Sunday, January 23, 2000

Tornadoes suffer ugly loss to Madison

By Dave Feltner
Sports Editor

Now, the Columbian basketball team stands at the crossroads of its season.

Entering the weekend with a 6-5 record, with contests against NOL leader Willard and 3-9 Madison Comprehensive, things looked promising for the Tornadoes.

Saturday night, though, Columbian hit rock bottom.

The Tornadoes started sluggishly, never broke out of it, and got dominated by a Madison team that came in with only three victories, 76-50.

"I thought early we got a ton of good looks, but we were just throwing it up there and not getting very many offensive rebounding opportunities," Columbian coach Matt Hutchinson said. "We had a lot of empty possessions. We didn't take care of the ball. We'd miss an easy shot, next thing you know (Madison) is putting up a tough shot and throwing it in. You've got to credit Madison for that. They played a great basketball game."

A look at some of the numbers shows how bad things got for the Tornadoes:

* Columbian shot a frigid 32 percent (19-of-60) from the field;

* they hit just 1 of their 11 3-point attempts;

* Madison grabbed 50 rebounds to Columbian's 30;

* TC's top two scorers, Todd Focht and Chris Brooks, combined to shoot 6-of-26 from the field.

"We've been getting better every game this year," Madison first-year coach Chad Allen said. "At the beginning of the year we took our lumps because this is a new system, a new coaching staff and new players. And we play in a pretty good conference (Ohio Heartland).

"We've been playing pretty well; we just haven't come out with victories. So, it's about time we had a game like this."

Both teams staggered through the opening minutes. It was 4-4 with 2:30 left in the first quarter when the Rams broke things open.

Jimmy Williams hit 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions to put Madison ahead, 10-7.

Columbian's Brad Cox answered with a 3, but the Rams countered with 3s from Jerrod Hunt and Ryan Pore on consecutive trips to make it 16-7.

It was 20-7 at the first stop, and a bucket by Columbian's Ryan Clouse trimmed it to 20-9, but the Rams punished the Tornadoes with a 10-0 run over the next three minutes to make it 30-9.

It was 34-18 at halftime, 45-20 midway through the third and 49-28 at the start of the fourth. Madison's largest lead was 28 (66-38) with 2:49 left in the game.

"From the time the kids got here tonight, until game time, I thought they went through all the pregame rituals better than they had in a while," Hutchinson said. "I though we were pretty focused on what we needed to get done. It just didn't translate to doing it on the court."

Brooks was the only Tornado to score in double figures. He finished with 10 points. Greg Hoke had seven and David Price six.

Brandon O'Brien paced the Rams with 21, 17 in the second half. Pore (14), Williams (10) and Hunt (10) also reached doubles.

"Now is going to be a real good test of our team's character," Hutchinson said. "We'll see what we're made of. We have two options of where we want to go. That choice is up to the kids, and hopefully they'll make the right choice."

That's the dilemma you face when you stand at the crossroads.