Redbirds drop sluggish road game

January 12, 2013 By Leave a Comment

By BRUCE A. FASOL

For most of the evening, the Murphysboro Red Devils struggled at the free throw line. Most of the time, not all of the time.

Murphysboro made free throws when it counted, in a lackluster offensive performance for both teams. The home team was 6 of 8 from the stripe which was the margin of difference in a 34-28 victory. What doomed the Redbirds is that all 6 of the made charity tosses came in the final three minutes of the game. It was during that period that West Frankfort battled back to win a single point.

The game started slowly for both teams, reaching almost the halfway point of the initial quarter before someone scored.  Both teams may have considered replacing Gatorade with Red Bull by quarters end which found Murphysboro up 9-3. Murphysboro scored that first bucket of the game. The Redbirds then answered with a 3-point shot to take a brief lead, with the Devils scoring the next 6 points of the quarter. The offensive drought continued for both teams in the second quarter as well, and at intermission the score was Murphysboro 16- WF 6.

The Redbirds came out with more energy in the third quarter and made a run at the Red Devils. In the third quarter, the Redbirds cut what was a 13-point deficit to just 4 by quarter’s end.

The fourth quarter saw West Frankfort make runs and Murphysboro rebound to lengthen leads back to as many as a half dozen.
With two and a half minutes left, a Christian Dunning free throw made it a 2 point game. at the 2:12 remaining mark, the wheels came off the wagon. Braxton Koehl was called for a charge on a drive thru the lane. On the ensuing trip up the floor, the Redbirds fouled, and were whistled for a technical foul on senior Trenton Easley.
Murphysboro’s Jacob Baird made one of the technical free throws to run the lead to three- still a one possession game.  The 3-point lead survived a Redbird free throw trip, but Koehl missed both free throws. Murphysboro added the final margin on two trips to the stripe themselves.
With the loss, the Redbirds fall to 4-10 and have their winning streak of a single game broken as they failed to win back-to-back games. The Redbirds are 0-6 in the Ohio Division.
Scoring for Dan Dewerff’s team: Koehl 17, Dunning 8, Maller 5, Keller 4, Easley 3, Fort 1.
The Redbirds open up play in the rrevamped annual Mid-Winter classic tonight with a 7pm game against Vienna at Max Morris Gym
Filed Under: High School Sports, West Frankfort High School Sports

Sesser-Valier wins conference game

January 12, 2013 By Leave a Comment

STAFF REPORT

The Sesser-Valier Red Devils and cross-county rival Zeigler-Royalton Tornadoes renewed their rivalry Friday night in Sesser. And, the two battled in Black Diamond Conference play as usual. When the final horn sounded, Sesser-Valier was a 48-30 winner.

A massive third quarter by Tyler Baxter blocked off any attempts by the Tornadoes to cut into a six point Red Devil lead at the half of 20-14. Baxter ripped the nets for 9 points in the frame. That was one more than ZR could muster as a team, as coach Chip Basso’s team went to lockdown mode on defense. In both the third and fourth quarters only 8 points was tallied by the visitors, keeping them from making a strong comeback.

Sesser-Valier scoring: Baxter 14,Hood 11, Marlo and Lingle 7 each, Kulich 5, Eubanks 4.

 Zeigler-Royalton scoring:Stubblefield 7, Schimpf 6, McPhail, Moskoff,and Jones 5 each, and Pedigo 2.
Filed Under: High School Sports, Sesser-Valier High School Sports, Zeigler-Royalton High School Sports

Rangerettes defeat Du Quoin 41-21

January 11, 2013 By Leave a Comment

By Jim Muir

The Benton Rangerettes improved to 15-4 overall with a solid 41-21 victory over Du Quoin in Thursday night action.

“I thought we turned in a solid defensive effort,” said Benton coach Andy Sloan. “Overall, it was just a nice win for us.”

The Rangerettes jumped out to an 11-4 first quarter lead as six players got in the scoring column for Benton in the opening eight minutes. Benton increased the lead to 20-11 at halftime as Du Quoin managed only three field goals in the first half.

Rebekka Maddox, Du Quoin’s leading scorer, was a non-factor in the contest as she was hampered by foul trouble from the outset. Maddox picked up two quick fouls in the first 90 seconds of the game and sat out the rest of the first quarter and then returned and picked up her third in less than three minutes in the third and was on the bench the remainder of the half.

The Rangerettes put the game on ice in the third quarter outscoring Du Quoin 8-2 to open up a 38-23 lead and then coasted on to victory.

