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Franklin
Monroe sophomore Ethan Conley hits for two against Brookville
Friday during the title game in
the annual Holiday Tournament. Conley
pumped in 20 on Thursday to lead the Jets to the win over
Mississinawa
Valley and 18 in a 49-42 loss to the Blue Devilson Friday.
CNO Photos
by George Starks
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Franklin Monroe
falls in tournament title game
MV takes consolation over Arcanum
By George Starks
PITSBURG- “Getting to the championship game means nothing if you can’t
win your own tournament.”
Those were the words of Franklin Monroe coach Troy Myers Friday after
his Jets were grounded at The Hangar by Brookville 49-42 in the Jet
Holiday Tournament.
“That’s a sectional final game. Maybe even a district final game but I
am disappointed because we were on our home floor and we had chances,”
Myers said. “We had our chances down the stretch.”
It’s a known fact that championships are won with good defense and the
Jets played good defense, especially in the second half.
With 6’9” senior Kameron Thurmond on the floor, a staunch 2-3 zone
proved to be too much for Brookville as the big man was clogging the
middle and altering Blue Devil shots at times.
With Thurmond on the bench in foul trouble, Brookville was able to
exploit the Jets interior defense.
Even with all that, the Blue Devils could only put up 15 second half
points after trailing 34-26 at the break.
“It’s uncharacteristic of us to play a zone defense but they were
hurting us when we were in a man to man,” said Myers. “I take a lot of
that on my own shoulders because I saw them play multiple times and
knew they weren’t very good against the zone. We were selfish in our
own way because we wanted to stay true to our own identity. We tried to
play man but it just wasn’t getting the job done. In the zone, it
slowed them down and it gave us a chance to win this game down the
stretch.”
After a 20 point, 10 rebound performance the night before against
Mississinawa Valley, sophomore Ethan Conley came back with an 18 point
scoring night to lead all in scoring.
“He’s a man among boys,” said Myers. “Ethan is a load for anybody.
There’s not too many kids out there that can match-up with him. Kameron
takes up a lot of space under the bucket and presents problems for
other teams but tonight, he got into foul trouble and that doesn’t work
for us.”
Trailing 22-16 after one, Conley carried the bulk of the Jets offense
with 10 but had very little help from the rest of his teammates.
With only 26 first half points, Myers pointed to only one thing as the
culprit.
“It was poor shot selection,” said Myers. “When you’re in a possession
basketball game like this, one or two possessions down the stretch, you
have to understand how valuable those possessions are in the first
half. Or selection was better in the second half but it didn’t work out
in our favor.”
With Brookville senior Tyler Scherer on the bench with a leg injury
sustained the night before against Mississinawa Valley, the pendulum
should have swung in the Jets favor.
“It really doesn’t matter who’s on the floor for the other team,” said
Myers. “We have to play better on both ends of the floor with or
without him out there. Bottom line is simple. Our third quarter defense
put us in position to win this game and we didn’t take advantage of it.”
In the consolation game, it was Mississinawa Valley pulling out a slim
42-40 victory over the winless Arcanum Trojans.
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MV
senior Trent Perkins drives to the bucket against Arcanum in the
consolation gameFriday.
The Hawks pulled out a tough win over the
winless Trojans, 42-40. Perkins was the lone
Hawk named to the
All-Tournament team.
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Arcanum’s
Maverick Hilderbrand drives against a Mississinawa Valley
player during third quarter
action of the consolation game in the Jet
Tournament Friday.
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The
All-Tournament team (LtoR) Cody Cox (MVP), Dalton Stewart, Jacob
Gudorf (Brookville),
Ethon Conley and Kyle Ressler (FM) and Trent
Perkins (MV).
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