By Chris May
Contributing Writer
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Mike Conley drives to the hoop
June 24 at Conseco Fieldhouse. Conley’s brilliant all-around game led to a 28-point win over Kentucky. Photo by Natalie Evans |
INDIANAPOLIS
â??? Mike Conley has always had pleasant experiences playing at Conseco
Fieldhouse, and he didnâ??t want June 24 to be any different.
Conley, who won three straight Class 4A state championships on the
floor at Conseco with the historic Lawrence North Wildcats, led the
2006 Indianapolis Star
Indiana All-Stars in almost every way as they completed a sweep of
Kentucky, 94-66, in the event capping two weeks of All-Star activities.
As part of the victory, Conley picked up most valuable player honors
after scoring 11 points, grabbing a second-best six rebounds, and
dishing a fantastic 14 assists â??? two more than the entire Kentucky team.
â??Itâ??s a team atmosphere,â? said the Ohio State bound guard. â??I wanted
to make sure everybody got to shine. Weâ??re all All-Stars, and I wanted
to make it look like that, so that was my basic goal.â?
To top it all off, Conley committed only two turnovers in a game-high 30 minutes played.
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DeJovaun Sawyer-Davis loses
the ball while battling Kentucky in the lane. Photo by Natalie Evans |
While Conley quarterbacked the hoops team to the victory â??? Indianaâ??s fifth straight and 15th
in the last 17 tries against Kentucky â??? a number of his teammates
served as his receiver. Among them was Andersonâ??s DeJovaun
Sawyer-Davis, scorer of a team-best 14 points.
â??I really thought that when Mike was running the show, with the ball
in his hands, and DeJovaun is on the floor, at both ends of the floor,
we just had stability with those two guys,â? said Indiana coach Chris
Benedict. â??They just do a tremendous job of communicating with all the
other players.
â??They kept everybody in tune what was going on on both ends of the
floor, and just got us in a situation where we could play to our
strengths. I thought those guys really set the tone early for us in
both halves, got us off to a good start and enabled us to stretch the
lead out and do some things we wanted to do on both ends.â?
While Conley got the lionâ??s share of attention, the entire Indiana squad played within the team concept.
Holding Kentucky to 34 percent from the field and just 4 of 21 on
3-point attempts while hitting nearly 53 percent of their own shots
were huge determinants of the outcome in favor of Indiana.
â??Going into an All-Star game, thatâ??s the biggest thing â??? trying to
get them to defend and share the basketball,â? said Benedict, whose team
had 30 assists on 38 field goals. â??And if you do those things, then
everybody gets an opportunity to have their talents flourish.
â??We moved the basketball really well â??? that was one of the things we
wrote down on the board before we started the second half. Great teams
are going to continue to play hard, continue to defend, and continue to
share the ball. I was extremely excited about the way they did.â?
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Conley and
Sawyer-Davis were two of six Hoosiers in double figures. A trio of
players â??? Luke Harangody, Vaughn Duggins, and Cole Holmstrom ?â??? went
for 12 apiece in combining to shoot 16 of 26 from the field. Starter
Andrew Warren also threw in for 11 points, three assists, and three
steals.
Kentuckyâ??s Tyler Wilkerson scored a game-high 16 points on 7-of-9
shooting, but the rest of the Bluegrass stateâ??s team offered little
help. Outside of Wilkerson and Robert Bucknerâ??s 4-of-8, 11-point night,
Kentuckyâ??s remaining 10 players combined for 15 field goals and hit
just above 25 percent on the night.
With all of Conleyâ??s talents on display in his hometown, at least one person was less than blown away with his performance.
â??I was really not impressed,â? quipped Mr. Basketball and high school
teammate Greg Oden. â??I knew he could do it whenever he wants to, even
when Iâ??m not out there on the floor. So sometimes Iâ??m mad at him when
he doesnâ??t take over.â?
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An injured Greg Oden came out to support his teammates and sign autographs for fans.
Photo by Natalie Evans |
Conley, himself, was pleased, given the result of his final game before college.
â??I feel like thereâ??s no other way to end high school than to be on
the Indiana All-Star team and to win your last game at Conseco
Fieldhouse,â? Conley said. â??Especially playing with these guys, it was a
fun two weeks.â?
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