Howard scores 17, but fast-paced Washington Township beats Cavaliers

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

CULVER — Culver boys basketball coach Kyle Evans sees the confidence developing in his team coming off a runner-up showing at the Bi-County Tournament and a 27-point conference road win over Oregon-Davis, but Washington Township momentarily interrupted that confidence with a 65-43 win over the Cavaliers at John R. Nelson Gymnasium Monday.

Kolton Howard scored 17 points off the bench to lead Culver. Braylon Jackson added eight, all in the second half.

Senior forward Kyle Banker led the Senators with 17 while Rob McGowan, Brogan Banker and Connor Parks had eight apiece. McGowan, a 6-4 senior big man, also had 10 rebounds.

Washington Township improved to 10-4. Culver fell to 5-11.

“I know we had a 20-point loss, but it doesn’t change the fact that we’ve been playing really good basketball the last four weeks,” Evans said. “I would say these guys are confident with what we do on the defensive end, but I just truly think that we’ve been playing more selflessly. Guys are really trying to make plays for each other, and when you start seeing success doing those sorts of things, you grow in confidence. You mature a little bit with age, and that’s with our younger guys, and I think that’s really shown the last few weeks. Like I said, tonight’s outcome doesn’t change the fact that we’ve been really pleased with our last month of the season.”

Washington Township started on a 17-4 run and went on another 15-0 spurt in the second quarter to increase the lead to 34-10.

Culver never got closer than 18 after that. Washington Township led by as many as 32 in the fourth quarter.

Evans spoke of the importance of Washington Township’s rebounding. It allowed them to push the pace. They would leak a guard back as soon as Culver would release a shot. When they would grab a rebound, they would immediately fire an outlet pass deep to trigger their fast break.

This was the 11th time in 14 games they have scored 60 or more points in a game.

“We were poor in the first half,” Evans said of the rebounding. “That’s what we challenged them with at halftime. We didn’t have much positive to say at halftime, so we just talked about better effort on defense and better rebounding, and I thought we got that in the second half.”

Evans, in the first year of his second stint as coach, has overhauled the offense. Culver’s scoring average is up from 26.9 last year to 40.9 this year. They have scored 50 or more points in a game five times after not doing it at all last year.

But Washington Township played an aggressive man to man defense mixed with occasional pressure packages.

“We just weren't being fundamentally disciplined, I guess,” Evans said. “That’s something we’ve been working on lately, but again, that’s on me as a coach to make us better at that, but that’s where we struggled the most probably.”

As for Howard, a 6-1 sophomore forward, he showed ability to hit the 3, shoot midrange jumpers off a screen and score in the post and off putbacks.

“He’s up and down as a sophomore,” Evans said. “His confidence goes up and down. Every day is different. But he’s someone we’re starting to put an emphasis on getting him the ball, especially in the post or coming off pindowns into curls. … He might have the highest ceiling of any of our guys, and he’s showing it a lot in spurts. As he gets older, he’ll be more consistent with it, but again, I truly think it’s a confidence thing with him. … I’ve been really, really pleased with his growth throughout the year this year.”

Washington Township 65, Culver 43

WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP (65) (10-4)

Brogan Banker 4 0-0 8, Aiden Armstrong 3 0-2 6, Connor Parks 4 0-0 8, Kyle Banker 6 4-4 17, Rob McGowan 1 6-6 8, Aidan Porter 0 0-0 0, Hunter Krooswyk 0 0-0 0, Noah Satterblom 2 0-0 4, James McGowan 1 0-0 2, Carter Jorczak 1 0-0 2, Wyett Kintzele 1 0-0 3, Cort Goetz 3 1-2 7

TEAM: 26 11-14 65

CULVER (43) (5-11)

Braylon Jackson 3 2-4 8, John Carr 1 0-1 2, Jonas McCuen 2 1-1 5, Caleb McCuen 2 2-2 6, Drake Zorich 1 0-4 2, Kolton Howard 8 0-2 17, Jordan Green 1 0-0 3, Skyler Greer 0 0-0 0

TEAM: 18 5-14 43

Three-point field goals:

Washington Township 2 (K. Banker, Kintzele),

Culver 2 (Howard, Green)

Total fouls: Washington Township 13, Culver 9

Turnovers: Washington Township 18, Culver 18

Score by quarters

Washington Township 19 15 14 17 – 65

Culver751021–43