By By DAN WEISS / Niles Daily Star
BATTLE CREEK -- Committing 28 turnovers in any game is a bad thing, but it turned out to be very costly for the Niles varsity basketball team in a 66-52 loss to Lansing Everett Monday night in the first game of the Cereal City Holiday Hoops Classic at the Battle Creek Central Fieldhouse.
Everett, a very likely Top 10 team in Class A when the first set of statewide rankings are released, took advantage of the Niles turnovers and scored numerous fast-break baskets. Everett's athletic players made Niles pay for its mistakes time and time again.
To Niles' credit, however, Everett was never able to put the game out of reach. In fact, Niles cut the Everett lead to eight points on a field goal by Marcus Lawshea with 1:38 left in the game.
Everett went on to score the final six points of the game for the 14-point victory.
Niles found itself trailing by as many as 18 points early in the third period after Everett went on a 10-2 run to start the quarter. The Niles Vikings, however, fought back with an 8-0 run of their own to chop the lead to 10.
The Niles rally forced Everett coach Johnny Jones to put his starting five players back on the floor and the group finished the quarter with a 9-2 run, stretching the lead back out to 17 points.
The Everett lead maxed out at 23 points on a layup by Derick Nelson with 6:16 left in the game. Niles responded with a 13-0 run to again cut the lead to 10 points.
Jones again inserted his starting unit, but this time the Niles Vikings maintained their momentum and outscored the Everett starters 9-4 to get the lead down to eight before giving up a 6-0 run at the end of the game.
Niles, which fell to 1-2 with the loss, committed 10 turnovers in the first quarter, 17 in the first half. Even with the mistakes, though, Niles trailed only by nine points at the end of the first quarter.
Everett, which committed 25 turnovers of its own, was unable to pull away much farther in the second quarter as Niles was only outscored 12-11 and trailed 31-21 at halftime.
Nelson led all scorers with 24 points, including three dunks following Niles turnovers. Goran Suton, a 6-10 senior center bound for Michigan State University, added 18 points as Everett improved to 5-0.
Karyce Pulliam led a balanced Niles attack with nine points. Marcus Lawshea and Nate Parks each scored eight while Nick Etzcorn pitched in with seven points and Brian Ketchum grabbed 10 rebounds to go along with five points.
Niles takes on Jackson, a 62-57 winner over Battle Creek Central Monday night, at 6 p.m. tonight. Everett and Battle Creek Central will play in tonight's second game.
Lansing Everett….66
Niles………………….52
Everett: Clyde McKinney 1 0-0 2, Jordan Frazier 1 0-0 2, Mike Stevenson 1 0-0 3, Dominique Oliver 2 1-2 5, Justin Moore 1 0-0 2, Mike Canfield 2 0-0 4, Andre Collins-Riddle 1 3-4 6, Derick Nelson 10 4-7 24, Goran Suton 5 8-12 18. Totals: 24 16-25 66
Niles: Karyce Pulliam 4 0-0 9, Scott Quaye 1 2-2 4, Marcus Lawshea 3 2-4 8, Dane Ford 0 0-0 0, Ivery Cross 2 0-0 4, Stacy Caskey 0 0-0 0, Nate Parks 2 2-3 8, Paul Wreggelsworth 0 0-0 0, Adrian Davis 0 0-0 0, Ben Landgraf 0 0-0 0, Lonnie Jones 2 1-2 5, Jason Rutkowske 0 0-0 0, Andrew Foster 0 0-0 0, Nick Etzcorn 2 3-4 7, John Kessick 1 0-0 2, Brian Ketchum 2 1-3 5. Totals: 19 11-18 52
Everett 19 12 19 16--66
Niles 10 11 12 19--52
3-point shooting: Everett 2 (Stevenson, Collins-Riddle), Niles 3 (Parks 2, Pulliam). Team fouls (fouled out): Everett 15 (none), Niles 19 (none). Team records: Everett 5-0, Niles 1-2