12-10-05
BY JACK BULLOCK
CARLYLE - Going into its non-conference home game against Benton, Carlyle head coach Andy Palmer was looking for a complete game from his club.

For the first time this season, this coach was happy about the total team effort.

Playing solid basketball for all four quarters against the Rangers, Palmer's troops overcame an early Benton scoring tirade to come back for an impressive 81-68 home win Saturday night.

Using its size advantage over the smallish Benton squad, the Indians muscled their way to a victory with four Carlyle players hitting double figures.

"We knew coming in that we were going to have to play four quarters of basketball to beat them and tonight we did that," explained Palmer. "I told the guys that we looked like we were having some fun out there and we hadn't had that in the last two or three games."
Jacob Tucker, a 5-foot-11 senior guard, scored 25 points to top the Indians. Darrell Johnson added 18 while James Snider and Kory Peppenhorst chipped in 11 and 10 respectively for a team that improved to 4-2 on the season.

Benton, who opened the campaign with four victories in winning the Du Quoin Tip-Off Classic, has lost back-to-back non-conference road games to Carmi-White County and Carlyle.

The Rangers (4-2) were led by Mason Satterfield with 20 points, Bryson Hammond with 16 and Todd Browning with 10.
On this cold night in Clinton County, Benton was anything but chilly in the opening minutes.

Coach Matt Wynn's club raced out to a 12-2 lead in the first 2:47 of the contest on four consecutive 3-pointers, two each by Hammond and Satterfield.

But it didn't take the Indians long to get their act together.

Peppenhorst connected on his first trey of the game, followed by three straight made free throws by Johnson after being fouled by Benton's Saylor Shurtz.

Carlyle took the lead for the first time 15-14 on a 3-pointer from the left corner by Johnson with 1:28 before the first horn.

But a Browning drive to the basket and a Casey Ainslie short jumper gave the Rangers the lead 18-15 at the end of one.

The second quarter produced eight lead changes.

Johnson opened the quarter with a long 3-pointer from the left wing to even the score at 18-all.

On the next Rangers' possession, Tucker stole a Benton pass and went the length of the court for a bucket and a 20-18 advantage.

Seiger Shurtz, the 5-foot-11 senior guard for Benton, hit a 3-pointer to get back the lead for the Rangers on the next trip.

But this would be this sharp shooters' only basket of the game as the Carlyle guards clamped down on the Benton backcourt for most of the night.

"We have a bit of a length advantage in our backcourt," added Palmer. "We have some guys that can defend. We did a pretty good job of defending the perimeter but they (Benton) shoot it from anywhere. We weathered that early storm of theirs and we played through it and settled down. After that first run of theirs we started making better decisions."

A 6-0 run by the Rangers on two Ainslie baskets and a Saylor Shurtz score gave Benton a 29-27 lead with 3:00 to go before intermission.

But as it would be for the rest of the night, Carlyle answered every Ranger scoring spurt.

A baseline drive by Tucker and another 3-pointer by Peppenhorst swung the advantage back to the Indians 35-31 with under a minute to play.
Browning and Tucker traded baskets to end the scoring at 37-33 at the break.

Benton's final lead of the game came late in the third quarter. Satterfield hit a pair of 3-pointers in the quarter. His second one from the top of the arc made it 52-50 with 1:18 left.

At that point, Jacob Tucker had perhaps his best offensive minute of his career at Carlyle.

This senior guard scored six consecutive points on two drives to the basket.

He followed those two scores up with an 'exclamation point' of a two-handed dunk on an offensive rebound that made it 56-52 heading to the final stanza. Soaring high in the air, this 5-foot-11 guard grabbed a James Snider miss and slammed it home to give all the momentum back to the Indians heading into the final eight minutes.

For the first time in the game, Carlyle went for the knockout.
The Indians scored the fourth quarter's first six points.

A pair of free throws by Travis Isaak, a fast break lay in by Nick Snider and another score from Tucker, this time on a backdoor lay in, finished the 12-0 run and gave Carlyle a 62-52 spread with 5:19 left.

While Carlyle did most of its early damage offensively from the outside, the Indians' size advantage showed up big in the later part of the game.

James Snider, the younger of the two brothers, used his 6-foot-6 frame to power home six fourth quarter points. Two consecutive baskets in the lane and then a tip in later in the quarter made the score 70-58 with just 2:34 remaining.

Satterfield nailed one final 3-pointer with less than two minutes left to cut the Benton deficit to 72-64.

However as most good teams do, Carlyle made good from the foul line at the end to wrap up the victory.

The Indians connected on 7-of-8 charities in the final 1:11 to win back-to-back games (67-33 over New Athens Friday night) on the weekend.

Carlyle shot extremely well from the field, hitting on 29-of-55 shots overall (53 percent) and 6-of-20 (30 percent) from behind the 3-point arc.

The Indians were also 17-of-24 from the charity stripe.

The Rangers launched 36 3-pointers, making a third of them (12) but were just 26-of-62 (42 percent) overall.

Benton committed 16 turnovers and was out rebounded 28-27.

"In the first half we sort of lived by the 3-point shot a bit too much," added Palmer. "In the second half we made a better effort to get the ball inside. We talked this week about passing the ball around and getting it to the open man. We did a good job of attacking the basket. Their offense is geared from the perimeter and sometimes it is tough on rebounds on those missed three's because of their quickness. But for the most part we did a pretty good job on the boards."

Benton is off until next Friday when they host SIRR Ohio Division rival Harrisburg.

Carlyle is back in action Tuesday night when they travel to Farina to take on South Central.

	1	2	3	4		Final
Benton	18	15	19	16	-	68
Carlyle	15	22	19	25	-	81

Benton (68) - Sa. Shurtz 2 1 0-2 7, Se. Shurtz 0 1 2-2 5, Hammond 2 4 0-0 16, Satterfield 0 6 2-3 20, Browning 5 0 0-0 10, Myers 1 0 0-0 2, Ainslee 3 0 0-0 6, Gesell 1 0 0-0 2.
2FG-14, 3FG-12, FT-4-9, PF-20.
Carlyle (81) - Johnson 3 2 6-9 18, Ku. Pepperhorst 0 0 0-0 0, Palm 2 0 4-4 8, Cannon 0 0 0-0 0, Isaak 0 0 2-2 2, 9 2 1-1 25, Ko. Pepperhorst 1 2 2-2 10, Huels 0 0 0-0 0, Funderburk 0 0 0-0 0, N. Snider 3 0 1-2 7, J. Snider 5 0 1-4 11.
2FG-23, 3FG-6, FT-17-24, PF-16.
Fouled Out - J. Snider, Carlyle.
Technical Fouls - None.