MONDAY'S PREP ROUNDUP: Bowman, IHSAA statement coming commissioner says

The other shoe will drop today concerning a boys basketball bench-clearing brawl in the second half of a Jan. 14 in Michigan game between Bowman Academy and Detroit Consortium.

A Detroit Free Press story said the game officials ejected all the players of both teams before the game was called and both teams were escorted to their buses.

On Monday, IHSAA Commissioner Bobby Cox said he had met with Bowman Athletic Director/head basketball coach Marvin Rea and school Chief Administrative Office Gwendolyn Adell in Indianapolis.

"We covered several topics regarding sportsmanship and the incident that occurred," Cox told The Times. "Mrs. Adell is going to write a press release and I have deferred. I'm going to allow her to release that before I comment.

"She's supposed to have that response ready by (this) morning and then I will issue a statement after that by midday."

Cox would not say what corrective measures will be taken, but he was not happy.

"I don't think anybody's pleased when you have a bench-clearing incident. I expressed my displeasure and my disappointment," Cox said. "We had five of these things happen last year and I stressed to the leadership at Bowman that I'm going to treat this very similar to what I did to the other 10 schools involved last year.

"These are unacceptable reactions to competition," Cox added. "Sportsmanship is the cornerstone of what we do and we simply cannot tolerate unsporting behavior -- and they agreed with that." !~ Al Hamnik

Girls gymnastics

Portage 109.775, Crown Point 102.375: Mackenzie Barcelli won all-around (37.925), bars (9.475), beam (9.5) and floor (9.675) to lead Times No. 2 Portage to the Duneland Athletic Conference win over host Crown Point. Teammate Danielle Solis won the vault (9.475).

Boys Basketball

North Newton 59, River Forest 50: The Spartans won their second game of the season in a Greater South Shore Conference Tournament consolation contest against the Ingots.

Austin Williams led North Newton (2-11) with 26 points while converting 10 of his 17 free throw attempts. Cody Balog added 13 for the Spartans, which included three 3-pointers.

Jonathan Ballestas and Ramon Diaz scored 11 and 10 points, respectively, for River Forest (3-9).

News and Notes

Former Highland coach wins 300th game: Hamilton Southeastern girls basketball coach Chris Huppenthal picked up his 300th career win on Jan. 17 at Lawrence North.

He's 125-8 in seven seasons at HSE and 300-66 in 16 seasons overall, including eight seasons as the Highland girls basketball coach.

Kouts hall inductions Friday: The second annual Kouts High School Athletic Hall of Fame inductions which will take place Friday between the JV and varsity boys basketball games with Boone Grove.

The honorees are Richard Briars, Lora (Rommelman) Dinnon, Bryan Miller and Barry Fritz.

Briars spent 30 years as cross country coach, 23 as track coach and seven as basketball coach in addition to many years as a middle school basketball coach. He compiled a 765-357 record at the varsity level.

(Rommelmann) Dinnon was a 1992 graduate who starred in basketball, volleyball, and track. She qualified for the state meet three times in the high jump.

Miller starred in track, basketball, and volleyball. He finished 9th in the state in the long jump his senior year (1998).

Fritz, a 1958 graduate, starred in basketball and baseball. He became just the second player in Kouts history to reach 1,000 career points in 1958.