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  • St. Joseph-Ogden's Logan Carr guards Hoopeston Area's Mason Layden during Tuesday’s Class 2A regional game at Westville. Layden had 17 points, but the Cornjerkers lost to the Spartans 73-22. Susan Joy McKinney/Commercial-News

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February 22, 2012

Cornjerkers no match for Spartans

BY JOHN DUBOIS Commercial-News

WESTVILLE — Sophomore Mason Layden continued the progress he has shown all season, but following a solid start, the seventh-seeded Hoopeston Area Cornjerkers couldn’t keep the tempo of the game where they wanted it in a 73-22 loss to the second-seeded St. Joseph-Ogden Spartans in regional action at Westville.

Layden scored a game-high 17 points in just over 19 minutes of playing time.

“They are a very good team and our plan for the game was to come out and slow down the pace and forced them to walk the ball up the court,” said Hoopeston area coach Mitch Pruemer. “They responded by doing everything they could to try and pick up the pace including running a diamond press in an effort to force us into mistakes. We did a very nice job of things in the first quarter, but we couldn’t keep them from picking up the pace over the last three quarters.”

The Cornjerkers got out to a 6-5 lead and battled for the entire first quarter with the Spartans ending the period up 17-14. Layden would finish the quarter with 10 points.

“Mason has continued to develop as a player and we saw that again tonight,” Pruemer said. “He can shoot, he can handle the ball, he has good court awareness, and the key for him as the season has gone along is that he has begun taking the ball to the basket more.

“That has prevented guys from closing out on him. As more teams become aware of Mason he will start getting keyed on and we will have to develop other scoring options so he won’t be put in a position where he tries to force things offensively. Overall, Mason does a great job for us.”

The Spartans would open the second quarter on a 16-0 run essentially putting the game out of reach. Layden would score to break an over 4 minute drought for the Cornjerkers and had a second basket moments later, but that was it for the Cornjerkers in the period as the Spartans went into halftime up 41-18.

Layden hit a 3-pointer early in the third but that was again it for the Cornjerkers as the Spartans ended the period up 61-21. Layden left the game for good with three minutes and 30 seconds to go in the third.

“Mason had played a great game to that point,” Pruemer said. “We had some guys who hadn’t had a chance to play much this season and we wanted to give everyone a chance to play tonight.”

Robert Baum would have the only point for Hoopeston Area in the fourth and the final score was the largest margin of the game.

The Cornjerkers end their season at 4-24.

“It would have been easy for our six seniors to have laid down given how the season has gone, but they never quit,” Pruemer said. “They came in everyday and worked hard. and they were as disappointed in the loss tonight as they were in the first one of the season. They are a great group of guys.

“Going forward we need to continue to develop as a team. We need our returning young guys to step up and take bigger roles and any new guys that join the team to be ready to take on a role. We will have to put in the work in the off-season to be ready to start next year as an improved team.”

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