11-30-2021
BY JACK BULLOCK
DUQUOIN - Bryce Conner stepped up for his teammates in a big way on Wednesday night against West Frankfort at the DuQuoin Tip-Off Classic.

With him and his teammates in first half foul trouble and struggling, he carried the offensive burden by netting a game best 25-points.

By the second half, the Bulldogs had stopped committing so many fouls (just one personal foul in the third quarter) and their defense stopped the Red Birds from getting the dribble penetration that they were getting in the first two quarters.

This combination of events turned into a 55-44 triumph in the opening game of the second session of the 22-year old event.

Conner, a 6-4 junior guard/forward, added 11-rebounds to his night while teammate and classmate 6-2 guard Tyler Goemaat added 13 very important points.

Goemaat helped slam the door shut in the win by canning 7-of-8 free throws in the fourth quarter as CWC evened their mark at 1-1 in the event and are now 2-1 on the season.

Head coach Kevin Wolff also got scoring from five other Bulldogs in the win.

Goemaat canned three of the teams' eight 3-pointers in the victory.

Senior guard Ty Stubblefield hit two of the 3's to finish with six-points on the night while sophomore Landon Driscoll and freshman Mitchell Edwards each connected from long range in the contest for three-points each.

“He (Conner) can get to the bucket and he can really shoot it. We told him he needed to shoot the three a little bit more and that would open up the driving lanes for him,” said Coach Wolff. “He's a good player, good passer, good defender and the other guys feed off of him. When he goes to the bucket they're ready for a pass.”

West Frankfort, after an opening night win over Cairo, dropped to 1-1 in the tournament standings.

The Red Birds were topped in scoring by a pair of junior guards.

Drew Smith scored 12-points to lead the way while Lucas Whittington added 11.

However it was the missed opportunities in the first half that kept Coach Josh Sertich's team from taking some control in the first half.

With the West Frankfort shooting foul shots in the double-bonus in the final 4:46 of the second quarter, the Red Birds had an opportunity to get a lead.

With some starters on the bench with fouls (including Conner) WF failed to capitalize.

At one point they missed four consecutive charities and CWC ended up taking a slight halftime lead.

“We had them in foul trouble and Conner was on the bench and we couldn't take advantage of that,” said Coach Sertich. “We weren't able to get the lead or extend the lead when we missed free throws. We struggled all night offensively. They (CWC) are a solid team on both ends of the floor. We're the type of team that needs to get into a full-court game, run and press and make it a fast game we're going to struggle. We're an inexperienced team but I'm proud of our effort to start the year. We just got to get better. We will keep working and eventually good things will happen.”

West Frankfort played well in the first quarter and hung tough with the Bulldogs.

Junior guard Preston King scored all seven of his points in the first quarter for WF on a pair of baskets and three free throws.

His three-point play on a rebound early in the game gave the Red Birds a 6-5 lead.

However Conner also started off strong for the Bulldogs.

The junior scored 12-points in the quarter, also converting an “and-one” on a drive in the paint.

When Conner canned his only 3-point shot of the game, and after seven first quarter lead changes, Carmi-White County led 20-16 at the first horn.

Missed shots and fouls were a problem for Coach Wolff and his club in the second stanza.

However WF couldn't make use of the free throw situation.

Both Stubblefield and Edwards nailed down 3-pointers in the second for CWC as they took a 31-29 lead to the half.

“That is something we stress every day at practice; play defense with your feet and keep teams off of the free throw line. Make them make tough shots over us. In the first half we were reaching and that is something that we don't coach,” said Coach Wolff. “In the third quarter they (the kids) did much better job. The kids did a great job of just continuing to play. Our young kids did a fantastic job when we were in foul trouble. We had two freshman, a sophomore and a junior out their with our senior point guard. They did a really nice job, I'm proud of them. We gave up some offensive rebounds in the first half but we cleaned that up in the second half.”

CWC used two scoring runs in the third quarter to take control.

A 7-0 burst to start the second half with Conner converting another 3-point play and adding 1-of-2 free throws on the next trip got things going.