Benton was led in scoring by Morgan Corn with 10 points, followed by Mikala Carney with seven points, Katie Sandusky with six points, Sami Minor and Marcella Mendez with five points each, Evelyn Mendez with three points, Cali Carney with two points, Kaitlyn Biddle with two points and Cassandra Johnson with one point.

Maddox led Du Quoin with five points.

The Benton JV squad picked up an exciting 36-35 victory against Du Quoin. Bobbi Wegrazyn hit two free throws with 29 seconds in the game and that proved to be the winning margin.

Both Benton girl’s teams are back in action on Tuesday night when they host Zeigler-Royalton-Christopher in a non-conference match up. The game will be played at Rich Herrin Gymnasium because of a wrestling event that is being held at the East Gym.

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

Carmickle lifts Morthland to first program win

January 11, 2013 By Leave a Comment

WEST FRANKFORT, Ill. – Will Carmickle scored a career-high 39 points to help the Patriots cruise to their eventual 91-66 win over Crowley’s Ridge College Thursday night. This marks the first win in Morthland College men’s basketball history.

Morthland (1-13) started the game slow trailing 6-0 before Rich Herrin put on the press and the Patriots reeled off a 13-5 run to take the lead. “This is the first time we were able to play nine players,” said head coach Rich Herrin. “We decided to press early in the game and it turned out to be the right decision.”

The Patriots got it rolling midway through the first half leading by as many as 22 points behind the strong bench play of freshman guard Alex Davis who scored 14 points and dished out 6 assists on the night helping Morthland to a 46-28 halftime lead.

Rebounding and solid defense helped Morthland maintain their lead despite a late push by Crowley’s Ridge to cut the deficit to 13 points at the 11-minute mark in the second half. The Patriots grabbed a season-high 62 total rebounds in tonight’s win while CRC had just 39. Twenty-two offensive rebounds helped the Pats to a 56-24 scoring advantage in the paint and 27 second chance points.

Eldorado native Will Carmickle paced Morthland tonight with 39 points and 19 rebounds while Clay Payne chipped in 14 points and 9 rebounds. Freshman Roby Boatright scored 12 points while Nick Bonner added 5 points off the bench.

Morthland College will go for its second win on the season on Monday, Jan. 14 when they host Victory University at Rend Lake College with tip-off slated for 7 p.m.

Filed Under: College Sports, Franklin Co. News

BMS boys pick up big road win at Carbondale

January 11, 2013 By Leave a Comment

By Jim Muir

Derek Oxford scored 28 points and the Benton Middle School Junior Rangers overcame a 12-point first quarter deficit en route to a gutsy 58-41 road victory Thursday night against always-tough Carbondale.

“Last night was the slowest start we have had all year and on top of that Carbondale is very athletic and their ball-defense created a lot of problems for us early,” said BMS coach John Cook. “Before we knew it we were down 13-1 and we hadn’t even gotten into our offense yet.”

The 8th grade squad closed the first quarter strong but still trailed 20-10 at the end of the first stanza. It was all Benton in the second frame as the Junior Rangers outscored Carbondale 20-8 to to turn the 10-point first quarter deficit into a 30-28 halftime lead.

Cook said Oxford, who has started on the 8th grade team since he was in sixth grade, “took the game over” when his team fell behind early.

“Derek really put us on his back in the first half,” said Cook. “We went to a straight motion offense and set a lot of high ball screens in order to free up our guards and relieve them of some of that pressure. We did a great job of keeping the floor balanced and really attacking the goal.”

While Oxford tallied 28 and barely missed a double-double with nine rebounds Cook said it was a “real team effort” that secured the road win.

“We had a pretty good idea of what Carbondale was doing offensively in the second and half and we held them to only 13 points,” said Cook. “Austin Wills really handled the ball well and Tyson Houghland had his biggest night of the season. We played excellent team defense and got a lot of good minutes from Oliver Davis, Gehrig Wynn, Blane Pankey and Jordan Richey.”

Houghland netted 18 – his high mark of the season – to go with six rebounds. Also scoring for Benton was Pankey with seven points and two rebounds, Wills with three points and two rebounds and Oliver Davis with two points and three rebounds. Also seeing action for Benton was Wynn and Richey.

The Junior Rangers shot 48 percent from the field (19-39) and hit 5-13 three-pointers with Oxford hitting four shots from beyond the arc. The Junior Rangers also shot 15-20 from the charity stripe for 75 percent.

The win improves the BMS 8th grade team’s overall record to 13-3.

In the 7th grade contest Carbondale broke open a close game with a big third quarter to take a 42-21 victory over the BMS squad.

