Cavemen nip Goshen

By STU SWARTZ
Goshen News Sports Editor

January 30, 2008 10:14 am

— Victory eluded the Goshen High School boys basketball team Tuesday night in the final two minutes of a game won by the Mishawaka Cavemen 39-36 at GHS.
A 3-pointer from the left corner by 6-1 senior Cam Snyder gave the Redskins a 36-35 lead with 2:17 to go, but they would not score again.
The patient Cavemen played keep-away all the way down to the 1:00 mark before a Goshen foul stopped the clock.
After the inbounds pass, a few more seconds ticked away before 6-3 Mishawaka senior Kyle Heatherly drove the lane and scored on a nifty move.
He was also fouled and converted the Cavemen’s first free-throw attempt of the night for a 38-36 MHS lead with 0:37 on the clock.
Goshen’s 12th turnover of the game followed and the Redskins were forced to foul with 0:18 showing. Steven Heatherly, 6-2 junior, hit one of two free throws for a 39-36 Mishawaka lead.
Goshen 6-6 senior Nathan Stegelmann rebounded the miss and the Redskins called timeout with 0:13 remaining.
All the Redskins could muster was not a very high percentage shot from 3-point land. The ball bounded too far out on the court for Goshen to get a second chance.
“If we shoot the ball like we normally do, we win,” said Redskin coach Brian Bechtel. “As short-handed as we are right now, we can’t have guys not looking to score.
“We were catching the ball and looking to pass, rather than catching the ball and looking to score. We didn’t mix in enough scorers.
“We took advantage of the short corner in their 2-3 zone early in the game, but Mishawaka made a good adjustment at halftime.
“I was disappointed in our defensive effort in the first half. We just seemed to lack a sense of urgency.
“Twelve turnovers in a slow-paced game like this is awful. We had a lot of lazy passes. Mishawaka got too many second shots and they did a good job answering when we did score.”
Snyder led the Redskins with 16 points and 6-2 junior Ethan Hussey scored 10. Ryan Bartley, 6-0 senior, tallied seven and 5-9 junior reserve Alex Aguilar popped in a 3-pointer.
Hussey was credited with four assists, Aguilar and Bartley both two. Snyder led the rebounders with six.
Josh Randall, 5-10 senior, missed a second game due to a broken finger and 6-2 junior Marshall Crawford is likely lost for the season with a third injury to the same knee.
Steven Heatherly fired in 14 points for the Cavemen, now 6-8. Cortez Lee, 5-9 sophomore, scored nine and 6-3 senior Matt Layman grabbed nine rebounds.
(Box score on Page B-2)
Mishawaka coach Robb Berger said, “Any time you can win on the road against a quality team, we’ll take it. Goshen is always a tough place to play and it seems like we have been two evenly matched teams most years.
“That was a big play by Kyle Heatherly after we had run a couple minutes off the clock. Then he hits the free throw too.
“I thought we did a good job on defense. We needed to guard their perimeter shooters, so we were a little more active and got our farther in our zone.
“It seemed like Goshen hit a bunch of big ‘3s’ but our guys did a good job keeping their poise even when we fell behind.”
Mishawaka led 14-13 at the first stop, then the game slowed to a crawl with the Cavemen on top 20-17 at halftime and 31-27 going into the fourth quarter.
Snyder’s eight points, including two ‘3’s’, kept the Redskins close in the third period.
Goshen, 9-5, hosts Northern Lakes Conference leader Plymouth on Friday night.
Junior Varsity
The Redskins JV team soared to its 14th victory without a loss, 43-36.
Junior Andrew Bowers scored 14 points, junior Scott Landis 10, sophomore Taylor Kolbus six, sophomore T.J. Wright five, sophomores Andrew Litwiller and Jon Good both three and junior Mac Hussey two.
Kolbus had nine rebounds and Landis four, Litwiller and Landis both two assists and Landis four steals.