1998-1999 2A State Runner-Up Paoli Rams


(Pictured above) Front Row Left to Right Managers Laban Runyon and Tim Luzano, Michael Harmon, David McDonald, Travis Cole, Dusty Cole, Luke Kimmel, Joby Stephenson.


Back Row Left to Right: Managers Dustin Buetel & Alan Rutherford, Assistant Coach Bob Boehman, Assistant Coach John Hahn, Head Coach Mike Brown, Josh Thomas, Derek VanEmon, Tristan Vance, Brian Wolfe, Brannon Chastain, Evan Seacat.


Offensive Average: 65.0 ppg

Defensive Average: 56.6 ppg


1998-1999 Game Results:
11/24/1998 at. Orleans W 53-47
12/1/98 vs. Scottsburg W 94-78
12/5/98 at. Eastern (Greene) L 60-49
12/8/98 vs. North Harrison W 69-55
12/11/98 at. West Washington W 63-55
12/18/98 vs. Eastern (Pekin) W 76-43
12/22/98 vs. Austin L 58-57
1/15/99 vs. Northeast Dubois W 63-51
1/16/99 vs. Forest Park L 59-53
1/20/99 vs. Mitchell W 62-56
1/22/99 vs. Springs Valley W 64-52
1/23/99 at. Southridge W 64-52
1/27/99 at. Shoals W 69-56
1/29/99 at. Corydon L 79-72
2/5/99 vs. Orleans W 69-49
2/6/99 vs. Brownstown Central W 64-34
2/13/99 at. Salem W 53-47
2/17/99 at. Springs Valley W 71-60
2/19/99 at. Perry Central W 67-56
2/23/99 vs. Crawford County W 57-54

Paoli Sectional:
3/2/99 vs. Mitchell W 63-48
3/4/99 vs. Eastern (Greene) W 45-44
3/5/99 vs. North Knox W 80-66

Southridge Regional:
3/12/99 vs. Evansville Mater Dei W 77-57

Southridge Semi-State:
3/20/99 vs. Winchester W 85-77 (2 OT)
*Travis Cole drives the length of the court for a layup sending the game to it's first overtime
*Luke Kimmel sinks the final 2 free throws to clinch the game

3/20/99 vs. Monrovia W 76-73 (2 OT)
*Travis Cole gets intentional fouled and sinks the final two free throws to clich the game


State Finals:
vs. Westview L 71-52



P.L.A.C Champions

P.L.A.C All-Conference:
Dusty Cole- Guard
Tristan Vance- Center
Luke Kimmel- Forward

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**1998-1999 GAME RECAPS:


****RAMS WIN REGIONAL 77-57 OVER EVANSVILLE MATER DEI****

Huntingburg - The Paoli Rams rolled to a 77-57 win over Evansville Mater Dei in the Class 2A Regional at Southridge High School Friday night to advance to next weeks' Semi-State.

Travis Cole netted a game-high 15 points to lead four Rams in double figures as Paoli controlled the boards and withstood the Wildcat press to claim the championship.

"It doesn't get old, I'll tell you that much," Paoli coach Mike Brown said of his team's second consecutive regional title. "Each group's a little different. These guys have got to make believers out of people, because this was a very good team, which ha

d gone through some good teams to get here, and we basically did what we needed to do to win tonight."

The Wildcats implemented a full-court press and a 10-man rotation to gain first-half double-digit leads in their three sectional games last week. But the Rams were intent on hanging around as they took a five-point lead in the opening period and clung to

a one-point advantage at the half, thanks to two key 3-pointers by Luke Kimmel and some outstanding rebounding by Derek VanEmon and Tristan Vance.

"We just wanted to come out and show them they weren't going to knock us down the first half," Brown said. "Luke's played big, big basketball for us all year long, but especially in the tournament. He's not afraid to take the big shot. He's doing a great

job defensively and sometimes we forget that he's one of our best 3-point shooters. He made some big ones tonight at big times."

The Rams committed 10 first-half turnovers against the Wildcat pressure, but made just one miscue in the third quarter when they outscored Mater Dei 21-11 to open up a 51-40 lead. Senior Dusty Cole anchored the Rams' offense at the high post, scoring 14

points on 6 of 9 shooting from the floor.

