The Elkhart Memorial Crimson Chargers and Michigan City Wolves square off in tonight’s championship game of the 42nd Goshen High School boys basketball holiday tournament.

Elkhart Memorial (4-1) got 14 points from 6-1 junior Karvel Anderson in edging the Lakeland Lakers 52-47 in Friday night’s opener.

The Wolves (5-4) nipped the Goshen Redskins 46-44 as 6-8 senior Jarrod Jones scored after an offensive rebound with 0:39 remaining.

Goshen (6-2) and Lakeland (5-3) will meet in the consolation game tonight at 6, followed by the championship around 7:45.

Second Game

Goshen had a terrible night shooting as the Redskins were 16-for-56, including 6-for-21 from 3-point range.

“We had an awful shooting night,” Goshen coach Brian Bechtel said. “I don’t have any answers. Maybe we were too wide open. That was the difference in the game. We had at least five times when we were shooting with the score tied and missed.”

Besides scoring the game-winning basket, Jones hurt the Redskins by stepping out and swishing a pair of ‘3s’ in the third quarter.

“We knew he (Jones) could hit from out there,” Bechtel said. Jones finished the game with 21 points.

“Jarrod (Jones) played one of his better games,” Michigan City coach Bob Buscher said. “He was getting beat up. Goshen had three guys around him.”

According to Buscher, Jones has gotten college scholarship offers from Indiana State, Indiana-Purdue at Fort Wayne, Indiana-Purdue at Indianapolis and Valparaiso.

With some help from other Redskins, 6-6 senior Nathan Stegelmann spent most of the time on Jones.

“I like the way Stegelmann accepted the challenge,” Bechtel said. “He has had three good games in a row.”

Stegelmann scored eight points and grabbed a team-high nine rebounds as the Redskins outrebounded the Wolves 33-30.

Goshen had a slow start and the Wolves led 7-3 at 2:40 of the opening period. The Redskins trailed 12-6 after one quarter before rallying to a 22-22 at halftime. The score was tied 35-35 at the end of the third stanza.

Goshen took just its second lead at 6:22 of the fourth on a basket by 6-2 junior Ethan Hussey. The Wolves scored six straight points for a 41-37 advantage with 2:56 left to play.

Michigan City was leading 44-41 when Hussey knotted the score on a ‘3’ at 1:17.

The Redskins appeared to get a break when Jones was called for a foul at :57 that gave Goshen the ball. Goshen couldn’t get the ball inbounds and had to call a timeout. The Skins still couldn’t get the ball in and lost it on a five-second call.

Jones then scored his rebound basket. The Redskins called time at :32 to set up a last shot.

“We got another good look, but missed,” Bechtel said.

Buscher said, “We played good defense on the last shot. We tried to double the man we thought would take it.

“Goshen is a good team. I’m glad they had some time off. We saw them play Fairfield (43-38 GHS win on Dec. 15). They have several strengths. Stegelmann is a big kid and I love No. 42 (6-2 junior Marshall Crawford). We had him down as Goshen’s best player.

“Hussey and (6-0 senior) Ryan Bartley are also good players. Goshen has a good inside-outside game. They also play good half-court defense.”

Hussey topped Goshen with 11 points. Crawford chipped in with eight.

First Game

Memorial led the entire game as 5-11 junior Sean Cooper scored six points to open the contest as the Chargers jumped out to an 8-0 advantage.

“Copper played really well,” Memorial coach Mark Barnhizer said. “He has hung in there, playing behind a lot of guys in his class.”

Memorial went on to lead 14-8 after one period and 28-22 at halftime.

“Our offense was good, but we were out of position a lot on defense,” Barnhizer said. “Lakeland is a schooled team which knows how to take advantage of things like that. We did some things on defense that we need to shore up.

“For the most part our shot selection was good, but we did take some bad shots that went in.”

An example of a poor shot Barnhizer pointed to was a 3-pointer by 6-1 junior Lavarius Macon at 1:09 of the third quarter with the Chargers clinging to a 37-34 lead.

“From a basketball standpoint that was not the shot we wanted, but I’m glad Lavarius (Macon) has the confidence to take a shot like that,” the coach said.

Lakeland worked the ball inside and got to the free-throw line, but the Lakers were only 5-for-12 from the charity stripe.

“We did a good job getting the ball inside,” Lakeland coach Tim Sirk said. “You want to get to the line. Some nights the free throws go in and some nights they don’t.

“Memorial is a very athletic team and Anderson is quite a player. I thought we played good. Most of Memorial’s shots were tough ones. That was a really tough trey that Macon hit from the corner.”

Bontrager topped the Lakers with 17 points while 6-1 junior Tanner King added 16.

Akeem Peters, 6-0 senior, missed the game for the Chargers for disciplinary reasons and 5-9 Laker senior Skyler King is out of action with a stress fracture.

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greg.keim@goshennews.com