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Shuman overcomes foul trouble, leads Cavs with 11; Ortiz, Pizur add 8 each
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
CULVER — The Culver boys basketball team’s defensive identity is unlike most.
It looks like a zone, but it also traps and pressures the opponent.
Regardless, they ran it the way coach Kyle Evans likes it to be run during a game with visiting Oregon-Davis at John R. Nelson Gymnasium Monday.
After they fell behind 22-19 in the third quarter, Culver held the Bobcats to one field goal over the final 12 minutes to earn a 45-26 win.
Shane Shuman scored 11 points to lead Culver, and Emiliano Ortiz and Joey Pizur had eight each. Ethan Keller added seven, Oliver Morgan had six, and David Hite had five.
Culver beat O-D for the second time in less than two weeks and won their third straight overall to improve to 8-7.
“It’s a coach Evans special zone,” Shuman said. “When he came to us a few years ago, he was like, ‘This was going to be a different zone, but you guys hustle. You guys are hard workers, and I think you guys can pull off this zone.’ Over the last few years, we’ve been working. Obviously, we’re getting pretty good. We have a good defensive average every single time I check. That’s testament to the rest of my teammates and the coach.”
O-D had five field goals in the final three quarters after taking a 9-6 lead after the first quarter.
“I thought outside of the first quarter, overall on their entire team, we did an OK job,” Evans said. “We did a decent job. But not our best, that’s for sure.”
Carson Matthew, a 6-6 reserve sophomore center, had 11 points, and Cashton Swanson had nine for Oregon-Davis, who lost their 11th straight game to fall to 2-15.
Swanson was later ejected after receiving his second technical foul with 43.5 seconds left. Pizur also received a technical in the incident with Swanson.
Culver also beat O-D 59-40 in a Bi-County Tournament consolation game at the LaVille auxiliary gym on Jan. 20. The teams could meet for a third time in Class 1A, Sectional 50 at Triton, which begins Feb. 28.
Caleb Seese scored on a driving layup and was fouled with 4:20 left in the third quarter to give Oregon-Davis a 20-19 lead. He missed the ensuing free throw, but Matthew scored on a putback.
Culver then went on a 15-0 run covering the third and fourth quarters.
It started with a Morgan layup off a Pizur assist. Then Connor Frazier missed two free throws for Oregon-Davis.
Keller scored on a driving layup to put Culver ahead for good at 23-22. Ortiz split a pair of free throws, and Morgan made two from the line with 17.6 seconds left to give Culver a four-point lead going into the fourth.
Then came a left baseline hanging jumper from Ortiz, a 3-pointer from Hite, two Keller free throws with 4:32 left in the game and another Keller free throw 15 seconds later to increase the lead to 34-22.
O-D committed 25 fouls, and Culver made more free throws (16) than O-D attempted (13).
“They foul, and we’ve got to play through it,” Evans said of what offensive adjustments were made. “I didn’t really think anything of it outside of they’re physical and hands on, so we’ve got to make sure we’re ripping hard through contact, and we’re not getting bumped off cuts. They were physical on cuts, but physicality should be our type of game.”
Culver would also close the game on an 8-0 run that included a driving layup from Shuman and a wide open Shuman layup after Ortiz broke down the O-D defense off the dribble.
Evans also mentioned that rebounding was emphasized in the locker room at halftime when the game was tied at 16.
“We just came out in the second half with intensity,” Shuman said. “We knew that we were physically the better team. We just came out kind of flat. So we decided to pick it up, and we needed to play better in the second half, and I would say we did. Players like Joey Pizur and Emiliano Ortiz, they all stepped up and scored when they needed to.”
Culver 45, Oregon-Davis 26
OREGON-DAVIS (26) (2-15)
Cashton Swanson 2 3-4 9, Connor Frazier 0 0-3 0, Ethan Huitt 0 0-2 0, Conner Danford 1 0-0 2, Caleb Seese 2 0-1 4, Keegan Garland 0 0-0 0, Brady Danford 0 0-0 0, Carson Matthew 4 2-3 11
TEAM: 9 5-13 26
CULVER (45) (8-7)
Ethan Keller 2 3-4 7, Emiliano Ortiz 2 4-8 8, Oliver Morgan 2 2-2 6, Joey Pizur 2 4-8 8, Shane Shuman 4 3-6 11, David Hite 2 0-0 5, Jonas McCuen 0 0-0 0
TEAM: 14 16-28 45
Three-point field goals:
Oregon-Davis 3 (Swanson 2, Matthew),
Culver 1 (Hite)
Total fouls: Oregon-Davis 25, Culver 19
Fouled out: Morgan (CUL), 5:52, fourth; Seese (O-D), 5:22, fourth; B. Danford (O-D), 3:47, fourth; Pizur (CUL), :43.5, fourth
Technical fouls: Swanson (O-D), 2:43, fourth; Swanson (O-D), :43.5, fourth (ejected); Pizur (CUL), :43.5, fourth
Turnovers: Oregon-Davis 19, Culver 18
Score by quarters
Oregon-Davis 9 7 6 4 – 26
Culver6101019–45
