Red Devils Win Plano Tourney
Defeat Seneca 35 to 31
by Kevin Hieronymus BCR & Erik Hall-News Tribune
December 29, 2007
No doubting
the Red Devils
Hall lives up to top billing, tops Irish for Plano crown
By Kevin Hieronymus
khieronymus@bcrnews.com
Tuesday, January 1, 2008 1:04 AM CST
PLANO — The Hall Red Devils may have been seeded No. 1 for the 44th
annual Plano Christmas Classic, but they didn’t feel they were
being treated like No. 1. So they went out and proved it.
And for Hall, there was no better way to prove it was No. 1 this year, than knock off three-time defending champion Seneca 35-31 for the championship.
After cruising through the first three rounds of the tournament, the title game proved to be a down-to-the wire, who’s going to win contest.
It took Clayton Cissell’s high-soaring rebound of a missed Hall free throw, one of six Hall misses in the fourth quarter, and two made free throws of his own with 1.6 remaining to clinch Hall’s first Plano title since 1997.
“I’m happy for the kids, because they deserved it. Nobody thought we’d come in here and win this. The hot pick was Putnam County and Seneca,” Hall coach Mike Filippini said. “We were the No. 1 seed and not one person picked us to win. That’s what make it so sweet when you can stick it to people.”
“It’s a real nice win, because I bet you no one expected us to win tonight,” said Hall senior guard Jordan Petersen, who led all scorers with 10 points. “I think people were doubting us. No one really thinks we’re going to be good this year. No one thought we’ve played any good teams. So it’s nice to come in here and prove everybody wrong.”
It was Hall’s second win over Seneca this season, having also defeating the Irish for the championship of the Irish’s Thanksgiving Tournament. The loss snapped the Irish’s 13-game win streak at Plano.
“It feels better than the first time,” said Cissell, who made the all-tournament team along with teammate Korby Kasperski. “Everybody’s just been doubting us and doubting us. We’ve been coming out to prove them wrong and I hope this does. I just feel awesome.”
But it didn’t come without some anxious moments.
Cissell hit a big three-pointer for the first points of the fourth quarter with 6:05 showing to regain a 27-26 lead for Hall. One Red Devil fan said, “We needed that big time.”
After a Petersen free throw, senior forward Ryan Nett scored with an inside turn to his left side to give Hall a 30-26 lead with 3:00.
Filippini called for the spread offense, but the Red Devils were whistled for a five-seconds call. Ben Paulsen scored for the Irish, but Petersen answered with a drive on the back door to keep Hall in front by 32-28 with 1:35 to play.
C.J. Peterson hit a three to bring the Irish within 32-31 with 1:03 remaining. Hall’s Petersen rimmed a free throw in and out, and after Kasperski snared a missed a three-point attempt by the Irish’s Seth Evans, Kasperski missed the front end of a bonus with 14.7 to play.
Still down by one with a shot for the lead, the Irish made an errant pass to Andy Supergen, right into the hands of Cissell. Instead of dribbling the clock out, Cissell asked for timeout.
That move left Hall fans scratching their heads, but Cissell said, “I was so excited to get the ball and called timeout for some reason.”
His teammates laughed about it later.
“We were thinking, Oh my God, what are you doing,” Nett said.
“He probably didn’t know what he was doing. He said, ‘Don’t jump me, I didn’t know what to do,’” Peterson said in his best Clayton Cissell voice.
Cissell soon more than made up for it. Seneca fouled Petersen after the timeout and he missed his free throw. Cissell must have had an “S” on his shirt as he soared for the rebound and was fouled with 1.6 left to play. He wanted the rebound really bad, he said.
“I had four fouls and three of them were over the backs trying to get rebounds. I finally got a huge rebound and it meant the most,” he said.
“That was big. He got up (and) got it,” Petersen said.
The Red Devils found themselves down 19-9 in the second quarter and began to plot their road map to the championship.
Petersen hit a three-pointer with 1:09 left in the half and Noel Santiago spread a little Christmas Noel on the Irish with a steal and layup to cut the Irish’s lead to 19-14 at the break.
“We had a terrible second quarter — scored one point with like a minute left and all of a sudden we scored five or six to make it a decent game at halftime,” Filippini said.
