Eagles win Cumberland Tourney
By TERRY LIDY
For the second time in three years, the NCHS Eagles of Coach Doug Mammoser won the annual Cumberland Thanksgiving Tournament last Saturday with a 52-49 victory over the host Pirates to finish the tourney at 4-0.
The Eagles opened their season last Monday with a 57-44 victory over St. Elmo. On Tuesday, they blasted Martinsville 80-36. Playing for the third straight day, the Eagles belted Beecher City 65-46 to set up the Saturday showdown with Cumberland.
In the other game last Monday, Martinsville nipped Beecher City 66-64. On Tuesday, Cumberland stopped Beecher City 55-44. On Wednesday, Cumberland downed St. Elmo 63-46. On Friday, St. Elmo defeated Beecher City 78-63 and Cumberland doubled Martinsville 66-33.
On the final day, St. Elmo stopped Martinsville 54-40, followed by the Eagle victory over Cumberland. Cumberland finished 3-1 behind Newton, while St. Elmo was 2-2, Martinsville 1-3 and Beecher City 0-4 for the tourney.
After winning on Monday 57-44 over St. Elmo, the Eagles returned to action on Tuesday and belted Martinsville 80-36 in a game featuring plenty of turnovers. The Eagles jumped to a 14-8 first quarter lead and carried a 26-13 advantage midway in the second quarter. From there Newton outscored the Blue Streaks 15-9 to take a commanding 41-22 lead to the locker room. Jake Pilman, Taylor Kerner and Alex Frohning led the attack with 10, 9 and 8 points, respectively.
The onslaught continued in the second half as the Eagles produced a 39 point second half as eleven players dented the scoring column for Doug Mammoser's Eagles. The Eagles had four players in double figures with Jake Pilman leading with 14. Taylor Kerner had a good game with 13 while Peyton Wyatt and Alex Frohning each collected 10 points. Just missing double figures were Japheth Bear with 9 and Derek Casey with 8. Brian Emmerich tallied 6 and A.J. Hyatt scored 4. Mitch Mammoser, Jerry Howze and Dylan Casey joined in the fun with 2 points each. Scott Jansen, Dylan Davidson and Marc Brandenburg contributed but did not score.
The Eagles sank 33 baskets including 3 from the arc and converted 11 of 13 from the line. Martinsville scored 12 field goals and were 12 of 23 from the foul line.
On Wednesday, it was a battle of Eagles, Newton versus Beecher City. In this game, Beecher City gained the early advantage after the Newton Eagles opened with a pair of treys from Japheth Bear and Peyton Wyatt. Beecher City tossed in four long-range bombs in the quarter as Ben Kemme hit two and Cole Ohnesorge and Dan Lagerhausen also connected. Peyton Wyatt came back to fire in another trifecta as the Eagles of Newton trailed 14-9 after the initial quarter.
The second quarter however belonged to the Newton Eagles after BC (Beecher City) had scored the last 5 points of the opening quarter. Jake Pilman broke the string with a free throw at the 7:35 mark. After Lucas Levitt of BC made it 17-11 with a three, Peyton Wyatt answered with another three and Jake Pilman countered a Levitt basket to make it 19-16.
From that point, the Eagles shut down the BC Eagles scoring the next 9 points to open a 27-19 margin in the closing seconds of the half. After a Peyton Wyatt steal and basket, Brian Emmerich gave the Eagles the lead back for good as he canned a trey in the left corner with 3:18 left to make it 21-19 Newton. Japheth Bear and Alex Frohning next scored to make it 25-19. An Emmerich and a Frohning free throw each closed out the half. Beecher City finally stopped the bleeding with a pair of free throws by Drew Levitt to end the half at 27-21.
Newton continued to hold the momentum in the third period as Wyatt scored and Pilman converted a three-point play with 7:12 left to make it 32-21. Beecher City scored the next two hoops to make it 32-25, but the BC Eagles crept no closer as Frohning scored on a rebound and Emmerich drained a trifecta to up the margin to 37-25 as the Eagles continued to pull away. The lead stretched to 47-29 before BC closed out the quarter with a three-point shot to make it 49-36. Newton had tallied 22 points in the third period as Alex Frohning scored 7 and Brian Emmerich had 6 to pace the attack.
