Peru forces 24 turnovers, denies Caston first Miami County Invite title

Harness leads Comets with 8; Hook makes all-tourney team

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

BUNKER HILL — Zion See scored a game-high 19 points, and the Peru boys basketball team hit 12 3-pointers in a 66-36 rout of Caston in the Miami County Invitational championship game at Maconaquah Tuesday.

Jacob Boswell hit five 3-pointers and added 15 points, and Reis Bellar added 12 for Peru, who won their third straight game and improved to 3-6. Kingston Eldridge contributed four points and 13 rebounds.

Carson Harness scored eight points to lead Caston, who fell to 6-2.

Peru has won the county tournament 11 times in the last 13 years. Caston, playing in the tournament for the ninth straight year, has never won it.

Peru’s defense was oppressive. Caston committed 12 turnovers in an 81-72 win over Maconaquah Monday; in this game, they had 24.

Logan Mollenkopf and Lane Hook, Caston’s top two scorers, combined for 49 points against Maconaquah; in this game, they combined for 12.

Still, Hook made the all-tournament team along with See, Boswell, Maconaquah’s Jack Gochenour and North Miami’s Karston Black.

Caston fought back from a nine-point first-half deficit and went on a 10-0 run in the second quarter. Harness hit a 3, Mollenkopf scored on a steal and layin, Hook hit a 3 from the top of the key on a pick and pop, and Mollenkopf got loose again in the open floor for a coast-to-coast layup that gave Caston their first lead at 18-17.

Then seemingly came the turning point.

Reed Sommers missed a transition scoop layup with Caston having numbers on the fast break. Owen Chapman got the offensive rebound and missed an open layup on a putback.

Peru got the rebound and pushed it back down the floor, and Boswell drilled a 3 from the right corner with 45 seconds left in the half.

Peru was back up 20-18, and that kicked off a 28-3 run that lasted through the first seven-and-a-half minutes of the third quarter that buried the Comets.

See hit two free throws with 20.7 seconds left in the half that made it 22-18.

Boswell then hit two treys from the left corner on Peru’s two possessions of the second half.

Gavin Mollenkopf hit a 3 from the top of the key for Caston, but they would not score again for over six minutes.

See scored on a banker in the paint, Boswell hit a 3 from the right corner on a press breaker, and See hit a 3 from the right wing. Bellar muscled his way to the hoop from the right elbow off the dribble and scored.

The lead was up to 38-21. Timeout Caston.

Two possessions later, Ben Wynkoop hit Peru’s fifth 3 of the quarter. A free throw from Bellar capped the run with 23.5 seconds left in the quarter. That made it a 24-point lead.

“I didn’t think we moved the ball side to side very much,” Caston coach Carl Davis said. “I thought we were sizing things up instead of moving the basketball quite a few times there. I thought they did a really good job of exposing that. When things bogged down, they had active hands, and they forced quite a few deflections that led to turnovers.”

Peru came into the tournament with a 70.1 defensive scoring average through their first seven games. In two county tournament games, their defensive scoring average was 37.5. Bellar had the defensive assignment on Logan Mollenkopf, and 6-4 sophomore Eldridge guarded Hook.

“Team defense is a big key for us,” Peru coach Travis Smith said. “Our guys are long and athletic and can recover, and if they’re in help side and really focused on our team D, it makes it really tough for them to get the ball in the paint. And we stopped penetration. They went a couple one-minute possessions down 20 where they didn’t know where to pass it because there were no gaps. No holes. Our guys close gaps quick, and they did a great job of team defense tonight, and if Hook caught it inside, we had a hand there. He didn’t have any easy looks.”

As for Caston’s defense, Davis noted that “Peru lived in the paint tonight,” and that set up the open 3-point looks for Boswell and Wynkoop.

“I thought we kind of let the action come to us, and some of our attention-to-detail things on closeouts weren’t very good. … Obviously, that falls on me,” Davis said of the defense. “I’ve got to make sure we’re more prepared and ready to go than we were tonight.”

Caston will have 10 days to prepare for Culver Jan. 9.

“They know exactly what happened tonight, and they know exactly why it happened tonight,” Davis said. “And I know they’re going to come back ready to go the next time we practice and be ready to get better and improve.”

In the consolation game, Maconaquah finished on a 6-0 run to defeat North Miami 55-50. North Miami has not won a game in the county tournament since the 2018-19 season.

Peru 66, Caston 36

CASTON (36) (6-2)

Reed Sommers 0 1-2 1, Carson Harness 3 0-2 8, Gavin Mollenkopf 1 0-0 3, Logan Mollenkopf 3 0-2 6, Lane Hook 2 1-2 6, London Herd 0 0-0 0, Geoffrey Foster 0 0-0 0, Drew McGrew 1 0-0 2, Owen Chapman 2 0-0 5, Gage Thomas 1 0-1 2, Brodie Howard 1 0-0 3, Tucker Woolever 0 0-0 0

TEAM: 14 2-9 36

PERU (66) (3-6)

Jacob Boswell 5 0-0 15, Zion See 6 5-6 19, Isaac Braley 1 0-1 2, Reis Bellar 5 1-3 12, Kingston Eldridge 2 0-0 4, Jackson Boswell 0 0-0 0, Ben Wynkoop 3 0-0 9, Dawsen Babbs 1 0-0 3, Oliver Rabe 0 0-0 0, Ashton Morehead 0 0-0 0, Talin Douglass 1 0-0 2, Carter Musser 0 0-0 0, Owen Mayhill 0 0-0 0, Lukas Rodriguez 0 0-2 0

TEAM: 24 6-12 66

Three-point field goals:

Caston 6 (Harness 2, Hook, Howard, G. Mollenkopf, Chapman),

Peru 12 (Jacob Boswell 5, Wynkoop 3, See 2, Bellar, Babbs)

Total fouls: Caston 16, Peru 11

Intentional foul: Wynkoop (PERU), 5:28, fourth

Turnovers: Caston 24, Peru 17

Score by quarters

Caston 6 12 5 13 – 36

Peru 12 10 23 21 – 66