02-27-14
BY JACK BULLOCK
ELIZABETHTOWN – For the Crab Orchard Trojans and head coach Jon Brown, turning to senior leader Caleb Perry has been an every night occurrence since this player pulled on an Orange and Black uniform.

On Thursday night Perry once again delivered the mail.

In fact most of his letters required additional postage.

With his club in a battle with Greater Egyptian Conference rival Thompsonville, Perry stepped to the forefront and produced a career-high 40-points, including 9-of-10 free throws in the fourth quarter as the Trojans pulled away from the Tigers, 69-54 to advance to Friday night’s championship game of the Hardin County 1A Regional.

The 5-foot-10 senior swingman nailed seven 3-pointers as the Trojans improved to 25-5 on the season, which continues with a title game against Gallatin County on Friday night.

The Hawks held off Carrier Mills on Thursday night, 57-51 to advance.

As has been the case for most of the year, Perry received a lot of assistance last night from his teammates.

Six-foot-one junior Gunner Galloway followed Perry with 15-points for Coach Brown’s club.

“He (Perry) just does so many things, he can knock down shots from way beyond the line,” said Coach Brown. “There is a big difference between a shooter and a scorer and Perry is a scorer. The guy who can score can do many things. He can get open, he can drive, he can move without the ball. He can do all of it. He came back from that injury and was motivated. He worked so hard this off-season to get better and it showed tonight.”

The Thompsonville Tigers can turn to one alarming stat that helped eliminate them from the regional and end their campaign.

Despite shooting the ball well early in the game, the Tigers were their own worst enemy when it came to handling the ball.

Coach Mike Henson’s team committed 19-turnovers, ten in the opening half.

Those miscues kept the Tigers from getting a big lead in the first two quarters.

By the time the squad got to the second half, they were forced to abandon the inside game to shoot from the perimeter.

That strategy didn’t work out, either, as Thompsonville saw its season come to an end at 13-15.

“We just turned the ball over too many times tonight,” said Coach Henson. “When we got the ball inside we were successful but we gave them too many chances with our mistakes.”

The game was tied a 43-all early in the final period when the Trojans took control.

Crab Orchard took over with a 13-0 run, sparked by the 3-point shot that has long been a staple of this 1A program.

Perry, Galloway and often overlooked 5-foot-10 senior Tyler Deaton all nailed 20-footers in the run.

When Deaton came off a screen and found himself open in the left corner, his long-range shot found the mark and gave Crab Orchard a 53-43 lead with 4:36 remaining.

In the run, Thompsonville committed three of its turnovers and by the time Perry added 3-of-4 free throws on two different trips to the line, the Tigers were in deep trouble down 56-43.

The Trojans polished off the Thompsonville season by closing the game with 11-of-14 free throws made in the final minutes.

The bright spot for the Tigers came on the inside, especially in the first half.

Six-foot-six senior Quentin Henson muscled his way inside for 20-points and his frontcourt teammate 6-foot-7 senior Ryan Darnell added 14-points.

But of those 34-points, 22 of them came in the first two quarters.

Thompsonville jumped out to an early lead, thanks to the inside game of that senior pair.

Darnell even stepped outside and hit a couple of 3-point shots in the first quarter.

He nailed his second long range shot and followed it up with a score in the lane for a 19-18 lead at the end of the first quarter.

However this lead could have been double-digits.

Offensive mistakes made kept the Tigers from expansion.

Thompsonville had five first quarter turnovers, offsetting an 8-of-10 shooting effort in the first eight minutes.

While the Trojans were struggling dealing with the size advantage Thompsonville had, the Tigers had no answers for Perry.

Perry hit two more treys in the second frame and when he hit 1-of-2 free throws in the final minute, the two teams were dead even at 27 when they marched to the locker room.

Thompsonville hit four in close shots in the quarter but coughed up five more turnovers before halftime, quashing yet another potential run.

The Tigers best second half run came in the third quarter with the same formula that worked so well.

Q. Henson scored six points in the paint, one on a nice lob pass by Timmy Henson and two others on baseline moves near the basket.

When he netted his sixth point of the run, Thompsonville had a 35-32 lead which forced a Crab Orchard timeout.

Perry then turned his attention from long range shooting to getting to the basket on drives.

