11-19-12
BY JACK BULLOCK
CHRISTOPHER – On the opening night of both the regular season and the Christopher Thanksgiving Tournament, the host Bearcats wanted to get the ball inside to their big man 6-foot-6 senior forward Kevin Mercks.

This senior didn't disappoint as he hit for a game-best 21-points while getting to the foul line often (7-of-7) as Christopher (1-0) sprinted out to an early double-digit lead and crushed Wayne City, 59-22, in the second game of the night at the 38th annual event.

Coach Eric Stallman and his troops executed the game plan with a solid defensive performance that forced the Indians (0-1) into 20 turnovers and a poor shooting night as Christopher advanced into Wednesday night's championship round game against Waltonville, who was also a lopsided winner on Monday night.

Senior guard Tyler Atchison added 10-points for Christopher, who led 15-6 after the first horn and were never threatened.

“We have a couple of big kids (Mercks, Kuh) who do a very good job in the post for us,” said Coach Stallman. “It is something we have worked on. He (Mercks) is a strong kid and they (Wayne City) were hanging on him pretty good but he was able to get the the basket.”

The young Indians struggled offensively as junior Jimmy Mayberry led the club with seven points while Billy Irwin added six.

Wayne City, when they were able to get off shots on offense, did fair too well in hitting just 7-of-25 on its overall field goal attempts.

Christopher was superior on the attack, nailing 21-of-52 for the contest. Part of that ledger is misleading as Bearcat reserves in the final frame brought the percentage down a bit by missing ten of those attempts.

With Mercks hitting the shots in the paint and Christopher pressing the issue on the defensive end, Coach Stallman's club jumped out to an early advantage.

A 3-point bomb by Atchison opened the scoring and a pair of inside moves by RJ Kuh pushed Christopher out to a 13-3 lead with 2:47 remaining.

Wayne City didn't get its first shot from the floor to fall until the 2:28 when Brendan Haile connected on a drive to the basket.

Christopher took advantage of the Indians five first quarter turnovers, capped by a steal and transition score by 6-foot junior Jacob Towers to send the teams to the benches at 15-6.

Wayne City's second made field goal came with 4:43 left in the second quarter.
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However Christopher opened the second stanza with an 8-0 sprint, which was closed by yet another Towers' drive to the goal.

His bucket put the Bearcats in charge at 23-8.

Mercks scored six of those points in the surge on a pair of free throws (he was 7-of-7 for the contest from the line), a baseline drive and then he took a nice lob pass for a score from teammate Kuh to give Christopher its commanding advantage.

Coach Stallman used his bench effectively in the first half, getting some points from Ethan Conner to close the second frame.

Conner took a pass from Hunter Wheeler for a lay in that beat the buzzer to send the teams to intermission at 33-12 Christopher.

The Tribe dug themselves too deep of a hole in the first 16-minutes, going just 4-of-14 from the field.

Wayne City hit the first two baskets of the second half to briefly breath some life into the sails, but Christopher, behind Mercks and Atchison, kept the Indians at bay.

Mercks scored four more points and his two free throws in the final minute of the quarter put the Bearcats up 43-18.

A Mercks spin move in the lane and a wide-open 3-pointer from the left wing from Atchison gave Christopher a 48-18 lead before both teams went to their benches to close out the final minutes of the matchup.

Atchison hit three 3-pinters and ended with 10-points. Kuh added seven points while Eric Young, who had some foul issues, finished with six. Towers added five as the Bearcats cruised to the win.

“I felt like we made them work to get it inside, it took them more than just one pass,” said Wayne City head coach Russ Gerlach. “Our biggest problem is that we had a hard time running anything on our offense. We gave them too many points (off turnovers) and their big kids are tough to guard.”

Christopher out-rebounded the Indians 34-17 with just two of Wayne City's rebounds coming on the offensive end.

The Bearcats will tangle with Waltonville in the second contest on Wednesday night in the first semifinal.
“I thought we were pretty solid defensively tonight, more so in the first half,” added Coach Stallman. “We gambled a bit more in the second half after we got the big lead.”

Wayne City (22) – Doty 0 0 0-0 0, Gammon 0 0 0-0 0, Kunce 0 0 1-3 1, Clark 0 0 0-0 0, Hedden 0 0 1-2 1, Irwin 2 0 2-4 6, Haile 2 0 1-2 5, Zhang 1 0 0-0 2, Mayberry 2 0 3-7 7, Schumm 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-7, 3FG-0, FT-8-18, PF-15.
Christopher (59) – Brown 0 1 0-0 3, Towers 2 0 1-2 5, Hodge 0 0 0-0 0, Atchison 0 3 1-2 10, Saeger 1 0 1-1 3, Wheeler 0 0 0-0 0, gibbens 0 0 0-0 0, Yung 1 1 1-2 6, Calloni 1 0 0-0 2, Conner 1 0 0-0 2, Williams 0 0 0-0 0, Mercks 7 0 7-7 21, Kuh 3 0 1-2 7.
2FG-16, 3FG-5, FT-12-16, PF-16.
Fouled Out – None.
Technical Fouls – None.

WALTONVILLE 58, COBDEN 34
The Spartans (1-0) shook loose from Cobden in the second quarter and rolled past the Appleknockers into the semifinals behind 25-points from Jordan Hale and 18-points from Tyler Witges.

Hale, the 6-foot-5 senior, scored from all over the court. He hit a pair of 3-pointers and coverted all five of his free throws.

JC Chapman led Cobden (0-1) with 12-points.

Cobden (34) – Z. Moore 0 0 0-0 0, JT Moore 0 0 0-0 0, Sweitzer 2 0 0-0 0, Waldrop 1 0 0-0 2, Alex Flamm 1 0 0-0 2, Chapman 4 1 1-2 12, Lewey 2 1 0-0 7, Marks 1 0 1-2 3, Aspen 2 0 0-0 4, Austin Flamm 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-13, 3FG-2, FT-2-4, PF-17.
Waltonville (58) – Miller 0 0 1-2 1, Barve 1 0 0-0 2, Winchester 2 0 1-1 5, Laird 0 0 0-0 0, McCoy 0 0 0-0 0, Whisenhunt 0 0 0-0 0, Buza 0 0 0-0 0, Coggins 0 0 1-2 1, Rogers 1 1 1-2 6, Witges 8 0 2-3 18, Hale 7 2 5-5 25, Zahn 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-19, 3FG-3, FT-11-15, PF-11.
Fouled Out – None.
Technical Fouls – None.