02-08-14
BY JACK BULLOCK
BENTON – Getting off to a good start offensively, the Casey-Westfield Warriors made the long trip to Benton on Saturday a worthwhile journey.

For the second consecutive season, the pride of the Little Illini Conference made the trek.

Last season the Warriors ran into a buzz saw of a team in eventual state champions Harrisburg.

On Saturday the Warriors were the ones doing the “cutting.”

Behind 26-points from 6-foot-3 swingman Brandon Wolfe and a defensive effort that force a horrid shooting performance by Johnston City, the Warriors rolled out of town with a 73-51 win over the Indians at the annual Benton “Rich Herrin” Shootout.

Jumping out to a 17-4 first quarter advantage, C-W improved its mark to 15-5 on the season with the road win.

Wolfe, who is a match up nightmare for most teams, was hard to deal with for Johnston City as the Tribe fell to 13-10 on the season.

When he wasn’t driving to the basket for some nice finishes, he was nailing long distance shots.

He finished with five made 3-pointers and, despite sitting out most of the second quarter because of foul trouble, he showed he was the best player on the floor.

As for the Indians, the beginning of the contest couldn’t have been worse offensively.

Coach Wade Thomas witnessed another poor shooting night, which began with a 1-of-14 shooting result in the opening eight minutes.

“We missed countless good shot opportunities inside and outside. We missed shots at the line (15-of-25 from the foul line). We are just having a hard time putting the ball in the hole,” said Coach Thomas. “And when the ball doesn’t go into the hole that is where that adversity sets in and you find out what you’re made of.”

While the bricks were being laid, Casey-Westfield started a run with Wolfe being a thorn in the side of Johnston City.

Wolfe nailed three of his treys in the opening salvo, all from different spots on the floor.

His first blast came from the top of the arc for a 7-2 Warriors’ advantage in the early going.

Wolfe then canned a three from the left wing right in front of the Indians bench.

The next of the trifecta of blasts came from the right wing with :29 to go in the quarter that gave C-W a 13-point spread.

Adding to the woes for the Indians was the fact that they failed to capitalize on Casey-Westfield’s early foul trouble.

Johnston City crashed the boards in snaring seven offensive rebounds in the first quarter.

However the Indians were just 2-of-8 from the line in that opening frame as they fell behind.

The Indians got the game close a couple of times in the second quarter.

Levi Tanner led Johnston City with 20-points in the contest and he began a 7-0 run with a drive to the basket.

Teammate Jake McCormick hit a 3-pointer and a pair of free throws cut the Warriors’ advantage to just 25-19.

But at this point of the proceedings, the Warriors made a move and got back to double-digits at halftime.

Five-foot-ten junior guard Darius Fisher came off the bench for Coach Hanson and sparked the club.

This lefty nailed a 3-pointer and later scored on a baseline drive to push the lead back to 35-21.

Despite its problems offensively, Johnston City managed to cut the margin to 37-27 at intermission on the strength of six straight points from reserve guard Jordan Blankenship.

This 6-foot junior stepped off the bench and scored three consecutive baskets, the last on a floater in the lane as the Indians trailed by just ten at the break.

“I thought we were in a pretty good spot down eight or ten at the half. They (Casey) like to get up and down the floor and shoot it pretty freely so we felt like if we could get some stops and get some buckets we could get back into the game,” said Coach Thomas. “But they were just the better team tonight.”

But the game got decidedly worse for Johnston City in the third quarter.

Following a score in the lane by 6-foot-7 senior Caleb Burns got the deficit back to single-digits for the Indians, Casey-Westfield scored the game’s next nine points.

A rebound basket by Trey Thompson, a fast break by Zach Murphy and two more scores by Wolfe, including a conventional three-point play, pushed the lead to 46-29 with 4:28 left.

Reserve guard Payton Chism scored for the Warriors and then Wolfe dialed up another 3-pointer from the left wing for a 55-37 lead heading to the final countdown.

“He (Wolfe) is a nice player. He shoots it well and he can go post up. Take nothing away from him, he is a heck of a player,” added Coach Thomas.

