Boys basketball: Munster pounds East Chicago

Updated: December 10, 2011 11:37PM

MUNSTER — It was the kind of night when one team had trouble making layups, while the other team simply couldn’t miss.

Playing its first home game of the season, Munster blew out visiting East Chicago Central 72-39.

“Offensively and defensively, I think we took it to them tonight,” said Munster (4-0) guard Mike Schlotman, who had a game-high 23 points.

East Chicago (2-1) didn’t score in the first five minutes of both the first and second quarters, allowing Munster to go on big scoring runs that had the game largely decided by halftime.

The game started with a 9-0 Munster run, although the Cardinals did respond with a 9-0 run of their own to tie the score. But the Mustangs scored 17 straight points en route to a 34-15 halftime lead.

“I think their run was our fault because we turned the ball over a lot,” Munster coach Mike Hackett. said “I was on the verge of calling a timeout there, but we have a young team, so sometimes they have to learn how to live with those mistakes.”

As the score would indicate, East Chicago struggled from the floor all night, hitting just 14 of their 55 attempts.

“It’s like there was a lid on the rim,” East Chicago coach Abe Brown said. “I think we had some open looks; there were some open layups that we missed tonight.”

The Mustangs’ domination continued in the second half, as Munster outscored EC 20-9 in the third quarter, never giving EC a chance to get back in the game.

Hyrone Edwards led the Cardinals with 11 points, but he—and the rest of the Cardinals—were overshadowed by the performance of Munster players like Schlotman.

“Michael is one of the top point guards … I’ll say in all of northern Indiana,” said Hackett. “His role has really changed from last year. Last year he was more of a point guard, but this year he’s had to be more of a scorer for us and tonight he showed that he can score the ball.”

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