12-04-07
BY JACK BULLOCK
CRAB ORCHARD - One thing is for certain in sports – experience makes a big difference in the outcome of games.

For the Gallatin County Hawks on Tuesday night it was a case of young kids making mistakes – mental and physical.

Coach Chris Fromm’s team committed 21-turnovers – including eleven in the second quarter – which led to a 78-66 loss to Crab Orchard on the road.

Five turnovers in six trips up the floor in a minute and a half stretch in the second quarter doomed the visitors in its conference opener.

Those Trojans improved to 5-3 overall and 2-1 in the Greater Egyptian Conference.

Coach Jon Brown saw his club continue to see how many 3-pointers they can make in a night.
On this evening that number was 10.

A.J. Hutchins was the big banger of the long-range group with four 3-pointers made and his total of 26-points led all scorers.

While Hutchins and Co. were launching missiles – sophomore Adam Perry was having his way inside against the Hawks undermanned defense.

Perry muscled his way for 20 points and 12 rebounds for Crab Orchard.

“We did a good job tonight of spreading the floor to get 3-point opportunities and then that opened things up for Adam Perry inside,” said Coach Brown. “Perry is very strong for his size and he has a great presence around the basket.”

On the other end of the floor – Gallatin County kept shooting themselves in the foot with mistake after mistake – the ones that a young team young teams will make.

“We have a young team with five kids starting that have never started before this season and we have had a problem with turnovers,” said Coach Fromm. “We are just making too many bad decisions out there. We are trying to learn as we go and that can be tough.”

The first quarter belonged to Hutchins – a 5-foot-11 junior guard – who hit three 3-pointers in that opening frame and caused Gallatin County to have to come out and defend the arc.

But when the Hawks changed its defensive strategy to come out on the perimeter – Perry made them pay in the paint.

“We started extending our defense out to try and stop the 3-point shooting but that opened things up for Perry inside,” added Fromm. “We were worried about Hutchins because I saw them play against Joppa and he does a good job of getting to his spots on the floor to shoot. He burned us in the first half.”

After a pair of inside scores in the first thirty seconds got Crab Orchard the lead – Hutchins got warmed up and his first trifecta stopped a brief Gallatin County run.

The Hawks – behind three straight scores – took an early 9-6 lead.

Jared Hunt hit a 3-pointer from the right wing that was followed by two-point buckets by Quinton Drone and Ryne Johnson.

But then Hutchins hit a pair of long-range shots to give the lead back to Crab Orchard.

His second such missile with 2:25 left in quarter number one gave the Trojans a 14-12 edge.

Drone – who played well for the Hawks on this night – hit his only 3-pointer of the game at the 2:14 mark.

This 6-foot-2 junior topped Gallatin County with 24 points.

With Eric Westbrook and Shawn Steele missing from the Hawks line up – Drone stepped up.

“Drone played well around the basket tonight and with missing Westbrook and Steele (illness) tonight we needed that,” Fromm explained.

The Drone 3-pointer turned out to be the last hurrah for the Hawks as Crab Orchard took command.

Coach Brown’s club scored nine points on three 2-pointers from Hutchins, Buddy Thompson and David Brainard.

Brainard’s three from the right wing with :02 remaining made it 23-19 at the end of one.

Gallatin County had an opportunity in the second quarter to put pressure on the hosts but a flurry of turnovers resulted in a seven-point deficit at intermission.

Trailing just 30-29 with 2:09 remaining after another Drone score – the Hawks committed five turnovers in the remainder of the half.

Although Crab Orchard didn’t make a huge run – the mistakes were enough to put the Hawks in a 37-30 hole at the break.

Two consecutive scores by Perry and Hutchins gave Crab Orchard its first double-digit lead at 41-30 with 6:30 left.

Perry scored eight points in the stanza on drives to the basket and on the offensive glass.

Following yet another basket by Drone that got his club within eight points at 45-37 – Crab Orchard got two free throws by Hutchins and a 3-pointer from Thompson that hit every bit of the iron before falling in for a 50-37 advantage.

Gallatin County’s Alex Casteel scored six points for his team and four of them came in the last half minute of the third quarter.

Those two scores cut the Crab Orchard lead to just 56-47 heading to the fourth quarter.

The first basket of the fourth quarter by Drone gave the Hawks a bit of hope.

That hope was short lived as the Trojans finished off their GEC rivals with a 9-2 run.

Inside scores by Perry and Hutchins, a steal and fast break lay in by Brainard and another long bomb by Hutchins (his fourth of the game) broke the Hawks down.

Hutchins' 3-pointer on a long inbounds pass to the right corner gave Crab Orchard a 65-51 spread.

Yet another run fueled by Hutchins and Perry gave the Trojans’ their largest lead of the night.

When Brainard hit one of two free throws with 2:20 left – Crab Orchard led 73-55.

The Hawks scored the final two baskets of the game to make the final margin 12.

“We had a lot of kids step up tonight for us,” said Coach Brown. “Thompson stepped up and so did (Lorence) Killen. We had the balance of inside and outside offense that we like to see tonight.”

After Hutchins and Perry – the Trojans got 13 points from Brainard and 11 from Thompson.

Killen tossed home a pair of 3-pointers in the second quarter for six important points.

Drone’s 24 followed by sophomore Jeremiah Baker with 19 points and Johnson with 11 paced Gallatin County.

When Coach Fromm looks at the stat sheet and realizes how well his team played other than the turnovers he should see some light at the end of the tunnel.

The Hawks shot 52 percent from the field (29-of-56 overall) and nearly won the rebounding battle at 33-31 Crab Orchard.

But those 21 turnovers – especially the 11 in the second quarter – fell his team to 0-5 on the season.

“We are 0-5 but we came out and played a lot more aggressive tonight than we did at the Harrisburg Tournament last week,” added Fromm. “We still turned the ball over too much but we are doing a better job and we are working to get better overall.”

Crab Orchard was 28-of-66 for the game and 10-of-30 from behind the 3-point line. The Trojans also took better care of the ball with just nine turnovers.

“Anytime we beat Gallatin County it is a big win for us,” said Coach Brown. “We got over .500 in the conference and that is important. This conference is wide-open and every win is important.”

Both teams’ head back to action at home on Friday in the GEC.

Crab Orchard plays host to Galatia while Gallatin County will play its homecoming game against Norris City-Omaha-Enfield.

Gallatin County (66) - Shoulders 1 0 0-0 2, Drone 9 1 3-4 24, Hunt 2 1 0-0 7, Baker 5 3 0-0 19, Johnson 4 0 0-0 8, Casteel 3 0 0-0 6, Fromm 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-24, 3FG-5, FT-3-4, PF-21.
Crab Orchard (78) - Thompson 1 3 0-2 11, Hutchins 5 4 4-6 26, Perry 9 0 2-2 20, Killen 0 2 0-0 6, Brainard 3 1 4-9 13, Pierce 0 0 2-2 2, T. Faurer 0 0 0-0 0, Hutson 0 0 0-0 0, Davis 0 0 0-0 0, Marks 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-18, 3FG-10, FT-12-21, PF-11.
Fouled Out - Casteel, Johnson - Gallatin County.
Technical Fouls - None.