Sesser-Valier vs. Egyptian - Christopher Turkey Tournament

CHRISTOPHER TURKEY TOURNAMENT

Pharaohs sprint past Devils
Price, Nelson, pace Egyptian to 59-39 title game triumph; Wayne City, T'ville, Cobden post wins

11-26-11

BY JACK BULLOCK
CHRISTOPHER – In the title game of the 37th Annual Christopher Thanksgiving Tournament, the Egyptian Pharaohs were in no mood to share their feast.

From the mid point of the first quarter on, head coach Matt Mandrell's club chewed up the Sesser-Valier Red Devils.

Using a extended zone press and a dominating performance on the glass, this school from Tamms won its first CTT title since 2001 with a 59-37 win Saturday night.

The pressure from the Pharaohs wore down S-V and by the second half the Red Devils didn't have much left.

Darmez Nelson topped the scoring assault for Egyptian (3-0) with 17-points while tournament Most Valuable Player Devantae Price added 12. Justin Prewitt added 10 for the Pharaohs.

“From about the middle part of the second quarter I could see that they (Sesser-Valier) were getting a step slower and we could tell we were kind of wearing them down,” said Coach Mandrell. “It finally paid off in the third quarter, especially.”

But the big story was the job Egyptian did on the boards and its ability to turn the Devils over.

The Pharaohs out rebounded Sesser-Valier 40-25 and allowed the Red Devils just six offensive rebounds.

Egyptian, whose fast paced style can lead to some mistakes, were very good with the ball on Saturday night as they committed just six turnovers in the first three quarters. The reserves committed six more turnovers in the fourth quarter after the outcome had been decided.

Sesser-Valier didn't shoot the ball well after a good start, hitting just 15-of-46 shots from the field overall and just 3-of-11 from behind the 3-point arc.

The Red Devils good start was attributed to senior forward Tim Witcher who stepped out and hit a pair of 3-pointers in the opening quarter.

His second bomb from the left wing in front of the Pharaohs' bench gave Sesser-Valier an 8-6 advantage at the 5:14 mark.

That shot basically concluded the Red Devils highlights for the night as Egyptian took control from that point on.

“We knew Witcher hadn't been hitting very well early (in the tournament) but he hit some early tonight. We thought if they (S-V) settled for that (3-pointers) that we would be okay,”
added Coach Mandrell. “Finally we started getting some steals and run-outs. I think that the pressure got them playing a little bit faster than they wanted.”

Nelson scored eight points in the first eight minutes, including a back breaking pair of baskets in less than seven seconds on a rebound basket and a fast break lay in after a quick S-V turnover.

Those two made baskets pushed Egyptian out to a 14-8 lead.

Two more buckets by Price and another transition score by Nelson closed the quarter at 20-14.

Reserve Steven Salzman, who came into the game after Prewitt picked up a couple of early fouls, took an inbound pass from Marcus Marable in the left corner and hit a 3-pointer to keep Egyptian in high gear to open the second quarter.

Scores by Price, Nelson and Marable closed out the half with Egyptian up 31-21.

Marable hit a shot in the lane, a short bank shot that beat the buzzer to give the Pharaohs a ten point spread.

Witcher hit his third and final trey to open the second half to breath some life into the Sesser-Valier chances in the first minute of the third quarter.

But the Pharaohs put the game away with an 11-0 run.

Keyontae Woodson got into the scoring act with a nice spin move in the paint.

Nelson scored six points in the quarter and closed out that run, that turned into 15-2 with a fast break dunk on a pass from Marable.

It was started by yet another Sesser-Valier turnover, the teams' seventh of the quarter.

“Once it gets away from you it is hard to make a run against them,” said Sesser-Valier head coach Chip Basso. “They are so quick and athletic. They are a really good basketball team and Coach Mandrell does a good job with them. They are smooth and they distribute the ball. They do the little things right.”

By the time the third quarter buzzer sounded, the Pharaohs were smelling the title with a 46-26 advantage.

Prewitt and Marable scored to push the advantage to its largest at 57-33 before Sesser-Valier head coach Chip Basso threw in the towel, emptying his bench.

Egyptian did the same a few minutes later as the Pharaohs won its first championship of any kind in boy's basketball since the 2001 team beat Christopher to win this tournament a decade ago.

“I thought our post men did a good job tonight, they really played hard and our guards, with their quickness, can always cause problems,” added Coach Mandrell.

