BUNKER HILL —
Several Mid-Indiana Conference boys basketball squads got back in the race for a league title Friday night, and the Maconaquah Braves are to thank.
Maconaquah and Western jockeyed for position for the first three and a half quarters here Friday night before the Braves took the lead for good with four minutes to play and held on for dear life in a 60-58 win over the Panthers.
The entire contest was played within a seven-point margin, including a six-point margin in the final eight minutes.
The Braves stretched the lead to 55-49 with 1:03 to play, but Western reeled Maconaquah in over the next 53 seconds led by Des Balentine, who hit a 3-pointer, a pair of free throws and a driving floater on successive possessions before Ronnie Smith’s putback pulled Western within one at 59-58 with 10 seconds left.
The Panthers fouled K.J. Walton on the ensuing inbound play, and Walton managed to hit one of the double bonus, marking the third time in as many trips that the Braves managed to hit just one of their two charity tosses.
Trailing 60-58 with five seconds to play, Balentine drove the lane and dished off to Smith at the block, who had his contested shot roll off the rim. The ball was batted around with no one being able to corral it as the final buzzer sounded.
“It feels like I played four quarters. I’m exhausted,” Maconaquah coach Andy Steele said. “I told the kids ‘This is a time where we can back down or fight through the adversity.’ I put a quote up [Friday] about staring adversity in the face and punching it right in the face. I thought we did that.
“We’re an athletic group. We play together. I think we were one of the [conference] favorites coming into the season, and hopefully we proved that [Friday] night.”
The win for Maconaquah left Peru as the only unbeaten team in MIC play. The Bengal Tigers beat Taylor on Friday night to move to 3-0 in league play. Maconaquah, Western and Hamilton Heights all sit within striking distance at 3-1.
Maconaquah led by as many as seven on two occasions in the first quarter before taking a 16-14 lead into the second period. Fourteen of the Braves’ points in the first stanza came on second-chance opportunities.
“We had some execution issues early in the first half and dug ourselves a little bit of a hole there,” Western coach Bart Miller said. “We just never really covered. Hats off to Maconaquah. They came out ready to play and executed better than we did [Friday] night.”
The Braves (8-4) took a 30-27 lead into intermission, and led the entire third quarter before Western’s Evan Warden was fouled shooting a 3-pointer with three seconds left and hit all three freebies, giving the Panthers a 45-44 lead headed into the fourth.
Warden’s long rebound and breakaway layup helped Western (8-5) surge ahead momentarily at 49-46.
Back-to-back post buckets by Micah Pier helped the Braves pull ahead for good at 51-49.
Western entered the fourth quarter with just six turnovers, but committed six more over the final eight minutes, hindering the comeback attempt.
Jordan Bradley overcame foul trouble to lead Maconaquah with 16 points and six rebounds. Pier added 15 points and 11 boards, while Adam Harts chipped in 13 points for the Braves, who played the second half without point guard Trevor Hagan, who left with a shoulder injury in the second quarter and did not return.
Senior Austin Townsend led Western with 21 points and 15 rebounds, but only attempted one field goal and didn’t score in the fourth quarter. Warden added 16 points and Balentine chipped in 15.
Sports
Maconaquah shakes up MIC title race
Braves hold on to beat Panthers, knocking Western from league lead.
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Kats regain tennis throne
At 10:51 a.m. Saturday morning, the bulk of Kokomo’s girls tennis team sprinted from the viewing hill to the east entrance of the tennis courts to mob No. 1 singles player Morgan Mohr as she came off the court following her 1-6, 6-1, 6-1 victory over Eastern’s Courtney Clark.
The No. 3 singles match was still raging, but the team match was already won. The Wildkats had reconquered the throne from two-time defending champion Eastern and were once again champions of the Kokomo Sectional. -
Eastern boys track claims first sectional title since 1998
The boys track and field coach at Eastern High School from 1987 until last season, Paul Nicholson’s parting message to his team was simple: “Don’t deny the gift.”
That motto left such a lasting impression on the Comets’ returning athletes that they had it screen printed on their 2013 season T-shirts.
With Nicholson in attendance to celebrate with them, new coach Austin Roark and the Comets outlasted host Kokomo to win their first sectional title since 1998 Thursday night, topping the Wildkats by 3.5 points, 124.5-121.
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Eastern, Kokomo favored in boys track sectional
Some of the names and faces have changed, but the plot remains much the same.
The Kokomo boys track and field sectional, much like last year, will likely be a two-horse race between the host and three-time defending champion Wildkats and Eastern, a team looking to break through and win its first sectional title since 1998. -
Cole to jump at Miami University
Eastern athlete Grant Cole has only been a long jumper for two seasons, but being turned on to the event late in his career has landed him a scholarship to Miami University.
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Comets roar to sectional title
As the old adage goes, it’s harder stay on top than it is to reach the top.
Eastern’s girls track and field team entered the 2012 postseason hoping to put in a strong enough effort to claim the program’s first sectional title.
Having done so, the Comets entered Tuesday’s postseason opener — the Madison-Grant Sectional — with a much larger bull’s-eye on their backs than in previous years.
Eastern proved up to the challenge, scoring a landslide victory to repeat as sectional champions with 125 points. -
Dexter leaving Eastern
Eastern girls basketball coach Jeremy Dexter has stepped down from the Comet program after accepting the AD job at Churubusco last week. Churubusco is in Whitley County about 15 minutes west of Fort Wayne.
Dexter led the Comets to a Class 2A state runner-up finish this past season. -
Hunter edges Shrout in Thunder Car thriller
Two drivers who are no strangers to Victory Lane returned there Sunday night at the Kokomo Speedway. Meanwhile, a third driver scored just the second feature win of his career at the local oval to highlight the racing action.
Chris Hunter, the winningest Thunder Car driver in the history of the local oval, ground out a gritty win over defending track champion Jason Shrout to highlight the chilly night. -
Girls track sectional is tonight
Eastern’s girls track and field team is ready to chase some more championship hardware.
Two weeks ago, the Comets won their fourth straight Howard County meet. Last week, they won their fourth straight Mid-Indiana Conference meet. Now, the postseason is here, with the Madison-Grant Sectional tonight.
“We’re looking forward to taking the next step,” Eastern coach Michael Goodspeed said. -
Athlete of the week
Oyler led the way as Class 2A No. 5-ranked Eastern beat Cass (4-3) and Hamilton Heights (5-4 in 12 innings) to move to 6-0 in the Mid-Indiana Conference with one league game remaining.
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Page family bonds over martial arts
A mother and father to six children, Jason and Denise Page began to run into your typical challenges associated with such a large family back in 2008, once the oldest children reached an age where they started to have desires to be involved in sports and other extracurricular activities.
As the commitments started to pile up, it didn’t seem like there were enough hours in the day to accomplish all the pitstops and still have time left over to fellowship as a family.
Karate to the rescue. - More Sports Headlines
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