Pontiac making history after disposing of St. Joe-Ogden

HERSCHER — Defense and free throws will carry a team a long way, just ask Pontiac head coach Matt Kelley. Solid D and near perfect shooting from the line were keys as the Indians topped St. Joseph-Ogden 55-40 in the first semifinal game of the Class 2A Herscher Sectional Tuesday night.

The win over the sixth-ranked Spartans places No. 8 Pontiac into the sectional semifinal for the first time since 1969. The Tribe was to meet the winner of Wednesday's semifinal game between top-ranked Prairie Central and Bishop McNamara.

“Get it done,” was Kerr Bauman's answer to the question of what his team's approach is for Friday. He also noted that “we're staying humble and we're staying hungry.”

Feeding that hunger Tuesday might have been Michael Kuska, who made a couple plays at the end of the second quarter that gave the Indians momentum. Kuska got a weak side rebound and put-back basket to tie the game at 16-16 with 2:19 left in the half.

A bit later, Kuska hit the first of two 3-pointers for the Tribe on the night to put PTHS up 19-16 in the final minute of the first half. This was Pontiac's first lead since Logan Barnett scored 27 seconds into the game.

“We needed to see one go in,” Kelley said. “You see one go in and the confidence goes back up. That was a big shot going into the half.”

But could the Tribe keep that momentum rolling?

“We knew we had to come out of the locker room hot and keep things going,” junior Henry Brummel said. “The biggest thing was keeping the defense up and limiting (Ty) Pence to a minimum.”

Brummel hit from the elbow and Riley Weber converted a three-point play and Pontiac pushed its lead to 24-16 in the first two minutes of the second half.

“Once we started the second half, we didn't stop, we kept going on both sides of the floor,” Bauman said.

St. Joe-Ogden head coach Kiel Duval was quite understanding of what happened. He called a timeout after Weber's three-point play but it really didn't help much.

“That was a big shot but we felt pretty good going into the half,” Duval said. “But the second half, they punched us in the mouth first and we just never responded.”

St. Joseph-Ogden got no closer than six points the rest of the quarter and the Tribe led 33-24 heading into the home stretch.

A big factor over the final two periods was how close the game was being called. More fouls were being charged in the second half, and that led to more trips to the charity stripe.

Most of these were in the fourth period, and this is where the Indians really created separation. Pontiac was 12 of 13 from the line in the fourth quarter alone. The Tribe drained 19 of 22 tosses for the game.

By comparison, the Spartans were 8 of 17 from the stripe for the game, including going 7-for-16 in the second half.

“We were able to string some free throws in the fourth quarter when we got into a better rhythm,” Kelley said.

“We knew we could maybe get them in foul trouble, but we weren't knocking down shots from the outside,” Duval said. “We had to find a way to get to the rim and when we had those opportunities from the foul line, you go 8-for-17, those are just huge letdowns.”

Pontiac starts four juniors, and three are returning starters from a year ago. The other played a lot as a sophomore. The lone senior starter has been a starter since his freshman year, so there is a lot of experience on the floor for the Indians.

One of those juniors was Bauman, who guided the Tribe down the stretch to keep St. Joe-Ogden at bay.

“Kerr is our primary point guard, he's been through the ropes from his freshman year to now,” Kelley said. “To be able to handle the pressure he did right now is the growing experience that he's had.”

Bauman hit nine free throws in the final frame. He also scored a couple baskets on drives and finished with 13 points in the last stanza.

The most talented player on the floor was wearing maroon, but he was held in check despite a trio of thunderous dunks in this game. Pence finished as the game's top scorer with 19 points, but he had to work for his markers and was forced to take shots that might not have been to his coach's liking.

The credit was Pontiac's defense, which sent a message early and many reminders were provided throughout the game.

The message came when Pence went baseline and had his shot rejected by Brummel mere seconds into the contest.

“It felt great, we got a little momentum to begin and we continued to play good defense,” Brummel said of the play.

“To go up and contest it the way he did, it was a big energy boost for us to start the game,” Kelley said. “He's one of the best players in the state. All you can do is try to contest every single shot and try not to let him get a really, really good rhythm.

“I thought for the most part, we did a good job of contesting every shot. If you do that, you live with the result at the end of the day.”

The result of this one was a Pontiac victory.

“They were better than us, they knocked down some shots in key situations and we couldn't find a way to get the ballin the hole, whether it was from the free throw line or the outside,” Duval said. “They took advantage of our mistakes. They outworked us, they outplayed us, they got big offensive rebounds late when they needed them.”

Bauman finished with 15 points as the Indians improved to 26-6. Brummel added 13 points, Weber scored 12 and Barnett tossed in 8. Kuska finished with 7 markers.

Pence led St. Joseph-Ogden (28-5) with 19 points. Tanner Jacob tossed in 8 points and Logan Smith added 7.

Available records show this is already a program record for wins in a season. The old mark known was 23 set in 1974-75 by Kevin Moore's Indians that won the Pontiac Holiday Tournament and finished 23-4. They lost in the regional final. Jake Krause led the 2004-05 Indians to a 23-6 record and that team won a regional title.

This article originally appeared on Pontiac Daily Leader: Pontiac Indians making history after disposing of St. Joseph-Ogden