Murphy and Wolfe weren’t done yet as the duo spawned an 8-2 beginning of the fourth quarter that spelled the end for Johnston City’s victory hopes.

“He is definitely a match up problem for most teams. He can shoot it from outside and he can put it on the floor,” said Coach Hanson about Brandon Wolfe. “He can post up if we need him to. If a quicker guy is guarding him he can post up.”

When Thompson finished the sprint with a fast break bucket, the Warriors had their largest lead at 63-39 with 6:01 to go.

Senior AJ McNeil got in on the fun for C-W, hitting a pair of shots in the final minutes as each team went to the reserves to fill out the dance card.

The numbers don’t lie in that the Indians were just 17-of-49 overall from the floor (34.6 percent) to go along with 18-turnovers.

Coach Thomas’ club hit just 2-of-10 from beyond the arc.

Johnston City managed a 32-25 rebounding edge with 14-offensive rebounds.

However it was because of the poor shooting that JC got so many second chances.

Following Tanner on the scoring list was Burns and Blankenship with 10-points each for the Indians.

The Indians played without point guard Hunter Zeigler, who missed the game with an ankle sprain.

However Coach Thomas said vehemently that it was “no excuse.”

“Obviously coming down here to play Johnston City we wanted to get off to a good start. We picked up some fouls and got into foul trouble and we had to sit some guys but we had guys step in and play hard and do some good things for us tonight,” said Casey-Westfield mentor Jason Hanson. “We got off to the good start and we were able to keep the lead.”

The Warriors, on the other hand, were much better overall on this night.

Coach Hanson’s squad flew past the opposition by hitting a higher percentage of shots (48.3 percent) as they connected on 29-of-60 from the field, including 9-of-23 from long range.

Besides Wolfe, the Warriors had double-digit scoring efforts from Murphy (11) and Fisher (10) in the victory.

Casey-Westfield was better with the ball, committing just 10-turnovers with three of those coming late after the game was decided.

“Our effort was there, our effort was there last night (a 59-54 loss at Carmi) and I’m not doubting our effort tonight. We are playing hard and competing but the ball is just not going in the hole and that is when the frustration sets in. We have three games (regular season) to try and get this (shooting) figured out.”

Casey-Westfield (73) – Thompson 4 1 2-4 13, Lawrence 1 0 0-0 2, Huisinga 0 1 0-0 3, Hollensbe 1 0 0-0 2, Murphy 4 0 3-4 11, Wolfe 5 5 1-1 26, Chism 1 0 0-0 2, McNeil 2 0 0-0 4, Fisher 2 2 0-0 10, Elkins 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-20, 3FG-9, FT-6-9, PF-14.
Johnston City (51) – Tanner 5 1 7-10 20, Myers 0 0 0-0 0, Blankenship 5 0 0-0 10, McCormick 0 1 0-2 3, Friess 0 0 0-0 0, Smith 0 0 -4 2, Jeffords 0 0 0-0 0, Davis 0 0 0-0 0, Payne 0 0 0-0 0, Davison 1 0 4-6 6, Brunk 0 0 0-0 0, Burns 4 0 2-3 10.
2FG-15, 3FG-2, FT-15-25, PF-9.
Fouled Out – None.
Technical Fouls – None.
In other action at the annual shootout, Carrier Mills opened the event with a 51-44 win over Webber Township. Darren Betz scored 20-points for the Wildcats while Jordan Wheeler paced the Trojans with 20-points as well.
Crab Orchard topped Waltonville, 45-38 behind 22-points from Caleb Perry. The Spartans received 11-points from Justin Winchester in the loss.
Reece Metcalf scored 25-points and Levi Laws pitched in 12 as the Mount Carmel Golden Aces topped Hamilton County, 65-46. Nathan Anselment led the Foxes with 15-points.
Marion beat Harrisburg, 60-46, with Moe Jackson leading the way for the Wildcats with 19-points. The Bulldogs were paced by Eli Taborn-Scott with 17.
Fairfield got 22-points each from Tristan Fry and Andrew Gifford in a 79-70 win over Anna-Jonesboro. A-J was led by Zach Parr with 18-points.