"Dusty has been the stabilizing factor all season," Brown noted. "Tonight was no different. We needed him in the middle of that press all night long. He's the guy all year who's done that for us.

"I just thought we were being a little too anxious against (their press). We weren't pass-faking before we made passes, and once we started to do that, and once we got over the emotion of being excited about playing and facing their pressure, we went to

work and made some very good passes. For a while there in the second half we looked like we did in the sectional final against North Knox, where we were making nice little bounce passes for easy baskets."

Evan Seacat turned in the key play of the game with less than a minute to play in the third quarter. The sleek freshman drained a pull-up 12-footer and drew a foul, which in turn drew a technical on the Mater Dei bench. Seacat calmly swished three free t

hrows to quickly run the lead from six to 11.

"He's the best shooter we've got," Brown said of his talented freshman. "We let him shoot his foul shot and I told him if he hit it we'd let him shoot the next two. Once he hit that first one, then that's a five-point play right there, and that's a big p

lay."

Vance finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds, while Seacat added 12 points, and VanEmon tallied six points and a game-high 13 rebounds for the winners. The Rams (20-4) connected on 7 of 8 field goals and 11 of 17 foul shots in the final period to put th

e game away and advance to next week's Southridge Semi-State where they'll face second-ranked Winchester (23-2).

PAOLI RAMS (77)

FG-FT-Reb-F-Points

50 Luke Kimmel, f 2-8 0-0 4 0 6

40 Derek VanEmon, f 2-6 2-4 1 3 3 6

52 Tristan Vance, c 6-11 1-2 10 5 13

12 Michael Harmon, g 2-3 1-2 3 0 5

14 Dusty Cole, g 6-9 2-3 3 0 1 4

24 Evan Seacat g 4-5 3-3 3 2 12

20 Travis Cole g 3-5 8-10 3 2 15

34 David McDonald f 1-2 0-0 0 1 2

42 Joby Stephenson c 1-2 0-0 2 1 2

30 Brian Wolfe c 1-1 0-0 0 0 2

44 Brannon Chastain f 0-00-0 0 0 0

32 Josh Thomas f 0-0 0-0 0 0 0


3-Point Goals - Paoli 4-14 (Kimmel 2-6, T. Cole 1-1, Seacat 1-2, D. Cole 0-1, McDonald 0-1)

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****PAOLI WINS SECOND STRAIGHT SECTIONAL DEFEAT NORTH KNOX 80-66***

PAOLI - Don't think for a minute that Paoli coach Mike Brown was up to any funny business Friday, but he was asking to check out some guys' legs. Those limbs belonged to his beleaguered basketball players, and Brown was in the business of making sure the

y were ready to run.

Paoli was preparing to play its third game in four days. It was coming off a bitter struggle against Eastern Greene on Thursday, and would now be asked to chase down the super-quick, run-and-gun North Knox Warriors, who had played just one game, in the c

hampionship contest of the Paoli Sectional. Brown had to know if the legs could go.

The Rams gave him a verbal thumb's-up during pregame warmups, and answered in the affirmative with their action on the court as they outran North Knox at its own game, 80-66, behind 23 points from senior guard Dusty Cole and 21 from senior center Tristan

Vance. It gave Brown his seventh sectional championship in 11 seasons at Paoli.

"The key thing that happened today came when we were shooting around down at Throop (Elementary School) right before the game,'' said Brown. "I looked them in the eyes and the last question I asked was, 'How are your legs?' and I wanted an honest answer.

"If they'd said they were tired we would've played a halfcourt game and tried to slow it down. They all said they felt fresh, felt fine. Once they showed me that they had their legs we knew we were going to press, run, and attack their pressure. I'm so a

mazed that these guys were able to go at it like they did. You have to credit the preseason conditioning program and weightlifting. We seemed stronger than them even though we'd played another game.''

That fact wasn't lost on North Knox coach Mike Halliwell.

