Bartlett nips Marian Central
For the third time in the Hinkle Holiday Classic boys basketball tournament at Jacobs, Bartlett had to battle from behind in the opening game of the Consolation B bracket against Marian Central on Friday.
Hawks' leader Ryan DiCanio sat most of the first half due to early foul trouble while the Hurricanes' Adam Pischke shot lights out, but a 23-point effort by Robby Jimenez (5 rebounds) allowed Bartlett to rally for a 57-55 victory. The Hawks will face Lakes in the bracket's championship game Saturday at 3 p.m., and the Hurricanes play South Elgin at 10:30 a.m.
In the final 3 minutes of the game, Pischke hit his fifth 3-pointer and Sam Ohlrich (9 points, 8 rebounds) followed with a layup for a 55-52 Hurricanes (6-6) lead.
Jimenez answered with his third trey of the game to tie it up with 2:42 on the clock, and the Hawks (10-3) got the ball back with over a minute to play and held out for a game-winning layup by Tyler Pauletti (6 points) with 9.2 seconds left on the clock.
"Tyler did a really nice job staying patient and letting the clock wind down, and he did a nice job finding his opening and going to the hoop for the winner," Hawks coach Jim Wolfsmith said.
Marian Central scored the game's first 7 points, capped by Wyatt Lindell's first of two 3s in the game. The Hurricanes would lead throughout the first half as Pischke scored 16 of his game-high 27 points.
"He's one of the best players in this tournament," Wolfsmith said of Pischke. "He's a shooter, and you know he's going to make some shots."
Bartlett trailed 14-8 after one quarter, but Jimenez took charge in the second scoring 11 points in the frame to pull the Hawks to within 32-31 by the break.
The second half started with the Hawks scoring the first 7 points to grab their first lead of the game, starting with a Jordan Anderson layup followed by 5 points from Jimenez for a 38-32 advantage.
"Defense, it was always about defense," Jimenez said of the second half rally. "We were able to apply good pressure, create some turnovers. That's what won it for us."
The Hurricanes committed 16 turnovers in the game, 9 coming in the second half, compared to 7 from the Hawks. Marian Central did have a sizable win on the boards, 40-25.
"We came out with no energy in the third quarter," said Hurricanes coach Curtis Price. "We missed a lot of the 50-50 balls and had too many turnovers. We weren't able to capitalize on our rebounds."
Price added: "This tournament always gives us tough competition. It prepares you for the rest of the season, and we'll learn from this."
Cal Pauletti had 8 points, Jason Hasenberg 5 points and 8 rebounds and DiCanio 5 points and 5 rebounds for Bartlett. Nick Waytula had 6 points and a game-high 11 rebounds for Marian Central.