12-30-2019
BY JACK BULLOCK
If you are looking for one stat that gave the Goreville Blackcats a 74-65 victory over Altamont to win the 39th annual Sesser-Valier Holiday Tournament championship, look no further than the rebounding totals.

Coach Todd Tripp's Cats pounded the boards on Monday night, grabbing 16 offensive rebounds on their way to a dominating 36-18 overall edge.

For a team that prides itself on defense and rebounding, the Altamont Indians weren't able to keep Goreville “off of the glass” which turned defensive stops into second, third and sometimes fourth chances.

This recipe for disaster proved to be too much for Coach John Niebrugge's club to overcome as the Tribe, in their first ever trip to the SVHT, saw their unbeaten streak end at 11.

Goreville now stands at 14-0 on the season and are now champions of both of its tournaments to date (Goreville, Sesser-Valier).

It was the first time two unbeaten teams faced off in the championship game at the SVHT since 2005 when Waltonville defeated Vienna in the title game.

Goreville won its seventh Sesser-Valier Holiday Tournament championship.

“I know we hurt them (Altamont) on the boards but we knew that they would hit shots. They are that type of team and I knew they would come after us for 32 minutes,” said Coach Tripp. “We got some big plays and some big stops. We preach about that all of the time, teams are going to make runs and we have to answer them and we did tonight.”

If the rebounding wasn't enough, offensively the Blackcats put four players in double-digits in scoring.

Six-foot-five senior forward Trent Glidewell scored 17 points for the Blackcats while 6-foot-2 senior forward Nick Compton added 16.

Two other Goreville players; 6-foot-2 senior forward Landon Albright and 5-foot-9 junior Carter Bishop added 13 each.

Altamont scored enough points to win most games as the Indians also had four double-figure scorers.

Six-foot-two junior guard Kaden Eirhart led the Tribe with 19 points while 5-foot-10 senior guard Aidan Jahraus added 18.

Noah Teasley, a 6-foot-1 senior, added 14 points and 5-foot-10 senior Denver Duckwitz finished with 11.

All good numbers for the offenses.

But the sore thumb that stood out for the Indians was the inability to keep Goreville off the boards.

“Their (Goreville) size hurts us but I come from a program (Teutopolis) where we emphasized defensive rebounding. We work on that at least an hour and a half every practice. We gave them too many opportunities around the rim,” said Coach Niebrugge. “I don't know what their shooting percentage was but it had to be good.”

Unofficially, the Blackcats cashed in seven offensive rebounds for immediate scores.

Altamont never had a lead in the ballgame as the Blackcats got off to a good early start to the championship contest.

Bishop, senior guard Logan Hankins, and Compton all nailed down 3-pointers in the first quarter while Albright did damage in the lane for a couple of scores.

Teasley and Duckwitz added points for the Indians as they tried to keep pace.

Duckwitz hit a pair of 3-point shots late in the quarter as Altamont trailed 17-12 at the end of the first.

The Indians hit 11 3-pointers in the game and they got two of them in the second quarter from Jahraus and Eirhart.

Jahraus scored seven of his points in the frame and Teasley scored twice.

When the senior took an assist from sophomore reserve guard Noah Klimpel for a bucket with 2:26 left in the half, the Indians had forged a 28-28 tie.

However Coach Tripp's team responded with a 9-0 run to close the second quarter.

Glidewell scored on a drive in the lane on one possession.

Compton scored on yet another offensive rebound while being fouled by Altamont senior Jared Kollman.

When Compton missed the free throw, Glidewell snared another offense rebound and moments later he got the ball back for drive in the lane for another conventional three-point play.

Glidewell closed the half with a drive to the basket before he fed reserve teammate junior Rhet Schuetz for an easy basket as the Blackcats led 37-28 at intermission.

“In the first half we allowed too many five foot passes inside the lane, that's our 'help the helper' concept and we fixed that in the second half. It was 28-28 and then it was 37-28 at the half. That stretch hurt us,” said Coach Niebrugge. “That is a good team, they are really good. They are big and they can shoot, they are deep and they don't wear out. Not that we wore out, but they can give you that constant pressure. That combination is tough to beat.”

The Indians managed to stay close in the third quarter, with five early points on a fast break score from Eirhart and a 3-pointer from Jahraus, which made it 39-33 with 5:24 left in the third quarter.

Altamont allowed the Blackcats too many easy baskets in the third quarter, including a rebound basket by Albright and a simple inbounds pass from sophomore reserve Anthony Lewis to Scheutz to make in 46-38.

A free throw by Glidewell and a 3-pointer from Bishop closed the stanza with Goreville up 50-38.

Coach Niebrugge's Indians had one last run in them as they got to within 57-53 on a pair of free throws by Eirhart and a 3-pointer from Duckwitz which forced a Goreville timeout.

That was as close as Altamont would get as Goreville responded.

Bishop canned a huge 3-pointer from the right corner, his fourth bomb of the game, which was followed by a Compton offensive rebound for a score.

Junior guard Kanon Webb also nailed down a 3-pointer for the Blackcat as they pulled away for the win.

Goreville hit 4-of-6 free throws and they also broke the Altamont full-court pressure twice in the final minute for transition points.

Albright scored one of the fast break baskets and Glidewell threw some “icing on the cake” on a set inbound play where he took a long pass for a two-handed exclamation point dunk.

Goreville ended up 28-of-55 from the floor overall (50.9 percent) and 7-of-18 from the 3-point line.

Altamont didn't shoot the ball nearly as well (18-of-48) and they didn't get many second chances (four offensive rebounds) in the game.

The stat that helped keep the game close was Goreville's 15 turnovers compared to just nine for the Indians.

On a side note, Goreville senior guard Luke Brown was injured with 6:03 left in the second quarter as he collided with an Altamont player and suffered a nose injury.

This forced a stoppage in the action to clean up blood on the floor.

“We thought our strength inside would be an advantage. Their guards are good and they did a great job stopping our first pass,” said Coach Tripp. “I thought both teams played hard and it was a good championship game at a Christmas tournament. We are happy that we won this tournament and we are happy we got to play a good team like Altamont tonight.”

Head coach Scott Wine also got 14 points from senior Blake Steinwagner and 13 points from senior Logan Jones as they improved to 8-5 on the season.

Christopher (9-3) and head coach Eric Stallman got 24 points from senior Bryce Pratt in the loss.

Red Bud (5-6) was led by 6-foot-5 junior Bryce Amann with 18 points while senior Carter Wiegard (nine) and senior Alex Kueker (six) added points.

Senior's Carlos Keen and Tony Williams led the 6-7 Bulldogs to the win with 22 and 21 points respectively.

Coach Conrad Widdersheim saw his New Athens' squad slip to 7-6 on the year despite 16 points each from senior's Joe Range and Dylan Boone.