02/23/2022
BY JACK BULLOCK
ELKVILLE - On Wednesday night at the Elverado 1A Regional the Christopher Bearcats knew what they had to do in their semifinal matchup against New Athens to advance to the title game.

Hit the glass.

Attacking against the Yellow Jackets' zone, Coach Eric Stallman witnessed his club go after every offensive rebound with an urgency of the moment.

It paid off.

The Bearcats snagged five of their early missed shots, scoring on all five of those possessions.

This allowed the squad to get out to an early lead as they survived a second half rally by New Athens to advance to the regional championship game on Friday with a 58-45 victory at Piper-Valerius Gymnasium.

Six-five senior power forward Peyton Mazur scored 26-points to lead all scorers, with most of his points coming inside.

Mazur hit 11-of-15 field goal attempts and added 4-of-5 free throws in a domineering performance.

Senior guard Colin Sveda delivered a couple of key shots and 5-of-6 fourth quarter free throws as Christopher ended the New Athens campaign to advance to the championship game.

Five-eleven senior Mason Goins added eight-points to the book while sophomore Scout Hudgens scored six-points.

Juniors Trey Cole (five) and Brett Janello (three) rounded out the Bearcats' scoring.

“Getting the put-backs was big early and we talked about having a good start and we did. You have to expect teams to battle; it's the postseason. If you lose you're going to go home. They (New Athens) battled and came back and cut it to six. Our shot selection when we got up big wasn't good but it got a little bit better late,” said Coach Stallman.

Christopher slammed the door shut in the fourth quarter with 9-of-13 free throws, 13-of-18 for the game.

For the Yellow Jackets and head coach Conrad Widdersheim the season ended at 16-16.

Junior forward Gannon Birkner scored 16-points and senior guard Codey Boone added 15-points in the loss.

No other player had more than four-points with senior Gauge Birkner scoring four-points on a couple of baskets.

Playing a zone defense in the early going turned out to be costly as the Yellow Jackets couldn't get the rebounds they needed after they got the stops.

“They (Christopher) had more offensive rebounds than we had defensive rebounds the first time we played them (65-41 loss January 7th) and that was the thing that we talked about,” said Coach Widdersheim. “We went zone at the start knowing that we were going to go man-to-man at some point. What we did with our zone, it hurt our intensity. They (Christopher) got the rebounds, they got the loose balls and any other loose balls that got knocked away they ended up with it.”

For a young man built more like a offensive lineman (which in this case is true as he excels on the football field) Mazur proved again that he is effective in posting up opponents.

He muscled his way into 11-points in the first quarter.

Two of his scores in the opening frame came directly off of Bearcats' missed shots.

One turned into a conventional three-point play. His third basket in the sequence pushed the Christopher lead to 11-4 with 2:45 left.

A Sveda 3-pointer, another Mazur bucket in the lane and a driving score from Cole made it 20-8 at the end of one.

“If he (Mazur) can make the catch he is tough to deal with,” said Coach Stallman.

New Athens got early scores from both Birkner's and a couple of free throws by Boone however they were in early trouble.

The Yellow Jackets best first half run came on two scores from Boone and a Gannon Birkner basket as they cut the lead down to just 21-14.

However the rest of the half belonged to the Bearcats.

Mazur scored eight more points (four field goals) and Goins converted a transition score off of a New Athens turnover as Christopher went to the locker-room up 33-18 at the break.

NA got back into the game after falling behind by 17 in the early part of the third quarter.

Boone scored eight of his points in the stanza, with a pair of 3-pointers much needed as the Yellow Jackets were down 43-33 heading to the fourth.

New Athens made one final push to get back into contention.

Two baskets by Gannon Birkner and a score from Gauge Birkner, each on the inside along with a Boone free throw got the score down to 46-40 with 4:38 left.

However things didn't go well for the Yellow Jackets on the next possession.

An intentional foul was called on Boone, his fourth personal of the game, which gave the Bearcats free throws (1-of-2 from Cole) and the ball back.

Hudgens closed off the possession with a mid-range shot to push the score to 49-40.

That was the end of the New Athens run.

Christopher took care of business from the charity stripe with Cole and Sveda combining for 7-of-8 from the line in the final 2:52.

Hudgens provided an insurance basket as Christopher improved to 22-8 on the year as they advanced to the regional championship contest.

The numbers show that the Bearcats ended up going 22-of-40 from the floor overall, 1-of-4 from the arc with a 22-17 rebounding edge.

New Athens finished 18-of-46 (39.1 percent) overall and just 3-of-11 from long distance.

“We dug ourselves such a big hole in the first quarter and I'm proud of the boys for fighting back but it was too big of a hole,” said Coach Widdersheim.

Both teams were good at taking care of the basketball with Christopher (five) and New Athens (six) combining for 11-turnovers.

“We played them earlier in the year and I told the kids 'they're pretty darn good when they get rolling' but we did a good job tonight,” said Coach Stallman.

The Bearcats will face their long time Route 148 and county rivals Sesser-Valier on Friday night after the Red Devils dispatched Marissa/Coulterville in the second semifinal.

New Athens (45) – Lintker 0 1 0-0 3, Wynn 1 0 1-2 3, Boone 3 2 3-4 15, Tolson 0 0 0-0 0, Vielweber 1 0 0-0 2, Bielke 1 0 0-0 2, Gauge Birkner 2 0 0-0 4, Gannon Birkner 7 0 2-5 16. 2FG-15, 3FG-3, FT-6-11, PF-16.
Christopher (58) – Janello 1 0 1-2 3, Sveda 1 1 5-6 10, Cole 1 0 3-4 5, Freeman 0 0 0-0 0, Hudgens 3 0 0-1 6, Goins 4 0 0-0 8, Mazur 11 0 4-5 26. 2FG-21, 3FG-1, FT-13-18, PF-9.
Fouled Out – Boone - New Athens.
Technical Fouls – None.

SESSER-VALIER 50,
MARISSA/COULTERVILLE 26

Marissa/Coulterville (26) – Charleston 3 0 0-0 6, Weis 0 0 0-0 0, Hurst 2 1 1-4 8, Harrell 4 1 1-1 12, Trieb 0 0 0-0 0, Middendorf 0 0 0-0 0. 2FG-9, 3FG-2, FT-2-5, PF-14.
Sesser-Valier (50) – Payne 0 0 0-0 0, Gunter 0 0 1-2 1, Hicks 0 0 0-0 0, Schoenbaechler 3 2 0-0 12, Woodland 5 2 4-6 20, Packer 4 1 0-0 11, Ruffino 0 0 0-0 0, Hoffard 0 0 0-0 0, Short 0 0 0-0 0, Menser 0 2 0-2 6.
2FG-12, 3FG-7, FT-5-10, PF-8.
Fouled Out – Trieb - Marissa/Coulterville.
Technical Fouls – None.