12-10-11
BY JACK BULLOCK
CARBONDALE – Breese Central senior Brandon Book has had some big games in his four years as a starter for head coach Stan Eagleson.

Perhaps his best performance in a big game came Saturday night in the finale of the Saluki Shootout against highly regarded Harrisburg at SIU Arena.

Book shined as he led his Cougars to their seventh victory of the season without a defeat as the 6-foot-6 forward scored 24-points and pulled down 11-rebounds as Breese Central downed the Harrisburg Bulldogs, 62-49.

Coach Eagleson's club put up the numbers on the offensive end while putting the clamps on a high-scoring Bulldogs' team that had averaged 68.1 points a game going into the Breese Central game but were held to 19-points below that mark on 16-of-47 shooting overall.

The Central backcourt, led by Jacob Timmerman and Nick Grapperhaus, helped slow down the Harrisburg shooters.

Tyler Smithpeters led the Bulldogs with 18-points but he was just 5-of-12 from the floor.

Capel Henshaw added 12 points for the Bulldogs but those two scorers were just 10-of-23 overall and just 1-of-5 from behind the arc.

As a team, Harrisburg shot just 1-of-8 from 3-point land.

“This was a very nice win. I thought the kids played very well at the defensive end,” said Coach Eagleson. “Harrisburg is a tough, tough team to guard. They penetrate so well and a lot of their offense starts with Smithpeters on the penetration. He can finish, he can pull up, he can throw it out for the three.”

In perhaps a preview of the 2A Carbondale Supersectional, Breese Central got the better of the Bulldogs on this night.

Book hit on 9-of-20 shots from the field and was part of a rebounding effort that produced at the offensive end.

Central scored 18 second chance points and led Harrisburg 36-31 in overall rebounding.

They dominated the paint, with 42-points coming from inside the lane.

“I think it is typical that high school teams don't shoot very well at the arena and if you are a shooting team you are at a disadvantage,” said Coach Smithpeters. “They (Breese Central) are getting their points in the paint and when you shoot that close it doesn't make that much difference being in an arena.”

Coach Eagleson's team got going in the middle part of the first quarter, capitalizing on Harrisburg missing 14 shots in that opening frame.

Breaking a 7-all tie, Central scored the next ten points.

Book scored ten points in the quarter and five in the run.

His 3-pointer from the top of the arc at the 2:58 mark forced a Harrisburg timeout at 14-7.

Smithpeters converted a pair of free throws with :06.2 left in the quarter.

But Central inbounded the ball to Timmerman, who raced the length of the court beating the Bulldogs to the glass for a lay up that beat the buzzer for a 19-9 lead.

“We didn't do a very good job rebounding, we gave up eight offensive rebounds in the first half and you can't do that against a team like Breese,” said Coach Smithpeters. “We wanted to go home tonight a better team because of the competition and that is important. We have bigger games ahead of us.”

Harrisburg made its best offensive move of the contest in the second quarter, getting back the lead for what turned out to be the final time.

After Grapperhaus had scored on back-to-back trips to push Central to a 23-13 advantage, Smithpeters led Harrisburg on a 13-2 surge.

The 6-foot-4 junior guard scored seven points, hitting 2-of-3 free throws while being fouled shooting a 3-point shot and then later nailing a trey from deep in the right corner.

His bucket on a drive to the basket at the 2:32 mark gave Harrisburg a short-lived 26-25 lead.

Nevertheless, Central was unfazed.

The Cougars fired right back with a 6-0 run to end the half.

Book scored on a short hook shot in the paint and Timmerman added a pair of free throws.

Austin Rickhoff scored his only basket of the contest on a rebound of a missed Grapperhaus shot for a 31-26 halftime lead.

Harrisburg got to within two points one more time in the third quarter, thanks to the shooting of Eli Taborn-Scott.

This 6-foot-4 sophomore lefty made Book work on the defensive end.

Taborn-Scott scored six points to begin the quarter and his lay up followed by a Henshaw drive cut the Central lead to just 36-34.

“In the second half they really looked to go at Brandon (Book) with #42 (Taborn-Scott) and make him guard a little bit,” added Coach Eagleson. “That kid is really a nice player for a sophomore, too.”

