Rangers hold off Marksmen

TELL CITY - Free throws and three-point shooting proved to be the difference as Forest Park held off Tell City 75-64 in PAC boys basketball Saturday.

Tell City outshot the Rangers from the field 57.1 percent to 52.9 percent and outrebounded them 23-22. And the Marksmen committed only 10 turnovers.

But they hit only 4 of 13 three-point shots while Forest Park made 7 of 16.

And the Marksmen missed 10 of 22 free throws (they shot better from the field than the line) while the Rangers hit 14 of 19.

Though the Marksmen's turnover total was modest, they seemed to come at bad times.

They committed two in a row as Forest Park guard Casey Van Winkle scored seven points in 27 seconds to give the Rangers the lead for good.

Tell City took a 19-18 lead on a three-pointer by Andy Chinn with 6:21 left in the second quarter.

Van Winkle answered with a three-pointer of his own. Then he hit a 16-footer after a teammate's steal and made a steal and layup to put the Rangers up 25-19.

The Rangers built their lead to 16 points, 47-31, with 5:10 left in the third quarter.

But Tell City cut it to five with 2:44 left in the game and had Chinn at the free-throw line 13 seconds later to try to cut it to three.

"There's nobody else in the state of Indiana that I'd rather have on the line in that situation than Andy," said Tell City Coach John Hayes. "But he missed them both."

Still Hayes said there "were a lot of positives from this game. To be down 16 to the No. 2-ranked Class 2A team in the state and get it back to five showed some guts.

"We had opportunities and just didn't take advantage of them. But we'll correct and we'll get better."

Joseph Kohnert led the Marksmen with a career-high 18 points on 6 of 8 field-goal shooting and 6 of 9 free throws.

He also grabbed eight rebounds--seven in the second half--and had five assists.

Center Eric Henrickson also hit 6 of 8 from the field and finished with 14 points despite going against Forest Park's Jordan Myers, who was three inches taller.

Chinn and Ryan Zuelly each added 12 points and Chinn grabbed six rebounds.

Myers led Forest Park with 17 points, including hitting 7 of 7 free throws.

Tell City fell to 1-1 while the game was Forest Park's season opener.

The Marksmen will visit Southridge Friday at 7 p.m.

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Forest Park won the junior varsity game 43-30.

Jason Hackbarth scored 11 points, including a three-quarter-court three-point basket, to lead Tell City, 1-1.

Jesse Stowe added eight points and Jordan Rhodes scored seven.