11-21-11
BY JACK BULLOCK
CHRISTOPHER – For head coach Matt Mandrell's Egyptian Pharaohs, there were some doubts as to how ready his club would be when they opened the season Monday night at the Christopher Turkey Tournament.

Their South Egyptian Conference rival Cobden found out how ready the Pharaohs really were.

Egyptian jumped out to a 14-0 lead and never had a doubt for the rest of an 82-37 triumph in the tournament opener.

The Pharaohs (1-0) took all of the drama out of the contest early as they used their athletic ability and length advantage to force the Appleknockers into six first quarter turnovers in route to a 27-11 first quarter lead.

Four Egyptian players end up in double-figures with Darmez Nelson scoring 21-points while teammate Devantae Price added 19.

Marcus Marable added 16 points and 12 rebounds in the romp while Keyontae Woodson dominated inside with 15 points in the paint.

Scoring from all over the court with defensive pressure that kept Cobden out of any offensive flow, Egyptian had a double-digit lead in the first three minutes of the game.

“We can run the court and with our length we limited their (Cobden) opportunities and then we just kind of coasted the second half,” said Egyptian head coach Matt Mandrell. “We don't have to be at the top of our game to do that (rebound on the offensive end) and we feel pretty good when we can control the boards. We are going to give ourselves opportunities on ever possession if we don't hit the first shot.”
Nelson hit a pair of 3-pointers in the opening frame and his first one pushed the lead to 5-0 in the first minute of play.

Price scored on a fast break lay up on a pass from Nelson after a Cobden turnover.

Price the score into a conventional three-point play after being fouled by Nathan Sweitzer and it was suddenly a 12-0 lead.

Price then returned the favor and found Nelson on the fly for a easy fast break lay in and Egyptian led by two touchdowns 14-zip.

Cobden's JC Chapman finally got the Appleknockers on the board with a drive to the basket and 3-pointer.

But a pair of baskets by Marable and a second 3-pointer by Nelson pushed the lead to 27-11 at the end of the opening stanza.

Egyptian crashed the offensive boards in the first quarter by grabbing 10 second chances and cashing in most of them for points.

Following a basket by Cobden's Joseph Eck at the 7:09 mark of the second quarter, Egyptian scored the game's next 27-points to eliminate the drama.
Nelson, Price, Marable and Woodson all took turns in the scoring jaunt.

Three of the scores came on fast break chances as the Pharaoh forced seven more Cobden turnovers.

By the time Marable hit 1-of-2 free throws with 1:14 left in the half, Egyptian led 57-13.

To Cobden's credit, the players didn't give up and came out and got some offense going in the third quarter.

The Appleknockers got some open looks that resulted in some long range scoring.

Cobden hit five 3-pointers in the third frame with Tyler Lewey hitting two of them.

When Austin Flamm connect on his shot from the right wing, Cobden had its best run of the night (9-2) and had gotten something good out of the lopsided contest.

“I told the kids that I wasn't disappointed that we were losing because everybody expected us to be losing. I was disappointed that we weren't rebounding or hustling back and they got some many dunks (attempts) and I told them if that happened in the second half then we've got a long season ahead of us,” said Cobden head coach Rhett Barke. “We came out and it was gut-check time and showed me from game one that we're here. I think that we will be ok.”

Egyptian held just a 19-16 edge in that quarter and led 81-34 at its end.

With continuous clock running in the fourth quarter and the reserve units playing, only four more points were scored.

Cobden was led in scoring by Lewey with those three 3's for nine points.

Chapman added eight while Eck added six.

“Egyptian and Meridian are going to get a lot of people. We are the first of many. I can promise you that.” added Coach Barke. “The way Egyptian plays they don't allow you to get into your offensive sets. When we could get into our offensive sets we got the shots we wanted but it was just a matter of getting the ball past the half-court line.”

The Pharaohs hit nearly half of their shots (32-of-66) for 48 percent but it was their work cleaning that glass that helped dominate this contest.Coach Mandrell's team out boarded Cobden 46-20 with 25 of those rebounds on the offensive end.

Egyptian, with the fast paced style that they play, only committed ten turnovers with just two in the first half.

Meanwhile Cobden had 18 miscues, 13 in the first half as the Pharaohs pulled away.

“Some games we are going to shoot a high percentage because we are shooting lay ups. We hope when we play some better teams that we can hit those first shots,” added Coach Mandrell. “Hopefully our outside shooting will be ok.”

The Appleknockers hit just 15-of-47 from the field for 32 percent while connecting on just 6-of-19 from behind the arc.

Egpytian will take on Christopher in the semifinals on Wednesday night while Cobden (0-1) will return on Wednesday to play Thompsonville at 6:15 pm.

“Our top three (Marable, Nelson, Price) complement each other so well and Woodson really helps us on the boards. Those are our top four and the Prewitt kid has really come on so fortunately we have a pretty good starting five,” said Coach Mandrell. “We play our zone well and we don't have a lot of depth so we try to stay out of foul trouble. We want to keep doing what we do best.”

Cobden (37) – Z. Moore 0 0 0-0 0, Millis 0 0 0-0 0, Sweiter 1 0 0-0 2, Waldrop 2 0 0-0 4, Eck 3 0 0-2 6, P. Flamm 0 0 0-0 0, Chapman 1 2 0-0 8, Lewey 0 3 0-0 9, Marks 0 0 0-0 0, Aspen 2 0 1-2 5, A. Flamm 0 1 0-0 3.
2FG-9, 3FG-6, FT-1-3, PF-18.
Egyptian (82) – Davis 0 0 0-0 0, Santamaria 2 0 0-0 4, Berdick 0 0 0-0 0, Grueninger 0 0 0-1 0, Nelson 7 2 1-2 21, Price 5 2 1-2 19, Saltzman 0 0 1-3 1, Prewitt 2 0 2-2 6, Bigham 0 0 0-0 0, K. Woodson 6 0 3-7 15, Marable 6 0 4-6 16, Pollard 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-28, 3FG-4, FT-15-25, PF-11.
Fouled Out – Aspen, Cobden.
Technical Fouls – None.

Christopher took the lead back for good at the end of the second quarter by forcing the Tigers (0-1) into four key turnovers as part of a 13-4 run to close the first half.

Trailing 23-21, Christopher's Kolten Pedigo and Scott Marchetti got the 'Cats going with six consecutive points on a long 3-pointer by Pedigo and then a drive by Marchetti which resulted in conventional three-point play.

Another conventional “and-one” by RJ Kuh took the wind out of the Tigers sails.
A 10-0 run early in the third quarter sparked by eight points in a row by Pedigo put the game away.

“It is nice to get a win here at home in our own tournament to start the year,” said Christopher head coach Eric Stallman. “We hit some shots early but we were settling for outside shots. The inside stuff was there and we went to the glass better in the second half.”

Thompsonville would get no closer than 18 the rest of the way.

Pedigo led four Bearcats in double-digits with 16-points.Tyler Atchison added 14 while Marrchetti and Kevin Mercks added 10-points each.

The Tigers (0-1) were topped by Brady Housholder with 11.