Sports Archives - Page 177 of 226 - Benton, West Frankfort, Illinois News

Morthland closes out Ron Herrin shootout by Defeating Robert Morris-Springfield 92-67

December 17, 2016 By Jim Muir Leave a Comment

WEST FRANKFORT – The Morthland College men’s basketball team responded well to the adversity of game changes in the Ron Herrin Memorial Shootout by taking care of business against Robert Morris University – Springfield with a 92-67 final score.

Coach Rich Herrin calls him “Little Man”. Point guard Demaria Nance a 5′ 7″ freshman out of Cadiz KY, drives around a Robert Morris-Springfield defender.

Similar to Wednesday night against Simmons, Morthland came out and took control early on. Dylan Burmester opened play with a two point basket in the paint just 20 seconds after the tip.

RMU’s Leo Bowen answered with a three-pointer to take the lead back 3-2. The second of the Burmester brothers, Tyler, followed in the footsteps of Dylan by netting his own shot in the paint to regain the lead for Morthland.

From there, the Patriots hit the gas and never looked back. It took eight minutes for the boys to reach a double-digit point difference and it came on a second-chance opportunity from Dylan Burmester to put the Patriots up 27-16.

That basket came in the midst of a seven point run by Morthland, which included contributions from Demaria Nance and Ben McFarland.

The first half came and went with little frustration for the Patriots, as they headed into the locker room up by 13 with a score of 45-32.

The Eagles came out hot from under the bleachers and it only took three minutes to cut the Morthland lead down to five.

A quick timeout and some back-to-back work from the Burmester brothers put the Patriots back up by 14 with nine minutes left in the game.

After giving everything they had in the push out of the gate, RMU lost all momentum and their deficit quickly grew. Morthland’s largest lead came with just three minutes left when Carlton Mason and Dylan Burmester scored on simultaneous possessions to give themselves an 88-62 lead.

Time flew and the final buzzer rang with Morthland earning the 92-67 win.

As a team, the Patriots shot 39 for 81 from the floor (48.1%), and nine for 13 from the line (69.2%)

Aaron Rushing lead all scorers with 23 points on the afternoon. He was just two rebounds shy of a double-double.

Right behind Rushing was Tyler Burmester who netted 22 points and gathered nine rebounds with five assists.

Dylan Burmester was all over the floor this afternoon as the senior grabbed five steals, aiding him to his 16 total points.

Ashton Worgu had himself a game with six assists and nine rebounds.

With the win, the Patriots advance to 7-4 on the season. They take the holiday break off before returning to action at home on December 30. Morthland will host the Gorloks of Webster Universitiy with tip-off set for 1:00 p.m. in Max Morris Gymnasium.

Information submittied by Reid Cure, who wears many hats for Morthland College. He is head of the sports information department, AD, and head baseball coach.

Filed Under: College Sports, Slider, Sports

Weather causing havoc with two HS basketball games tonight

December 16, 2016 By Jim Muir Leave a Comment

According to a social media post by the voice of the Herrin Tigers Mike Murphy, Herrin at Murphysboro and Marion at Cahokia has been rescheduled for a later date.

The St Louis Post Dispatch has reported that slick roads has caused several accidents during rush hour in the St. Louis metro area.

If you are doing some Christmas shopping, especially at Carbondale, prepare for slick parking lots.

There will always be an updated list of cancellations and school closings on this page. Please call me at 937-0253 or call or text at 513-1274. I anticipate some churches calling off Sunday Services.

With the low temperatures, I would not be surprised of some school closings for Monday. With the cold temperatures, IDOT will have a battle treating roads.

Franklincounty-news.com will keep you abreast of the potential ice coming in for tomorrow. As of now there is a tenth of an inch of freezing rain forecast on to of a half inch of ice and snow.

NOTE: Radar can not always pick up light frozen drizzle. I do not know the direction of travel and whether the temperature will get above freezing before this gets to Franklin county.

Filed Under: Breaking News, Franklin Co. News, High School Sports, Sports

Rivalry night in Franklin County

December 16, 2016 By Jim Muir Leave a Comment

Steve Dunford-Franklin County Hoops And Gridiron

There are only two games involving county schools tonight and they are playing each other. The West Frankfort Redbirds make the short six mile trip up Route 37 to Rich Herrin Gym, to play the Benton Rangers. The Christopher Bearcats have a short eight mile trip up Route 148 to take on the Sesser-Valier Red Devils.