The Cougars would then take the steam out of Harrisburg with a 10-0 run.

Justin Becker, who Coach Eagleson says is more of a defensive player, showed he could put up some offensive numbers.

Becker scored seven of those points in the run, highlighted by crashing the boards for a pair of baskets.

He grabbed a Grapperhaus miss and was fouled by Smithpeters as he connected on the shot in the paint.

His made free throw gave Central a 41-34 advantage.

Another offensive board by Becker, this time corralling his own misfire, resulted in more points.

Two made free throws by Becker pushed the lead to 46-34 with 1:28 left.

“I thought Jacob (Timmerman) and Nick (Grapperhaus) and also Justin Becker had a whale of a game tonight,” explained Coach Eagleson. “Usually he (Becker) doesn't score much for us but he always hits the boards and always defends. Tonight he got on the scoreboard a little bit, too.”

Book closed the quarter with a basket and two more made free throws for a 50-38 lead heading to the final countdown.

The Bulldogs would get no closer than ten the remainder of the contest.

Central could have probably won the game more comfortably had they been better from the foul line, especially down the stretch.

The Cougars were just 12-of-23 from the line in the game, and a miserable 2-of-10 from the stripe in the final eight minutes.

However defensively they never let up and the Bulldogs couldn't make a good enough run at the end.

Following Book in the scoring parade for Central was Becker with 12-points, Timmerman with 11 and Grapperhaus with 10.

Rickhoff scored just three points but added an important 11 rebounds for the Cougars.

Besides Smithpeters and Henshaw, Taborn-Scott added 13-points before fouling out.

“I think we have to defend better and I think we have to rebound better,” finalized Coach Smithpeters. “We didn't do really well with our offense tonight and that is because of the competition and that is why we want to play this kind of competition. We learned some things tonight and we got better. We learned tonight that you can't just come over here and play and expect to beat good people. You have to have a purpose on offense and do the little things on defense. It (the loss) was a good lesson.”

Breese Central (62) – Becker 4 0 4-5 12, Rickhoff 1 0 1-2 3, Book 7 2 4-6 24, Timmerman 4 0 3-8 11 Grapperhaus 5 0 0-0 10, Meyer 0 0 0-0 0, Imming 1 0 0-0 2, Thomas 0 0 0-0 0, Jackson 0 0 0-0 0, Stockmann 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-22, 3FG-2, FT-12-23, PF-19.
Harrisburg (49) – Henshaw 5 0 2-5 12, Roper 0 0 2-2 2, Taborn-Scott 5 0 3-4 13, Smithpeters 4 1 7-10 18, Goldman 1 0 0-0 2, Amaya 0 0 2-2 2, Barners 0 0 0-0 0, Bartok 0 0 0-0 0, Younger 0 0 0-0 0, Lewis 0 0 0-0 0, Oglesby 0 0 0-0 0, Gibbs 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-15, 3FG-1, FT-16-23, PF-21.
Fouled Out – Smithpeters, Taborn-Scott - Harrisburg.
Technical Fouls – None.

OKAWVILLE 63, TRICO 53
Big offensive runs are nothing new to Coach Jon Kraus and his Okawville Rockets.

His club trailed Trico 46-44 heading into the fourth quarter on Saturday night at the SIU Arena before 6-foot-4 senior guard Taylor Walton once again took over.

Walton led the Rockets on a 13-0 scoring binge to begin the final quarter and Trico never recovered as the battle of previously unbeaten teams went to Okawville, who saw its record improve to 6-0.

Just a week earlier, Walton helped trigger a 20-0 run as the Rockets claimed the title of their own tournament with a win over Woodlawn.

On Saturday night, Walton exploded again.

Trico and head coach Shane Hawkins tasted defeat for the first time as their mark fell to 5-1.

In its inaugural event (Saluki Shootout) Walton set a shootout scoring mark with 31-points.

He finished 11-of-18 overall and his team took advantage of its quickness to sprint past Trico.

