Monday, December 11, 2006

CMA wins at the Lion’s Den

BREMEN — On paper it was a mismatch. During pre-game warm-ups it looked like a mismatch. Evidently no one told Bremen this because the Lions gave Culver Military Academy all they wanted Saturday night before falling 64-51 in a hard-fought high school boys basketball game at the Lions’ Den.

The game started like most suspected. The Eagles gave Bremen a heavy dose of their inside game and specifically 6-foot-7 Remigijus Untulis. When the big guy didn’t take it to the hoop, he kicked it out to the array of Eagle three-point bombers leading to an early CMA 32-16 lead at the half.

Then the Lions started to chip away.

Led by the outside shooting of sophomore Chris Hueni, who would finish with seven 3s and a career-high 25 points, Bremen started closing the gap. At the end of three quarters CMA’s lead had shrunk to 10 points. The feisty, inexperienced Lions kept hammering away and with two minutes left in the game Bremen was within four.

“I have a lot of respect for Bremen,” said Eagles head coach Tommy Mascari. “I knew they weren’t going to give up. They made a run and then we had our own little run there at the end and it was just enough.”

In the last few minutes, CMA’s junior playmaker Giedrius Lopeta took the game over with two treys and a couple drives to the basket and Bremen’s run was over. Lopeta finished the game with a dazzling 24 points and countless nifty moves to the bucket. Untulis also had a magnificent game finishing with 19 points and eight blocks unofficially.

“It’s a good win,” added Mascari. “(Lopeta) did a nice job. The coaches challenged him and he responded very well. We spent some extra time going through things and he’s still trying to learn how to play basketball for CMA. He played well for us.”

The loss was tough for Bremen (0-5), considering what they have gone through this year in their first five games. They have been beat up by big schools like Plymouth and Concord, which is particularly challenging with a team absent of any varsity experience.

“We have a murderer’s row for our first seven,” commented Bremen head coach Kevin Ecenbarger. “At the start of the season we didn’t have anybody who had started a varsity game before. Every night is going to be a battle for us, but we played hard. I’m glad to see Hueni come out tonight, that is the shooter we know he can be. He got hot and put us on his back tonight.

“I don’t fault my guys’ effort,” concluded Ecenbarger. “I wish we could have been a little more intelligent with some things earlier on but we played hard. We battled back, but when you’re down 16 it takes so much energy to come back. You’ve got one chance and we made a couple errors.”

Next Friday Bremen hosts the Knox Redskins in a Northern State Conference contest.

As for the Eagles, the victory elevates their record to 4-1 as they prepare for Triton on Tuesday and Lakeland Christian on Friday. The Eagles could very well be 5-0, except for the overtime loss to Class 4A Mishawaka.

“Looking back on that Mishawaka game, it still kind of hurts, but you have to put it behind you,” added Mascari. “Our kids have learned from that experience. We are trying to get better every day. Later in January, February and definitely in early March, we want to be playing our best basketball.”

CMA64, BREMEN 51
At Bremen
CMA (64): Jake Kohr 5 1-2 12, David McIntyre 1 0-0 2, Adam Pickrell 0 0-0 0, Matt Dinwiddie 1 0-0 2, Justin Murphy 0 0-0 0, Lavarr Barnett 0 0-0, Patrick Graff 2 1-4 5, Matt Marrs 0 0-0 0, Thomas Anderson 0 0-0 0, Peter O’Daniel 0 0-0 0, Jida Xu 0 0-0 0, Giedrius Lopeta 10 1-2 24, Sam Hopkins 0 0-0 0, Remigijus Untulis 9 1-2 19. TOTALS: 28 4-10 64.
BREMEN (51): Steve Cornett 0 0-0 0, Aaron Koontz 5 0-2 10, Brad Harrington 0 4-6 4, Chris Hueni 8 2-2 25, Kyle Hudson 1 0-0 2, Eric Zeltwanger 1 0-0 2, Tyler Dendy 0 0-0 0, David Leeper 0 0-0 0, Ryan Hessler 0 1-2 1, Ben Klinge 1 5-5 7, Matt Bahr 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 16 12-17 51.
Score by Quarters
CMA  15 32 45 64
Bremen 8 16 35 51
3-point goals: CMA 4 (Lopeta 3, Kohr), Bremen 7 (Hueni 7). Team Fouls (fouled out): CMA 16 (none), Bremen 13 (Koontz). Records: CMA 4-1, Bremen 0-5. JV Score: CMA 38, Bremen 36 (OT).