SPORTS

December 13, 2011

Indians get gut-shot,
battling Chargers

Gary Franklin, Sports Editor

If you're familiar with the old song, "She got the gold mine - I got the shaft", you can relate to the emptiness felt by the Milan Indian varsity team and fans as they left the North Decatur Charger battle contested at NDHS on Tuesday, December 6.
The old saying, "What goes around - comes around" remains defiant for the tribe and their efforts on the hardwood. Running short on patience, they continue on to play their guts out, waiting for an honest break.
Hats off to the tribe for being the men that they are, and battling on!

Varsity Game
The Indians opened scoring with a 3-pointer by senior Braden Voss. Senior teammates Nick Ryan and Kurtis Kimla added FG's with ND hitting a FG, two FT's and a trey to knot the game at seven. Indian sohphomore Logan Alloway drained a three bomb for the lead only to have ND take the lead at 11-10 with a FG and two FT connections.
Kimla connected for three the old fashioned way with a FG/FT combination, only to have ND knot the game at 13 with a pair of FT's. Kimla added a pair of FT's, only to have ND score a FG that knotted the game at 15 by the end of the first period.
Quarter Two
The Chargers mounted a five point lead over the first three minutes of period two action, followed by a Voss FG and a Ryan connection on two FT's to trail 20-21. An Indian called time-out led to another Voss 3-pointer, giving the Indians the lead at 23-21.
A Charger time-out led to a charging foul called on Indian John Herzog, followed by a Charger FG to tie the game at 23. Another Charger FG led to Indian Voss' delivery of yet another 3-pointer, sending teams to the locker room for halftime break with Milan holding onto the slim one point edge at 26-25.
Quarter Three
Opening action in the third period resulted in another Voss 3-pointer, followed by a FG by teammate John Herzog to give Milan the early six point edge. However, as time neared the halfway mark of the third, ND knotted the score at 36.
Voss nailed a FG, but ND added a pair of FG scores to take a one point lead. Following a Milan time-out, BD returned to add back to back to back FG's, ending the quarter, ND 45-38 Milan.
Quarter Four
With everything going in their favor, ND connected on four FT's to grasp an 11 point lead before Indian Herzog connected for Milan's first FG in the fourth. Herzog added a pair of FT's, capped by ND, then added another FG to cut the tribe's deficit to seven, 44-51 at the 4:20 mark.
Herzog added yet another FG, but ND added a FG and one of two FT shots attempted. A pair of ND FT's were capped by Ryan's sinking of a pair, leading to a time-out with the tribe trailing 48-56.
As play resumed, a Herzog steal and FG led to his fifth foul being called at the 1:32 mark, but the tribe remained very much in striking distance with senior Nick Walter entering their line-up. An Alloway FG cut the score to a four point deficit, 52-56 at 1:23. An ND turnover allowed Alloway to break free for the downtown 3-pointer for a one point deficit at 55-56 and all they needed was a minute of straight up, call for call basketball, to seal the deal.
With just 34.7 seconds remaining on the regulation game clock, Alloway toed the charity stripe line and nailed a pair of FTs to give the tribe a hard earned lead at 57-56.
Following a called time-out, the Chargers scored a FG to regain the lead, but Milan had last possession of the basketball. At 4.3 seconds on the clock, driving down the lane for the bunny, foul or both, senior Kurtis Kimla was knocked to the floor, but the call made was travelling.........
And that's another story!
Varsity Quarter Scores
ND Chargers 15 25 45 58
Milan Indians 15 26 38 57
Varsity Individual Scoring
ND Chargers 58
Sr Paul Badgley 25
Jr John Hammersmith 17
Sr Jesse Elsner 5
Sr Jeremiah Volk 5
Jr Jason Kirchhoff 4
Sr Bobby Beeler 2
Non-scorers were Kevin Geis, Derrick Nobbe and Brock Ricke.
Milan Indians 57
Sr Braden Voss 16
Sr John Herzog 13
So Logan Alloway 12
Sr Kurtis Kimla 10
Sr Nick Ryan 6
Non-scorers were Nick Walter, Joey Davis, Willie Mays and Patrick Baker.
JV action
In opening action, the Milan JV escaped with a 42-40 overtime victory, behind coach Jeff Stutler.
Trailing 9-4 at the end of the first period, Indian Wade Cooper drilled a three pointer to begin second quarter. action. Teammate Gavin Detraz nailed a buzzer beater FG to end the period, sending the teams to the locker room for the halftime break, ND 15-11 Milan.
Indian Wade again opened period play in the third with a long range 3-pointer, cutting the deficit to a single point. Five ND points later, Wade connected for yet another three. ND scored and Indian Willie Mays connected for a FG. Indians Detraz buried a pair of FT's, Jon Spurlock lit the net with a 3-pointer and Joe Mayes added a FG to send the tribe to the fourth quarter up by a score of 26-24.
Indian Joe Mayes opened scoring in the fourth period with a steal and back to back breakaway FG's. With six seconds remaining in regulation, Charger Mitch Knecht delivered a 3-pointer to knot the game at 36, where it remained, forcing overtime.
Initial overtime action resulted in a Charger score for the lead. A Willie Mays FT and a steal and lay up by Indian teammate Detraz put Milan on top by one at 39-38. Over the remainder of the period, Indians Joe Mayes and Detraz each added a FT, while ND connected for just one FG resulting in a Milan JV 42-40 come from behind victory
JV Quarter Scores
Milan Indians 4 11 26 42 ND Chargers 9 15 24 40
JV Individual Scoring
Milan Indians 42
Jr Joe Mayes 13
So Cooper Wade 10
So Gavin Detraz 8
So Jon Spurlock 7
Jr Willie Mays 4
Non-scorers were Logan Karsteter, Joe Bixler and Sam Thompson.

ND Chargers 40
So Josh Weintraut 10
Jr Mitch Knecht 10
So Devon Taylor 10
Jr Derrick Nobbe 4
Jr Johnathon Nobbe 2
So Dylan Koors 2
So Derek Welton 2
Non-scorers were Trevor Crites and Matt Harrison.