01-21-2020
BY JACK BULLOCK
TAMMS – The Egyptian Pharaohs, the hosts of the fourth annual Egyptian “Mid-Winter Classic,” began their part of the pool play tournament with a resounding 72-38 win over Zeigler-Royalton on the second night of the event.

Head coach Allen Pearman's club jumped on the Tornadoes with a 13-0 run and never looked in the rear view mirror, kept the pedal to the floor and romped to the easy win on Tuesday night.

Pretty much everything the Pharaohs tried to do in the contest worked as Coach Pearman saw his club improve to 15-3 on the season.

Eight different Pharaohs “penciled the book” with 6-foot-3 junior forward Tyrone Huff leading the scoring assault with 24 points.

This junior swing man scored from many different parts of the floor, driving in to finish fast breaks and also stepping back an hitting a couple of 3-pointers in the victory.

“He (Huff) is tough to guard. You put a guard on him he can post up, you put a big kid on him he will go around him. He is tough to handle,” said Coach Pearman. “He opens things up for Christian (Trexler). He is 50 percent better with Tyrone out there.”

Six-foot-five sophomore Devion Blake also “got in on the fun” by netting 16 points for Egyptian while 5-foot-9 senior guard Christian Trexler tossed in 12.

However it was the other end of the floor that Egyptian did the most damage to the Tornadoes.

Coach Pearman's club forced Zeigler-Royalton into 24 turnovers, including seven in the first quarter that couldn't get over fast enough.

By the time Z-R and head coach Jimmy Stevens knew what happened, they were down double-digits.

The Tornadoes saw their record slip to 4-12 on the season.

Six-foot-six junior forward Gannon Dollins provided 13 points for Z-R in defeat, as he was the lone player in double-figures.

Five-foot-eleven sophomore Cole Freeman tossed in nine points as his team fell to 0-1 in Pool B.

Nick McKinney, a 6-foot-2 junior, added six points on a pair of 3-pointers in the first half.

Blake got the action going early with drives to the basket, as did 5-foot-3 senior Dawson Essex.

Essex converted a conventional three-point play in the first quarter while senior forward Ethan Warren added a bank shot from the baseline.

Blake closed out the run with yet another three-point play while being fouled as his made free throw gave the Pharaohs a “baker's dozen” lead.

Dollins finally broke through with a score for Zeigler-Royalton, but only after five of the team's turnovers and six of the club's seven missed field goal attempts.

After the first of the two McKinney 3-pointers Dollins scored the next bucket in the first mini run for the Tornadoes.

But consecutive scores by Huff, both on drives past Z-R defenders, closed a great first quarter for the hosts at 20-7.

After the second trifecta from McKinney, Egyptian got two more scores from Blake and Trexler for a 24-10 spread with 4:32 before halftime.

Egyptian closed the half with sophomore guard Ryan Stafford getting in on the scoring with a 3-pointer, a basket by Warren and two more scores by Huff.

The junior converted a couple of assists from Trexler, one off of another Zeigler-Royalton turnover, as the half closed with the Pharaohs in charge at 33-18.

The Tornadoes went to the intermission with nearly as many turnovers (13) as points and were just 6-of-19 from the field.

The beginning of the third quarter, unfortunately for the visitors, began just like the first quarter.

Egyptian started off with another offensive barrage with Blake getting another assist from Trexler.

Then the senior guard, who recently topped the 2,000 point mark in career scoring, nailed down his two third quarter 3-point bombs.

Huff got an assist on a drive to the basket and a dish to Blake for a wide open lay up.

When Trexler nailed down a pair of free throws with 4:14 left, Egyptian led 47-20 after a 14-2 surge.

“We run the floor well. Even our big guys are pretty fast. We work on ball-handling drills in practice even with our big kids,” said Coach Pearman. “We want to get the ball up the court as quickly as possible, getting some offense from our defense. When we get a team 'back pedaling' we try to take advantage.”