	1	2	3	4	-	F
Sesser-Valier	14	07	05	11	-	37
Egyptian	20	11	15	13	-	59

Sesser-Valier (37) – Stanley 1 0 0-0 2, Lingle 1 0 2-2 4, Gunter 0 0 0-0 0, Jenkins 0 0 0-0 0, Eubanks 0 0 0-0 0, Baxter 0 0 0-0 0, Hoffard 0 0 0-0 0, Kulich 2 0 1-2 5, Witcher 3 3 0-1 15, Cercellino 2 0 0-2 4, Hood 0 0 0-1 0, Rock 0 0 0-1 0, Dorris 3 0 1-4 7.
2FG-12, 3FG-3, FT-4-13, PF-16.
Egyptian (59) – Davis 0 0 1-2 1, Santamaria 0 0 0-0 0, Bendick Grueninger 0 0 0-0 0,. B. Woodson 0 0 0-0 0, Nelson 8 0 1-2 17, Price 5 0 2-3 12, Salzman 0 1 1-2 4, Prewitt 4 0 2-2 10, Bigham 0 0 0-0 0, K. Woodson 4 0 0-0 8, Marable 3 0 1-2 7, Pollard 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-24, 3FG-1, FT-8-13, PF-16.
Fouled Out – None.
Technical Fouls – None.

WAYNE CITY 52, CHRISTOPHER 51

The host Bearcats had many opportunities to win the third place trophy of their own Turkey Tournament and their opponents, Wayne City, could have just faded away several different times.

Neither of these things happened on Saturday night.

Coach Eric Stallman's Bearcats were on the verge of putting down the Indians in the second quarter and then again in the fourth frame but couldn't keep Wayne City from rallying for the triumph.

Christopher led by double-digits in the first half and didn't give back the lead until the final two minutes of the game.

The hosts missed four free throws in the fourth quarter and Wayne City came up big in those final eight minutes for the win.

Led by 15-points each from Haden Smith and Brandon Johnson and 13 markers from Arminius Alvis, Wayne City improved its record to 2-1 with the victory.

Trailing 43-36 heading into the fourth quarter, the Indians used a 13-3 run to take back control.

Smith scored five of those points and Caldwell converted a three-point play in the surge.

Christopher could have tied the game late but a shot by Tyler Atchison missed with under five seconds left.

Wayne City's Cody Manahan grabbed the rebound and was immediately fouled by RJ Kuh.

Manahan calmly nailed both free throws to give the Indians an insurmountable four point lead with :02.6 left.

A 3-pointer by Kolton Pedigo closed the scoring for Christopher, who committed four costly turnovers in the fourth quarter.

Atchison led four Bearcats with double-figures in scoring with 13-points. Scott Marchetti added 11-points while Pedigo and Eric Young notched ten each.

Caldwell chipped in 13-points for the Indians, who were the defending CTT champs and take home the third place trophy while Christopher saw its mark fall to 1-2.

“The third place game, the last two times we played in a third place game we got beat by a buzzer beater so I was kind of nervous,” said Wayne City head coach Russ Gerlach. “But the kids stepped up and made some big plays. They didn't quit. I was concerned that a couple of different times I thought we might shut it down and fold but we didn't and kept battling.”

Christopher held a commanding 32-16 rebounding edge but was just 15-of-45 shots from the floor.

Nineteen turnovers by the Bearcats, including four down the stretch, allowed Wayne City to get the win.

WC hit half of its attempts (18-of-36) and committed just 14 turnovers.

	1	2	3	4	-	F
Wayne City	09	17	10	16	-	52
Christopher	11	19	13	08	-	51

Sesser-Valier (37) – Stanley 1 0 0-0 2, Lingle 1 0 2-2 4, Gunter 0 0 0-0 0, Jenkins 0 0 0-0 0, Eubanks 0 0 0-0 0, Baxter 0 0 0-0 0, Hoffard 0 0 0-0 0, Kulich 2 0 1-2 5, Witcher 3 3 0-1 15, Cercellino 2 0 0-2 4, Hood 0 0 0-1 0, Rock 0 0 0-1 0, Dorris 3 0 1-4 7.
2FG-12, 3FG-3, FT-4-13, PF-16.
Egyptian (59) – Davis 0 0 1-2 1, Santamaria 0 0 0-0 0, Bendick 0 0 0-0 0, Grueninger 0 0 0-0 0, B. Woodson 0 0 0-0 0, Nelson 8 0 1-2 17, Price 5 0 2-3 12, Salzman 0 1 1-2 4, Prewitt 4 0 2-2 10, Bigham 0 0 0-0 0, K. Woodson 4 0 0-0 8, Marable 3 0 1-2 7, Pollard 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-24, 3FG-1, FT-8-13, PF-16.
Fouled Out – None.
Technical Fouls – None.

