02-14-06
BY JACK BULLOCK
SESSER - On Tuesday night at Sesser, the Christopher Bearcats kept their Black Diamond Conference West Division title hopes alive with a convincing win over their rival Red Devils, 62-41.

In the process, head coach Gary Gischer's club improved to 16-10 overall and 7-2 in the league.

With a win over their other rival Zeigler-Royalton on Friday night, the 'Cats can get a share of the conference title for the first time in eight years.

"It was a nice win. Sesser and Z-R are our rivals and anytime you play them you throw the records out and I was worried about this game," said Gischer, whose club is playing its best basketball of the season in a recent stretch.
"We played well in our half court defense and they (Sesser-Valier) threw it to us a lot tonight which allowed us some fast break points. We don't get a lot of those easy points but tonight that was a big plus."

Christopher scored 10-points on five fast break lay-ups in the contest, taking advantage of S-V turnovers.

Nick Minor and Zach Thomas topped the Christopher offensive effort with 24-points apiece in the victory.

The 6-foot-3 Minor is a junior forward who transferred in from Mount Vernon and - according to Gischer - is beginning to relish his role as more of a scorer in the Bearcats scheme as he and his teammates have put together a good offensive run of late.

"Nick (Minor) came into our system from Mount Vernon and he has taken a while to get used to shooting the ball more and he has become more of a scorer now for us," added Gischer. "We really ran our offense well tonight and we got a lot of 'pick-and-roll' baskets."

Thomas, also a junior, kept Sesser from being able to concentrate on Minor and had a big game from the field as well.
The Red Devils (10-15, 3-6 in the BDC West) stayed with their Franklin County rivals for a quarter but couldn't sustain any sort of consistency.

"We couldn't get anything going on offense tonight," said Sesser-Valier coach Danny Kirk. "We couldn't make any lay ups or free throws tonight and you can't win many games that way. We didn't execute very well at all."

Sesser did get off to a good start, thanks in part to six early points from senior Josh George.

But the Bearcats started hitting the offensive glass early with Will Toney and Minor picking up rebound baskets.

Toney's stick back with 4:53 left in the opening quarter gave Christopher its first lead at 5-4.

The Red Devils never got back in front, although they stayed close for the remainder of the stanza.

Sesser's Todd Carpenter, a 6-foot-5 sophomore, scored on a shot inside the paint to cut the Devils' deficit to 13-11 late in the quarter.

But he picked up his second personal foul a few seconds later and had to go to the bench.

His departure coincided with a Christopher gradual offensive and defensive progression that took control of the contest.

The 'Cats forced five S-V miscues in the second frame, all of which resulted in points.

Thomas had an exceptional quarter with two steals and subsequent scores to go with a 3-pointer. His 'trifecta' from the right wing on an assist from Toney made it 36-22 with 1:24 to go.

Minor was also outstanding in the frame with 10-points.
Those two scored 19 of Christopher's 23-second quarter marks.

Following a Sesser bucket by Tyler Wingo, Christopher held the ball the final 1:05 of the quarter before Thomas drove the left baseline for a score just before the horn sending both teams to the lockers at 38-24 'Cats.

In spite of Sesser's Stephen Whitehead, who notched nine points in the second period, the Devils were on the verge of being blown out at the break.

Christopher made certain of its victory to keep those title hopes alive with a big run to start the third quarter.

Minor scored six straight points in a 6-1 Bearcat dash.

Two shots in the lane and a steal and fast break score made it 44-25 with just 2:45 gone in the period.

Carpenter scored on an inbound lob pass with 1:52 left that cut the margin down to 44-29.

But another bucket by Thomas finished the stanza at 46-29.

Five points by Thomas on a 3-pointer and another baseline drive pushed the lead out to 52-31 with 5:09 left.

Each team scored 10 points the rest of the way, as Sesser could get no closer than 19 in the final minutes.

After Minor and Thomas and their combined 48-points, Christopher got six points apiece from Justin Palmer and Toney.

Christopher shot 51 percent from the field, connecting on 28-of-55 shots overall, most of which came from in close.

Coach Gischer's club held a 26-20 rebounding edge and only committed seven turnovers.

"Will Toney did a really good job of defending their post player (Todd) Carpenter and rebounding tonight," said Gischer. "He doesn't get noticed much but he is averaging about 11 rebounds a game for us."

Sesser-Valier shot just 17-of-46 overall (37 percent) while coughing up 13 violations, seven of which were Christopher take-away's.
Whitehead scored 11-points for S-V followed by eight each from Carpenter and George.

"We got a lot of the same looks at the basket as they got tonight but we couldn't make them," added Kirk. "They (Christopher) shot the ball extremely well and they were just better than us tonight."

The Devils host Carterville on Friday night while Christopher welcome longtime rival Zeigler-Royalton to town the same night as the regular season comes to a close for both teams.

"Our kids are pumped up now and they are serious about wanting to get that conference championship," finalized Gischer.

	1	2	3	4	-	Final
Christopher	15	23	8	16		62
Sesser-Valier	11	13	5	12		41

Christopher (62) - Minor 12 0 0-3 24, Niblett 0 0 0-0 0, Palmer 3 0 0-2 6, Thomas 8 2 2-2 24, Toney 2 0 2-4 6, Reichert 0 0 0-0 0, Twitty 0 0 0-0 0, Martin 0 0 0-0 0, Overturf 0 0 0-0 0, Crnokrak 1 0 0-0 2, Phipps 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-26, 3FG-2, FT-4-11, PF-11.
Sesser-Valier (41) - Hall 0 0 0-0 0, Whitehead 4 2 0-0 14, George 3 0 2-2 8, Vandekerkhove 2 0 1-2 5, Crocker 0 0 2-2 2, Pettit 0 0 0-0 0, Carpenter 4 0 0-7 8, Wingo 2 0 0-0 4.
2FG-15, 3FG-2, FT-5-13, PF-9.
Fouled Out - None.
Technical Fouls - None.