12-04-09
BY JACK BULLOCK
CRAB ORCHARD - Heading into the 2009-10 basketball campaign Okawville head coach Jon Kraus wasn’t sure how good his young team would be – especially in a three-game early season tournament.

This coach has a better understanding now.

His club jumped out to an early lead and squashed every New Athens second half run to score an impressive 67-51 win Friday night in the title game of their own “Post-Thanksgiving” Tournament.

Led by a trio of players with double-figures and a defensive effort that forced the Yellow Jackets into six “jittery” first quarter turnovers – Okawville improved to 3-0 on the season in winning the championship of this event in its first season at OHS.

Jeremy Weeke – a 6-foot-1 freshman – came off the Rockets bench and led the scoing attack with 15 points while Tyler Brammeier and Ryan Burrough (also a freshman reserve) added 12 points each.

Three other Rockets – Taylor Walton, Justin Lohman and Jacob Frederking – chipped in eight points each.

“I think that the biggest key was that we established the tempo that we wanted to do,” said Okawville head coach Jon Kraus. “We feel like our bench is a bit deeper than theirs (New Athens) and we wanted to make their “bigs” run a bit. We’ve got some kids that can run the floor.”

New Athens (2-1) struggled not only with hanging on to the basketball but was not very good guest to the Rockets generosity.

A normally good free throw shooting team the Jackets - when sent to the line - were just 12-of-22 in defeat.

“Okawville was the aggressor tonight and when we did get to the line I don’t think we hit 50 percent,” said Coach Derwort. “We needed to be more aggressive on the boards and we didn’t do it.”

Okawville – who never trailed in the contest – jumped out to a 6-0 lead early as they turned the game into a fast-paced event and used a “glass pounding” effort offensively to take command.

Four of the Rockets launched shots that produced four points each in the opening stanza including three important offensive rebound put-backs.

Frederking and Weeke both cashed in offensive rebounds for points.

When Weeke scored in the lane off of an Okawville miss with 1:30 left on the first quarter clock – the Rockets had a 14-6 lead.

Lohman scored on a drive to the basket while being fouled by Vince Kiefer.

Lohman missed the free throw but Weeke grabbed the rebound and stuck it home to give the Rockets a 20-9 lead.

The Yellow Jackets reduced the lead down to single digits in the second quarter following a 3-pointer by Cody Gaubatz and a free throw by Bobby Poe made it 25-16 at the 4:28 mark.

However the Rockets responded with a 9-2 run – sparked by a pair of baseline drives by Lohman and Weeke that made it 34-18.

A free throw by Tyler Womack and a basket by Adam Ingles closed the deficit to 13 at the intermission.

“Okawville is a tremendous program and Jon (Kraus) does an amazing job,” said New Athens head coach Marc Derwort. “The took us out of everything we wanted to do from the start. The tempo was theirs and when you get behind a team like Okawville it makes coming back much more difficult. They’re so good under pressure.”

With Okawville in command late in the third quarter – New Athens began to get under control and made a run.

Kiefer hit two 3-pointers – one from the top of the arc with 2:01 left in the quarter and the second one was a 40-footer from near the half-court line that just beat the buzzer.

His heave cut Okawville’s lead down to 46-34.

“We fouled too much tonight but they made an adjustment in the second half and took the ball to us,” added Coach Kraus. “I thought tonight that one of the questions was if the young kids could handle the pressure and I thought tonight we handled it pretty well. We didn’t turn it over too much.”

New Athens got a spin move in the lane by Ingles while being fouled by Weeke with 5:30 left that cut the Okawville advantage down to 52-44.

However – as it was for most of the game – the Rockets quickly came down to answer on the other end of the floor.

After Ingles missed the free throw – it took Okawville just five seconds to score on a fast break and subsequent three-point play by Weeke.

Weeke made the free throw to make it 55-44.

“We would make a run at them but then we would give up a transition basket. Those things can’t happen. Good teams do that. Jon’s team ‘killed us when they needed to kill us,’” said Coach Derwort - speaking in a basketball sense. “We just couldn’t comeback against them tonight.”

Burrough – a 6-foot freshman guard – stuck a dagger into the NA hearts with a 3-pointer from the right wing after coming around a screen.

His bucket pushed the lead to 58-45 with 4:48 left.

New Athens would get no closer as Okawville pulled away in the final minutes.

Womack led New Athens in scoring with 18 points while Kiefer tallied 16 and Ingles put in nine.

Both teams shot the ball well with Okawville hitting 27-of-49 overall (55 percent) and 4-of-14 from behind the arc.

New Athens was 17-of-35 overall while hitting 5-of-11 trey’s.

The Yellow Jackets had chances to extend runs but missed 10 free throws (six in the fourth quarter).

The Rockets had just ten turnovers in the game and out-rebounded NA 31-21.

The Yellow Jackets were stymied on the offensive end as Okawville allowed just three offensive rebounds to the visitors in the title game triumph.

“I think that is one of the keys for us this season. We need our big kids to be able to finish when we get them the ball in close. We are young in the backcourt and it will be crucial for our big kids to step up. Burrough hit some 3’s for us and some tough shots off the bench,” Kraus explained. “Our guard play is going to be a big factor this season on how many games we can win and be competitive in. I’m not really happy with our defense overall but I think if our seniors lead us and the young kids play well we will win some games this season.”

New Athens (51) – Wacker 0 0 0-2 0, Hoffman 0 0 0-0 0, Birkel 0 0 0-0 0, Gaubatz 0 1 2-2 5, Stolte 0 0 0-0 0, Womack 4 2 4-8 18, Poe 1 0 1-2 3, Weber 0 0 0-0 0, Ingles 3 0 3-4 9, Kiefer 4 2 2-4 16.
2FG-12, 3FG-5, FT-12-22, PF-14.
Okawville (67) – Wisneski 0 0 2-2 2, Schwankhaus 0 0 0-0 0, Weeke 7 0 1-2 15, Burrough 3 2 0-0 12, Walton 4 0 0-0 8, Brian Buss 1 0 0-0 2, Obermeier 0 0 0-0 0, Brammeier 3 0 6-10 12, Lohman 4 0 0-1 8, Frederking 1 2 0-0 8, Brandon Buss 0 0 0-0 0, Ostendorf 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-23, 3FG-4, FT-9-15, PF-22.
Fouled Out – None.
Technical Fouls – None.