SANDWICH — Chance Lange is a gritty, no-frills type of basketball player.
The Sandwich junior guard showed that in every way Tuesday evening during an Interstate 8 Conference second-place showdown against Ottawa.
Lange took a painful foul midway through the third quarter and had to leave briefly only to return and help lead the Indians to a dominating 54-36 victory over the Pirates on senior night in Sandwich.
The Indians (19-12, 10-4 in the I-8) left no doubt about their final position in the league standings behind undefeated conference champion Kaneland, providing stifling defense and efficient offense outscoring Ottawa (13-13, 9-5 in the I-8) 30-17 in the second half, with Lange guiding the way registering a team-best 13 points and six rebounds.
“Defense has been the name of the game all season. It’s the main thing we focus on, and tonight we executed so well with it, and our offensive attack wasn’t too bad either,” Lange said. “We finished second in the conference behind a great Kaneland team, and now we have 19 wins after two very frustrating seasons.”
The Indians – who recorded only one victory during the past two campaigns – forced 20 Pirates turnovers and shot a sweltering 24 of 44 (55%) off the field. Lange got some fine help from seniors Austin Marks and Owen Sheley, who added 11 and eight points, respectively.
“I’m speechless almost and so proud of the guys for stepping up against a very tough Ottawa team in order to earn us second place in the I-8,” Sandwich coach Kevin Kozan said. “We were 1-29 last year, and the way we’ve stuck together since then is pretty amazing.
“Toughness, both physically and mentally, is the culture I wanted to bring here as head coach. They’ve turned into a great basketball players now, even better people, and they sure showed what Sandwich basketball has been elevated to.”
The Pirates could hit only 10 of 44 (23%) from the field on the night, as senior Levi Sheehan notched 13 points, while classmate Connor Price added seven.
“Give credit to Sandwich, because I thought they played with a lot of passion, competed very hard tonight, and we weren’t able to match that level of intensity,” Ottawa coach Mark Cooper said. “We were sloppy the entire night, and we’ve got to clean things up if we’re going to have any success going into regionals next week.”
Sandwich was hot right from the jump, as it ran out to a 15-6 lead after one quarter with Lange dropping in an old-fashioned three-point play at 1:45 to give his team an early edge. But the Pirates battled back. Sheehan drained in a pair of 3-balls at 7:35 and 1:20 to cut the Indians lead to 24-19 going into the locker room at the half.
However, Sandwich came out of the break inspired in front of its raucous home crowd and embarked on a 10-0 run. Marks nailed a right-wing 3 bomb at 3:45 that completed the rally and gave the Indians a 34-19 lead and eventually a 39-25 advantage with eight minutes left to contest.
Sandwich held Ottawa without a field goal (0-10 shooting) in the third period and a mere six free throws.
“These last few games especially, we’ve wanted to perfect our defense going into the playoffs, and I think we did that tonight,” Marks said. “I tried to do my part offensively too, and I was able to do that with a big 3-pointer in the third quarter.”
Sheehan nailed a volleyball-line triple at 5:25 of the fourth quarter that closed the Indians lead to 41-32.
But Lange canned a free-throw line jumper at 5:00 and a layup off a turnover at 2:25 that finished an 8-0 Sandwich run that blew open the ballgame.
“It was a great run there in the fourth quarter that closed things out to earn us second place in conference, and I couldn’t be prouder of our team,” Lange said. “Now we’ve got to prove how good we are again going into the postseason on Saturday.”