12-15-2018
BY JACK BULLOCK
WAYNE CITY – The Red Hill Salukis began playing in the Wayne City Holiday Tournament in 2015 and they played very inconsistently in each of those first three events.

They came home with fourth place finishes each time.

But this time around, Red Hill brought the A-game for most of the week and in the title game against Gallatin County on Saturday night they pieced together scoring runs and defensive stops to put the Hawks away late.

After overcoming a bit of a sluggish second quarter, the Salukis rolled home in the second half for a 60-43 victory to take home the grand prize in the 65th annual tourney.

Red Hill jumped out to a big lead and then got everything going for them in the second half to go 4-0 at the tournament and improved to 8-4 on the season.

Defensively the Salukis dominated the Hawks, forcing them into 15 turnovers and a 13-of-43 shooting night (30.2 percent) and an awful 1-of-12 from the arc.

But perhaps more importantly they survived and thrived late against Gallatin County's full-court pressure in the final two quarters.

Hawks' head coach Jeff Herrmann had his club playing well at 3-0 for the week but they couldn't solve the Red Hill defense and they had trouble defending the tournament champs for most of the contest as they had to settle for second place in their second season in the tournament.

“We couldn't spread the court, we couldn't get shots to fall and we couldn't attack,” said Coach Herrman. “We were trying to make a run but they (Red Hill) are a good team. They kept us out of the paint and made it tough on us.”

Red Hill put three players in double-figures in scoring with 15-point each coming from senior guard Parker Havill and sophomore forward Drake Allen along with 11-points from junior forward Nathan Wirth.

The 6-foot-6 Wirth and 6-foot-3 Allen made things tough on the Hawks on both ends of the floor.

Allen scored six of his points in the final quarter off of three “press-breaks” that turned into lay ups in transition.

“When Drake (Allen) gets the ball he can go to the basket hard and he is difficult to defend. We did a good job breaking their press and we have seen 2-2-1's a lot this year already,” said Coach Havill. “We are a difficult team to press because when we get it up the sideline we can finish.”

Defensively both Wirth and Allen made it difficult for the Hawks to score on the inside.

Wirth helped slam the door shut in the fourth quarter for the Salukis.

He nailed 4-of-4 foul shots in the final frame as Red Hill was a sparkling 15-of-18 from the foul line in the title game.

In the last 3:48 of the fourth quarter the Salukis went 9-of-10 from the stripe to don the championship crown.

Senior guard Drew Moore added eight-points to the championship totals, including 3-of-4 free throws as part of the fourth quarter foul shooting parade by the Salukis.

The Hawks got 14-points from senior guard Robbie Prince but no other Gallatin County player reached double-figures.

Senior Audie Goebel scored nine-points while classmate Garrett Rushing was held to eight.

“I thought we did as good of a job as we could on Goebel, I thought we bottled him up pretty well,” said Coach Havill. “Drew Moore did a good job on him and then we had Parker guarding him also. I thought we did a good job defensively tonight. He is a good player and we needed a good effort on him tonight.”

Red Hill struck for the first scoring run in the game, closing the first quarter on a 12-2 sprint.

Breaking the game's only tie (6-6) the Salukis got a drive to the basket by Moore and then a pair of 3-point bombs by McKinney and Wirth with two free throws in between by Havill.

McKinney and Wirth both nailed their long range shots from roughly the same spot to close the first quarter scoring at 18-8.

Gallatin County had only one really good chance to get the lead but they couldn't close the deal.

Red Hill had a bit of the hiccup in the second quarter offensively, scoring just four-points on a pair of buckets by Moore and Wirth.

They were just 2-of-13 from the field in the frame.

Gallatin got a pair of free throws from senior Lucas Reeder to go along with baskets by Prince, junior Dawson Hish and Goebel closed the half with a drive down the baseline for a score.

However the Hawks, after a quick 6-0 run to begin the quarter, flattened out.

Gallatin County was just 4-of-13 from the floor in the second quarter, and just 7-of-25 for the half as they were fortunate to be down just 22-18 at intermission.

“We played well early. The second quarter was a bad quarter but our defense kept them (Gallatin) from getting the lead before halftime,” said Coach Havill. “I didn't yell at them at halftime. We just re-collected and went out and played better in the second half.”

Scores by Rushing and Prince to begin the second half, with a Wirth goal in the middle, cut the Red Hill lead to 24-22 with 6:19 to go in the third.

That was as close as the Hawks would get the rest of the contest.

A 7-0 run by the Salukis, capped by a 3-point bomb that Havill banked home from the left wing, gave them a 31-22 lead.

Allen added two more buckets, on an assist by Moore and also on a fast break.

Havill converted a three-point play while being fouled by junior Conner Kiescoms.

His made free throw gave Red Hill a 38-27 lead heading to the final quarter.

The Hawks couldn't make a third quarter move thanks to six turnovers.

Although they managed to get the Salukis into some turnover problems of their own (five) they failed to cut further into the deficit.

Gallatin County managed to get within eight-points with 5:06 left as both Hish and Prince added three-point plays while being fouled.

When Prince made his free throw, the score was down to 43-35.

The Salukis took care of business from the foul line the remainder of the title game while Allen was the beneficiary of the Hawks' gambles on defensive full-court press.

“We knew we had to press and get more aggressive with it and they (Red Hill) made us pay,” said Coach Herrmann. “They handle the ball really well, we knew that coming in.”

Coach Havill's club survived their own errors (15-turnovers) by shooting the ball much better than Gallatin County.

Red Hill ended up 20-of-41 overall, and 5-of-13 from the arc.

The Hawks held a slight rebounding edge (22-21).

“You can't turn the ball over like we did tonight and expect to win championships,” said Coach Herrmann. “We just got a find a way to get better handling the ball. We never quit tonight. I'm proud of our team but we got off to a bad start and you can't do that. We rebounded pretty well but we didn't play well offensively.”

No one from Red Hill program could remember the last time that the Salukis won a regular season varsity tournament championship.

The folks from Bridgeport have won regional titles but regular season titles are a current mystery that will need to be looked up.

They can add the 2018 Conrad Allen Wayne City Holiday Tournament championship to the history of the program.

“The Cisne game (last Saturday) kind of woke us up and I thought our mental toughness was better this year, with the kids coming back from last year helped us this week,” said Coach Havill, “We folded up last year here and this year we were more focused.”

Head coach Josh Zink has his team sitting at 6-3 overall after the victory.

North Clay got three players hit for double-figures in the contest with Aleon Rinehart scoring 15-points and Nick Miller adding 14.

Tyson Jones kicked in 11 for the Cardinals.

Wayne City is now 8-3 on the season and they were led Saturday night by junior Travis Dickey with 18-points while freshman Taj McKinney added 12 for Coach Jim Corona.

Hunter Throgmorton, a 6-foot-1 junior, tossed in 11 for Crab Orchard who is now 7-6 on the season.

Webber Township (3-7) got 11-points each from junior Kaiden Taylor and sophomore Ayden Buchanan.

Junior Dalton Adcock added 10 for the Trojans.

Six-foot-one sophomore Brayden Hatcher led Grayville (1-6) with a game-best 26-points for Coach Brian Hucker's squad.