NM coach’s return to Caston was Evans-tually going to happen, but L. Mollenkopf’s 27 points, key assist secures senior night win for Comets

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Logan Mollenkopf

FULTON — North Miami boys basketball coach Chuck Evans returned to Caston after a 10-year stint as a principal, athletic director and assistant basketball coach.

His move did not change the nature of the rivalry.

Caston still has North Miami’s number.

Logan Mollenkopf scored a game-high 27 points, and Lane Hook added 16 points and 10 rebounds, including the go-ahead basket off a Mollenkopf assist with 1:45 left, as the host Comets beat the Warriors 56-51 in the regular season finale for both teams Thursday.

Caston beat North Miami for the 12th consecutive time. North Miami has not beaten Caston since 2019.

Carson Harness, who hit the game-winning 3-pointer for Caston in a 64-61 win in Denver last year, added five, all in the quarter.

With North Miami trailing 56-51 with 9.8 seconds left, Lake Musall missed a 27-footer from the right wing, and Hook rebounded. Caston coach Carl Davis called timeout with 1.2 seconds left, so lone senior Gavin Mollenkopf could get an ovation as he was subbed out in favor of Gage Thomas. Davis and Gavin Mollenkopf embraced in front of the scorer’s table.

Caston then ran out the final 1.2 seconds.

“It feels great,” Gavin Mollenkopf said. “In my career, we’ve had some ups and downs. My freshman year, it wasn’t the greatest year. Then we got better sophomore year. Last year, I felt like we had improvement, and then this year, I just feel like we’re really improving, and it feels really great to get this win tonight, especially a conference win.”

Gavin Mollenkopf, a Bethel University baseball recruit, called North Miami’s Ryan Meredith “one of my better friends.” He and Meredith are travel baseball teammates.

Kale Deardorff led North Miami with 14 points, and Musall added 10. Though limited after picking up three fouls in the first half, Meredith led North Miami with 10 rebounds to go with his six points.

Bouncing back from a loss to Winamac Tuesday, Caston finished the regular season 15-7 overall and 6-2 in the Hoosier North. They placed third in the conference. They will play North White at 6 p.m. Wednesday in a Class 1A, Sectional 50 quarterfinal at Caston.

North Miami will carry a 13-9 record into their Class 1A, Sectional 55 quarterfinal against Southern Wells at Wes-Del. The Warriors went 5-3 in the Hoosier North and finished in fourth place behind Triton, Winamac and Caston.

“Well, as I’ve said, this was a tough game because of my association with Caston,” Evans said. “But once the game started, it was just a game. It just became a basketball game. A couple times, coach Davis and I talked with each other during the game. It was a very competitive game. I knew they were going to come out hard. I knew our kids were going to come out hard because that’s all they’ve done all year for me, and I got to respect them for that.

“And so, I anticipated a really good game, and that’s what the people got.”

Caston built a 47-43 lead on a Harness 3-pointer, and North Miami called timeout with 3:42 left.

Deardorff drilled a 3 on the ensuing possession.

Ryan Smith blocked Reed Sommers out of bounds on a drive to the rim. Logan Mollenkopf cut to the rim on the inbounds play, and Sommers found him for a layin.

But Musall then line-drived a 3 from the right of the key from 22 feet to tie it at 49 with 3:00 left.

Caston then took 75 seconds off the clock, trying to get the 6-2 Logan Mollenkopf in a favorable matchup with the 5-8 Musall in the post. Finally, Logan Mollenkopf backed down Musall off the dribble. North Miami big man Laython Norman helped off Hook and tried to double in the post, but Logan Mollenkopf dropped the ball to the open Hook for a layup.

Caston was ahead for good.

“That’s the play that really stuck out to me in terms of how this game ended up,” Davis said. “I just thought it was a very mature possession from start to finish. I thought we had multiple guys make good decisions, and they’re patient. And they’re just looking for that right opportunity. We didn’t force anything. That’s one of those possessions (where) I don’t know if we have that possession two months ago. We’ve been in that similar spot before and not had a great possession like that. I just love the maturity that that possession showed, and to be able to finish that off and give us the lead there in that situation, I thought that was a huge possession for us.”