"I thought we'd be quicker to the ball than them, but they outquicked us,'' he said. "I don't know how many balls there were in the first half that we were about to get to, and then suddenly one of their kids would come out of nowhere and take it away.''

Once it was established that the Rams could run with the Warriors, Paoli's other advantages set it apart in a hurry. The Rams whipped North Knox, 38-23, on the boards, and played far superior defense - fresh-legged man-to-man after briefly starting in a

2-3 zone - while hassling the Warriors into 43 percent shooting.

"We got crunched on the boards, just crunched, and it finally caught up to us,'' said Halliwell. "And they played pretty good man-to-man defense. The physicality of it certainly hurt us, but where their defense really hurts you is they only give you one

shot. We missed a lot of shots we normally hit, which may be due to their defense, and we got hardly any second-chance shots.''

It didn't take Brown long to shelve the zone after the Warriors whipped out to a 6-2 lead. Once he shifted to man, the Rams found their energy level and wound up leading 18-13 at the first stop as Cole poured in 9 points (7 of them in transition) and Van

ce added 6.

"We didn't know if we should zone or not, but we knew we wanted to front Sanders (Chris, NK's star senior center who finished with a team-high 17 points) and make them try to throw over us,'' Brown said. "But once we went man early in the game it was cle

arly our best defense. We were able to hang onto shooters better and we were able to get back down the floor better.''

Meanwhile, Paoli's offense either picked the ever-present press apart for gimmes or gagged it up en route to 23 turnovers. There were a lot more gimmes than gags, evidenced by the Rams' 57 percent (26 of 46) field goal percentage.

"You're going to make turnovers against a defense like that,'' Brown conceded, "but you're also going to get a bunch of layups if you continue to attack it, and I felt we did a great job of attacking it all night.''

Paoli hit 15 of 25 shots in the first half and the decisive run came at the outset of the second stanza, a 16-5 burst sparked by 3-pointers from Luke Kimmel and Derek VanEmon. Once rattled, the holes in North Knox's defense tore open like a rubber raft i

n a shark frenzy, and Paoli poured in for the kill. Reserve guard Travis Cole picked it apart with pinpoint passes to Vance and VanEmon, who were layups waiting to happen as the Rams raced to a 41-22 halftime lead.

It was over. The second half merely delayed the celebration.

The Warriors forced eight third-period turnovers, but Paoli's transition defense kept them from converting many of the extra opportunities, and the Rams carried a 54-37 lead into the fourth quarter. A team averaging 75 points per game had just 37 through

three quarters on 14 of 39 (36 percent) shooting.

"We got our hands into things and they got very few wide-open looks,'' said Brown. "We played some very good defense in this tournament.''

The Rams were content with some give-and-take in the fourth period. They allowed the Warriors 29 points, but they scored 26, including 14 of 19 from the line. Paoli was 25 of 33 from the stripe overall.

"We played real well and got the big lead, then we kind of weathered the storm and hit big free throws,'' said Brown. "I'm proud of these kids and this never gets old.''

Jamie Lane added 16 points for the Warriors (18-5).

VanEmon had 13 points and Kimmel added 10 for the Rams (19-4), who will face Evansville Mater Dei in Friday's Southridge Regional.



PAOLI RAMS (80)

FG-FT-Reb-F-Points

40 Derek VanEmon, f 4-7 4-6 8 3 13

50 Luke Kimmel, f 2-7 4-4 4 3 10

52 Tristan Vance, c 9-13 3-6 9 5 21

14 Dusty Cole, g 7-8 9-11 4 1 23

12 Michael Harmon, g 1-2 1-2 4 1 3

34 David McDonald 1-2 0-0 5 1 2

20 Travis Cole 1-3 4-4 3 3 6

24 Evan Seacat 1-2 0-0 0 1 2

42 Joby Stephenson 0-1 0-0 0 3 0

30 Brian Wolfe 0-0 0-0 0 0 0

44 Brannon Chastain 0-0 0-0 0 0 0

32 Josh Thomas 0-1 0-0 0 1 0

3-Point Goals - Paoli 3-11 (Kimmel 2-5, VanEmon 1-3, Harmon 0-1, Seacat 0-1, Thomas 0-1