The intermission did little to cool the Red Devils’ surge. Kasperski opened the second half with a free throw and Cissell scored in the post. Kasperski then drove around the left wing and found smooth sailing all the way to the hoop for a layup. He was fouled and converted the free throw to give Hall a 20-19 edge with 5:56 left in the third quarter.
A basket by Nett in the post and a stop and pop by Santiago kept the game tied at 24 with 1:18 to play. Jake Misener staked the Irish to a 26-24 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
“It was real low scoring, so I think it was mainly our defense, because we weren’t hitting a lot of shots early on,” Nett said.
It was Hall’s defense on Evans, son of Irish coach Doug Evans son and the Plano MVP, primarily that of Petersen’s, that made the difference. Evans, who was averaging 24.3 ppg through the first three games of the tournament, was held to eight points on 3-15 shooting.
“Jordan didn’t get the MVP, but he should have got the defensive MVP. He was on Evans the entire game until we went to that zone,” Filippini said. “It was not the most well played game, but our kids found a way. Our kids showed a lot of mental toughness
Devil defense
limits Evans, lifts Hall to title
By Erik Hall
sports@newstrib.com
PLANO — If Seneca all-state guard Seth Evans has managed to
eliminate Hall’s Mike Miroux from his nightmares, he has a new Red
Devil to haunt his slumber. Hall senior guard Jordan Petersen used
his quick feet to make Saturday night difficult for Evans in the
championship game of the Plano Christmas Classic. Petersen led an
all-around strong defensive performance by the Red Devils, who won
Saturday’s championship game 35-31.
“People are going to look at the score and be like, ‘Boy, that wasn’t a very good game,’ ” said Hall head coach Mike Filippini. “You know what, if you were here, this was a pretty intense ballgame. You had two teams that were really giving their all out there. I would say that instead of calling it a bad offensive game, it was a better defensive game by both teams out there. You got two good defensive teams right there.”
Hall improved to 14-1 on the season with Saturday’s win, and it earned them the Plano championship for the first time since 1997. Hall is off to its best start since the 1997-98 team, which finished second in the state at 32-1. “It’s pretty cool to be in the same category as the state team because they were a great ball club,” said Hall senior Korby Kasperski, who was named to the Plano All-Tournament Team along with Hall senior forward Clayton Cissell. Saturday’s loss was just the second loss of the season for Seneca. The Irish fell to 11-2, with both losses coming against Hall.
Petersen was recovering from injury the first time Hall and
Seneca played this year, and Miroux had the defensive assignment on
Evans in November’s matchup. The Seneca senior shot 35 percent from
the field and 27.3 percent from 3-point range in November’s loss to
Hall.
His shooting got worse Saturday. Evans went 3-for-14 from the field
(21.4 percent) and 2-for-8 from 3-point range (25 percent). He
finished with just eight points during Saturday’s championship game
of the Plano Christmas Classic. “Jordan Petersen did a great job,”
Filippini said. “I know they don’t give out defensive MVPs, but if
they did, he should have it. He shut down the best guard on every
team in this tournament. He did it all week. He did it all weekend.
Seth Evans is a Division-I player. He’s going to Wisconsin-Green
Bay, and he held him to his 3-for-14. Ninety-five percent of it was
Jordan. You got to throw Mikey (Miroux) and Matt Hassler in there.
Jordan’s really the one that stuck it to him. Jordan’s a tough kid.
He wouldn’t back down to Evans. To hold him to 3-for-14 is pretty
good.”
Hall breaks
Irish streak at Plano
By Mike Cunniff
mcunniff@morrisdailyherald.com
PLANO - Hall senior forward Clayton Cissell isn't known as a 3-point shooter.
But the trey that Cissell connected on from the right corner with 6:04 left in the championship game will be remembered in Spring Valley for a long time.
The Cissell trey proved to be pivotal as the Red Devils verified their top seed in the 45th Plano Christmas Classic by knocking off the three-time defending champion Seneca Fighting Irish 35-31 Saturday night.
Seneca veteran coach Doug Evans had a succinct reply when asked the reason for why Hall was able to claim its first title in 10 years (the Red Devils beat Mendota for the 1997 crown).
“They made more baskets than us,” offered Evans.
Actually, both teams fired in 13 baskets on the evening. But Hall
was able to find the bottom of the net on seven of 18 occasions in
the second half after trailing 19-14 at the break.