Benton trailed 9-7 after one quarter and both teams scored 10 points in the second frame as Carbondale maintained a two-point lead at 19-17. Benton managed only four points in the second half and was outscored 10-2 in the third quarter and 13-2 in the final frame. The loss drops the 7th grade record to a still impressive 10-3 with two of the losses coming against Carbondale.

Hamilton Page, Gehrig Wynn and Eldon Owens led Benton in scoring with five points each followed by Brett Bonenberger with four points and Parker Williams with two points. Also seeing action for Benton was Blane Pankey, Drew Owens, Joey Craig, Mason Wills, Parker McGuire, Triston Summers, Robbie Moore, Braton Lutz, Ethan Kreiger, Peyton Mosely, Branden Luster and Jordan Bowlin.

Both BMS teams are back in action on Tuesday, Jan. 15 when they travel to Herrin. The game that was scheduled for Jan. 14 has been moved to Jan. 28 and that will also be 8th Grade Night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Benton Junior High Sports, Junior High Sports, Uncategorized

‘He’s Looking Down …’

January 10, 2013 By Leave a Comment

By Tom Wheeler

One of the biggest upsets of the Holiday tournaments was the Christopher Bearcats win at Sesser over No. 3 seed Waltonville. The Spartans had defeated the Bearcats in the Christopher Thanksgiving tournament 48-41 but the Cats evened the score at Sesser 47-39.

Jake Towers, junior point guard led the Cats scoring with 13 points and senior R.J.Kuh was also in double figures with 11.  Last Friday night in a game against rival Zeigler-Royalton, who was on a hot streak after winning three straight games at the Sesser tournament, the Cats won 59-36. Towers were in double figures again with 11, 6-feet-6-inch Kevin Mercks had 16 and R.J. had a double-double with 18 points and 13 rebounds. Kuh’s game brought a smile to my face.

Let me explain!

R.J.’s grandmother is Pam McGee, a close family friend, and she asked me to talk to R.J. about her son Robert who was taken from us much too early in a terrible automobile accident in 1989. Pam knew how close Robert and my son T.J were and she wanted her grandson to know about his uncle.  We sat in the garage and checked some old tapes of Robert in grade school, then went thru some scrap books of Roberts’ athletic endeavors.  I stressed to R.J. how quick his senior year would go, and no one knew what tomorrow would bring, so make the best of today. More importantly, I told him to enjoy his teammates and coaches and for him to do whatever his coach needed him to do for his team to win.

I had no idea that by mid-year R.J. would be having a game against a good team and get a double-double. At the time of our talk I looked for him to be the ‘Dennis Rodman’ type player. Guard the opponents best player, rebound every shot, dive on the floor for the loose ball and take all those charges (he gets at least one a game).

When asked about R.J.’s recent scoring, Coach Eric Stallman answered, “I talked to R.J and explained to him with every one doubling down on Merck’s, he had to be more aggressive on offense. He has been and now his confidence is at an all-time high.”

T.J. was a freshman at Illinois when we lost Robert. He put the initials R.M. on every pair of shoes he wore the next four years and at the time simply said “I think of Robert McGee every time I lace up my shoes.” In 1994 when his Bearcat jersey No. 44 was retired at CCHS, he told the audience how proud he was that his 44 would hang in the Robert McGee trophy case, named in Robert’s honor.

R.J. is one of those Bearcats all around athletes, linebacker in football, pitcher for ZRC‘s baseball team and now enjoying a senior basketball season where he has become a very valuable clog in Coach Stallman’s program. And while all this is quickly going by I want him to know “Robert is looking down R.J. and enjoying this too.”

Filed Under: Christopher High School Sports, Columns, High School Sports, Uncategorized

BMS boys basketball game change

January 10, 2013 By Leave a Comment

The Benton Middle School boys’ basketball home game with Mt. Vernon that was scheduled for Monday, January 14th has been re-scheduled for Monday, January 28th.  This will be 8th grade night as well.

Filed Under: Junior High Sports

Sluggish performance results in loss for Lady Vols

January 10, 2013 By Leave a Comment


BY JOHN D. HOMAN

Logan Media Services

CARTERVILLE – There was no carryover from Monday night’s stellar win over Southeastern Illinois for the Lady Vols of John A. Logan College Wednesday.

The Kaskaskia Blue Angels outrebounded Logan an astonishing 51-to-24 and rolled to a 78-69 Great Rivers Athletic Conference win over the host Vols. Logan falls to 2-2 in the league and 8-5 overall.

Vols head coach Marty Hawkins was disappointed with the results as his troops appeared a step or more slow to react, perhaps a result of having played two nights earlier.

