CC pulls away from Rensselaer

CC pulls away from Rensselaer

Written by

CLYDE HUGHES

For the Journal & Courier

Central Catholic needed a 16-6 run over the last four minutes to shake free from hard-charging Rensselaer for a 66-54 Hoosier Conference victory at McHale Gymnasium on Tuesday.

It was the Knights' fifth consecutive win and improved Central Catholic's record to 4-2 in conference play. Rensselaer fell to 5-13 and remained winless at 0-5 in the league.

But it was hardly a work of art for Central Catholic (11-8), which got beat on the boards 32-24 while Rensselaer's Tanner Odle punched in a game-high 23 points, mostly in the paint.

"They came out the aggressor in the first half," Central Catholic coach Dave Barrett said. "We didn't come out ready to play and they took it right at us. We weren't giving any help inside against the Odle kid and he was tearing us up."

But the Knights' team speed proved to be an equalizer once again, particularly late, creating several costly Bomber turnovers that Central Catholic converted to points.

Central Catholic led virtually the entire game, going up by 10 points 32-22 in the second quarter. But offensive rebounding by the Bombers allowed them to stay close. Rensselaer slashed the Knights' lead to 50-48 after two Dane Brooks free throws with 5:04 left in the game.

Andrew Hubertz followed with a layup on Central Catholic's next possession to push the lead back up to two possessions.

The Bombers trailed 55-50 with the ball when a pass inside was picked off. Danny Anthrop was fouled and knocked down two free throws with 3:01 left. On Central Catholic's next possession, he was fouled while making a layup and completed the three-point play to all but put the game away.

"Our guys played really hard and with a lot of passion," said Rensselaer coach Kevin Sims. "Our job was to get the ball inside and we did an extremely good job at doing that, but they have a lot of quickness and team speed and they gave us some fits in some really critical situations where we turned it over when we needed to get a good shot at the basket."

Anthrop, who constantly penetrated Rensselaer's defense for shots around the basket, topped Central Catholic scorers with 22 points. Defensively, he got his hand on balls that either led to turnovers or foiled the rhythm of Rensselaer's offense.

"In the second half they started trapping us at the wings," Sims said. "That created some problems for us. They've got a good team, good perimeter players, and then when you throw Danny Anthrop in there taking the ball to the basket hard it makes it hard to defend them."

Jake Churchill added 15 points, while Timmy Mills connected on three 3-point shots and contributed 12.

Odle scored 16 of 23 points in the first half, but Central Catholic managed to slow him down enough in the second 16 minutes by clogging up the paint.

"I put Matt Thieme on him to add a little more size there, and when the ball went inside we had guys going after him and made him kick it out," Barrett said. "That's what we were supposed to have done in the first half, but we started doing it in the second half. They didn't shoot too many 3s because they were pounding it inside."

Jake West added 12 points for Rensselaer.