Bartlett comes back to topple Johnsburg

The way Johnsburg's Zach Toussaint was shooting from deep through three quarters Friday night at the Hinkle Holiday Classic, Bartlett's start in pool play had a very grim look to it.

But after Toussaint hit his sixth 3-pointer for a 5-point Skyhawks lead with 6 minutes left in the game, Bartlett simply had enough.

"I was tired of seeing Toussaint hitting 3s uncontested," said Hawks coach Jim Wolfsmith, whose team picked up its defense, fueled a 14-0 run over the last 5 minutes and took home a 63-51 win in style to go 1-0 in Pool II play at Jacobs.

"You could see him, just the rhythm of good shooting like that, he wanted those shots," Wolfsmith added. "And I thought we did a much better job with (Austin Gates) and (Byron Price) of working over their ball pick and making their shots harder and forcing them to go under the stripe."

That change helped the Hawks (4-6) outscore Johnsburg 22-5 after Toussaint's last 3. He finished with a game-high 26 points on 9 of 22 shooting. Toussaint never sank a shot thereafter going 0-for-7 and the Skyhawks (4-4) went just 3-for-19 in the quarter and drained just 1 shot in the final 5 minutes. Bartlett, which shot 20 of 37, reversed the momentum and sizzled at the end going 7 of 8 in the fourth while draining 11 free throws.

Ben Fisher poured in 8 of his team-high 21 points in the fourth where things opened up for the Hawks while Gates had 15 points and 6 rebounds and Tomas Vikonis had 13 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists.

"I think we just had to contain Toussaint," said Fisher, who added 3 rebounds. "We were really lacking running our offense. We could get whatever we wanted the whole game, but we were just not putting in the hole."

But the Hawks did when it mattered and worked the ball inside, where they scored 20 points overall in the paint on 10 layups and 19 at the free throw line. They went inside during their run in the fourth, as a Price layup off a steal cut Johnsburg's lead to 2 with nearly 5 minutes left. Fisher's layup tied it on the Hawks' next possession with 4:42 left and Vikonis, who drew a foul on the Hawks' subsequent possession with 4:23 left, gave Bartlett a 48-46 lead from the stripe, its first since the 3:42 mark of the third quarter. Bartlett never looked back.

"Well good defense begins good offense," Wolfsmith said. "We started finishing shots, we hit our free throws and that's what happens in this game. If you play good defense, the offense rolls."

Johnsburg turned the ball over 12 times as Price totaled 3 steals and the Skyhawks shot just 30 percent in a game that seesawed throughout. But leading 46-41 and then going cold as ice was a bitter pill to swallow.

"There's no explanation," Johnsburg coach Mike Toussaint said. "We're averaging 74 points per game. We just didn't play our tempo. They controlled the tempo and changed up their defenses."