11-28-09
BY JACK BULLOCK
CRAB ORCHARD - It was just a matter of time before the Crab Orchard Trojans took care of business in the final day of their own Turkey Tourney.

In fact is was just about four minutes into the afternoon game against Dongola before Coach Jon Brown’s club got the “pedal to the metal” offensively.

And the Trojans didn’t let off of the gas until they had a 54-21 halftime advantage.

A 14-0 run near the beginning of the second quarter and a 19-3 blast to close the half removed all doubt in the Trojans’ 78-38 triumph.

Crab Orchard finished the week at 5-0 with lopsided wins in all five contests.

Sophomore guard Drew Johnson finished with a game-high 19-points – all in the first half – as Coach Brown played his junior varsity after intermission.

All 12 Crab Orchard players scored in the game.

Tyler Thompson led Dongola (0-5) with eight points.

The Demons hung in with the hosts for the early part of the contest but couldn’t overcome 17-first half turnovers – some of which were unforced.

A driving basket by Thompson got the Demons within 4-3 early and a basket by freshman Clay Harris cut the margin down to 10-7 with 3:05 remaining.

Dongola’s final run came at the beginning of the second quarter with a basket by Thompson cutting into the lead at 19-14.

But the damn burst soon after that score as the Trojans’ athleticism took over.

Crab Orchard – scoring at will – out-gunned Dongola 35-7 the rest of the half in taking advantage of 10 second quarter miscues by their opposition.

Johnson canned five 3-pointers in the second quarter.

Lorence Killen and Johnson hit back-to-back trifectas as part of that initial 14-0 sprint.

A Killen rebound bucket followed by a pair of fast-break scores by Coty Wece and Brandon Boester off of Dongola turnovers took the score to 44-20 with 1:14 left.

A rebound basket by Ben Kissing and three consecutive scores by Johnson slammed the door shut.

Johnson nailed a 3-pointer from the left wing and then ended the second quarter with a 40-footer from near the centerline at the buzzer.

“We have tried to stress to the kids that we need to get in a habit to approach every game the same way but this was the sort of game that we played to their (Dongola) level early,” said Coach Brown – whose team won the outright title of this event for the first time since 2005. “Obviously we have a lot more athleticism then they do and it was a chance to get everyone else into the game.”

Following Johnson in scoring was Kissing with 11-points and freshman reserve Luke Barwick with 10.

Crab Orchard hit 42 percent of its overall field goal attempts and shot enough shots to beat two teams (31-of-74) but was a very good 12-of-23 from behind the arc.

“They (Dongola) sat back in a two-three zone and being how they are a young team that is a good strategy on their part but we countered that with some perimeter shooting,” added Coach Brown. “Drew (Johnson) is very capable of shooting the ball like that.”

The Trojans out-rebounded Dongola 43-25 with 22 offensive rebounds against the smaller Demons.

“We feel like we have kids that can crash the boards and find other ways of scoring points,” Brown said.

Crab Orchard heads into conference play next week against another unbeaten team in Norris City-Omaha-Enfield who won the Grayville Thanksgiving Tournament Saturday night.

“We need to take the energy and confidence that we showed this week and take it into the next week. We have an important conference game against NCOE (Tuesday) and I know that they are playing for the tournament title tonight at Grayville and they have been handling teams like we have here.”

Coach Russ Marsh’s club shot a respectable 14-of-37 from the floor but the turnovers (21 in the game, 17 in the opening half) doomed the Demons.

Dongola has some young kids with a lot of learning to do in the next few years.

“The thing is that we don’t have the experience yet and that shows,” said Dongola head coach Russ Marsh – who took over a program full of young, inexperienced kids. “The bottom line is that we are five games into this season and we have over 100 turnovers. But we have some positives we can take out of this tournament. We have a lot of freshmen and sophomore’s playing and I think that these kids do some things well but we do more things wrong and we’re going to correct that.”

