Wednesday, March 03, 1999
Highlands gets scare, but wins
Defending champs taken to wire by Holy Cross
BY RAY SCHAEFER
Enquirer contributor
HEBRON — Highlands watched much of Tuesday's boys Ninth Region tournament game between Simon Kenton and Scott, and its players heard that Simon Kenton lost its lead and hung on to win.
The two-time defending Ninth Region champion Bluebirds almost had the same thing happen to them against Holy Cross.
Senior forward Derek Smith's 20 points and a career-high 16 from junior guard Matt Barone helped Highlands escape Conner High School with a 60-56 win.
Highlands plays Simon Kenton in the semifinals at 8:30 p.m. Friday.
“You get to this time of year, anything can happen,” Smith said. “We knew that if we played our basketball game, we just kept working it and hitting that open shot, that there was no way Holy Cross was going to hang with us.”
Said Holy Cross coach Clay Eifert: “We played well. We shot the ball well, we came out of our little shooting slump. I thought we did almost everything we needed to do to beat them, except for rebounding.”
Eifert called his game plan unorthodox. To stop Smith, 6-foot-1 senior guard Adam Noll played in front of the 6-6 Smith, while 6-8 senior center Tim Volpenhein was in back.
“(Volpenhein) did guard Derek Smith in the end, but we didn't feel like he could do that the entire game,” Eifert said. “... But as Barone started hitting some shots, all of a sudden Timmy Volpenhein had to step out away from the basket, and that's when Smith was able to get stick-backs.”
It worked the first half. Smith didn't score until his only basket gave the Bluebirds a 29-23 lead with 3:03 left in the second quarter.
And the Indians' offensive strategy? Shoot the three whenever it was open. That worked, too — senior guards Josh Wagner, Bob Nienaber and Ted Arlinghaus each made three for the game, and they were a combined 9-of-17.
“They're a great three-point shooting team,” Highlands coach John Messmer said. “Arlinghaus is shooting at 44 percent, he had 65 threes on the year. And you've got Nienaber that's right up there, too, and you can't (let) Wagner shoot.”
Highlands led 46-35 with 6:07 left, but the Indians came back. A Nienaber tip-in, a Wagner three-pointer and Noll's field goal whittled the Highlands lead to 55-52 with 43 seconds to go.
Smith hit 4-of-5 free throws and senior forward Jared Lorenzen made two to preserve the win.
HOLY CROSS (56) — Wagner 3-0 9, Nienaber 5-0 13, Arlinghaus 4-0 11, Noll 6-0 12, Volpenhein 5-1 11. Totals: 23-1 56.
HIGHLANDS (60) — Smith 7-5 20, Barone 6-0 16, Gibson 4-0 11, Lorenzen 3-3 9, Herald 1-2 4. Totals: 21-10 60.
Holy Cross ....... 12 13 9 22—56
Highlands ....... 15 14 12 19—60
Three-point goals: HC-Wagner 3, Nienaber 3, Arlinghaus 3. H-Barone 4, Gibson 3, Smith. Records: HC 19-9, H 23-6.
Sports Stories
Boomer: $1 M donation not enough for him to play
More McAfee makes Xavier much better
Xavier gets commitment from 6-8 forward
XU's Posey, Brown voted to A-10 first team
C-USA tournament useless to UC?
UC, UK basketball facing TV conflict
UC NOTEBOOK
Take two: Three Reds reunited
Reds sign Quezada after all
REDS NOTEBOOK
