Lowell Senior High School

Saturday night, the rival schools that are nine miles apart—Lowell Red Devils and the Hanover Central Wildcats—competed in a game that showed when you're the underdog, like the Devils were, and you come up with the right game plan, you give yourself a chance to win. That is exactly what the Devils did on Saturday night in the championship game of the Hanover sectional. The Devils' 2–3 zone was simply outstanding, not allowing Hanover to get through the gaps or dominate inside, with some of the best help defense played by anybody in the state. Hanover spent the entire night trying to solve Lowell's 2–3 zone, which never happened. Playing defense takes all five players being on the same page, and that is what Lowell did for four quarters, which is very hard to do. They did it well but came up short. Lowell lost the game 18–13 while moving the ball on offense until they had a good shot. Hanover also played some great man-to-man defense on the night, allowing only three players to score for the Devils, with Roan Vasko and Ezra Rumisek scoring five points each and guard Aiden Hernandez adding three. Fans around the area who think the way the pro game is played—wanting to see 30-footers with a five-out offense and nobody rebounding, or just drives to the basket to throw up a shot because nobody knows how to screen—shows how bad basketball has become. Using the shot clock to fire up shots and thinking that is basketball is ridiculous. Why don't they just go to a park and play and feed their own egos while never understanding the game of basketball, because 99% of them have to get points so they get paid? Watching the game, if you do not want to play at a slow pace and you think you're the better team, you better apply full-court pressure to speed the game up so your opponent cannot keep taking time off the clock. Using presses or trapping the basketball can force the pace of the game to become faster. Before we get into the game, I would like to say what a great job coach Joe Delgado did, keeping Hanover to just 18 points on their home floor with his players working hard on defense and preventing any kind of gap penetration. The game started with the Devils turning the ball over as Beau Wiancek drove to the basket for a 2–0 lead. Lowell forced two turnovers and tied the game at 2–2 with Roan Vasko scoring underneath with 4:15 on the clock. The Wildcats committed their third turnover, but the Devils could not convert as Langdon Oldenburg scored, giving the Cats a 4–2 advantage. Ezra Rumisek came right back for Lowell to tie the game at 4–4 on a nice drive to the rim. Hanover got a break as the Devils fouled with five seconds on the clock, with Oldenburg sinking both free throws to make the score 6–4 Cats after one quarter of play. Hanover committed three turnovers in the quarter, with Lowell having only one after eight minutes of play. Hanover started the second quarter by finally getting a look inside to Oldenburg, who scored to make it an 8–4 Hanover advantage. Driving to the basket, Rumisek got fouled but could not connect on either free throw. However, the Devils, playing tough defense in their 2–3 zone, came up with a stop as Aiden Hernandez hit a three from the top, cutting the Wildcat lead to 8–7. At the 2:32 mark, Oldenburg picked up a loose ball out of the air and put it into the basket for a 10–7 advantage. Two straight turnovers by Hanover with 37 seconds left in the first half got Lowell going in transition, with Rumisek laying it in as the Devils trailed by one at 10–9. The Wildcats committed three turnovers in the quarter, giving them six in the first half, while Lowell turned the ball over twice, giving them only three after 16 minutes of action. The third quarter started with Hanover committing their seventh turnover of the game as Vasko scored, giving Lowell the lead at 11–10. Each team turned the ball over twice, then a foul was called on Schreiber, but the Devils missed both charity tosses, which hurt their chances once again. Lowell played outstanding defense with their zone as Hanover could not score or even get close to the basket. Lowell kept them scoreless the entire third quarter for an 11–10 lead going into the fourth quarter. Hanover turned the ball over five times in the quarter against the Devils' 2–3 zone, with Lowell committing only two against Hanover's tough man-to-man defense. At the start of the final eight minutes of play, after taking care of the ball the entire game, Lowell turned the ball over, resulting in a basket by Lukas Valiska, giving Hanover the lead for good at 12–11. The Devils turned the ball over again, with Hanover calling a timeout with 5:58 on the clock. Out of the timeout, Chris Maranowicz finally found a gap to get to the rim to make the score 14–11. Now with the lead, the Wildcats got themselves into trouble, committing three straight fouls and putting the Devils closer to the foul line for free throws. After turning the ball over, the Wildcats fouled Rumisek, who split a pair from the line, making it just a two-point game at 14–12. Lowell had fouls to give and committed two while going for the steal, with Hanover using a timeout with 2:11 remaining. The Devils shut down the Wildcat offense and got the ball back with 1:11 on the clock, with head coach Joe Delgado calling a timeout to set up his offense. Out of the timeout, Maranowicz fouled Vasko, who split a pair from the line as the Devils closed the gap, trailing 14–13. Hanover finally attacked the basket as a foul on Rumisek, who had been playing outstanding on the defensive end, sent Wiancek to the line. He made both tosses for a 16–13 lead. Lowell, who had done a good job the entire game of not turning the ball over, lost the ball with 50 seconds on the clock, giving them five turnovers for the quarter and sending Maranowicz to the line. The junior missed both free throws, giving Lowell some life, only down one possession as Delgado used a timeout with 28 seconds remaining. Lowell returned to the court, but their three-point attempt was off the mark as Spearson fouled Maranowicz, who made one of two to give the Wildcats a 17–13 lead. The Devils committed their 11th turnover of the game and fouled Wiancek, who made one of two with six seconds on the clock as Hanover won the championship by the score of 18–13. The Devils lost the ball five times in the fourth quarter after having only six through three quarters, finishing with 11 total turnovers. Hanover turned the ball over twice in the fourth quarter for a total of 13 against a very effective zone played by the Devils. Talking with head coach Joe Delgado after the game—who did some of his best coaching as a high school coach in this sectional—he spoke about his team and how they competed. "I thought we really stuck together as a five-man team on the floor with our zone defense tonight, never letting them get through the gaps and making it very difficult for them to score inside. Hanover got a couple offensive rebounds that they scored on, but for the most part I thought my team did an outstanding job with our zone defense. We had some shots that went in and out after some good looks at the basket against their tough man-to-man defense. If we hit our free throws it could have been a different result, but we did not and they scored enough just to beat us. Throughout the second half of the season we were getting better and better, learning after every single game. So coming into this sectional we gave ourselves the best chance to win it, but came up a little short tonight after playing really well against River Forest." Hanover head coach Chandler Spring spoke about winning his first sectional title in his first season as head coach for the Wildcats. "Tonight we were slow and somewhat methodical in the first half, which was due to the play of Lowell, whose zone really bothered us. Coming out in the third quarter we made some adjustments, but you have to give credit to the defense Lowell played tonight. I thought we stood around too much, which is something we never do, instead of moving their zone from side to side. The thing we wanted to do was get their zone to shift, but you have to give them credit—they played tough defense tonight against us. I thought our defense was really good, only allowing three players to score against our man-to-man pressure. Our defense saved us tonight, so next week at the regional we will play Columbia City and we are looking forward to it."