hill

Dec 14, 2016 10:06 AM

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CARROLLTON - After suffering their first defeat of the young season to the North Mac Panthers, the Carrollton Hawks bounced back with a 57-40 victory over the Bunker Hill Minutemen.

After suffering their first defeat of the young season to the North Mac Panthers, the Carrollton Hawks bounced back with a 57-40 victory over the Bunker Hill Minutemen.

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Carrollton had a balanced attack with Matthew Campbell leading the way with 15. Jeremy Watson came right behind him with 14 and Jacob Stendeback chipped in 13. Dane Sellars led the Minutemen in scoring with 12 points and Austin Yates and Elijah Dannenblink each tallied eight points.

The Hawks wanted to attack the paint early on to take chances with their distinct height advantage over the Minutemen, who didn’t start anyone over six-feet tall.

“It was interesting to look through the mismatches because either we were going to have a tough time matching up with them or vice versa and so we wanted to get the ball inside because we knew we had an advantage there offensively,” Carrollton head coach Jeff Krumwiede said. “We were able to mix it up scoring both inside and out. I’m happy about our offense not being so easy to guard and can’t be as predictable.”

“We had only 13 rebounds the entire game,” said Bunker Hill coach Jay Goltz said. “It also seemed like every rebound, loose ball, and foul call did not go our way in the fourth. Our boys played a tough game but unfortunately it did not go our way tonight.”

Defensively, it was a challenge for Carrollton because Bunker Hill lived and died by the three and four players made at least one triple.

“We had our bigs out there guarding three-point shooters and penetrators,” Krumwiede pointed out. “I thought we held our own okay and happy with our defense overall even though the mix-matches were evident.”

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“They saw why we struggled to stop [North Mac’s] offense and gave up 70 points and most of it was a lack of defensive intensity. Tonight, I thought we had that.”

It was a low-scoring affair particularly in the first half when neither side could enforce them. There were times when the Minutemen would take short leads, but the Hawks on top most of the time and took the lead for good late in the first half on a Jayce Arnett three-pointer.

In the third quarter, Stendeback scored nine points and successfully crashed the boards. Carrollton grabbed 15 rebounds on the night and turned several of them into points, including a three-pointer by Lane Schnettgoecke that killed off an 8-0 run by the Minutemen late in the quarter.

“He’s always been a good offensive rebounder, and we’ve always stressed offensive rebounding. Points off turnovers and offensive putbacks are the two biggest things in basketball that change outcomes. We’ve been about fifty-fifty with both so far,” Krumwiede said. That battle is one that we emphasize, and it’s what put us over the hump tonight.”

The Hawks used a big fourth quarter to run away from the Minutemen as they outscored them 20-7, which included a 13-0 run that pushed the lead from 41-36 to an 18-point lead. Bunker Hill attempted and missed a big portion of long-range shots, while it was usually Watson and Campbell scoring in transition that fueled the scoring push for the Hawks.

At 7:30 p.m. Friday in Carrollton, the Hawks host the Triopia Trojans in their first WIVC game of the season.

The seedings for the Waverly Holiday Tournament are out and Carrollton the No. 3 seed and will take on Springfield Lutheran at noon on Dec 26. Bunker Hill, now an even 4-4, hosts Metro East Lutheran for a 7:30 p.m. Friday game.

Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.