Lakers advance to GCI championship, defeat Wolverines

SWITZ CITY -- John Smith of Shakamak looks to make a move towards the basket as he is defended by White River Valley's Ethan Dyer. The Lakers advanced to the championship game of the Greene County Invitational with their 63-50 win over White River Valley here Friday night. (By Travis David/Greene County Daily World). [Order this photo]

With the win, the Lakers improve to 7-3 on the season and advanced to the championship game against Vincennes Rivet. The loss evens the Wolverines record at 4-4 and they will play Southwestern Indiana Athletic Conference foe Eastern Greene tonight for third place.

"It's hard to compete against a good team when they shoot 30 free-throws in the fourth quarter," White River Valley coach Gene Hall said. "We just made way too many mental mistakes and silly fouls tonight."

The Wolverines jumped on the scoreboard first on their first possession by a basket by Jared Shelton, who led the team with 16 points. Ethan Stanifer would answer with a 3-pointer to give the Lakers a 3-2 lead, and Shakamak would not trail the rest of the game.

WRV forward Jacob Birch would tie the game at 11-all with his lone triple of the night, but the tie was short lived as Jordan Crowe one-upped Birch with a trey of his own to put the Lakers back ahead 14-11 with just under two minutes left in the first quarter. The first period would end with the Lakers ahead by the slimmest of margins -- 16-15.

The leading scorer in the area -- Billy Newton of Shakamak -- picked up two early fouls and would remain on the bench for the entire second period. Tyler Richardson, the Lakers third leading scorer, would also pick up two early fouls and watched most of the second frame from the bench as well.

But the Wolverines were not able to capitalize, as the Lakers outscored the Wolverines 9-6 in the second to take a 25-21 lead into the locker room.

"The second quarter was big," Hall said. "We were not able to take advantage of two of their better players being on the bench in foul trouble."

Lakers coach Steve Brett agreed with Hall.

"I thought everyone that played tonight contributed really well," Brett said. "It was crucial for us to go into half-time with the lead having Billy and Tyler on the bench in foul trouble."

Shakamak kept the defensive pressure on the Wolverines at the start of the second half, holding WRV to just five points. WRV shot just 2-for-11 from the field in the third period.

Hall said it wasn't so much what the Lakers were doing defensively as much as it was his team not being patient.

"I thought we were pretty patient with our half court offense in the first half," Hall said. "But in the second half we just shot the ball too quickly. We just need to play with more poise for a full 32 minutes instead of 18-20 minutes."

The Lakers hit on 4 of 8 shots in the third frame to stretch their lead to 10 points going into the final eight minutes of play.

"We let them get too many follow-up shots in the first half," Brett said. "But I felt we did a much better job in the second half in limiting them to just one shot."

The two teams wore a path to the free-throw line in the fourth period. A total of 21 fouls were called in the final eight minutes (14 on WRV) and 42 free-throws were attempted. The Lakers made good on 23 of 30 freebies in the fourth, as all but four of their points came from the charity stripe.

"We missed a few free-throws late, but I felt for the most part we did a nice job of making them tonight," Brett said.

Newton was the biggest beneficiary, connecting on all 10 of his free-throws in the quarter. Newton finished the game perfect from the line (12-for-12) and was 4 of 5 from the field for a game-high of 21 points.

Stanifer tallied 15 points for the Lakers and Jordan Langford added seven points, two blocked shots, two steals and six boards in the win.

Brett said he was pleased with their effort.

"I thought we played as well as we have all season tonight," the veteran coach said. "I was happy with our defense for the most part. WRV is a very hard team to guard.

"We made some strides in the right direction tonight and I was happy with the way we executed things."

Birch joined Shelton in double figures in the losing effort with 15 points before fouling out. Billy Dove added seven points and four rebounds for the Wolverines.

"The kids dread practicing and they need to learn that we need a better effort in practice," Hall said. "The coaches are coaching too much effort instead of Xs and Os. Once they learn to go harder then we will take the next step closer to being a championship team."

The game for third place between the Wolverines and Thunderbirds will get underway at 6 p.m. The championship between the Lakers and Patriots is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. start.

The Lakers and Patriots met last year in the championship as well, with the Lakers prevailing.

SHAKAMAK (63) -- Jacob Stevenson 1-1 0-0 2, Tyler Richardson 1-1 3-5 5, Jordan Crowe 2-4 0-0 5, John Smith 1-2 4-4 6, Billy Newton 4-5 12-12 21, Ethan Stanifer 5-9 2-2 15, Jordan Langford 1-4 5-8 7, Jordan Borders 0-0 0-0 0, T.J. Hill 1-2 0-2 2, Tyler Sparks 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 16-28 26-33 63.

WHITE RIVER VALLEY (50) -- Levi Hostetter 0-1 2-4 2, Jared Shelton 6-15 3-4 16, Nate Bushy 1-3 1-2 4, Jacob Birch 5-13 4-4 15, Evan Karr 0-0 0-0 0, Ethan Dyer 2-4 0-0 4, Billy Dove 3-4 1-1 7, Cole Goodman 1-2 0-0 2. Totals 18-42 11-15 50.

Shakamak 16 9 11 27 -- 63

White River Valley 15 6 5 24 -- 50

3-Pointers -- Shakamak 5 (Stanifer 3, Crowe, Newton), White River Valley 3 (Shelton, Bushy, Birch). Rebounds -- Shakamak 20 (Crowe, Langford 6), White River Valley 17 (Dyer 5). Steals -- Shakamak 5 (Newton, Langford 2), White River Valley 4 (Hostetter 2). Turnovers -- Shakamak 13, White River Valley 10. Fouls -- Shakamak 17, White River Valley 24. Fouled out -- Richardson, Birch, Dove.