West Frankfort (0-1)(1-3) at Benton (1-0)(7-0)

The Rangers are off to the fast start like last year as they were undefeated going into the Duster Thomas Hoops Classic. The Redbirds has a o fer off their record in holiday tournament play as they picked up their first two wins at the Eldorado Holiday Tournament. Here is what Ranger Coach Ron Winemiller had to say about the match-up this evening. “I expect both teams to be very prepared for what we like to do. I expect WF will try and use their size and force the ball inside. I hope our ball pressure can cause them some problems. It doesn’t matter what the records are it is Benton vs West Frankfort, so you know both teams will play with a lot of passion. “

Redbird Coach Kevin Toney had this to say about tonight. “I hope we can handle the ball against them. They make everything so difficult on both ends of the floor and it will be a challenge. But that is what every team attempts to do. We need to go into another teams gym, and put all the distractions out of our mind. We just need to play how we know we can play.”

I jot down keys to the game. I had the Redbirds size and length could give the Rangers problems, just as Coach Winemiller said. The Rangers have went nine deep with out missing a beat. West Frankfort is much deeper this year as well.

Benton’s press is ferocious. If the Redbirds struggle with it, it could be a long night. In addition they can flat out shoot the basketball. So can Noah Allen.

West Frankfort will start 6′ 6″ and 6′ 5″ in Austin Glodich and Keagan Thrash. They can bring 6′ 5″ off the bench in Bradlee Croslin. The Rangers tallest guy that has saw significant time is Parker Williams at 6′ 3″

Derek Oxford and Timmy Henson are four year starters, if you count Henson’s freshman year at Thompsonville. Austin Wills has logged a lot of varsity minutes.

Throwing in the anticipated “junior five” for Benton, I have to give the edge to the Rangers by 12 tonight. The Redbirds will be ready to play in a hard fought contest.

Christopher (2-3)(0-0) at Sesser-Valier (1-0)(2-4)

This is the BDC West opener for Christopher. Sesser-Valier pulled a major upset in defeating the Chester Yellow Jackets in their only conference game of the year.

Both teams were involved barn burner losses on Tuesday night. The Bearcats lost on a buzzer beater 43-41 to the Waltonville Spartans by former Bearcat, Isaac McPhail. The Red Devils were involved in a track meet down at Johnston City Losing 88-86.

Kaleab Pedigo can shoot the rock, so can Charlie Farmer. Gabe Schimpf can fill it up in an blue and orange uniform tonight.

Going into the season, I was concerned about the Bearcats post game. Jared Curry shot up to 6’5″ and Cole Sanders transferred from Z-R over the summer.

I would be at one or the other place tonight if I could. One thing I would be curious about which Devil will guard Bradley Young. I have a feeling it will be Joshua Gunter. The Z word is not in Shane Garner or Eric Stallman’s vocabulary.

A couple advantages that S-V has over Christopher is they are deeper at the three spot whether it be Gunter, Preston Launius, or Addison Baxter. They are more physical in the post with Jamie Lance, Addison Page, and Seth Boles.

Curry has been playing the point for the Bearcats setting the offense and going in and posting up. Lukas Gunter is one of the better 1A point guards in Southern Illinois but advantage Curry in this position with the height advantage. Curry will cause match-up problems all over the floor tonight.

It is no secret the Bearcats like to run. With Shane Garner able to play 10 or 11, it would be to the Devils advantage.

If two tom cats were fighting in 18 bottoms from each town, there would be maroon and red and grey in the crowd. There would be Maroon and Orange in a cat fight between the two at the Valier Patch as well.

I have went over several scenarios in my head who will come on top in this one. I have had some with Sesser-Valier and Christopher winning on my legal pad full of scribbles.

I have been told I have instincts as a prognosticator. I am going with the Bearcats in a buzzer beater by Pedigo hitting a three. Young will have at least 15-20 tonight.

I am either the most loved or hated man in the county tonight. And old geezer like me trying to be a prognosticator does not matter much. What I have to say will go out the window at tip-off.

Filed Under: Benton High School Sports, Breaking News, Christopher High School Sports, High School Sports, Sesser-Valier High School Sports, Sports, West Frankfort High School Sports

Longtime sideline reporter Craig Sager dies

December 15, 2016 By Jim Muir Leave a Comment

TV reporter Craig Sager, who held a very public years long battle with leukemia, has died. He was 65. Sager got his first taste on the

Long time NBA broadcaster Craig Sager (Getty image)

sidelines as a mascot at Northwestern. A walk-on on the football and basketball teams, injury turned him to cheerleading. He got his start in television as a weatherman in Tampa, Fla. Within a few years, the charismatic Sager would become an Atlanta fixture, first appearing on Hawks telecasts for TBS Superstation and later as a reporter during NBA broadcasts on the TNT network. Please click on the link to follow the rest of this story from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Filed Under: Breaking News, Sports

SIU defeats SLU at the Arena 70-55 last night

December 15, 2016 By Jim Muir Leave a Comment

CARBONDALE, Ill. — Leading by four points with four minutes to go, Southern Illinois finished the game on a 14-3 run to put away a pesky Saint Louis team, 70-55, on Wednesday night at SIU Arena.

