North Lawndale makes most of extra chances against Carmel

North Lawndale 70, Carmel 52: Some teams can get away with getting pounded on the offensive glass.

Some can get away with committing more turnovers than usual.

Few can get away with both in the same game.

That's the quandary Carmel found itself in Wednesday night at the Grant Thanksgiving tournament.

North Lawndale crashed the offensive glass for multiple second-chance opportunities and putbacks, totaling 22 offensive rebounds on the game. The Phoenix also forced Carmel into 19 turnovers, many of which led to easy baskets. It all added up to a 70-52 victory for North Lawndale over Carmel.

North Lawndale is now 3-0 on the season while Carmel drops to 0-3.

"We play a lot of small ball. We're not very big. Our coach tells us day in and day out that all of us have got to play tough and get to the boards," North Lawndale guard Martrell Barnes said. "Every time the ball goes up, I'm going to crash those boards. Every time."

The 6-foot-2 Barnes wasn't exaggerating. He made a living on the offensive boards. He alone accounted for six offensive boards. He finished with a game-high 27 points, 2 of which came when he missed a 3-pointer, spectacularly flew in to follow the miss and pushed in an easy putback.

"We always put down key points to the game and rebounding was the No. 1 point, and Martrell Barnes said, 'I got you Coach,'" North Lawndale coach Lewis Thorpe said. "He's a good ballplayer. Very under-rated. He's good."

Barnes had 20 points and 7 rebounds, 5 on the offensive end, by halftime. He helped North Lawndale blow open a 33-19 halftime lead.

The Phoenix had also forced Carmel into 9 first-half turnovers, six in the second quarter when they outscored Carmel 18-9.

"We just weren't consistently getting bodies on them when the shot went up, which is all we talked about in the pregame," Carmel coach Zack Ryan said of his team's rebounding woes. "We're not athletic enough or strong enough to just turn and look at the ball and go get it.

"And the turnovers…that's just something we've got to keep playing through. We had 20 in Game 1, too. Our goal is 12 and below. We've got to clean that up."

North Lawndale got 9 points apiece from Carlos Hines and Clavonne Hillard. Steven Ross added 7 points.

For Carmel, guard Brian Julien finished with a team-high 16 points on 3 three-pointers. He was scoreless at halftime.

"I'm on (Julien) about being more aggressive," Ryan said. "He doesn't take many shots. In the first two games, he was 60 percent from the field but had only taken like 18 shots. We don't want him to be passive. He's a tough guard for people. He just needs to shoot more. He did well tonight. He just has to keep practicing and keep working."

Sophomore forward Jonathan Roeser added 11 points for Carmel while guard Evan Myers had 8 points.

- Patricia Babcock McGraw