CP runs win streak to 7

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Crown Point's Tommy Bardeson guards Lowell's Zach VanHook during a game on Saturday, February 18, 2012, in Lowell. Bardeson scored 27 points and VanHook scored 30. | Mark Smith~Sun-Times Media

Crown Point 91, Lowell 69

CROWN POINT (11-8) 21 - 25 - 13 - 32 === 91

LOWELL (7-11) 9 - 15 - 23 - 22 === 69

2-18-12 at Lowell

CROWN POINT (91) Zach Plesac 3-5-13, Braxton Rice 5-1-12, Tommy Bardeson 8-11-27, Dejan Stefanovic 5-3-16, Bret Barclay 5-0-11, Zak Bostian 0-2-2, Nick Jeffirs 3-0-6, Alex Nickla 1-0-2, Noah Burkholder 0-2-2, Peter Parks 0-0-0, Markus Kessler 0-0-0.

TOTALS: 30 (24-33) 91.

LOWELL (69) Danny DeBoer 7-1-18, Aaron Hamm 4-1-9, Nick Kijurna 2-2-6, Zach Van Hook 9-10-30, Austin Magley 1-0-2, Kyle Richwalski 0-2-2, Spencer Kersey 1-0-2, Brandon Bullitt 0-0-0, Nick Willison 0-0-0, Dan Willoughby 0-0-0. TOTALS: 24 (16-30) 69.

FREE THROWS: CP (24-33, 72.7%) Bardeson 11-14, Stefanovic 3-3, Bostian 2-4, Rice 1-2, Plesac 5-6, Burkholder 2-2, Nickla 0-2.

LOWELL (16-30, 53.3%) Van Hook 10-13, Richwalski 2-8, Kijurna 2-4, DeBoer 1-3, Hamm 1-2.

REBOUNDS: CP (20) Barclay 8, Rice 4, Plesac 3, Jeffirs 2, Stefanovic 2, Bostian; LOWELL (26) Kijurna 7, Van Hook 5, Richwalski 5, Kersey 4, DeBoer 3, Magley 2.

ASSISTS: CP (18) Bardeson 6, Plesac 5, Stefanovic 4, Rice, Bostian, Barclay; LOWELL (9) DeBoer 4, Magley 3, Van Hook, Kijurna.

FOULED OUT: LOWELL (3) Austin Magley (4th Q) 5:08 left; Aaron Hamm (4th Q) 4:36 left; Danny DeBoer (4th Q) :08 left.

TECHNICAL FOUL: Lowell bench (4th Q) 1:21 left.

3-GOALS: CP (7) Dejan Stefanovic 3, Zach Plesac 2, Braxton Rice, Bret Barclay; LOWELL (5) Danny DeBoer 3, Zach Van Hook 2.

Duneland Athletic Conference

DAC Overall Offense-Defense

Lake Central 12- 1 17- 2 64.4 49.7

MERRILLVILLE 8- 5 12- 7 56.7 55.4

Valparaiso 8- 5 12- 7 52.1 45.2

Michigan City 8- 5 9- 9 53.3 52.1

CROWN POINT 7- 6 11- 8 61.4 55.4

LaPorte 5- 8 8-11 54.9 54.2

Chesterton 4- 9 6-12 53.8 59.2

Portage 0-13 1-20 41.5 61.5

Saturday, Feb. 18

CROWN POINT 91, LOWELL 69

MERRILLVILLE 58, Hobart 50

Friday, Feb. 24 - JV game begins at 6 p.m.

CROWN POINT at Chesterton

Lake Central at LaPorte

MERRILLVILLE at Portage

Michigan City at Valparaiso

(end of the regular season)

Article Extras

Updated: February 21, 2012 4:06PM

LOWELL — Sometimes a basketball team is playing better than its record indicates.

With the Crown Point Bulldogs, this is probably not one of those times.

While CP won for the seventh consecutive game, 91-69 at Lowell late Saturday, the Bulldogs overall record is 11-8, looking at 12-8 if they defeat Chesterton in the regular season finale Friday.

For all its recent success, Crown Point plays like a 12-8 team.

The “we’ve won seven straight” Bulldogs again showed off how gifted they are at a lot of positions Saturday, getting an entertaining 27 points and six assists from junior Tommy Bardeson and a perfect 5-for-5 from the field and 3-for-3 from the line (though he did make four turnovers) from senior lead guard Dejan Stefanovic.

Junior center Braxton Rice scored 12 with a dunk. Sophomore up-and-comer Bret Barclay scored 11 with eight rebounds and two blocked shots. CP sank 30 of 51 from the floor and passed around 18 assists.

They led 19-6 and 43-17.

But the “11-8 Bulldogs” committed an uncomfortable 23 turnovers and let that 26-point lead slip down to 53-45 in the final minute of the third period.

“I think we came out not ready to play in the third quarter,” said CP coach Clint Swan, who saw his team clinch a winning season for the fifth time in his six years at the school. “It became kind of a perfect storm. They were able to string together some scores. We kept fouling them. The biggest issue was the number of fouls we committed. It really wasn’t the officiating. We were fouling them. And that, to me, is always the genesis of a comeback”

Lowell definitely plays like a 7-11 team.