Twice in succession this senior drove past defenders for scores.

He then stepped back and canned another bucket from beyond the arc.

His seven straight points put the Trojans back on top, 39-35.

“They tried zone on us in the first half and Caleb flashed to middle and got open looks,” said Coach Brown. “They switch to man in the second half and he got to the basket and to the foul line.”

Thompsonville managed to tie the score at 39-all before the end of the third on 4-of-6 free throws by Lance Darnell and Tyler Parkhill.

Perry scored twice to open the fourth quarter, sandwiched inside a basket by T. Henson and a pair of free throws by Keifer Payne that tied the score for the final time at 43-all.

For the next three plus minutes, nothing went right for Coach Henson’s team.

The 13-0 sprint by Crab Orchard gave the top-seeded club all of the cushion that they would need to advance to what has turned out to be the GEC Tournament II.

Thompsonville controlled the inside play for most of the game, scoring and rebounding.

The Tigers used their size to hold a 36-24 rebounding edge.

Points in the paint were also lopsided as most of the scoring from Thompsonville was by its big men.

However the overall shooting suffered after the first quarter as the Tigers finished 22-of-53 overall and just 3-of-15 from beyond the arc.

“I was concerned that their size would bother us and it did in the first three quarters,” said Coach Brown. “But I think our press bothered them and they got fatigued. I thought if we could get a run on them that we could wear them down late and we did.”

Crab Orchard was the near opposite from Thompsonville when it came to the outside game.

Coach Brown saw his club drub the Tigers from the distance, hitting 10-of-19 from beyond the arc and connecting on 20-of-47 overall.

Following Perry and Galloway, Deaton finished with six points (all in the fourth quarter) and the Trojans got five first quarter points from senior guard Josh Emery that was his final total.

After Q. Henson and R. Darnell, Timmy Henson chipped in nine points followed by seven markers from Payne for the Tigers.

Crab Orchard will face the Hawks on Friday night, having split two games with its long-time GEC rival.

The Trojans won at home in the regular season meeting, a 60-52 win on January 16.

Gallatin County won the Greater Egyptian Conference Tournament back on February 1 at the expense of Crab Orchard, 54-49.

“We have to play smart and keep our guys in the game. We have to play well defensively and hit the boards,” said Coach Brown when talking about the third game with Gallatin County.

Thompsonville (54) – K. Payne 1 1 2-2 7, T. Henson 4 0 1-2 9, Kerley 0 0 0-0 0, R. Darnell 4 2 0-0 14, Q. Henson 10 0 0-0 20, L. Darnell 0 0 3-4 3, Parkhill 0 0 1-2 1, A. Payne 0 0 0-0 0, Wilee 0 0 0-0 0, J. Darnell 0 0 0-0 0, Garrison 0 0 0-0 0, Cardwell 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-19, 3FG-3, FT-7-10, PF-16.
Crab Orchard (69) – Emery 1 1 0-0 5, Deaton 1 1 1-2 6, Ferrell 1 0 1-4 3, Galloway 3 1 6-8 15, Perry 4 7 11-14 40, Ray 0 0 0-0 0, Stephens 0 0 0-0 0, Anderson 0 0 0-0 0, McDonald 0 0 0-0 0, Vaughn 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-10, 3FG-10, FT-19-28, PF-11.
Fouled Out – None.
Technical Fouls – None.

The Hawks also got 10-points from Seth Ramsey in the victory.

Carrier Mills (51) – Betz 2 1 4-6 11, Figg 4 0 2-4 10, Kalouder 2 0 0-0 4, Whiting 0 1 4-6 7, Motsinger 5 0 1-2 11, Crowder 3 0 2-4 8, Childers 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-16, 3FG-2, FT-13-22, PF-21.
Gallatin County (57) – Z. McGuire 0 1 0-0 3, Jackson 2 0 0-4 4, M. Ramsey 0 0 0-3 0, Scates 7 0 0-1 14, Wargel 6 0 8-10 20, Russell 0 0 6-6 6, S. Ramsey 1 1 5-8 10, T. Oldham 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-16, 3FG-2, FT-19-32, PF-20.
Fouled Out – Figg - Carrier Mills; Scates - Gallatin County.
Technical Fouls – None.