In the final eight minutes, Newton scored the first 11 points to take all the mystery out of this contest at 60-36 with 5:26 left. From here, Doug Mammoser was able to use his reserves to gain valuable playing time as 14 Eagles participated in the 65-46 victory with nine players denting the scoring column. Peyton Wyatt paced the offense with 20 points while Brian Emmerich, Jake Pilman and Alex Frohning each tallied 10 points to provide balanced scoring. Japheth Bear scored 7 points and led in rebounds with 10. Taylor Kerner added 4 points. Scott Jansen converted a pair of free throws. Mitch Mammoser and A.J. Hyatt each tallied a free throw. Jerry Howze, Dylan Davidson, Marc Brandenburg, Dylan & Derek Casey also saw action for the Eagles. The Newton Eagles shot 36% for the game making 20 field goals with 7 being from three-point land. They were 18 of 25 from the line with 17 turnovers. Beecher City shot 35% making 16 field goals and 7 of 12 foul shots with 29 turnovers.
"We had contributions from a lot of people. Overall, I am happy with the win. We're seeing different teams with different styles, and we're making the necessary adjustments. We're hoping to come out and play well Saturday against Cumberland. The kids felt they could be in this position, and they have gotten themselves there," said Doug Mammoser.
Those words turned true on Saturday as the Eagles played well enough to hold off a late Cumberland rally to prevail 52-49. The Eagles opened a two-point edge as Japheth Bear had the hot hand in the first quarter with 4 field goals. Lefty Reed Draper kept the Pirates close with 9 points in the period. The Eagles moved ahead by a 23-20 margin at the half as Peyton Wyatt banged home a pair of treys and Brian Emmerich and Japheth Bear added baskets to give the Eagles a precarious lead.
If any part of the game was the turning point, it had to be the third quarter in which the Eagles outscored the Pirates 14-5 to build a 37-25 cushion going down the stretch. They needed it as Cumberland came back with a furious rally. In that third period, Japheth Bear scored 7 points while Peyton Wyatt and Taylor Kerner scored field goals.
Jake Pilman converted three charity tosses to account for the 14-point quarter.
However, the fourth quarter produced crunch time as the Eagles lead evaporated to a single point as Cumberland started to hit the three-point shot making four in the period. Meanwhile, the Eagles were being fouled to stop the clock as they attempted 15 foul shots in the quarter. The Eagles were successful in 11 of the 15 free tosses to seal the tournament title. Peyton Wyatt, who was named to the all tournament team made 4 of 7. Alex Frohning, who had a great tournament according to his coach, was 3 of 4. Japheth Bear who led the Eagles with 19 points was 2 of 2 as was Jake Pilman. Both also played well according to Mammoser.
"It was a good tournament for us. We got to play a lot of players and played well enough to win and go 4-0 to start the season. We had too many unforced errors in the fourth quarter. But we need a tight game like this if we are to compete in the Apollo. With this behind us, we now have to prepare for the Apollo with road games at Salem on Friday and Charleston next Tuesday," said Mammoser.
The Eagles have their home opener next Friday, December 11 against Mt. Zion. It will be the only home game before the Christmas break.
Six Eagles dented the scoring column against Cumberland led by Japheth Bear with 19. Peyton Wyatt scored 14. Jake Pilman had 6 free throws. Alex Frohning scored 5, while Brian Emmerich and Taylor Kerner each had two baskets. Scott Jansen also saw action, but did not score. The Eagles scored 16 field goals including three from the arc. They converted 17 of 23 foul shots. Cumberland had 17 baskets including 6 from the arc and 9 of 12 from the line.
After four games the Eagles are averaging 63.5 points per game and giving up 43.8 points on defense. The Eagles are shooting 44% from the field and 73.5% at the foul line. Opponents are shooting 40% from the field and 60% from the charity stripe.
