Ironically on Saturday night in the title game of the 39th annual Christopher Thanksgiving Tournament, that is exactly what Zeigler-Royalton did for the host Bearcats.

Falling behind early in the contest by allowing Christopher to shoot 14 first half free throws, the Tornadoes never recovered as they fell, 59-52 on Saturday night in front of a large crowd at Christopher High School.

Head coach Matt Morgan saw his club commit 28 personal fouls as the Bearcats capitalized on the opportunities by hitting 27-of-39 from the stripe, which included the first 14 charities attempted in the first half.

“They’re a good ball club and you can’t put them on the foul line 39-times. We were sloppy defensively and that got us in foul trouble. We gambled and were out of position a lot. We’ve got to do a better job of executing down the stretch, both ends of the floor,” said Coach Morgan. “It kind of stayed in that eight to 12 point range, we just never could get over that hump. Every time we got close we would turn it over or miss an open look.”

Senior guard Jacob Towers was named the tournament’s MVP and he scored 11 of his game-high 23-points from the foul line in the win for Coach Eric Stallman.

The Bearcats are off to their first 3-0 start since winning this event in 2002 while Zeigler-Royalton and head coach Matt Morgan were looking for its first title in this event since 2008.

“He (Towers) played great all week, he is a heck of a player. I thought going in he was going to have a big year,” added Coach Stallman.

Playing without their top returning player from last season (Eric Young is out for the year with a torn ACL, MCL) the Bearcats have rallied around Towers, a 6-foot-1 senior guard and catalyst on club, who helped the Bearcats jump out to a quick lead on Saturday night.

But the big story of the night, and especially in the first half, was the Z-R foul trouble.

The Tornadoes put Christopher in the bonus (more than seven fouls per half) at the 2:04 mark of the first quarter.

Giving the hosts so many chances to score without the clock running turned out to be this team’s undoing.

The Tornadoes never could rally to within striking distance after the first half and the final margin was the closest that they got after falling behind 28-20 at intermission.

Z-R was led in scoring by 5-foot-9 senior guard Nick McPhail with 19-points while teammate Brandon Jones tossed home 12.

Playing against a team much taller and longer in length, Zeigler-Royalton had a hard time getting their half-court offense clicking.

The Tornadoes didn’t shoot the ball well, connecting on just 20-of-62 attempts (32.2 percent) which was a far cry from the first two games of the tournament in which they had their way offensively.

“They (Z-R) had a poor shooting night but I think it wasn’t just them, I think we had a lot to do with that,” said Coach Stallman. “We didn’t allow them to have the shooting night that they had the other night against Thompsonville where just got to stand there and play ‘HORSE’ and that was our big thing coming in was that we didn’t want them to just stand there and shoot 3’s.”

Christopher was better overall, hitting 16-of-36 from the field (44.4 percent).

Behind Towers in scoring for the Bearcats was Hunter Wheeler with 11-points and Josh Calloni with 10.

Christopher hit ten of their free throws in the first quarter with Towers hitting six of them.

A 10-0 run with eight points coming from the foul line gave the ‘Cats a 12-4 lead at the 3:04 mark.

Both Jones and McPhail scored late in the quarter to cut the Z-R disadvantage to 14-10.

Consecutive drives to the basket by McPhail and reserve Timmy Brooks evened the game at 14-all.

As it turned out, it was the final tie of the contest as Christopher gradually pulled away from their longtime Franklin County rivals.

Four more free throws by Christopher (two each from Ethan Conner and Wheeler) and a pair of scores from Dustin Hammonds and Towers pushed the lead to eight points at the break.

“I just want to credit Jake Towers, that kid is a phenomenal player,” Coach Morgan added.

A 12-4 scoring move in the third quarter gave the Bearcats the breathing room that they were looking for.

Calloni, Wheeler and Conner all scored in the sprint that resulted in a 42-31 lead.

Coach Morgan’s Tornadoes had a chance to get back close in the title tilt but failed to make much of a move.

The Bearcats were just 13-of-22 from the foul line in the final quarter but Z-R was even worse from the field in the frame, hitting just 6-of-23 from the floor.

Zeigler-Royalton held a 37-27 rebounding edge, with 13 of the rebounds on the offensive end.

The second chances didn’t turn result in many points, as Z-R never got closer than the final score the remainder of the contest.

“I told the kids we have to learn from this and move on. It is just a bump in the road,” added Coach Morgan. “We forced some shots and then we missed some open shots, it was a mixture of both. We had a positive week and we have to build on it.”

Following Towers and McPhail on the all-tournament team were Christopher’s Wheeler and Z-R’s Bailey Schimpf; Zach Moore from Cobden, Keifer Payne and Quentin Henson of Thompsonville; Billy Irwin of Wayne City; and Justin Winchester and Hunter Coggins of Waltonville.

In other games from the final day of the Christopher Thanksgiving Tournament Cobden won the third place game with a 46-36 win over Thompsonville.
Tyler Lewey scored 21-points to pace the 2-1 Appleknockers while Keifer Payne led the Tigers (1-2) with 15.
Wayne City (2-1) edged Waltonville, 41-36, for the consolation championship behind 24-points from Billy Irwin. Sophomore Dylan Miller netted 15-points for the Spartans (1-2).
Egyptian (1-2) topped Webber Township (0-3) in the seventh place game, 54-49, with Manny Fox scoring 14-points for the Pharaohs. Jaxon Helm and Jordan Wheeler each scored 14-points for the Trojans.