THOMPSONVILLE 38, ZEIGLER-ROYALTON 36
Thompsonville's Brady Householder is the team leader of Coach Brandon Chaplain's Tigers.

On Saturday night in the consolation title game against Zeigler-Royalton, Householder led by example.

This 5-foot-9 junior point guard “pointed” the way to a victory with 14-points, including five points in the final minute to, first tie the contest and then, win it for Thompsonville.

Householder stepped up and nailed a 3-pointer with :54 seconds left to even the score at 36-all.

Then Householder then hit a pair of free throws at the :15.3 to give his club a 38-36 adavantage.

Z-R (1-2) could have won the game with a last second 3-pointer by Jeffrey Pedigo but his shot from the right wing, with Householder defending, fell short at the buzzer.

Householder scored nine of his points in the final quarter, including 6-of-6 from the foul line for the 2-1 Tigers.

Sophomore guard Nick McPhail led Coach Matt Morgan's Tornadoes and all scorers with 16-points.

	1	2	3	4	-	F
Zeigler-Royalton	05	13	09	09	-	36
Thompsonville	13	06	08	11	-	38

Zeigler-Royalton (36) – McPhail 6 0 4-6 16, Pedigo 2 0 1-5 3, Moskoff 0 0 0-0 0, Leposky 1 0 0-0 2, Clark 2 0 1-2 5, Jelley 1 0 1-2 3, Schimpf 0 0 0-0 0, Jones 2 0 1-2 5.
2FG-14, 3FG-0, FT-8-17, PF-18.
Thompsonville (38) – Householder 1 2 4-4 14, R. Darnell 1 1 0-1 5, L. Darnell 1 0 1-3 3, Henson 3 0 1-6 7, McRoy 1 0 0-0 2, Harrison 2 1 0-0 7, Ty. Parkhill 0 0 0-1 0, Baker 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-24, 3FG-0, FT-8-13, PF-16.
Fouled Out – None.
Technical Fouls – None.

COBDEN 61, WEBBER TOWNSHIP 19
The Appleknockers picked up their first victory of the season in the seventh place contest following JC Chapman's lead.

The 5-foot-11 junior guard led a balanced attack with 13-points as Coach Rhett Barke saw 10-of-12 Cobden (1-2) players score in the runaway win.

Nathan Sweitzer and Tyler Lewey scored 10-points each in the triumph.

Cobden jumpted out to a 18-6 lead and never let its foot off the pedal.

Webber Township and need head coach Jamie Lee were topped by six points from Ty Henderson and five points from Alex Lynn in the loss.

	1	2	3	4	-	F
Webber Township	06	05	06	02	-	19
Cobden	18	19	14	10	-	61

Webber Township (19) – Austin 0 0 0-0 0, Lynn 1 1 0-0 5, O'Dell 1 0 1-2 3, Dye 1 0 0-0 2, 3 0 0-0 6, Gregory 1 0 0-0 2, Masser 0 0 0-0 0, Welch 0 0 1-2 1, Felty 0 0 0-0 0, Radenbush 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-7, 3FG-1, FT-2-4, PF-8.
Cobden (61) – Cohen 0 0 0-0 0, Moore 5 0 0-0 10, Sweitzer 1 0 2-4 4, Waldrop 1 0 0-0 2, Eck 4 0 0-0 8, P. Flamm 2 0 0-0 4, Chapman 6 0 1-1 13, Lewey 2 2 0-0 10, Marks 1 0 0-0 2, A. Flamm 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-26, 3FG-2, FT-3, PF-11.
Fouled Out – None.
Technical Fouls – None.

The 2011 Christopher Thankgiving All-Tournament team consisted of MVP Devantae Price, Darmez Nelson, Justin Prewitt and Marcus Marable of Egyptian; Tim Witcher of Sesser Valier; Haden Smith and Brandyn Johnson of Wayne City; Koten Pedigo of Christopher, Brady Householder of Thompsonville and Jeffry Pedigo of Zeigher-Royalton.