Bruiser Gunner Ello hustles his way into fan favorite status in helping Chesterton earn its way into boys basketball semifinal vs. Merrillville on Friday night

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

If there is one thing Gunner Ello is not on the basketball court, it’s a gunner.
A bruiser, a body mover, a rebounder, a hustler, a fan favorite, yes. But Ello is the farthest thing from a gunner.
Chesterton’s first big man off the bench, Ello stays close to the basket, has a knack for using his 240 pounds and nimble feet to establish position, uses his sure hands to secure rebounds, and is quick about feeding the ball elsewhere once he gets his mitts on it.
Ello earned the biggest ovation of the game from the sizable Chesterton student section in the Trojans’ 56-46 win over Portage in Tuesday night’s sectional opener. The 6-foot-5 junior also received the two biggest slaps from amped Coach Marc Urban, the first on his hand, quickly followed by one on his back side.
Ello’s 12 seconds of energy-generating, nonstop hustle started with 1:08 left in the half when Logan Pokorney’s 3-pointer from the right corner was long. Portage’s Bryce Kobe tried to box him out and move him back, but Ello wouldn’t budge. He pinned Kobe too low for him to get the rebound, and Ello was able to grab it without reaching over his back. Ello fed the ball to Watts, who drove inside the key to pull Cooper Huwig’s defender away and pitched it to Huwig for an open 3-pointer.
As Ello saw Huwig rise up to shoot, he hustled from the left block to the right block, pulled another offensive rebound down between a couple of Portage players as things got physical, he fell out of bounds, but not before pitching it back to Huwig, who tossed it to Ransom.
As Ello got back on his feet, Ransom drove the lane, and his shot at the rim glanced off and squirted out of bounds off a Portage player. Urban subbed Caden Schneider into the game for Ello as the crowd roared and the coach planted a couple of ’attaboys on the junior.
The possession ended with Jaylon Watts nailing a 3-pointer that pumped Chesterton’s lead to 27-18 with inside of 50 seconds remaining. Without Ello’s two offensive boards, the lead is six instead of nine.
He finished the night with four points and seven rebounds and the team performed better with him on the floor than on the bench.
“It's such an important play. Those are huge, huge, huge effort plays and just wanting it: ‘I'm gonna go get it.’ It was good to see,” Urban said. “I mean, I thought it changed the game in a lot of ways. We played a little tight early. We kind of forced some things, and it settled us down a little bit.”
Logan Pokorney, who led the team in scoring with 17 points and also had some memorable hustle plays, including chasing down a loose and as he was losing balance, firing the ball off an opponent to retain possession, saw Ello’s big possession similarly to how his coach did.
“Huge. Huge. It was a huge play in the game, a momentum shifter,” Pokorney said. “I mean, you saw the reaction by the crowd and our bench.”
Ello was happy to come out of the game at that point, but the ovation he received had nothing to do with that.
“I was dying,” he said. “I was dying on that play, but I was like I’ve got to get these to help us win the game obviously, try to get extra possessions for my team, but I was dying. That was one hard possession, but it’s just what needs to happen.”
Urban never is surprised to see the passion Ello exhibits on the court because he has witnessed his love of sports for so long.
“He lives down the street from us and I've seen him since we moved here 10 years ago, so he was probably about 6 or 7,” Urban said. “He was always out in the yard, playing something, hockey, soccer, baseball, always doing something, and I think he just has a knack for how to be a good athlete. It didn't matter if it was minus-10, or if it was 110 and he was out there with no shirt on just being an athlete. And I do think that translates to having a knack for the ball.”
Ello remembered when the Urbans came to Chesterton.
“When he moved in, I didn't really know he was the basketball coach,” Ello said. “Then I went to a basketball camp, I saw him there and I was like, ‘Wow, that is actually the basketball coach.’ He walks his dogs all the time and when I was younger I would see him and he would always say, ‘Make sure you get your shots up.’”
When others get their shots up, Ello knows how to establish position for the rebound, and when it’s thrown to him he catches it. He's strong with the ball.
Ello also used his strength Tuesday for one of the night’s easiest buckets, when Watts inbounded the ball under the basket Portage was defending. Ello carved out space for himself right in front of Watts, caught his short pass, and went up with it for an easy two to give Chesterton a 21-16 advantage.
Late in the game, when Portage trapped, Ello was uncovered under the basket and caught a pass. This time he missed when, as he occasionally is guilty of doing, he didn’t put the shot high enough off the glass.
Ello still isn’t making many free throws and went 0 for 2 on the night, but his form looks better.
“Coach (Tim) Ray's been working on that with me on the form and everything, getting me to be able to set my feet in the right position every single time,” Ello said. “That needs to happen. We work on them every single practice. They’ll start dropping soon. They feel a lot better.”
Even without the free throws dropping yet, his popularity is soaring, perhaps even to the point after Tuesday’s effort that the crowd won’t need to wait for him to do something to give him a roar and will do so as soon as he checks into the game.
Chesterton’s next opponent is DAC rival Merrillville, which has improved so much since Chesterton won a road game in a DAC opener for both teams, 59-40, on Jan. 10 that the Pirates were up a few points in the second half vs. mighty Penn in a game the Kingsmen would win, 61-50.
Chesterton’s rematch with Merrillville is scheduled to tip off at approximately 7:30 p.m. Hobart and Valparaiso tip off at 6 p.m. in the other semifinal and the Friday winners meet Saturday at 6 p.m.