December 23, 1999

Transylvania coach sees signpost up ahead: 'Berg rules

By Andy Cole
Sports Writer

The simple look on the face of Transylvania head coach Don Lane said a thousand words, a few of which were "This place is the Twilight Zone."

No one could blame him if he thought so. The Pioneers marched into the Heidelberg Holiday Classic ranked 14th in the nation and went back to Kentucky with a pair of losses. The second of those came to a hot-shooting Heidelberg team in the consolation game of the tournament Wednesday night, 66-59.

One night after hitting just nine field goals in the first half of a 66-60 loss to Taylor University, The 'Berg (7-5) shot 24-of-44 from the floor for 55 percent and 8-of-11 from 3-point range for 73 percent. Heidelberg hit 10 of its 14 foul shots, and didn't often put the Pioneers (8-4) on the line as the visitors went 1-of-3 from the stripe.

"We hit eight of 11 for 3-pointers," Heidelberg coach John Hill said. "If we shoot like that against Taylor, we're playing in the championship game.

"There's no team we're going to play in the OAC who's going to be more talented than the teams we've played the last two days. The competition in this tournament was excellent, and the people of Tiffin could have seen four good college basketball games. We can learn from the mistakes we made, and we did some good things. This tournament could do a lot to help us prepare for the rest of our schedule."

With as happy as Hill was with the way his team shot and the scoring balance his team put up, he was happier about the things his team didn't do when crunch time came.

"Against Baldwin-Wallace, we lost our poise after being up big, couldn't get it back and lost the game," Hill said. "Tonight, we lost our poise and gave them the lead back, but we re-grouped and regained it. We got the lead back and did a nice job keeping it. I'm happy to get a win in a tournament against a team as good as (Transylvania)."

Taylor (12-4) won the championship with a 95-75 slamming of Rio Grande (9-4). The Trojans shot 30-of-45 from the floor, 22-of-25 from the line and 13-of-20 from 3-point range in the championship game.

Heidelberg's Nate Walters hit a 3-pointer at the 10:16 mark of the first half to give his team a 20-15 lead, the biggest lead either team had held up to that point. Walters drilled another trey a minute later to put the home team up by six points, but Transylvania surged back on back-to-back buckets by Collier Mills. Tim Majors' 3-pointer gave the Pioneers a 28-25 lead.

Randy Evans hit a 3-pointer for The 'Berg and drove the baseline for a score on his next touch to give Heidelberg a 30-28 lead. Ryan Klebowski came off the bench to hit two jumpers, and Ryan Niemic's bucket before the end of the half made it 36-28, Heidelberg.

At halftime, Walters was 4-of-5 from beyond the arc, and Evans had hit both of his long shots.

Transylvania made a 7-0 run early in the second half, capped by an Eric Liedtke 3-pointer that tied the game at 39-39. It was the only highlight in an otherwise miserable evening for the Pioneers leading scorer (18.7 ppg), who was 1-of-12 shooting, including 1-of-9 from 3-point range.

Heidelberg ran right back, opening up an eight point lead with a pair of hoops by Jon Otterbacher and one each from Kory Winkler and Klebowski. Undaunted, TU came right back with back-to-back treys, and actually took the lead back on an Anthony Staten jumper with 6:54 left (51-50).

Winkler's layup with 6:09 left broke a 52-52 tie, and The 'Berg never trailed again. Klebowski, Otterbacher and Winkler each hit a pair of free throws down the stretch.

"We did get a total team effort tonight," Hill said. "Otterbacher did a lot of good things, and we got excellent wing play. Klebowski and C.J. Short gave us a lift off the bench, and we got another lift from Ryan Niemic. Niemic had four blocks tonight, and he's shown us during this tournament and in the Baldwin-Wallace game that he's ready to step up.

"Niemic's development has given us a better rotation at the post, and it helps in running the offense."

Walters and Evans (4-of-4 from 3-point range) scored 14 points apiece to pace Heidelberg, and Winkler was next with 12 points. Otterbacher and Klebowski added eight apiece.

Otterbacher handed out 11 assists in running Heidelberg's offense, and Heidelberg held a 34-29 edge on the boards, thanks in part to nine rebounds by Winkler and seven by Walters. Niemic had five blocks.

Staten came off the bench to score 18 points and Collier Mills was next with 13 for Transylvania. Mills also had 13 rebounds, eight assists and four steals.

Winkler (27 points, 17 rebounds in the Classic) and Mills (29 points, 20 rebounds, 17 assists) were named to the All-Tournament Team, along with Rio Grande's Jeremy May (37 points, seven assists, seven 3's, 8-of-10 from foul line) and Taylor's Tyson Jones (27 points, 16 assists) and Brian Ross (45 points, 14 rebounds, 7-of-10 3-pointers). The Michael J. Ehrenfried Most Valuable Player award went to Taylor's Nick David (43 points, 9-of-15 3-pointers).