Boys basketball: Indiana All-Stars rally past Kentucky All-Stars to complete sweep
By ANdy Proffet Post-Tribune corespondent June 9, 2012 11:32PM
Ron Patterson, left and DeJuan Marrero of Indiana pressure Kentucky's Tamron Manning in the backcourt. The Indiana vs. Kentucky All Star teams squared off in high school basketball action at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis Saturday June 9, 2012. The Indiana boys won 83-73.Rob Goebel/The Star.
Updated: July 11, 2012 10:37AM
INDIANAPOLIS — Too much talent again for Kentucky to overcome.
The Indiana All-Stars trailed at halftime Saturday night, but a heady play by IU’s future point guard put Indiana ahead for good.
Driving for a layup, Park Tudor’s Yogi Ferrell instead dished to Pike’s R.J. Hunter. The Georgia State-bound Hunter hit a 3-pointer to put Indiana ahead for good in an 83-73 win on Saturday.
Down one at halftime, Indiana had tied the game early in the second half when Mr. Basketball Gary Harris hit 1-of-2 free throws.
But Kentucky answered with a 14-8 run to take a 55-49 lead.
Time for Indiana’s defense to step up.
“We were talking on defense, made it a lot easier on ourselves,” Harris said. “That led to easy steals and a lot of easy baskets on the other end.
“We knew we could score on offense, we just needed to stop them on defense.”
Indeed, the go-ahead score was set up by Jeremy Hollowell’s rebound of Kentucky’s fourth straight missed field goal. Hollowell set up Ferrell for the layup, but Ferrell found Hunter instead.
The victory stretched Indiana’s winning streak in the series to nine games.
Indiana hit its largest lead at 79-60 with 3:21 to play, before Kentucky cut the score.
“It’s tough to come together in a week and get guys to play together,” said Indiana head coach Craig Teagle of Jay County. “Every one of those 13 young men are outstanding gentlemen, and they’re going to be great college basketball players.”
“We all clicked,” Harris said. “It felt like we had been playing together for a couple of years.”
Harris led Indiana with 17 points and was named player of the game — fitting honors for the player whom Hunter acknowledged as the tone-setter.
“I think we all wanted to live up to the hype,” Hunter said of a team featuring seven Big Ten signees. “We’ve been labeled as a Dream Team now, so we had to live up to that.”
Ron Patterson added 14 points and Hunter scored 11. Lake Central’s Glenn Robinson III and Bowman Academy’s DeJuan Marrero each finished with three points.
Indiana notched 14 steals and forced 22 turnovers — nine steals and 13 turnovers in the second half.
“R.J. had like eight steals in a row, Yogi did too, we were just playing our game,” Harris said.
Actually, Harris was the top thief on the night, with a game-high five steals.
Jay Johnson led Kentucky with 16 points. Jeril Taylor scored 12, Kentucky Mr. Basketball Nathan Dieudonne added 11 and Tamron Manning scored 10.
