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Top Stanton 46-41_______ _ \Deliberate Malvern wins first Corner CrownBy Jeff MittsOpInlorvT clbune Sports EdMorTABOR—Malvern opened up a big first-half lead then had to fend off a pesky Stanton team to earn its first Corner Conference basketball title ever Saturday night. 46-41.“The conference was set up in I % I, and wc had never won the conference tournament or regular season.'’ said Malvern Coach Gee Robinson. This is a first for us, and we're tickled to death/’Robinson said that the fact that Malvern had never won a confer* ence crown may have had something to do with Stanton’s second-half comeback, and the close game.The Panthers got out of the starting blocks quickly, opening up an U-point lead at one time in the sccond quarter, and held a 27-18 halftime margin.But the hustling Vikings whittled away at the lead, finally tieing the game at 39-39 with a£out three minutes to go. But Darin Blackburn got inside for a bucket and Pat Thomas hit a long jumper to give the Panthers a lead and allowed them to go into their delay game, Jim Ahern and Ed Mulholland hit key free throws later to ice the game.“In the second half we just wouldn’t take it too them,” said Robinson. *'in my mind, we weren’t going for the win, we were playing not to lose.”Both teams hit 18 field goals, and the difference was at the foul line. Stanton made five of eight and Malvern hit 10 of 18, five of nine in the final frame.Thomas led the winners with 15 points, and sophomore Darin Blackburn added 13, Keith Hallquist was high man for the Vikings with 20, and Kevin Blunt added 10.Darin Blackburn did a fine job,” said Robinson. He had 13 points and 13 rebounds, and that’s what we needed. All of our starters are capable of double figures, but only two have been scoring—we neededRebound battleMalvern 's Darin Blackburn bat lies with Nishna Valley’s Rich Moore for a rebound in hist Thursday 's semi- final action. Malvern topped Valley in that game 47-42. then went on to edge Stanton 46-41 in the finals Saturday nightto give the Panthers their first Comer basketball crown ever. Malvern was helped out in the final game by Blackburn’s 13 points.someone to pick up the slack.This Sthmon club is a hustling outfit. We had a few too many■rturnovers, but a Jot of mistakes came from their hustle.This was the second time for a Malvern team in the Corner finals. The Panthers played for the title four years ago. but fell to South Page.’Besides a first-place trophy, Malvern leaves the tourney with an8-2 mark, while surprising Stanton falls to 7-4,Malvern St anion1510Malvern12 7 8 812—46 15—41Pal Thomas Darin Blackburn Ryan Crouch Tin) Way mire Jim Ahc-rn Ed Mulholland TotalsFGFTTP64*61551-21332-5830-0b12-3A0 -..... 1-211810-1846StantonFGFTTP100-120A2-31022-2620-3401-2r185-1341■’ v'' , .. ' ■ i ‘ , '. '• .~ riifiittfriVii rr r ' ' i ■- w • :• s* .-.•Up for grabsThe scoreboard pretty much tells the story as Stanton's Mike Kenuon (.?/} and Fremont-Mills' Mitrvin Hill go after this jump bull in the closing seconds of regulation time in their semi-final gameThursday night. Kennon won the jump and Stanton went on to tie the game, finally winning with a basket by Kevin Blunt at the end of the second overtime,Keith Hallquist Kevin Blunt Mike Kennon Juii Requist Karl Grolenhuis TotalsBoth teams got into the finals with narrow victories Thursday night at Nishna Valley. Malvern topped Nishna Valley 47-42, and Stanton came from behind to take a 61-59 double overtime thriller from top-seeded Fremont-Mtlls.Stanton 61, F-M 59Keith Hallquist led the Vikings with a game-high 28 points in the opener, but it was Kevin Blunt who saved the day with a shot at the buzzer of the first overtime, then got the winning bucket in the second.The contest was nip and tuck from the opening tip as the biggest margin any team could gain was a six-point spread by F-M twice in the second period. But as the clock wound down to the final minutes of regulation, it became a matter of which team could make the least mistakes.The Knights led 52-48 with just over two minutes to play, but a basket and free throw by Hallquist cut the margin to 52-51 with 1:03 left. Ten seconds later the Vikings tied up the ball, and controlled the tip with a chance to go into the lead.They cleared a side out for Hallquist, who went one-on-one with Mike Dougherty, sending Dougherty to the bench with his fifth foul. Hallquist converted the first free throw, but missed the second leaving the game tied at 52 with 31 seconds remaining.F-M called a timeout with 13 seconds, remaining to set up the final play, but Scott Gaylord was fouled on the inbounds pass, Gaylord made his first, but missed the second as John Meier fouled Hallquist on the rebound, setting up another free throw at the other end of the court.Again Hallquist made the first, but missed the second tieing the score at 53, forcing the first overtime.As the final seconds were ticking off the first overtime, the Knights held a 56-55 lead, and Stanton had the ball with a chance to win. But F-M’s Marvin Hill stepped in front of a Stanton pass for an interception, and was quickly fouled.Hill made the first free throw with 12 seconds remaining to give theKnights a 57-55 lead. He missed the second, and F-M grabbed the rebound, only to put up a shot that missed.Hallquist grabbed the rebound with six seconds remaining and flipped the ball to Blunt. He dribbled the length of the court, pulling up at the free throw line, launching a desperation jump-shot with :QJ showing on the clock. The ball bounced off the backboard and fell through at the buzzer sending the game into the second overtime.The teams traded baskets in the sccond overtime until Stanton had an out-of-bounds play under its own basket with 11 seconds remaining. Oncc again it was Blunt. He shook • free from his man and was. wide open under the basket for the winning layup with nine seconds to play.Fremont-Miljs called timeout, but Gaylord’s desperation shot at the end of the game failed.