Chesterton continues its hot-shooting ways and drops 15 3-pointers in 75-47 win at Culver Military Academy to wrap up 19-4 regular season with 31 3s in Trojans final two games

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

Based on how remarkably well the Chesterton basketball players have shot the past two games, they must be doing an equally successful job of staying on top of their academics.
Say what?
Here’s the connection to hot shooting and strong study skills: The main purpose of Student Resource Time (SRT), a 90-minute period set aside for students to make up assignments, is to receive tutorial help from teachers, do homework, etc.
The basketball players all have their SRT together and those who are caught up on all their work can practice shooting in the gymnasium in the morning on Gold days.
So, based on the Trojans burying 31 3-point shots in the final two games of the regular season, they must be doing a terrific job of staying on top of their school work.
They hit 15 3-pointers Friday night at Culver Military Academy, a cozy gymnasium inside of the Steinbrenner Recreation Center that traps the sound, to score a 75-47 victory to finish the regular season with a 19-4 record.
“Not every school in the country has SRT,” said junior sixth man Malachi Ransom when asked to explain the Trojans hot shooting. “We’ve got a whole hour and like 15 minutes where we can go in the gym and just shoot. I think we’ve utilized that pretty well.”
The players have made good use of a shooting machine called “The Gun,” which feeds the ball back to the shooter.
“We get on that and do shooting drills and I think that’s the key to our success,” Ransom said.
Rapid, purposeful ball movement results in open shots and the Trojans seem to get better steadily in that regard as well.
“If we hit the paint and we fit it down low to our bigs, we’ve got Bradly (Basila), we’ve got Gunner (Ello), they can cook down there,” Ransom said. “So, if we can feed it to them down low and they can draw attention, us guards out on the perimeter, we’ll cook from 3.”
Ransom scored 11 points at Culver, joining four teammates in double figures: Basila (15), seniors Logan Pokorney and Jaylon Watts scored 14 apiece and junior Tobias Ray had 11.
Pokorney led the way with four 3-pointers, Ransom, Ray and Watts hit three apiece, and Basila and Virgil each hit one.
In their previous game, the Trojans made 16 3-pointers in a 75-33 blowout of Valparaiso at home.
The two-game 3-pointer totals: Pokorney 11, Cooper Huwig 4, Ransom 4, Ray 3, Watts 3, Basila 2, Virgil 2, Tommy Kostbade 1.
Nine different Trojans have hit at least one in the past two games and four starters and two reserves have hit multiple 3s.
The two-game totals: Pokorney 11, Cooper Huwig 4, Ransom 4, Ray 3, Watts 3, Basila 2, Virgil 2, Tommy Kostbade 1, Caden Schneider 1.
Pokorney and Ray were the first to heat up, hitting three apiece in the first half on a night the Trojans again showed their uncanny knack for scoring on the final possessions of a period.
They hooked up at the end of the half to beat the buzzer when those not familiar with the play probably thought Ray waited too long to start penetrating. Nope, he timed it perfectly and Pokorney curled around screens, and turned the perfect delivery from Ray into a 3-point swish from between the left corner and wing, releasing in plenty of time.
“We practice those plays so many times, so we know when in the clock to go on our different plays and we time it so we can get a 3 off without letting them have an opportunity to score if they get the rebound,” Ray said.
Since the gym was too loud for the coaches to be heard, Ray needed to use his voice to get the players into the right plays and he did.
And the shooters, including Ray, finished the plays in style. He agreed with Ransom on SRT playing an important part in shooting so well.
“Not a lot of schools get to have that, getting up an hour and 30 minutes worth of shots with each other and working on our free throws and doing our skill stuff helps tremendously,” Ray said. “Sometimes it’s only 45 minutes of SRT. Other times, maybe you’ll have to go to a class or say do some homework for an hour, and still you get up shots for 30 minutes.”
It was Ransom and senior Jaylon Watts who got hot from the outer limits in the third period, each hitting a pair in the 19-point quarter.
Watts had 11 of his 14 points in the second half and Ransom had all but two o f his 11 in the second half.
“I was very happy for him. He struggled a little in the Valpo game and in this game when we needed him the most he stepped up and made some very big shots,” Ray said. “That’s what you want to do going into sectionals, have a big game like he did. We know we can count on him.”
Watts said “it felt like the right time” to assert himself at both ends of the court.
“I know I’ve kind of been in a slump a little bit, so I was looking to shoot the right shots more and they were going in,” he said. “But also I understood if they weren’t there, don’t force it. When we were all hitting 3s we felt a connection and then when we started getting stops it made it easier to get shots.”
Even with Ransom and Watts heating up and Watts repeatedly coming up with big defensive plays, deflections, a blocked shot and a steal, the Eagles kept hanging in there, drawing as close as 41-34 well into the third period. Then Ransom hit a 3 from the left corner to start the visitors on a 16-0 run.
In the final period, Basila took over as the primary scorer, totaling 9 of his 15 points, hitting a 3 and cashing in on Watts’ perfect lob for one of his louder dunks of the season. Basila also hit a 3 from the left corner early in the quarter.
Watts also is a big fan of SRT.
“It’s almost like it’s impossible to have a good shooting team with all those resources,” he said. “I’m just thankful I’ve been able to have those resources for the last four years. It made me a better player.”
Watts played on the freshman team, then as a sophomore started the year on JV and earned a quick promotion to the varsity, where he steadily has grown his reputation as a player who does a little bit of everything and scores when he senses the team needs it.
Chesterton coach Marc Urban gave his team high grades for more than shooting well in the final game of the regular season.
“Sometimes you go dive into a team (scouting it) and they’re not very fun to dive into because they don’t do much,” Urban said. “These guys do a lot of stuff that is very creative and they’ve got some nice young players who made us pay when we didn’t do our jobs. That’s what’s so good about playing them. It’s extremely loud where my voice, you can’t hear it. So, it’s on the players to communicate. It’s a really good learning experience.”
The cadets came out in full force to see their Eagles take on the state’s 16th-ranked team and did what they could to influence the outcome. Even that doesn’t amount to a sufficient defense against 15 3-pointers.