“It was like we were standing in quicksand out there at times,” he said. “They (Blue Angels) had more offensive rebounds (25) than we had total rebounds,” he said. “And they kept the lead because they were able to get so many stickbacks on us.”

Top scorer for the Vols was freshman guard Briya Wilborn with 17 points. Kyra Navarrete followed with 14. Aneta Sloma notched 13. Autumn Miller added eight.

The Blue Angels were led by Miranda Burroughs’ 16 points. Four other teammates reached double digits.

Logan returns to the hardwood Saturday evening at Olney.

Filed Under: College Sports, Uncategorized

Men’s Basketball to host Crowley’s Ridge College Thursday at Max Morris Gymnasium

January 10, 2013 By Leave a Comment
WEST FRANKFORT, Ill. –Morthland College (0-13) plays hosts Crowley’s Ridge College (4-12) on Thursday at 7:00 p.m. at Max Morris Gymnasium in a game that will be broadcasted on WGGH 1150 AM.The Patriots enter the game with their best shot of winning this season as Crowley’s Ridge has lost three of its last five games, most recently defeating Boyce College 88-74 on Jan. 5.Morthland has added depth to the team with newcomers Nick Bonner and Brandon Harris, both appearing briefly in Wednesday’s 93-74 loss to Oakland City.

Will Carmickle is leading the way for Morthland College averaging 20.1 points and 12 rebounds per game. Entering tomorrows game Carmickle has recorded a double-double in eight of the nine games he has played as a Patriot.

Performing at halftime of tomorrows game will be the IDTA 2008-2011 Hip-Hop Illinois State Champion DuQuoin Indianettes competition dance team.

Filed Under: College Sports, Uncategorized

Adeoye’s clutch free throws lift Vols to huge win on ‘Marion Night’

January 10, 2013 By Leave a Comment

 

BY JOHN D. HOMAN

Logan Media Services

 

CARTERVILLE – It played out like a Hollywood script. Former Marion High School star Aaron Adeoye hit the game-winning free throws with two seconds left on the clock to lift John A. Logan College to a heart-stopping 72-71 win over Kaskaskia College Wednesday on “Marion Night” at the college.

A 6-foot-7 sophomore forward, Adeoye took a pass from freshman point guard Connor Wheeler (Du Quoin) and was fouled as he went up for a shot in the lane. One of Adeoye’s contacts was knocked out of his eye on the play. With play stopped, Wheeler scurried over to the bleachers and grabbed some solution from Adeoye’s mother. After a time out, the former Wildcat calmly knocked down both tosses. The ensuing ovation was deafening. A desperation half-court shot by the Blue Devils fell way short of the target and the Volunteers escaped with their most exciting win of the season, even bigger than the road win at Three Rivers, Mo. in November.

This was a game that Kaskaskia seemed to own. But Logan refused to surrender.

Trailing by 12 (68-56) with 6:19 remaining, the hometowners rallied. Wheeler stepped up with a couple of big outside shots. Adeoye worked his magic inside. Sondale Conner had a highlight-reel slam dunk. And James Williams tied the game with 44 seconds to play on a shot from beyond the arc from the left side.

With 11 seconds left, Kaskaskia’s Daquan Boyd was fouled and made one of two free throws for a 71-70 lead. That set the stage for Adeoye’s heroics.

“I just knew I had to make the free throws to win the game,” Adeoye said. “So, I took a deep breath and tried to hit them. Fortunately, they went in.”

Vols head coach Kyle Smithpeters was ecstatic with his team’s 16-3 run to close the game.

“We, the coaching staff, challenged our kids when we got down 12. We knew we had to get some stops and we needed a little luck along the way,too. I’m very happy for the kids. They didn’t fold. This win is a group effort all the way around.”

Adeoye led the Vols with 15 points and 10 rebounds. Wheeler followed with 13 points and dished out five assists. Williams tickled the twine for 12 points. Jay Johnson netted eight. Conner had seven. Herrin native Jamie Jones hit both shots he took and finished with five points and four rebounds. Kaylen Shane tacked on four points as did DeVaughn Johnson. Murphysboro’s Pierre House added two points.

Kaskaskia was paced by R.J. Kwiatkowski’s 24 points. The Centralia grad drained eight 3-pointers. No other Blue Devil reached double figures.

Now 3-1 in league play and 8-4 overall, the Vols travel to Olney Saturday night.

Filed Under: College Sports, Living, Zeigler Royalton Junior High Sports
« Previous Page
Next Page »
Benton, West Frankfort, Illinois News | Franklin County News