“We just can’t dig ourselves a hole like that,” said Lowell coach Nate Richie. “We did that against Andrean (trailing 22-2 in the first quarter) when we played them. You’ve got to make free throws (Lowell was 16 of 30) and you’ve got to take care of the basketball. It’s a simple game.

“Same thing we’ve been fighting all year. We show signs of being a really good team but then we go back to the mistakes we’ve been making all year.”

CP was 17 of 29 from the floor (58 percent) in the first half and scored 20 consecutive second quarter points to take a 43-17 lead with 1:07 to go before halftime.

But Lowell went to a smaller line up without 6-foot-9 center Kyle Richwalski and put full court defensive pressure on Crown Point, creating 15 second half turnovers.

Nick Kijurna’s lay up cut the lead to 56-47 but CP’s Zach Plesac threw in a 60-foot desperation shot at the end of the third period to pump the lead back up to 12.

After a free throw by Lowell’s Richwalski began the fourth quarter, CP scored eight in a row including a dunk by Braxton Rice to blow the lead up to 67-49 with 6:40 left in the game.

“I was very impressed with Lowell in the second half,” said Swan. “They played with a lot of heart. Van Hook was tremendous.

“But we did a good job getting it under control. About halfway through the fourth quarter we adjusted to the game.

“We’ve got to do better playing through contact and adjusting to trends. Understanding time, score and situations.

“We did a good job in the fourth quarter. We scored 32 point s in the fourth. Not too many teams score that many points in the fourth quarter.”

Lowell, against good teams, falls far behind, thenmakes a passionate, dramatic rally to get back in the game.

Then, with a short bench, the Devils fade at the end and the final score isn’t pretty.

This same Red Devil scenario has played out against winning teams Bishop Noll (15-3), Munster (16-3), Andrean (17-2) and now CP (11-8).

Second year coach Nate Richie gets great effort from his players, but, if they can’t start big games by at least keeping the score tied in the first quarter, it will be a very short post-season.

“It’s a tough sectional,” said Richie. “Our guys know that we show flashes of being able to beat anybody, but we don’t put 32 minutes together. They know we’re capable. But you cant dig holes like we do. We played a great first half against Munster but we start the third quarter and they go on a 16-0 run.”

“We cut Andrean’s lead to eight but we had started the game (trailing) 22-2.”

The biggest story of the 20-game regular season for CP may be the comeback of the 6-foot-1 Stefanovic, who may have played his best game at Lowell.

In the first quarter, the senior guard scored nine points and passed out three assists as CP stepped out to a 21-9 lead. On a young team (just three seniors) that plays out of control at times, Stefanovic, who has been injured or ill much of this CP career, is an increasingly steadying influence.

“He’s healthier,” said coach Clint Swan. “And as a result of being healthier, he’s quicker. And as a result of being quicker, he’s a little more confident. He’s showing a little more moxie out there.”

Crown Point is a true wild card going into the eight-team Class 4A Sectional 2 next week because nobody knows what they’re going to do.

CP has a lot of talent, maybe more than any of the other sectional teams.

With five regulars at 6-foot-4 or taller and only three seniors on the varsity, the Bulldogs are still somewhat a work-in-progress even though there’s no time left to work and progress.

“We have to adjust to situations better,” Swan repeated. “And we’ve got a lot of guys whose solution is to attack-attack-attack. A lot of times discretion is the better part of valor.”

CP-LOWELL NOTES: CP coach Clint Swan wanted to credit his coaches for getting CP ready for the Lowell game just 24 hours after a league match with Portage.

“I totally put everything into the Friday night game,” he said.

“And for our coaching staff (assistants Brian Elston and Kevin Thomas plus JV coach Mike Holobawski) to come through for me, that was the big thing tonight. They really got us ready for this game.”

Crown Point rolled over Portage 63-34 Friday, Portage’s 17th loss in a row.

CP’s Tommy Bardeson scored 18 points and Dejan Stefanovic passed out five assists. The Bulldogs led 14-2 at the quarter and 45-23 after three quarters in CP’s final home game. Portage scored just nine field goals in the entire game..

The last time Crown Point scored 90 points or more was Dec. 22, 2006 when the Bulldogs defeated Portage 96-67.

It’s a limited statistic because the post-season is largely in March, but, with the two wins last weekend, CP is now 25-7 in the month of February in six seasons under coach Clint Swan.

Bardeson (17.2 ppg.) is a hard-charging runaway train type of player averaging 3 1/2 turnovers a game. But he also averages four assists and two steals a game while shooting 75 percent (81 of 108) from the foul line an 32 percent (32 of 99) from three-point range.

Zach Plesac missed a free throw Saturday night and the rest of the game wasn’t canceled. But Plesac shoots 97 percent (27 of 31) from the foul line, 49.5 percent (51 of 103) from the field and 37.3 percent (19 of 51) from three-point land.

Crown Point junior forward Sean Kelly missed both games last weekend due to illness. The 6-foot-5 transfer student from Seton Academy in Illinois has started four games and played an average of 11 minutes with 3.5 points per game this season.