The Irish, who fall to 11-2 on the season with both losses to the Red Devils, were 8-of-14 in the opening half before managing to sink just five baskets in 18 shots following intermission. Seneca had a pair of baskets in the while being outscored 11-5 in the fourth frame.
After falling behind 30-26 as Hall rattled off six unanswered markers to kick off the stanza, Irish senior forward Ben Paulsen connected on a turn-around jumper while spinning to his left with 2:07 remaining. Senior guard Jordan Petersen then took advantage of a scrape-off screen to motor along the right baseline for a Red Devil layup at the 1:36 mark.
A trey by Seneca junior guard CJ Peterson from the left elbow
sliced the deficit to 32-31 with 1:13 to go before Hall closed it
out with three free throws.
After missing the front end of consecutive bonus situations with
38.1 and 14.7 seconds left. The Irish had a missed shot and a
turnover in its resultant two chances. Petersen cashed in on the
front end of a bonus chance to make it 33-31 with 3.5 seconds. A
pushing call on Seneca then sent Cissell to the stripe where he
nailed both of his charity chances.
“At the end, we just didn't execute down the stretch,” said Evans. “They (the Red Devils) played great defense. But the big thing was, we did not have anyone step up and make shots tonight. We came out tentative and we made some casual mistakes. And then we made some casual mistakes at the end of the first half.”
Hall took advantage of successive Irish turnovers on their initial possessions to zip out to a 4-0 edge on layups by junior guard Noel Santiago senior center Ryan Nett. A jump flip by junior center Jake Misener gave Seneca an 8-8 deadlock at the end of the frame.
The Irish then canned three straight shots (a bank shot from in the paint by junior forward Sam Hoster, a trey from the key by Classic Most Valuable Player Seth Evans and a layup by junior forward Andy Supergan) to take control 15-9. Misener then converted an alley-oop off a penetrating drive by Seth Evans before senior reserve Jordan Sinnott chipped in with two free throws to give Seneca a double-digit edge. After a missed Irish trey, Petersen nailed one out of the left corner for Hall. An Irish turnover was then turned into a layup by Santiago to draw the Red Devils within five at the break. Seneca then had another turnover before the half although Hall was unable to cash in. It was the second time in three quarters that the Irish tried to hold the ball for the final shot, only to have a miscue and lose possession.
The Red Devils took advantage of the usual third-quarter lull by the Irish to grab a 20-19 advantage two minutes in. Senior forward Korby Kasperski split a pair of free throws before Cissell spun back in a missed jumper by Santiago. A three-point package by Kasperski completed the run.
Seneca came right back, with five unanswered markers thanks to a turn-around jumper by Paulsen and a Seth Evans trey from the key. A basket by Misener in the paint with 54.6 seconds left gave the Irish a 26-24 edge going into the fourth stanza.
Cissell then stepped up for the champions, nailing his trey from the right corner.
“Cissell hit a big 3,” said coach Evans. “I don't think he had hit a 3 in the whole tournament.”
He hadn't ... attempting only three others with two being earlier in the title game.
Petersen following by hitting a free throw before a jumper by Nett gave Hall a 30-26 edge with 3:39 left.
“And the way things were going, those four points seemed like 10,” said coach Evans. “They were grinding the same way we were grinding.”
Petersen was the only person on either team to get into double figures, topping the 12-1 Red Devils with three regular baskets, a solitary trey and a charity toss. Santiago tacked on eight points while Cissell ended with seven. Kasperski led a 23-21 advantage for Hall on the boards with six grabs, all at the defensive end.
Seth Evans led Seneca with eight markers. Misener and Paulsen added a half dozen each. Evans and Paulsen latched onto five caroms apiece. It was only the second game that the Irish had lost in 20 outings in the Classic dating back to 2003. The only other loss ... to Hall in the second round. The Red Devils went on to finish second, losing to Yorkville in the championship contest.
Kasperski and Cissell joined Seth Evans on the 12-man All-Tournament Squad.
PLANO
CHRISTMAS CLASSIC: Cissell-ing performance downs Irish
CHARLIE ELLERBROCK, charliee@mywebtimes.com
PLANO -- It was a big game, a tight game, a defensive struggle that
could turn -- and did turn -- on a single shot. Hall's Clayton
Cissell was held scoreless by Seneca in the first half and to two
points with 3 minutes, 45 seconds left in the third quarter. That's
when he went to the bench after picking up his third foul and
covered his head with a towel in frustration.