HARDIN COUNTY 54, GALLATIN COUNTY 49
The Cougars picked up a win in the final day of the tournament by outscoring their GEC rival 20-10 in the fourth quarter.

Hardin County (4-1) used 18 points from Ryan Davis and 14 points from Dylan Davis to finish second in the tournament with the Hawks.

Charles Paskon added 10 points from the Cougars – who hit 8-of-11 fourth quarter free throws in the win.

Gallatin County (3-2) lost its final two games of the event – despite 15 points from Jared Hunt and nine points from Daine Hish.

The Hawks coughed this game up from the foul line – hitting just 5-of-16 from the stripe.

JOPPA 66, POPE COUNTY 35
The Rangers – with sophomore Travis Beck leading all scorers with 24 points – crushed Pope County in the tournaments’ final game Saturday.

Jake Wolfe added 10 points as 11 Joppa players inked the book in the win.

Pope County senior Kyle Bernard led his club with 16 points.

Dongola (38) – Cohn 1 0 2-4 4, Harris 3 0 0-0 6, Hinkle 2 0 0-2 4, Gibson 2 0 1-3 5, Eddleman 1 0 3-6 5, Thompson 4 0 0-0 8, Eads 0 0 0-0 0, Yunker 0 0 0-0 0, Samples 0 0 0-1 0, Lathan 1 0 4-4 6.
2FG-14, 3FG-0, FT-9-20, PF-11.
Crab Orchard (78) – Johnson 2 5 0-2 19, Wece 2 1 0-1 7, Kissing 4 0 3-4 11, Killen 1 1 1-2 6, Hutson 0 1 0-0 3, Perry 1 0 0-0 2, McGuire 1 0 0-0 2, A. Emery 0 1 0-0 3, Dorries 3 0 0-0 6, Barwick 2 2 0-0 10, Barwick 2 2 0-0 10, C. Emery 0 1 0-0 3.
2FG-19, 3FG-12, FT-4-9, PF-12.
Fouled Out – None.
Technical Fouls – None.

Gallatin County (49) – Hunt 6 1 0-0 15, Lowery 3 0 2-5 8, Hish 0 3 0-0 9, Jones 1 0 0-0 2, Westbrook 0 0 0-0 0, Drone 2 0 2-2 6, Cox 2 0 1-6 5, Russell 0 0 0-0 0, Van 0 0 0-0 0, Rigsby 2 0 0-2 4.
2FG-16, 3FG-4, FT-5-16, PF-18.
Hardin County (54) – R. Davis 5 1 5-7 18, D. Davis 7 0 0-0 14, Paskon 2 2 0-0 10, Holloman 1 0 4-8 6, G. Flemmings 0 0 0-0 0, D. Flemmings 2 0 0-0 4, Hayes 1 0 0-0 2. 2FG-11, 3FG-3, FT-9-15, PF-11.
Fouled Out – Lowery, Gallatin County.
Technical Fouls – None.

Pope County (63) – Bernard 5 0 3-3 16, Dunlap 1 0 0-0 2, Risen 3 0 0-2 6, Butler 1 0 0-0 2, Sandefur 1 1 0-0 5, Broadway 1 0 0-0 2, Thompson 0 0 0-0 0, Cockrum 1 0 0-0 2, Wise 0 0 0-0 0, Kennebrew 0 0 0-0 0, Schuhardt 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-13, 3FG-2, FT-3-5, PF-21.
Cobden (64) – A. Brumleve 1 2 0-0 8, Lehr 8 0 15-18 29, Gearhart 4 0 1-1 9, Wright 0 0 0-0 0, Draper 2 1 5-5 12, Aspen 0 0 0-0 0, A Sweitzer 1 0 4-6 6, Mills 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-16, 3FG-3, FT-23-27, PF-17.
Fouled Out – Dunlap, Pope County.
Technical Fouls – Dunlap, Pope County (2).