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Johnsonburg Rams capture 2009 county title |
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Thursday, 31 December 2009 |
By JIM MULCAHY
Staff Writer
Joe Holmberg’s 15-foot jump shot with 10 seconds left, gave the Johnsonburg Rams the 2009 Elk County Boys Holiday Basketball Championship by a 45-43 score last night over the Elk County Catholic Crusaders.
The Rams outscored Elk Catholic by a 16-11 margin in the fourth quarter of play. The biggest lead in the game was six points and that was late in the first period when Elk Catholic went up 13-7.
With five minutes to go in the game, Elk’s Joe Jacob hit a three to knot the game at 37. Matt Shuey gave the Rams the 39-37 lead with 4:41 left. A three by Wortman gave Elk the 40-39 lead. Two foul shots by the Rams’ Aaron Patrick gave the Rams the 41-40 lead with 3:45 left. Elk took a 42-41 lead with 2:21 left when Darren Simons converted two foul shots. Shuey gave the lead back to the Rams with 2:01 left, 43-42. Wortman tied the game at 43 with a foul shot with 52 seconds remaining.
The Rams ran the clock down to 13 seconds before using a time out. On the out of bounds play, Holmberg hit the 15 footer to give Johnsonburg the 45-43 lead with 10 seconds left. Elk called a time out. They were able to get a shot off but it could not find the mark as the Rams captured the title.
“Both teams played well and we were able to score with them,” said Johnsonburg coach Bill Shuey.
“We knew we had to keep it close and we did. Joe (Holmberg) was actually our second option,” noted the coach.
“Defensively we played pretty good help defense. We did not let them penetrate. Detsch killed us the last time with his penetration,” said Shuey.
“We got some quality minutes from our bench,” added coach Shuey.
The Rams were led offensively by Matt Shuey with 15 points on six field goals and a three for four night from the foul line. Louie Imbrogno added 12 points on two twos, two threes and a two for four night from the foul line. Aaron Patrick scored 10 points on four field goals and a two for two night from the foul line.
Elk Catholic was led by Joe Jacob with 16 points on four twos, two threes and a two for two night from the foul line. Robby Wortman added 13 points on two twos, two threes and a three for four night from the foul line.
“Both teams played hard and they played hard and physical,” said ECCHS assistant coach Jude Hoffman who was filling in for head coach Aaron Straub, who was still under the weather.
“They hit the key shots and we had some roll in and around. We couldn’t get a stop late in the game,” added coach Hoffman.
Elk opened the contest with a 4-0 lead as Jacob converted two foul shots and Wortman hit a field goal. A three by Imbrogno and twos by Shuey and Holmberg gave the Rams the 7-4 lead. Threes by Jacob, Ricky Pearsall and Wortman gave Elk the 13-7 led. Shuey and Imbrogno each scored buckets as the Rams closed the ECC lead to 13-11 at the end of the first period.
The second period found the Rams outscore the Crusaders 11-9 to knot the game at 22 at the half. Shuey and Aaron Patrick led Johnsonburg with four each while Seth Weibel had two and Imbrogno converted a foul shot. Wortman and Jacob each had four points while Eric Wehler sank a foul shot for Elk Catholic.
A field goal by Jacob and two foul shots by Wortman gave Elk a 26-22 lead. Imbrogno and Pearsall traded buckets as did Patrick and Pearsall. Mike Shuey scored on a putback for the Rams and Imbrogno added a foul shot. A field goal by Luke Daghir gave Elk the 32-29 lead at the of three quarters.
Patrick scored for the Rams to open the fourth quarter, 32-31. Two foul shots by Tyler Herzing gave Elk the 34-31 lead with 7:25 left. Shuey hit a two and Imbrogno a three to give the Rams the 36-34 lead with 6:21 left. A foul shot by Shuey made the score 37-34 with 5:42 left.
In the final five minutes of the contest the Rams outscored the Crusaders 8-6 to win the game 45-43.
All-Tourney Team
The members of the 2009 All Tournament Team were Matt Shuey of Johnsonburg, MVP Offense, Robby Wortman of ECCHS, MVP Defense, Joe Holmberg and Louie Imbrogno of Johnsonburg, Joe Jacob of ECCHS, Ben Jaques of Ridgway and Justin Quiggle of St. Marys.
Game notes
This was Johnsonburg’s third Elk County Holiday Basketball Tournament title. Their last one came in 2002.
Johnsonburg is now 6-1 on the season and will return to action on Friday, Jan. 8, when they travel to Kane for an AML contest.
Elk Catholic is now 5-1 on the season. They are 2-0 in the AML and 1-0 in District 9 League play.
The Crusaders will return to action Saturday night when they play host to the Brookville Raiders in a District 9 League game. Junior varsity action begins at 6 p.m. with the varsity to follow at 7:30 p.m.
Johnsonburg 45
Aaron Patrick 4-0-2-2-10, Joe Holmberg 2-0-0-0-4, Koty Gorske 0-0-0-0-0, Mike Shuey 1-0-0-0-2, Louie Imbrogno 2-2-2-4-12, Seth Weibel 1-0-0-0-2, Matt Shuey 6-0-3-4-15. Totals 16-2-7-10-45.
ECCHS 43
Ricky Pearsall 2-1-0-0-7, Tyler Herzing 0-0-2-2-2, Eric Wehler 0-0-1-2-1, Kyle Detsch 0-0-0-2-0, Joe Jacob 4-2-2-2-16, Tyler Healy 0-0-0-0-0, Robby Wortman 2-2-3-4-13, Darren Simons 0-0-2-2-2, Luke Daghir 1-0-0-0-2, Michael Wachter 0-0-0-0-0. Totals 9-5-10-14-43.
Score by quarters
Johnsonburg 11 11 7 16 45
ECCHS 13 9 10 11 43 |
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