Mars boys use balance to douse Flames
ADAMS TWP — Northgate had its sights set on a spot in the Mars Christmas Tournament Championship game, but the Planets used balanced scoring to extinguish the Flames.
Ian Hindley's 23 points led a quartet of Mars players who scored in double figures as the Planets rolled to a 66-50 win Monday night.
Mars will face Hickory, a 56-43 winner over Sto-Rox, at 6 p.m. today.
Brad Weischedel added 13 points in the victory, while Mike Lindenbaum and Christian Locher each managed 11 points.
"Everybody we play knows about Christian," said Planets coach Rob Carmody. "But if we get balanced scoring, it just makes it that much tougher for teams to prepare for us."
With his team leading 28-20 at the break, Hindley scored 14 of his points in a second half that saw the Planets outscore Northgate 38-30.
"Ian lettered last year but didn't get a lot of minutes," said Carmody of the 5-foot-11 senior guard. "He's always shown flashes of what he can do.
"This year, he's averaging about 15 points per game and he understands how to get shots off against taller players. He's really rounded out his game this year."
The Planets (3-2) led 46-33 entering the final period. Hindley's three-point play with 6:36 left gave Mars a commanding lead at 53-35.
"We played zone for a while, but wanted to switch things up, so we went to man, but didn't do too well with it," said first-year Flames coach Perry Harrop. "Once we got down, it was really tough on us. We're not a come-from-behind team."
Josh Douglass led Northgate (2-4) with 18 points, including 12 in the first half, and Jon Girvin had 10.
The Planets cut down on their turnovers during the course of the game. After committing five in the opening quarter, the team gave up the ball only eight times the rest of the night.
"Win or lose, our goal is to get better every game," Carmody said.
NORTHGATE 50Josh Douglass 7 4-6 18, Josh Dunn 1 0-0 2, Matt Garrison 1 2-2 4, Jon Girvin 5 0-2 10, Josh Heaney 1 1-2 3, Matt Lee 2 0-0 4, Chris Mangel 3 1-2 7, Mark Wilson 1 0-0 2, Payne 0 0-1 0, Dave Natale 0 0-0 0.
Totals: 21 8-15 50.
MARS 66Brad Weischedel 3 7-9 13, Christian Locher 3 5-6 11, Luke Gruber 3 0-0 6, Mike Lindenbaum 3 3-3 11, Ian Hindley 10 3-4 23, Alex Locher 1 0-0 2, Tim Vandall 0 0-0 0, Ibn Hoffman 0 0-0 0, Jake Lee 0 0-0 0, Mitch Buzzard 0 0-0 0, Brandon Eckstein 0 0-0 0, Ben Erdahl 0 0-0 0.
Totals: 23 18-22 66.
Northgate 8 12 13 17—50Mars 12 16 18 20—663-point goals: Mars 2 (Lindenbaum 2).
Today: Hickory vs. Mars, Mars Christmas Tournament Championship game, 6 p.m.
