Saturday, January 08, 2000
Lakota West shells Princeton for GMC win
BY CAREY HOFFMAN
Enquirer contributor
It's far too early to talk about winning the Greater Miami Conference title, but Friday night Lakota West at least learned it has that potential.
The Firebirds made an incredible first-half display of long-range shooting stand up with clutch foul shooting in the second half to score a 65-62 victory at preseason GMC favorite Princeton before a crowd of 1,600.
It was West's first victory at Princeton in the school's three years of existence and kept the Firebirds unbeaten at 9-0, 6-0 in GMC play. West has finished second and third in its first two tries in the league.
“We're a senior-dominated team. We've got nine seniors, and honestly we've believed that (a GMC title is within reach) since last spring,” West coach Mike Mueller said. “Certainly, this tonight legitimizes that belief.”
Two senior guards, Andy Dunn and Jamie Chaney, stood out Friday. Dunn had 22 points and Chaney added 20.
The first half belonged to Dunn individually and West collectively. Dunn zoned in to hit six of eight 3-pointers in the first half — his last one 24 feet from the basket — while West as a team was 10-of-16 from 3-point range in the half. West led at halftime 41-28.
“I don't think we've ever experienced anything like that,” Dunn said of the first-half shooting. “We've struggled shooting here in the past. I've never shot that well in the first half here.”
“They were a hot team in the first half,” Princeton coach Paul Andrews said. “I was watching them in warmups, and they weren't missing, so I hoped that wasn't going to carry over. And they were passing the ball and getting it to the open guy.”
A couple of stats in the game pleased Mueller. One was that West had 12 assists in the first half, which he felt set the stage for the solid shooting, and the other was second-half rebounding — West had 21 rebounds after halftime and outrebounded Princeton's taller and more athletic team by five in the game.
West needed all the advantages it could find to withstand a Princeton charge led by harassing full-court pressure in the second half. The Vikings cut the lead to five with a 9-0 run in the middle of the third quarter. That's what the deficit would have been at the end of the quarter, until West's Chaney hit a running, one-handed three-point bank shot in the final second to put West ahead 50-42.
Princeton kept coming, scoring the first seven points of the fourth quarter to pull within one, but then Chaney, who's gaining a reputation as West's clutch player, came alive. He drove the lane to hit an 8-footer, then added a 3-pointer 1:30 later to put West up 57-51 with 2:30 to play.
“What was big was Jamie Chaney making big shots when we needed it,” Mueller said. “Our 3-point shooting and our (foul) shooting, those are the things we do best.”
West hit five of seven foul shots in the remaining time, including four straight by Dunn for his only points of the second half. Princeton still had a chance to send the game to overtime after Dunn's two foul shots made it 65-62 with 14 seconds left, but Curtis Cross' 3-point try with two seconds left was too long.
“It's a big win,” Dunn said. “This shows what we can do. It's just the beginning, I hope, of a special season.”
Princeton, led by Erik Daniels' 16 points, is 7-3 and 5-1 in the GMC.
LAKOTA WEST (65) — Dunn 6 4 22, Chaney 6 4 20, Romero 2 6 10, Rehring 1 0 2, Candella 2 0 6, Hutzelman 0 2 2. Totals: 18 17 65.
PRINCETON (62) — Cross 5 1 13, Sykes 1 0 3, Daniels 7 0 16, McGrath 4 1 12, L. Brown 4 1 9, Mayweather 0 2 2, Southall 3 1 7. Totals: 24 6 62.
Lakota West ....... 28 13 9 15—65
Princeton ....... 19 9 14 20—62
Three-point field goals: L—Dunn 6, Chaney 4, Candella 2. P—Cross 2, Sykes, Daniels 2, McGrath 3. Records: P 7-3 (4-1 GMC).
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