11-25-09
BY JACK BULLOCK
CHRISTOPHER - Other than the first minute of the contest Zeigler-Royalton was in the lead over Cobden in its semifinal game of the Christopher Turkey Tourney.

However that lead never seemed comfortable.

The Tornadoes nearly coughed up a 16-point second half lead as the Appleknockers rallied to get within two points with just over a minute to play.

But Z-R had just enough left to hold off Cobden 51-50 to advance to the title game on Saturday night where they will face the winner of Sesser-Valier and Wayne City – a semifinal to be played Friday night at the 35th Annual tournament.

Using 20 points from Tyler Mitchell and 14 points from Jake Wawczak Z-R led for 31 of the 32 minutes of action but never reached a comfort-zone.

Cobden trailed 34-18 in the third quarter following a Zeigler-Royalton 15-0 run to end the second quarter and begin the third stanza.

But a defensive change by head coach Jeff Shillinger to a half-court trap confused Z-R and forced the Tornadoes into 11-second half turnovers.

Cobden’s rally featured five second half 3-pointers led by Bo Gearhart’s three 3’s.

The Appleknockers (1-1) fell a bit short at the end of the game because in part to eight costly fourth quarter turnovers of their own.

“Something that we emphasize is that we play four quarters of basketball. We had a little bit of a letdown in the second quarter but other than that I’m pretty happy with the kids,” said Coach Shillinger. “We talked in the locker room and told the kids that just because they are picked to win doesn’t mean they are going to win.”

Head coach Jaime Moyers’ club survived to advance to the title game on Saturday in an attempt to win its third consecutive Turkey tourney title.

“Cobden is a good team and they’re going to surprise some people this year because they have some kids that can shoot and have a little size,” said Moyers. “We came out in the second half and played real well in the third quarter and built a good lead but then we had a little bit of adversity. They (Cobden) threw a 1-3-1 at us and we hadn’t worked on that this year.”

Wawczak hit a pair of shots in the opening quarter to help get his club going.

He drove to the basket for a left handed lay in and followed that shot up on the next possession by canning a 3-pointer from the left corner coming off of a screen to give his team a 13-7 lead at the 1:30 mark.

Cobden made its first run at the end of the second quarter – cutting the Z-R advantage to 18-16 on a pair of baskets by Alex Sweitzer – who led Cobden with 17-points on the night.

Sweitzer banked home a pair of shots and nearly tied the game at the end of the half.

He made a steal and took the ball the length of the floor but couldn’t get a shot to fall.

Zeigler-Royalton’s senior guard Jimmy Stevens grabbed the rebound and - with just a few seconds left before halftime - raced down the floor and got off a running 23-footer that found the mark just before the buzzer.

That shot changed the momentum around to the Tornadoes as the teams left the court at 21-16 Z-R at the break.

“That shot gave us something to feel good about heading into the second half because we nearly gave up the lead there at the end of the quarter,” Moyers added. “It helped us get going in the second half and we made a run coming out of halftime.”

Behind six points from Mitchell a two more baskets by Wawczak – Zeigler-Royalton took the game back over in the first four minutes of the second half.

Mitchell scored the first two baskets of the third quarter – being fouled hard on the second shot in the lane. Mitchell received a cut on the head and had to leave the game for a short time.

Reserve Payton Clark came of the bench and finished Mitchell’s 3-point play to give Z-R a 26-16 lead with 6:21 left in the third.

Nick Beasley took a deflected pass for an easy score in the lane and another Mitchell basket pushed the Tornadoes lead to its largest at 34-16.

Cobden missed three shots and committed three turnovers in its first seven possessions of the second half.

But Cobden began to pick away at the Z-R lead and had gotten to within four points on a 10-0 run of its own in the final moments of the third quarter with Steve Draper scoring four of those points and a 3-pointer from Gearhart got the lead down to just four.

However Mitchell nailed a 3-point from the top of the arc with :03 remaining pushed the margin back to nine at 37-28 heading to the final quarter.

“Out man-to-man defense wasn’t working in the first half so we needed to make a change to the trap and it worked,” added Shillinger. “We changed something up and the kids responded well.”