“Tough would be the nicest way of ^describing the game,” said a -disappointed F-M Coach Randy Botts. --•••• I ■- •“We took a number of poor shots, our shot selection while we were ahead wasn’t very good, but I guess that’s why they are kids.”Scott Gaylord led the Knights with 22 points, the two big men inside, Mike Dougherty and John Meier chipped in 12 points each. Dougherty fouled out at the end of regulation time.Sure, it hurt losing Mike, but we had plenty of opportunities to win without him,” said Botts.We got out-hustled. Stanton was always coming up with the loose balls. We were probably out-shot, 1 don’t know for sure, but I do know we were out-thought. We just got caught, and that’s all there is to it.”StantonFremont-Mills13 10 11 13Stanton111419 4 4—61 15 4 2—59Keith Hallquist Kevin Rlunt Kerl Grothenhus Tom Perkins Mike Kennon Jud Request .Dave Bruning TotalsFremont-MillsScott Gaylord 'Mike Dougherty John Meier Marvtn Hill Greg'Dougherty TotalsFG11922210ft6-11o-oo-oo-oo-o0-o1-2TP28184442I27 7-131. 61FG FT TP6 10-15 225 2-8 124 4-8 122 5-6 92 0-0 419 21-37 59Malvern 47, NV 42Free throws played an important part in Malvern’s 47-42 win over Nishna Valley in the night-cap.Although the statistical difference doesn’t jump out of the box scores at you—Malvern 9-13, Nishna Valley 8-19—individually, it made the difference.Nishna Valley’s leading scorer, Frank Durbin, and a 90 percent free thrower on the season, hit only three charity tosses and missed six. On the other side, Malvern’s Jim Ahern hit five of six shots, all in the crucial final quarter.“Not much doubt about what won this one, was there?” questioned Robinson after the game. ”1 guess it was just our turn.”NV Coach Doug Deskin echoed those words: “It was just one of those nights.”A seven-point lead was the biggest either team could muster, that by Malvern near the end of the game. A key play came with just under two minutes to play, as a basket by Ryan Crouch had justgiven Malvern a 39-35 lead.Valley countered at the other end, and Mike Mercer was fouled as he grabbed an offensive rebound with 1:44 to play. When Robinson stood up to talk to one of his players he was slapped with a technical foul. Valley had a chance at three free throws, and would get the ball back with a chance to take the lead.But Durbin missed the technical shot, Mercer made his first, but missed the second, and Valley missed a shot from the field,That really hurt,” said Deskin. “We had a chance for a five-point play that would have put us right back in the game, but got only one point.”Robinson was relieved that the play turned out like it did. “It was the right call,’’ he said. “I respect the call, but don’t agree with the rule,” High school rules prohibit coaches from standing except to congratulate a player.With Valley’s big chance down the drain, Malvern used its delay game to finish out the 47-42 victory. “I guess you can chalk up another one to Walt (Stanton),” said Robinson.Both coaches also said that the Blackhawks inability to capitalize on Malvern's early foul trouble was a deciding factor in the game.Ryan Crouch led all scorers with 16 points, and Frank Durbin added 15 for Valley. Malvern’s Pat Thomas and NV's Mike Mercer were also in double figures with 11 each.Malvern Nishna Valiev8 15 14 8 16 9JO—47 9—42MalvernFGFTTPRyan Crouch72-216Pat Thomas51-311’Jim Ahern25-69Tim WaymirD31-27Darin Blackburn20-04Totals199-1347Nishna ValleyFGFrTPFrank Durbin63-915Mike Mercer43-411Dick Steiner31-37John Moore20-04Rich Moore11-33Ron Frink- 10-02Totals178-1942jNV tops F-M for 3rd, 52-51TABOR—Nishna Valley and Fremont-Mills must not know that consolation games are supposed to be nothing games that nobody really cares about.But both teams showed that they cared a lot about winning the third-piace trophy at the Corner Conference Tournament, and when the dust had cleared, that trophy went to the Knights with their 52-51 win.“We played very good,” said Valley Coach Doug Deskin. “We had a couple of mistakes that hurt, but when you play a good team every mistake counts.”Nishna Valley took the upper hand first, jumping out to a 16-8 first-quarler lead, and that allowed the Blackhawks to cope with F-M's big height advantage.“Their height advantage wasn’t a big problem,” said Deskin. “We got the early lead, and that kept them out of a zone and forced them to play man-to-man. We didn’t get as many offensive rebounds as we would have liked, but the height wasn't a problem.”Fremont-Mills got on track the sccond quarter and had the margin cut to 26-22 by halftime. Then a 22-17 spurt in the third period gave the Knights a 44-43 lead heading into the final frame.We just traded baskets the fourth quarter,” said Deskin. “It was a matter of who got the ball last. Our last lead was at 48-47 with about three minutes to play.”Nishna Valley did have the ball last, but the final shot was off the mark, and Fremont-Mills escaped with the win.Nishna Valiev 16 10 Fremont-Mills 8 ]lt;JNishna Valley FGFrank Durhin Mike Mercer Dirk Steiner Rich Moore John Moore TotalsMike Dougherty John Meier Scott Gaylord Marvin Hill Greg Dougherty Totals5 841725Freniont-Mills FG ' 7 05 42241722FT0-00-01-20-00-01-2FT242-30-00-10-04-K8—51 H—52TP10169•)+9H51TPIfi1-J10H4■»
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