Karston Black missed a 3 for the Warriors, and after a Caston timeout, Logan Mollenkopf split a pair of free throws with 39.5 seconds left.

After a North Miami timeout, Musall accepted a pass off a back cut and passed it back out to the wing. There was nobody there. Out of bounds, Caston ball.

Harness made two free throws with 22.1 seconds left to make it 54-49.

Black dove on the floor for an offensive rebound and found Deardorff for a layup with 10.9 seconds left.

North Miami called timeout to set up its press. Hook was fouled immediately after catching the inbounds pass and hit two free throws.

Evans, who took his first varsity head coaching position in 23 years when North Miami hired him last summer and who also spent time as the boys golf coach at Caston, remembered both Davis and his former school fondly.

He said he consulted with both Davis and his son Kyle, who coaches at conference rival Culver, before pursuing the North Miami job.

“I coached all 10 years while I was here,” Evans said. “I started in junior high, so all these kids I’ve coached, and probably after three or four years, Coach kept begging me to come up and be his varsity assistant, so I spent the last four or five years … on his staff. We’ve got a great relationship, and I respect the heck out of him. I learned from him at times, and I think he learned from me at times. That’s why I think we worked well together. Unfortunately, we had to go against each other tonight.”

North Miami led 18-16 after one quarter behind seven points from Musall and a fadeaway off the left baseline from Black at the buzzer.

North Miami opened the lead to seven in the second quarter on treys from Black and Deardorff, but Hook got a layup off after Gavin Mollenkopf drew defenders in the paint. A tough driving banker from Logan Mollenkopf and a Logan Mollenkopf third-chance putback from the left side of the rim after retrieving his own miss cut the margin to 26-25, but Norman drove from the elbow for a deuce to put North Miami up by three at halftime.

Deardorff hit two triples in the first 2:12 of the second half, the second coming off a high ball screen from Norman, to give North Miami a 34-27 lead, but the Comets closed the quarter on an 11-2 run. The run included three baskets from Hook, all in transition. The 6-5 Caston big man had a steal at the top of the key and swooped in for a layin that made it 36-35.

North Miami had nine turnovers – two in the first half and seven in the second half.

“We made some adjustments at halftime, but the biggest thing is I thought our kids were just really active, seeing their man and seeing the ball, and being able to jump a couple of those were huge,” Davis said. “I thought that our guys did a much better job communicating in the second half. We got off to a really slow start defensively in the first half. I just thought we were a little out of sync, so I thought the guys responded really well and cleaned that up and did a much better job, especially in the second half.”

A Logan Mollenkopf trey on the delayed break gave Caston a 38-36 lead after three quarters.

North Miami took their first lead of the fourth quarter on Caden Clingaman’s driving layup to make it 42-40, but Hook scored on a putback.

Ryan Smith split a pair of free throws with 5:41 left, but a Logan Mollenkopf free throw put Caston back in front at 44-43.

Caston 56, North Miami 51

NORTH MIAMI (51) (13-9, 5-3)

Kale Deardorff 5 0-0 14, Lake Musall 4 0-0 10, Karston Black 3 0-0 7, Ryan Meredith 2 2-2 6, Laython Norman 2 0-0 4, Ryan Smith 2 4-6 8, Courtlen Finnegan 0 0-0 0, Caden Clingaman 1 0-0 2

TEAM: 19 6-8 51

CASTON (56) (15-7, 6-2)

Reed Sommers 1 0-0 3, Carson Harness 1 2-2 5, Logan Mollenkopf 8 9-14 27, Gavin Mollenkopf 0 2-2 2, Lane Hook 7 2-2 16, Owen Chapman 0 0-0 0, Gage Thomas 0 0-0 0, Brodie Howard 1 0-0 3

TEAM: 18 15-20 56

Three-point field goals:

North Miami 7 (Deardorff 4, Musall 2, Black),

Caston 5 (L. Mollenkopf, Harness, Howard, Sommers)

Total fouls: North Miami 18, Caston 7

Turnovers: North Miami 9, Caston 8

Score by quarters

North Miami 18 10 8 15 – 51

Caston 16 9 13 18 – 56