Then Driscoll knocked down his 3-point bomb from the right wing which forced Coach Sertich to take a timeout down 38-29 at the 6:01 mark.

The Red Birds answered with six-straight points with junior Jack Hogg, Smith and sophomore Keegan Bowers all getting baskets.

Then CWC answered with another 7-0 sprint with Stubblefield again hitting from long range between two successful drives to the basket by Conner as the Bulldogs led 45-37 at the end of the third quarter.

The Bulldogs sealed the win in the final eight minutes by hitting 8-of-10 free throws with Goemaat doing the most converting.

When the junior nailed down his final two of the night with 1:04 remaining, CWC had its largest lead at 55-40.

WF added two free throws and a fast break score by Smith to end the scoring.

The Bulldogs were 20-of-45 overall from the floor and 8-of-23 (34.7 percent) from the arc.

Behind Conner's 11 boards they won the glass battle 25-17.

After six first quarter turnovers, Coach Wolff saw his team take care of the ball better in the final three quarters and ended up with 10 total.

West Frankfort was 15-of-41 from the floor and just 2-of-10 from long range in the defeat.

The Red Birds will play the host Indians on Friday night while the Bulldogs will play two games on Saturday; at 12:30 pm against Cairo and then at 4:00 pm against Red Bud in the round-robin event.

Carmi-White County (55) – Conner 9 1 4-6 25, Stubblefield 0 2 0-0 6, Goemaat 1 3 8-10 13, Atteberry 0 0 0-0 0, Driscoll 0 1 0-0 3, Holloman 1 0 0-0 2, Edwards 0 1 0-0 3, Stockton 1 0 1-3 3. 2FG-12, 3FG-8, FT-13-18, PF-20.
West Frankfort (44) – Thomas 1 0 0-0 2, Davis 0 0 0-0 0, Smith 5 0 2-2 12, Buckingham 1 2 0-0 8, King 2 0 3-5 7, Hogg 0 0 0-2 0, Whittington 3 0 5-6 11, Bowers 1 0 2-2 4. 2FG-13, 3FG-2, FT-12-17, PF-19.
Fouled Out – Goemaat - Carmi-White County.
Technical Fouls – None.

DUQUOIN 79, RED BUD 44
The Indians made quick work of the Musketeers in the nightcap on Wednesday night by scoring 61-points in the first half.

Head coach Jason James got points from 10 different players in the romp with 5-11 senior guard Caden Hutchens topping the scoring parade with 19.

Traijon Smith, also a 5-11 senior guard, added 15-points to the onslaught of points while DQ got nine, eight and seven-points respectively from 6-8 senior Maurice Washington, 5-11 senior Nick Brown and 6-2 sophomore Henry Harsy.

Red Bud dropped it's first game of the tournament as they were led in scoring by 6-2 senior guard Nic Fehr with 16-points for head coach Dane Walter.

DuQuoin (79) – J. Smith 2 0 2-3 6, Hutchens 4 3 2-2 19, Green 0 0 0-0 0, T. Smith 5 1 2-4 15, Washington 4 0 1-2 9, Winters 0 0 0-0 0, Brown 1 1 3-4 8, Woody 2 0 0-1 4, Howerton 2 0 3-6 5, Hill 1 0 0-0 2, Sizemore 0 1 1-2 4, Harsy 3 0 1-2 7. 2FG-24, 3FG-6, FT-15-27, PF-18.
Red Bud (44) – Hall 1 0 0-2 2, Cathell 0 0 4-5 4, Lucht 0 0 0-0 0, Shemwell 0 0 0-0 0, Dieweld 3 0 1-2 7, No. Gantner 0 0 1-3 1, Nortin 0 0 0-0 0, Grohmann 1 1 0-0 5, Dressel 0 0 3-3 3, Easter 0 0 0-0 0, Langrehr 0 0 0-0 0, Fehr 5 2 0-0 16, Sternberg 0 0 0-0 0, Liefer 2 0 2-2 6, Ni. Gantner 0 0 0-0 0. 2FG-12, 3FG-3, FT-11-17, PF-23.
Fouled Out – None.
Technical Fouls – Washington - DuQuoin.