01-05-10
BY JACK BULLOCK
CARLYLE - The Carlyle Indians on Tuesday night ran into a one-man wrecking crew by the name of Taylor O’Connor.

This 6-foot-5 junior forward scored 18-points and pulled down six rebounds for his Columbia team that improved to 11-4 overall and 3-1 in the Cahokia Conference with a 52-37 rout over the hosts.

O’Connor got his club started by scoring his teams’ first ten points and set the tone as the Eagles cruised to a relatively easy win.

Bryce Bastien scored 12-points for the Eagles while Tanner Hall popped home 11 in an important road victory in the always tough Mississippi Division of the CC.

“This is a big win for us and it is always important to win games in the conference on the road,” said Columbia head coach Mark Sandstrom. “This team feeds off of transition and tonight we got going early. (Bryce) Bastien really helped us get going early and our big kids really run the floor well.”

For Carlyle there were few bright spots as head coach Andy Palmer saw his club slip to 3-10 overall and 1-2 in league play.

Coach Palmer had 11 different Indians score in the contest but none scored more that six points. Jared Linton and Jordan Smith were the six-point scorers for the Tribe that fell behind early and never recovered as they suffered their ninth consecutive loss.

“They (Columbia) out-ran us tonight and there are no excuses for not getting back on defense like we did,” said Coach Palmer. “Our effort tonight wasn’t very good. In our other games prior to tonight we competed much better than we did tonight.”

Columbia used a transition game that Carlyle couldn’t deal with on Tuesday night – scoring the majority of its early points by getting up-and-down the floor.

Of O’Connor’s ten early points – two of the scores were of fast break variety.

His second score on a spin move in the lane gave the Eagles the lead back for keeps at 4-3 with 6:22 left in the opening quarter.

Columbia forced three early Carlyle turnovers that turned into points.

Bastien scored on consecutive fast breaks provided by an Indians miscue and also one of Carlyle’s five missed first stanza shots.

His second score - after splitting two Carlyle defenders for an easy lay up - forced Coach Palmer to spend a timeout at 14-8 Columbia at the 2:10 mark.

“We talk about a stop not being a stop unless we get the rebound and we let them get too many second chances,” added Coach Palmer. “We’re undersized and we have to work hard for us to be successful.”

A 3-pointer by Linton and a rebound basket by Jordan Ledbetter got Carlyle within striking range at 16-14 with :20 left.

However Columbia capitalized on a defensive lapse as Hall found himself open for a 3-point attempt from the right wing that found the mark to end the frame at 19-14 Eagles.

The Eagles got the separation that they wanted before halftime by continuing to pour on the transition game – scoring three more times on fast breaks.

O’Connor, Hall and Bastien all picked up transition points.

Bastien – a 5-foot-8 junior guard – picked up a steal and scored on a lay in just before the second quarter horn to make it 33-19 at the break.

“Number one tonight was we wanted to get the ball inside against them (Carlyle) because with have an advantage with our size,” Sandstrom added. “We felt like we are more athletic and we wanted to exploit our advantage and get into our transition game.”

Columbia removed the doubt from the outcome by outscoring Carlyle 11-6 in the third quarter to push the lead out to 44-25.

Billy Haag scored five points in the quarter and O’Connor put in his final points of the evening on a lay in off of a pass from Bastien as the Eagles led by 19 heading home.

Carlyle made things interesting in the fourth quarter when Cody Huels, Bryn Rueter and Tyson Boehne all scored in a 9-2 run that got the Indians to within 12 at 46-34.

However Columbia closed the game out with Bastien scoring two more times on fast breaks and both benches emptied in the final two minutes.

“This team doesn’t have the margin of error like my team last season,” explained Coach Sandstrom. “We need to do a better job focusing late in games to put teams away. We went into “cruise mode” a bit early tonight and they (Carlyle) made a bit of a run on us.”

The Eagles were very good from the field – hitting 21-of-41 from the floor (51 percent) overall but just 1-of-6 from behind the arc.

They held a 25-16 rebounding edge and forced the Indians into 15 turnovers.

Carlyle finished just 13-of-35 from the field that included a 5-of-12 effort from downtown.

Columbia hits the road again in conference play with a trip to league leader and ABV top-ranked Breese Central on Friday night while Carlyle travels to Red Bud to take on the Musketeers.

“We have to scrap and play hard for us to be successful,” finalized Coach Palmer. “Our effort is the key and tonight it wasn’t very good. It is disappointing. We are undersized and we must have a better effort or it will be a long year.”

Columbia (52) – Bastien 5 0 2-7 12, D. Haag 0 0 0-0 0, Hall 4 1 0-0 11, B. Haag 2 0 5-6 9, Hundsdorfer 0 0 1-2 1, Babb 0 0 1-2 1, Likens 0 0 0-0 0, Hunsaker 0 0 0-0 0, O'Conner 9 0 0-0 18, Luther 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-20, 3FG-1, FT-9-17, PF-10.
Carlyle (37) – C. Huels 1 0 2-2 4, McGee 0 0 0-0 0, Linton 0 2 0-0 6, Hartung 0 0 2-4 2, Smith 1 1 1-2 6, Boehne 0 1 0-0 3, Ledbetter 1 0 0-2 2, Jackson 1 0 0-0 2, Dickerson 0 0 0-0 0, Cannon 2 0 0-0 4, Fulton 0 0 0-0 0, Rueter 2 0 0-0 4, S. Huels 0 1 0-0 3, Voss 0 0 1-2 1.
2FG-8, 3FG-5, FT-6-12, PF-15.
Fouled Out – O'Conner - Columbia.
Technical Fouls – None.