“He is capable, he can be very difficult to guard,” said Coach Kraus about Walton. “I think the bigger floor helped us tonight because we could really spread them out and take advantage of our quickness and our athleticism. I thought the difference in the game was going to be their size or our quickness. I thought we did a pretty good job on Heins in the second half.”

The Rockets outgunned the Pioneers 27-5 in points off turnovers and got to the foul line 25 more times than Trico.

“Until we can value the basketball and make better passes and passing decisions then that is the way that we're going to be,” said Coach Hawkins. “When we didn't turn the ball over in the middle quarters we were pretty good offensively. We shot the ball well from the perimeter and we were able to get the ball inside. But turning it over 20-times and letting them get out in transition we were fighting an uphill battle.”

Jeremy Weeke added 12 points for Okawville, who took better care of the ball than Trico and finished with just ten turnovers.

The Pioneers were careless with the ball, especially in key situations when they had control of the game.

Coach Hawkins saw his club commit 20-turnovers which overshadowed a pretty good offensive shoot performance.

Trico was 21-of-39 overall and made six 3-pointers.

After his teammate Ryan Holtgrave hit a pair of free throws to open the fourth quarter, Walton scored nine consecutive points.

Two different times Walton scored in transition and his lay in and subsequent made free after being fouled by George Kuhlman pushed the Rockets to a 55-46 lead and forced a Trico timeout.

The Pioneers would get no closer than nine the rest of the way.

Walton overshadowed another splended performance from 6-foot-7 senior Chase Heins of Trico who scored 23-points and grabbed 12-rebounds.

Guard Dylan Witthoft scored 16-points for Trico after hitting five 3-point shots.

“I thought a big difference was our points off of turnovers, that was 22-points difference and that is a huge advantage,” added Coach Kraus. “When you can score off of their turnovers it makes a big difference.”

Trico spotted Okawville a 9-0 lead to begin the game but rallied to lead at intermission.

The Pioneers coughed up seven first quarter turnovers but managed to lead 32-29 at the break due to Heins who exploited the Rockets lack of size in the middle.

Six points in the first quarter followed by eight more in the second frame and Okawville was struggling with Heins.

Heins scored on two conventional three-point plays in the second stanza.

His rebound basket and charity gave the Pioneers a 32-27 lead.

Two free throws by Weeke closed the half but Trico looked to have found the Okawville weakness in the paint.

However in the second half the Pioneers wore down.

Heins would score just three points in the final quarter while his team closed out the game with four more turnovers while shooting just 2-of-8 from the floor.

The Rockets used their quickness to spread the floor and get to the foul line.

Okawville converted 9-of-13 to close out the win.

“Our kids stepped up and made the big runs. We had a 20-0 run against Woodlawn the other night and a 13-0 run tonight. When you get those big runs it is huge and you can usually win those games,” added Coach Kraus. “Were excited, it is a big win for us and Trico is really good. I thought it was a big game for us to come down here and get a win.”

Trico quit fouling with just under a minute to play as the Rockets ran out the clock.

Following Walton and Weeke was Holtgrave with eight points.

“It's a work in progress. We knew we would have some struggles early because of our inexperience and tonight was one of those nights,” finalized Coach Hawkins.

Trico (53) – Heins 10 0 3-5 23, Compton 1 0 0-0 2, Witthoff 0 5 1-2 16, Meyerhoff 1 1 0-1 5, LePere 1 0 0-0 2, Hammel 0 0 0-0 0, Bunselmeyer 0 0 1-2 1, Dobbs 0 0 0-0 0, Bower 0 0 0-0 0, KLuhlman 2 0 0-0 4.
2FG-15, 3FG-6, FT-5-10, PF-24.
Okawville (63) – Walton 10 1 8-11 31, Blumhorst 1 0 0-0 2, Buss 0 0 4-6 4, Brammeier 1 0 1-3 3, Weeke 3 0 6-9 12, Obermeier 0 0 0-0 0, Burrough 0 0 0-0 0, Hensler 0 0 0-0 0, Holtgrave 1 1 3-4 8, Schwankhaus 0 1 0-0 3. 2FG-16, 3FG-3, FT-22-35, PF-17.
Fouled Out – None.
Technical Fouls – None.