The Salukis (6-5) were led by Armon Fletcher, who had a career-

Saluki forward Sean O’ Brien drives around Billiken defender Jalon Johnson (SIU Media Services photo.)

high 21 points, while Sean O’Brien pitched in a double-double with 13 points and 13 rebounds. Thik Bol added 14 points.

The key shot of the night, though, came from guard Sean Lloyd, who made his first-career start for SIU. With his team clinging to a 58-54 lead, Lloyd drained a 3-pointer from the right wing with four minutes to go that gave his club some breathing room.

“He comes down the floor and I yell at my staff that Sean’s scared to death — and that’s paraphrased,” Hinson said. “When he caught the ball, he shoots a three and he sticks it, and he looks right at me. I guess that’s how you gotta coach guys from Philly.”

The final eight possessions for Saint Louis included four missed shots and three turnovers, and SIU sealed the win with six free throws by Mike Rodriguez, plus layups by O’Brien and Bol.

The Billikens (3-7) played without leading scorer and starting point guard Jermaine Bishop, but they had no trouble knocking down shots in the first half, converting 7-of-12 from 3-point range. Their largest lead was eight points, 25-17, on a 3-pointer by Aaron Hines, a former walk-on, who started in place of Bishop.

SLU entered the game ranked No. 328 in 3-point shooting percentage (28 percent), but Southern checked in with a 3-point shooting defense that also ranked No. 328. The Billikens won that battle, as five-different players connected from downtown.

“I wondered how we’d play, because we’ve been so short-handed in practice, and without our point guard, and we’re pretty short-handed to begin with anyway,” said first-year Saint Louis head coach Travis Ford. “So we had some fight early. I was proud of how we executed early.”

Southern struggled at times against SLU’s zone defense. The team’s only consistent threat from outside the arc this season has been Fletcher, and he delivered a 4-for-7 night from downtown. His teammates were 1-for-7.

“We don’t have a lot of confidence,” Hinson acknowledged. “The greatest defense to play against a team with no confidence is a zone, because it makes you stagnant. We got stagnant offensively, we got stagnant defensively, and we were lulled to sleep.”

Trailing by two at halftime, the Salukis woke up in the second half, surging to a lead, 40-38, on a trey by Fletcher. Defensively, they held their opponent to 36 percent in the second half. Saint Louis stayed within one or two possessions until late in the game, but 21 turnovers were their undoing, including an inordinate amount of traveling violations.

“We were our own worst enemy a lot of the time,” Ford said. “When you’re shooting 60 percent in the half and have 11 turnovers, we thought we should have had a bigger lead at halftime and taken advantage of us actually running offense and making a few shots.”

Saint Louis is in full rebuilding mode under Ford. The Billikens have three transfers sitting out, and on top of that, starting guards Mike Crawford and Davell Roby didn’t practice the last two days with injuries, Ford said, though they ended up playing in the game.

“I was proud of our team being able to keep it all together after the couple days have been pretty rough on our basketball team,” he said.

Southern snapped a two-game losing streak, and after he questioned the team’s effort in Saturday’s loss to Sam Houston State, Hinson became emotional during his postgame remarks to the media tonight.

“You gotta have guys that want to fight,” he said, raising his voice. “You gotta have guys that want to compete. We didn’t do that in the last two games. That was our whole message tonight — when you get out on that wood floor, why don’t you compete! Why don’t you fight a little bit!”

Filed Under: College Sports, Slider, Sports

IHSA estabishes pitch counts for HS baseball

December 15, 2016 By Jim Muir Leave a Comment

The Illinois High School Association (IHSA) Board of Directors met at its regularly scheduled meeting at the IHSA office in Bloomington on Monday, December 12, 2016, where the Board voted to implement a pitching regulation Policy in the sport of baseball. The pitch limitations are effective immediately and will be used by IHSA member schools during the 2017 baseball season this spring.
The limitations approved by the Board closely mirror the pitching limitations jointly developed by the IHSA’s Baseball Advisory Committee and Sports Medicine Advisory Committee. The most significant change from the original recommendation is dropping the maximum number of pitches in a game from 115 pitches to 105 pitches.

Click here to see the Pitch Count Guidelines Policy.

“This was a collaborative effort that goes a long way toward making high school baseball in Illinois safer,” said IHSA Sports Medicine Advisory Committee member Dr. Preston Wolin. “I want to thank the IHSA Board, the Sports Medicine Advisory Committee, the Baseball Advisory Committee, and all the people who were indispensable in this process for their efforts.”

