Chargers too much for Morris in championship game at Sandwich
By Mike Williams — Special to the Herald
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| Aurora Central Catholic beat Morris in the championship game of the Sandwich Thanksgiving Tournament by a 74-49 score. (T.G. Smith) |
Aurora Central Catholic started fast and never looked back in the championship game of the Sandwich Thanksgiving Tournament. The Chargers charged to a 24-point opening quarter, thanks to hot shooting from senior Joey Guth, en route to a 74-49 win over the Morris Redskins.
The win left ACC with a perfect 4-0 mark in the tournament, while Morris finished with a record of 2-2.
Guth set the nets on fire in the first quarter draining four of his five 3-point attempts. He finished the opening stanza with 17 of his team’s 24 points as the Chargers built a ten point lead.
“Joe was really feeling it tonight,” said ACC head coach Nathan Drye afterward. “He’s a tremendous shooter and he got it going from the very beginning today, and our kids did a nice job finding him.”
Guth, who led all scorers with 28 points, finished the night with seven treys. In ACC’s previous game Guth scored 30 points.
“He’s a scoring machine,” Drye added. “He’s more athletic than what he looks. He can fill it and also get to the basket. He’s clever as far as getting his shot off, and he’s quick off his feet.”
Morris got a big first quarter out of junior Kjeld Torkelson, who scored nine of his team high 23 points, but he didn’t get much help offensively as ACC shut down one of Morris’ other big threats, senior Kevin Henry, who was held without a field goal and scored just two points for the game.
“I think it’s no secret coming into each ball game that Kevin Henry is the top priority for scouting reports of opposing teams,” said Morris coach Joe Blumberg. “Our guards need to do a better job of finding him when he is available, and we’ve got to change some of our schemes to get him the ball whether it’s in the high-post, low-post, short corner, or wherever.”
Henry did contribute a team high eight rebounds, but went 0-6 from the field.
“We wanted to swarm (Henry) in the post and make sure he had no touches,” said Drye. “Henry’s a beast. Our big man in the middle, Kent (Brauweiler) did a great job boarding and not giving him good position down there. Our other guys did a good job swarming whenever Henry did get the ball in the post.”
For the game, the Redskins shot just 34 percent from the floor (15-44) while ACC shot 51 percent (27-53).
“They’re a very good ball club, especially when they shoot that well,” said Blumberg. “They graduated a lot of seniors and we didn’t know what to expect of them. They have a system that the kids believe in, they play zone and they play it aggressively. They fire up a lot of threes and tonight quite of few of them (10) went in.”
The Chargers enjoyed a 35-22 lead at halftime after Morris’ offense fizzled with a 2-13 performance from the field in the second quarter. Brauweiler opened the third quarter with a layup which triggered a 7-0 run by ACC pushing their lead to 42-22.
Torkelson scored 11 points in that quarter for Morris, and his 3-pointer with under 2:00 to go forced ACC to call a timeout as the Redskins had pulled to within 49-37. That’s as close as Morris would get, however, as the Chargers then went on a 12-0 run that stretched into the final quarter.
Josh DeGraaf added 11 points in the loss, while Phil Struck chipped in with seven.
Blumberg was asked for his thoughts regarding Morris’ play in the tournament.
“I’m still a little frustrated by the Streator game,” he said, referring to the Bulldogs 56-49 win over Morris on Tuesday. “I feel we let that one slip away. We did come back and beat a gritty Sandwich team on their home floor (52-44 Friday night), and we knew we were going to have our hands full tonight.”
Next up for the Redskins is the conference opener at LaSalle-Peru on Friday.
“We’ve got four days to prepare for L-P,” said Blumberg. “I hope our kids are geared up for the NCIC opener. L-P won a regional championship last year, and they were the team that knocked us out, so we’ve got a lot to play for.”
As far as championships go, Blumberg has noticed that word being mentioned among his players as far as goals for the season.
“Our kids are talking goal-wise about being above .500, winning championships and tonight was a chance for one. I thought we played very hard tonight, but it wasn’t enough versus their talent.”
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