The Tornadoes got a pair of 3-pointers late in the third quarter to fall; one each by senior Jakob Imhoff and Freeman.

However scores by Egyptian senior Ryan VanDommelen and Huff and two free throws by Stafford ended the third quarter at 55-31.

Connecting on their first six field goals of the fourth quarter, Egyptian finished the job with a quick run to get the game to a “mercy rule” continuous clock.

Blake got an assist from sophomore Zion LaGrone and Huff added two more scores on drives, with the second one being an “And-One.”

When Blake scored in transition off of yet another Huff assist, the score was 64-33 with 6:14 to go.

Huff closed out his night by burying two more shots, each from the 3-point arc, as the Pharaoh opened their tournament with a “bang.”

The final numbers all favored the Pharaohs as they held a resounding 34-18 rebounding edge while hitting a better percentage of their field goal attempts.

Egyptian ended up 27-of-50 overall (54 percent) compared to 12-of-43 (27.9 percent) for the Tornadoes.

The Pharaohs fast pace produced some mistakes (16 turnovers) but Coach Pearman's team was in no danger after the first few minutes of the game.

Both teams will head right back at in on Wednesday.

Zeigler-Royalton will play Galatia at 6:30 pm while Egyptian will face Joppa at 8 pm.

“We had a great bench game. I got really good minutes out of our bench players tonight,” said Coach Pearman. “We played as a team, we passed the ball well, we made that extra pass tonight. We made good, crisp passes. We were knocking down shots, the guys were in a good rhythm.”

Zeigler-Royalton (38) – Bates 0 0 1-2 1, Mills 0 0 0-0 0, Chekevdia 0 0 0-0 0, Earl 0 0 1-2 1, Imhoff 0 1 1-2 4, Freeman 2 1 2-2 9, Sherwin 1 0 0-0 2, McKinney 0 2 0-1 6, Humphrey 0 0 0-0 0, Cross 0 0 0-0 0, Dollins 5 0 3-4 13. 2FG-8, 3FG-4, FT-10-15, PF-16.
Egyptian (72) – Reeves 0 0 0-0 0, Stafford 0 1 2-2 5, Huff 8 2 2=4 24, White 0 0 0-0 0, Smith 0 0 0-0 0, Essex 1 0 1-1 3, Trexler 2 2 2-3 12, VanDommelen 1 0 0-0 2, Pearman 0 0 0-0 0, Turner 0 0 0-0 0, Blake 0 0 0-0 0, LaGrone 2 0 2-3 6, Blake 7 0 2-2 16, Warren 2 0 0-0 4.
2FG-23, 3FG-5, FT-11-15, PF-18.
Fouled Out – None.
Technical Fouls – None.

Lovejoy (107) – Gaithers 10 0 0-1 20, Kent 4 6 2-2 28, Swarn 0 1 0-0 3, Hayden 5 1 0-0 13, Holliday 5 0 0-1 10, Jackson 5 0 1-1 11, Thigpin 1 1 0-0 5, McCallum 0 0 2-2 2, Loston 4 0 0-0 8, Lowry 2 1 0-0 7.
2FG-36, 3FG-10, FT-5-7, PF-13
Dongola (40) – Hall 5 0 0-2 10, Thomas 7 0 2-2 16, Freeman 1 0 0-0 2, Hogue 1 1 3-3 8, Aden 2 0 0-0 4, Smith 0 0 0-0 0. 2FG-16, 3FG-1, FT-5-7, PF-5.
Fouled Out – None.
Technical Fouls – None.

Elverado improved to 13-8 overall and 2-0 in Pool A.

Shawnee and head coach LaDonna Bachmann saw their mark slip to 0-2 in Pool A and still winless on the season at 0-13.

Sophomore Braden Freeman netted 16 points in the loss.

Elverado (49) – Alstat 1 2 0-0 8, White 3 1 0-1 9, T. Shread 0 1 0-0 3, Troutt 2 0 0-0 4, Tripp-Reames 0 0 0-0 0, