Thompsonville beats Hardin County

January 5, 2013 By Leave a Comment
STAFF REPORT
The Thompsonville Tigers and Hardin County Cougars appeared to be locked into a four-quarter struggle Friday night. After one period, seeing considerable offensive success for both teams, the hosts led by two buckets, 17-13.
In quarter No. 2, the Tigers put some distance between themselves and their opponents based on a 16-5 advantage in the second eight minutes. That halftime edge of 15 points propelled them on to a win by virtually the same margin 51-38.
Ryan Darnell blistered the nets for 16 points, and Lance Darnell nearly matched it with 11 as the only Tigers in double figures.
Hardin County had the game high scorer in Austin with 17 points on the night.
With the win, Thompsonville ran their record to 9-6 for this season.
Filed Under: High School Sports, Thompsonville High School Sports Tagged With: , , , , ,

Tigers hand Redbirds big loss

December 15, 2012 By Leave a Comment

By BRUCE A. FASOL

General George Custer got a warmer reception at Little Bighorn than the Redbirds received Friday night at Herrin. Entering the game, both teams had won only once. Pre-game talk among the fans was a close game was expected. Then, reality set in. Final score: Herrin 73-West Frankfort 35.

A relentless trapping zone defense forced the Redbirds into three consecutive turnovers to begin the game. Still, early, the Redbirds held it close as Herrin struggled offensively. In fact, Nick Korolenko’s jumper tied the game at a bucket apiece three minutes into the contest.

However, Herrin corrected their offensive mistakes – and the ‘Birds never did. At the end of the first quarter Herrin held a commanding 17-2 lead. Still, there was hope. A week ago, Irvin Lukens’ club held a huge lead over Benton. But, the Rangers came back to win that game in overtime. The Redbirds would not be as lucky. Mistakes continued to haunt the “Birds into the second quarter and by half Herrin’s lead had ballooned to 38-8 .

In the second quarter, the ‘Birds offense did show some signs of a slight pulse. That continued in the third quarter.  Quarter Three was the most productive quarter of basketball for West Frankfort  Friday night. The Redbirds put 17 points on the Memorial Gym scoreboard in that frame. This was in part aided by two three-point shots from sophomore Braxton Koehl and a pair of buckets by sophomore Christian Dunning.

But, by then, the Redbirds also had quit defending the lane,and were giving up easy buckets off drives and entry passes. Herrin’s Jeril Pirtle used that quarter to knife his way through the porous defense for 9 third quarter points. teammate Justin Lukens had 8 in the quarter as Herrin substituted freely. Both teams finished the long ago decided game with bench personnel.

Herrin was led by the 26 points from Justin Lukens, son of the Herrin varsity basketball coach, Irv Lukens. Justin Lukens had quarters of 9,9 and 7 points, sitting out much of the fourth quarter. Pirtle ended up with 15 points for the game. No other Tiger scored more than 6 points.

Christian Dunning was the lone Redbird in double figures with 14 points. Korolenko had 7 points. Koehl had the two three-point shots mentioned earlier for a total of 6, senior Trenton Easley had 3 points, Drew Maller and Zack Fort had 2 points apiece and Gage Williams had a free throw for a single point.

The major statistic in the game was turnovers. Herrin committed 8 for the game. West Frankfort had 23 turnovers, as they were helpless against Herrin zone defenses and extended court pressure. The inability to even get shots attempted negated any hope of a comeback  for Dan Dewerff’s team.

The win improves Herrin to 2-5, 1-1 in conference play for the season. And, the Redbirds fell to 1-5, 0-2 in the Ohio Division of the River-to-River Conference. If there is any good news for the ‘Birds it is that they have time to regroup. Saturday night is an idle night for the Redbirds- a chance to forget one of those inevitable nights in the gym when nothing seems to go right – which happens to most every team.
Herrin easily won the junior-varsity contest, keeping the JVs winless with a 54-26 victory.
Next up for the Redbirds is a visit from Carmi-White County. That game will be Tuesday night, with the JV game set to begin at 6 p.m.
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Lady Redbirds drop conference game

December 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment

By BRUCE A. FASOL

The Herrin Lady Tigers came into Max Morris Gym Tuesday night and scored an impressive road win over the Lady Redbirds 49-25.

Not only was it a big win for the Tigers, but history was made by one of the opposing players. Standout Abby Horn scored her 1,000th point in her varsity career.

The Redbirds again got behind early and had to try to dig themselves out of a hole. At intermission, Herrin had built a 29-15 lead. They outscored Coach Hampleman’s squad 20-10 in the final two quarters to cruise to the win.

The Redbirds were led in scoring by Calvert’s impressive 17 points. From there, it was all two point totals for Wilce, Cunningham, Melvin and Vershuren.

Horn led Herrin with 15 points..

With the win, Herrin is 3-1 on the year. The Lady Redbirds dropped to 2-7 for the season.

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Christopher takes third place in Turkey Tourney

November 27, 2012 By Leave a Comment

By TOM WHEELER

Eric Stallman’s Christopher Bearcats defeated the Thompsonville Tigers 49-39 Saturday night at the 38th Christopher Thanksgiving Tournament. The Bearcats had defeated Wayne City on Monday and lost to the 2012 champions Waltonville on Wednesday while the Tigers defeated Webber Township on Tuesday and lost to the defending champions Egyptian on Friday night.

Strong play from junior guard Jake Towers, whose defense held Thompsonville’s Brady Householder to no field goals and only two free tosses, was a big key in the victory. Householder, started the tournament with 20 points in an opening win and was the “straw” that stirred the young Tiger team. Towers and senior Tyler Atchison led the Cats in scoring with 13 points each , 6-feet-6-inch senior Kevin Mercks had six, senior R.J. Kuh had 3 and junior Eric Young had 7 points while freshman Josh Calloni had 4 points and Hunter Wheeler one free throw.

The Cats jumped to 15-7 first quarter lead behind two baskets from Young and Atchison while the Tigers were having trouble with fouls as leading scorer Ryan Darnell and twin brother Lance each picked up two fouls. Both teams scored 9 each in the second frame and the Cats were up 24-16 at half.

In the third quarter at the 6:12 mark, Young led a fast break and hit Atchison with a nifty pass for a score, Towers stole the ball on the next exchange and  hit Kuh who then fed big Mercks for another great example of the Cats team work. The hosts outscored the Tigers 16-10 in this quarter as Atchison scored 7 and Calloni 4. The Tigers only got 5 shots up in the quarter because they spent so much time at the free throw line where they were 3-for-8.

In fact the free throw line is where both teams spent a large portion of the night and if you happened to go by either high school early in the morning this week there may be some early free throw shooting going on. Thompsonville shot 15-for-30 for the game while the Cats were only 18-for-39 for a 31 percent effort for a combined 69 tosses shot.

Thompsonville was led in scoring by the Darnell’s, Ryan with 14 and the left-handed Lance with 10. Others who scored were

Immediately following the championship game in which Waltonville upset the favorite Egyptian Pharaohs 57-49 the all- tournament team was announced and the Bearcats; Atchison, Mercks and Young were named as were the Tigers’ Ryan Darnell and Householder. Others selected for this honor included J.C. Chapman of Cobden, Jordan Hale and Trey Witges of Waltonville and two named for the  second year Egyptian’s Justin Prewitt and MVP Devantae Price (for the second year).

The Bearcats return to action December 4 when they travel to Elverado for their first Black Diamond Conference game. The Tigers face Elverado Nov. 27 at home.

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