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BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
MONTICELLO –- Russell Compton scored 13 points, and Beau Brandt added nine, but the Winamac boys basketball team lost to host Twin Lakes 58-28 Monday.
Winamac committed 20 turnovers, including 10 in the first quarter.
Winamac took a 6-4 lead on a Compton 3-pointer with 5:46 left in the first quarter, but Twin Lakes went on a 15-0 run covering the first and second quarters to take a 19-6 lead, and they stayed by double digits the rest of the night.
Twin Lakes’ 30-point margin of victory represented their largest lead.
Noah Johnston, a 6-2 senior forward, led Twin Lakes with 22 points. Clayton Bridwell poured in 14.
Winamac has lost seven of their last eight games and fell to 6-15.
Twin Lakes, who beat Winamac for the third straight year, improved to 17-4.
A Kahari Jackson steal and layup tied the game at 6. A Bridwell layup after a Jackson backcourt steal gave Twin Lakes the lead for good. A Johnston 3-pointer made it 11-6, and Johnston’s lob layup, a Colin Seymour transition layup, and a Johnston layup closed out the quarter.
A Seymour 10-footer along the right baseline with 7:28 left in the half capped the run.
“We didn’t have good pacing against their pressure,” Winamac coach Alan Huggler said. “We made some sloppy passes. And Twin Lakes is pretty good. If you make sloppy passes and don’t have good spacing, you turn it over, and they’re going to score on you.”
Twin Lakes coach Kent Adams credited his team’s “activity” in the first quarter.
“Active hands, active defense,” Adams said. “Winamac struggled to shoot obviously in the first half. Their shooting percentage was tough, which was different. I’ve seen them on tape. They went 8 for 9 in the first quarter against Delphi, but they struggled a little bit here tonight. … Our kids were quicker probably.”
Compton impressed Adams with his ability to drive to the basket and score.
“He drove a lot more than I anticipated,” Adams said. “He was a hard driver. They all did. Brandt, same way. They just put their head down and go. We had a tough time sometimes stopping the drive and moving our feet, but I wish them well. They’ve got some young kids coming.”
Johnston had nine more points in the second quarter, including a 3-pointer from the top of the key that got the lead to 31-11. It was 33-15 at halftime.
Winamac’s Ryan Gregor hit a 3-pointer with one second left in the third quarter to keep the deficit at 41-20, but Bridwell scored the Indians’ first five points of the fourth quarter as part of a 9-2 run as the lead reached 50-22.
Winamac displayed a man-to-man, a 2-3 zone and a 3-2 zone during the game on defense.
“I think our 3-2 was, no more than we’ve practiced it, was relatively effective at times,” Huggler said. “Our man wasn’t bad at times, but we get tired. They set some good screens, and we didn’t talk and communicate on some baseline screens, especially late.”
Twin Lakes 58, Winamac 28
WINAMAC (28) (6-15)
Ryan Gregor 1 0-0 3, Trent Fox 1 0-0 3, Russell Compton 3 6-6 13, Carson Bennett 0 0-0 0, Beau Brandt 4 0-0 9, Sawyer DePoy 0 0-0 0, Jayse Bentle 0 0-0 0, Evan Eaton 0 0-2 0, Jaden Terry 0 0-0 0, Matt Swartzell 0 0-0 0, Alex Stark 0 0-1 0, John Malchow 0 0-0 0, Logan Schultz 0 0-0 0
TEAM: 9 6-9 28
TWIN LAKES (58) (17-4)
Lewis Dellinger 1 0-0 2, Clayton Bridwell 4 5-5 14, Kahari Jackson 2 0-0 4, Noah Johnston 9 1-2 22, Gage Businger 1 0-0 2, Ean Bowsman 0 0-0 0, Caden Harker 2 0-0 4, Colin Seymour 4 0-0 8, Ty Gillum 0 2-2 2, Ethan Bowsman 0 0-0 0, Hayden Hubbard 0 0-0 0, Reece Arthur 0 0-0 0
TEAM: 23 8-9 58
Three-point field goals:
Winamac 4 (Compton, Brandt, Fox, Gregor),
Twin Lakes 4 (Johnston 3, Bridwell)
Total fouls: Winamac 13, Twin Lakes 15
Turnovers: Winamac 20, Twin Lakes 8
Score by quarters
Winamac 6 9 5 8 – 28
Twin Lakes 17 16 8 17 – 58