Mitchell and Clark each scored to open the fourth quarter and Z-R once again looked comfy at 42-28.

Then Cobden made another scoring move with a pair of baskets by Robby Lehr sandwiched around yet another Gearhart trifecta and suddenly the Appleknockers were back in the game.

Coach Shillinger’s team could have tied the game late but they missed four fourth quarter free throws (4-of-8) and committed eight turnovers in that stanza.

Cobden had two possessions in the last two minutes in which they could have tied the score.

Both times they turned the ball over without getting a shot.

After picking up a steal with just over a minute to play – Cobden was called for a five-second closely guarded violation.

The Appleknockers had a final opportunity to even the score.

Down 49-47 – Lehr was called for a charge on a running shot in the lane that had went in.

The charging call nullified a made basket – giving the ball back to Z-R.

Wawczak hit a pair of free throws with :03.9 remaining to ice the game.

Sweitzer hit a 3-pointer just before the buzzer to cut the final victory margin for Z-R to just one.

”I told the boys that every year we have come in here and really played well but this year we want to build as the year goes on and get better and not just play well here,” added Moyers. “It is the third year being in the championship game and we are proud to be here.”

The Tornadoes were 18-of-38 from the field overall (47 percent) behind Mitchell’s three 3-pointers Z-R was 5-of-10 from behind the circle.

Cobden was 15-of-38 overall while outrebounding Z-R 22-20.

Neither team took care of the basketball with Z-R committing 20 turnovers and Cobden miscues standing at 16.

Sweitzer led Cobden with 17 while Lehr finished with 14.

Z-R held on and made just enough free throws in the second half – but hit just half of their attempts (10-of-20) on the night.

“Tonight - in the moments where we need to perform well - we did and I don’t care if you are playing Cobden or East St. Louis you have to perform well to win and we did that at the end,” finalized Moyers.

Cobden (50) – Brumleve 1 0 0-0 2, Lehr 4 0 6-8 14, Gearhart 0 3 0-0 9, Wright 0 0 0-0 0, Draper 1 1 3-4 8, Aspen 0 0 0-0 0, Sweitzer 3 2 5-8 17.
2FG-9, 3FG-6, FT-14-20, PF-21.
Zeigler-Royalton (51) – Wawczak 3 1 5-8 14, Stubblefield 2 0 0-2 4, Stevens 1 1 0-1 5, Rumsey 0 0 2-2 2, Mitchell 5 3 1-3 20, Clark 1 0 2-4 4, Beasley 1 0 0-0 2.
2FG-13, 3FG-5, FT-10-20, PF-16.
Fouled Out – None.
Technical Fouls – None.

CHRISTOPHER 61, THOMPSONVILLE 43
With the support of Devin Austill with 17-points and teammate Scott Marchetti with 13-points - Christopher has reached the consolation title game after a big win over Thompsonville.

Matt Davison added nine points for the Bearcats who also received eight points apiece from Spencer Dennison and Steven Dial in the win.

Thompsonville (0-2) was led by Kaleb Costello with 16-points.

The Tigers trailed just 48-41 in the fourth quarter but the Bearcats outscored Thompsonville 13-2 the rest of the way.

Christopher will play the winner of Friday night's Egyptian/Webber Township in the consolation title game.

Christopher (61) – Dial 3 0 2-6 8, Parnell 1 0 0-2 2, Austill 7 0 3-4 17, Fourez 2 0 0-2 4, Davison 4 0 1-6 9, Kirshner 0 0 0-0 0, Marchetti 6 0 1-2 13, Dawson 0 0 0-0 0, Bailey 0 0 0-0 0, Dennison 1 2 0-0 8, Calloni 0 0 0-0 0, Ragan 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-24, 3FG-2, FT-17-22, PF-17.
Thompsonville (43) – Sullivan 1 0 2-2 4, Fisher 2 1 1-1 8, Gaither 2 0 3-6 7, Pace 2 0 4-6 8, Costello 1 4 2-8 16, Lunde 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-8, 3FG-5, FT-12-23, PF-17.
Fouled Out – None.
Technical Fouls – None.