Sometimes you have to burn the film. And sometimes it’s worse than that.

The Munster Mustangs blew open a close game with a 26-5 run to end the third quarter en route to an 83-44 victory over Chesterton Tuesday night.

“We’ve been learning all year and tonight, it was a punishing lesson,” Chesterton coach Tom Peller said. “I think we just have to act like tonight didn’t happen. If you look at our whole body of work this year, this isn’t what we’ve seen typically. We’ve got three important games coming up.”

The Trojans built an early 8-4 lead that included 3-pointers from KeMonte Price and Cole Teal, but the Mustangs made a 9-0 run to lead 13-8 after one quarter.

The lead grew to 27-19 at the halftime break before the Trojans started a comeback coming out of the locker room.

Price, who scored a team-high 10 points, started things with a basket on the first possession before Donnie Johnson hit a triple and Teal scored to cut the lead to 29-26 with 6:23 left in the period.

“I thought KeMonte, a senior, did everything he could to keep us in the game as long as he could and hold us together,” Peller said. “There just wasn’t anyway to keep it going.”

After back-to-back baskets from Munster’s Danilo Zekovic, KJ Zelenika hit a triple at the 5:31 mark. But, the Trojans wouldn’t make another basket until the 5:39 mark of the fourth quarter resulting in a 28-2 run.

“I thought our transition defense really hurt us,” Peller said. “Missed shots is one thing, but then to just let them beat you down the floor time after time is effort. Those are easy points for them and I thought that was the difference in the game.”

After Matt Holba’s conventional three-point play stopped the run, the Mustangs went on another 18-2 run to put the finishing touches on the game.

“We’ve been real competitive this year and our young guys haven’t looked young,” Peller said. “I think when you go through a long season, there are going to be some tough nights. It’s going to happen and the season’s been long.

“They just didn’t have it tonight.”

Munster hit an incredible 18-of-24 shots (75 percent) from the floor in the second half and were 8-of-13 (62 percent) from 3-point range for the night.

“We didn’t make any shots to stop their run and it just kind of snowballed from there,” Peller said. “We got frustrated a little bit and they shot the ball well and executed great.”

The Trojans return to the court on Friday night when they travel to LaPorte for a Duneland Athletic Conference contest. The junior varsity game is scheduled for a 6 p.m. start.

Chesterton (8-11-12-13)

KeMonte Price 3-6 3-3 10, KJ Zelenika 1-6 0-0 3, Matt Holba 3-9 1-1 7, Cole Teal 4-7 0-0 9, Donnie Johnson 1-5 0-0 3, Jacob Wasielewski 0-2 0-0 0, Chris Palombizio 2-5 0-0 5, Corey Rusboldt 1-3 2-2 4, Mike Thanos 0-0 0-0 0, Jacob Andert 1-1 0-0 3, Brandon Roeske 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 16-45 6-6 44.

Munster (13-14-28-28)

Mike Scholtman 5-9 0-0 11, Mark Strbjak 1-7 6-7 8, Scott Jerge 2-4 0-0 4, Nate Bubash 3-6 3-4 10, Danilo Zekovic 6-8 0-0 14, Craig Dedelow 2-2 0-0 6, Luke Wuchenich 1-1 2-2 5, Drew Hackett 5-5 5-5 16, Cody Grzybowski 2-2 1-2 5, Pat McCarthy 1-1 2-2 4. Totals 27-44 19-22 83.

3-point field goals: Chesterton 6-17 (Price 1-2, Zelenika 1-4, Holba 0-1, Teal 1-1, Palombizio 1-2, Rusboldt 0-1, Andert 1-1, Johnson 1-5); Munster 8-13 (Schlotman 1-4, Bubash 1-2, Zekovic 2-3, Dedelow 2-2, Wuchenich 1-1, Hackett 1-1). Rebounds: Chesterton 15 (Price 3); Munster 33 (Schlotman 6, Bubash 6). Assists: Chesterton 9 (Holba 3); Munster 10 (Schlotman 3, Jerge 3). Steals: Chesterton 4 (Johnson 2); Munster 6 (Jerge 2, Zekovic 2, Hackett 2).

The Chesterton junior varsity outscored Munster 16-6 in the fourth quarter to pick up a 39-34 victory Tuesday night as they improved to 9-8 on the year.

Brandon Roeske scored 14 points to lead the Trojans, while Tevin Dilosa and Avery Beeks each scored 10 points.

Roeske grabbed a team-high six rebounds with Dilosa tallying five rebounds. Beeks recorded two steals in the victory.

　Posted 2/15/2012