Dr. Wolin was a guest of the Baseball Advisory Committee at their August meeting, where he presented the recommendations of the Sports Medicine Advisory to the group.

The Board of Directors reviewed the pitching limitation recommendation in the fall and chose to present it to the IHSA membership for feedback during the Association’s annual Town Hall Meetings in November.

“Kudos to the Baseball Advisory and Sports Medicine Advisory committees for working together on behalf of student safety,” said IHSA Executive Director Craig Anderson. “We believe that the NFHS and its state association membership have been leaders in this area in all sports, but ultimately, the high school season encompasses a short window. We hope that youth and travel baseball organizations will follow our lead to help protect these pitchers and their arms.”

The IHSA is developing a process for schools to submit their game-by-game pitching counts via the IHSA website, which will be presented to coaches and school personnel prior to the season. The Board confirmed that a violation of the Policy could result in forfeiture and that all violations of the Policy will be reviewed by the Executive Director on a case-by-case basis.

Courtesy of a press release from the Illinois High School Association.

Filed Under: Benton High School Sports, Christopher High School Sports, High School Sports, Sesser-Valier High School Sports, Sports, Thompsonville High School Sports, West Frankfort High School Sports, Zeigler-Royalton High School Sports

Men’s Basketball Gets Back On Track With Win Against Simmons

December 15, 2016 By Jim Muir Leave a Comment

West Frankfort, Ill. – A talented Simmons College team came into town and found themselves outmatched agains the Patriots clutch offense. Morthland sent the Falcons home to a final score of 95-75.

Aaron Rushing opened up the scoring for the boys with a quick two pointer just 10 seconds after the tip to give the Patriots the lead.

A quick response from Simmons’ Jalen Baker put the Falcons up by one with his shot from behind the arc.

Ashton Worgu at the free throw line in the 95-75 win against Simmons last night.

Cody Schultz said he could do it better and answered with a trey of his own to bring the patriots back up by two. From there, Morthland kept the lead the rest of the night.

A couple of back-and-forth possessions found the Patriots up 15-12 when they sparked a 12-0 run to put themselves up 27-12 with 9:18 left in the half.

That run staked Morthland’s momentum for the evening, and the boys never lead by less than double digits for the rest of the night.

With their offense never slowing down, the Patriots led by 28 at the most when they found themselves up 85-57 after a Rushing basket in the paint.

Morthland’s big man ended the night with 19 points (9-for-13) and six rebounds.

Tyler Burmester had the lone double-double with his 24 points and 11 rebounds. He also tacked on five assists to his name.

Schultz and Dylan Burmester registered double-digit points as well with 20 and 16. Dylan Burmester was just one rebound shy of a double-double.

Ben McFarland came off the bench for the Patriots and made some noise with two tremendous blocks to swing momentum even farther in Morthland’s favor.

As a team, the boys shot 54.5 percent from the floor and 46.4 percent from deep. The Patriots out rebounded Simmons 45 to 33.

With the win, Morthland moves to 6-4 on the season. They take the court again in two days as they host the Ron Herrin Memorial Shootout.

Games are scheduled for 6:00 and 8:00 on Friday evening. Then 12:00 and 2:00 on Saturday afternoon. Alongside Morthland, the tournament will play host to Robert Morris University – Peoria, Robert Morris University – Springfield and College of Faith.

For stats go to the following link: http://www.morthlandpatriots.com/stats/2016-17/box_9.html

Filed Under: College Sports, Slider, Sports

Duster Thomas Hoops Classic parings..

December 14, 2016 By Jim Muir Leave a Comment

For a pool play tournament, my friend Jack Bullock from

This picture is from the website hiddengyms@blogspot.com It is a great site for gym junkies.

abaselineview.com posts brackets that are simple to understand. He posted it this evening. I have had the pairings since Friday. The Benton Rangers will play Trenton-Wesclin at 10:30 A.M. at Duster Thomas gym and will play Olney at 8 P.M on December 26. When the Gold, Silver, and Bronze brackets are set, I will share them from ABV Jack again. Thank you for giving me permission for sharing.

Filed Under: Benton High School Sports, High School Sports, Slider, Sports

Redbirds draw Carmi-White County in the EHT

December 14, 2016 By Jim Muir Leave a Comment

Eldorado’s Duff-Kingston Gymnasium

NOTE: Bracket Below….Parings for the 52nd Eldorado Holiday Tournament were released today. The West Frankfort Redbirds drew fifth seed Carmi-White County in the first round. Game time is 11:30 am on December 26th. The Bulldogs are 6-1 on the season. They suffered their fist loss of the season at the hands of the Benton Rangers last night, 56-45. With several SIRR-Ohio teams and GEC teams in the field, I will be keeping close tabs on the tournament. Parings below.