But he didn't let his frustration get the better of him. Just
seconds after he returned to the game early in the fourth period,
he hit a 3-pointer from the right corner to put the Red Devils
ahead for the last time. Later, the 6-6 senior later made several
key plays in the closing seconds to give Hall a 35-31 victory over
the Irish Saturday night in the championship game of the 45th
annual Plano Christmas Classic.
Seneca, which led by as many as 10 in the first half, needed and
got a big trey by C.J. Peterson with just over a minute left to
pull within one point. But with just 4.4 seconds left in the
quarter, the Irish's last chance at the win went awry when
Peterson's inbounds pass bounced off the hands of teammate Andy
Supergan and Cissell recovered. That led to one Hall free throw,
then Cissell rebounded the second-shot miss and sank the two
clinching tosses with just 1.6 seconds to go.
Those plays and Hall's defense on tournament MVP Seth Evans (eight
points on 3-of-14 shooting) gave Hall its second win this season
over the 11-2 Irish. It also denied Seneca its fourth straight
Plano title and gave the Red Devils their first crown there since
1997.
"You'd think if you hold somebody to 35 points, you couldn't lose," said Seneca coach Doug Evans. "We actually controlled the game a lot more than we did the first time we played them, until (Cissell's) three. That was a huge shot. I don't think he'd hit a three the entire tournament. In games like this, somebody's gotta step up and hit a big shot and he did. É The big thing for us was we didn't have anybody step up and make big shots tonight. "We missed a couple of easy ones early in the second half and they took the momentum. Honestly, I don't think we ever really had the momentum, even though we were ahead a few times. It never really felt like we had the momentum all night."
It looked in the second quarter as though the Irish were in
control. Two free throws by Jordan Sinnott with 1:55 left completed
a 13-1 run and gave Seneca a 19-9 lead.
But Hall started its road back with its first two field goals of
the period, a trey by Jordan Petersen and a steal and layup by Noel
Santiago within 12 seconds of each other. Santiago late in the
third quarter canned a 15-footer to tie the game at 24. Though a
basket in the post by Seneca's Jake Misener at 59.1 seconds of the
third broke that tie, Cissell's trey with 6:09 showing in final
quarter put the Devils in front for good. "We told Clayton after
the first half when he was kinda pouting after struggling early,
that 'you're the guy on this team, you need to be a leader, not a
guy sitting on the bench with a towel on his head.' In the second
half, he played his butt off," said Hall coach Mike Filippini. "We
also told him that he needed to shoot the three because they were
off of him, daring him and some of our guys to shoot. Clayton has
the ability to hit the three and he showed it."
A spin to the baseline by Hall's Jordan Petersen gave Hall a 32-28
lead before Seneca's Peterson hit his big trey with 1:14 to go,
slicing that lead to one. The Devils missed two fronts of 1-and-1
free throws, the second with 14.7 seconds left to set up the final
Irish chance. But the inbounds pass to an off-guard Supergan tipped
off his hands, and Cissell covered it at the left sideline.
Jordan Petersen made a free throw with 3.5 seconds left, and
Cissell rebounded his second and was fouled himself. He then hit
both tosses to make it a two-possession game with 1.6
remaining.
"The pass that was made, the guy was wide open. We just fumbled it
around, didn't catch the ball," said coach Evans. "We were fighting
tired legs and that affected our shooting. Everything was coming up
short. But there's no excuse for the turnovers. That's something
we've been fighting a lot this season. We'd been doing better with
it in recent games, but last night (in the semifinals against
Genoa-Kingston) we struggled again É and it was the same at the
beginning of the game tonight. We made some careless mistakes right
before the half and you can't do that in big ballgames. It's just a
demon that came back on us tonight."
Seneca's shooting overcame 15 miscues in that semifinal, but
13-of-30 shoting Saturday couldn't erase 12 errors versus Hall. No
player in the game scored in double figures. Evans' eight points
led Seneca, while Hall's Petersen took game honors with nine
points.
Click on the link below to see the entire Plano Tourney results-
Click on the link below to see statistics from the wins over Mendota, Serena, Aurora Christian and Seneca.
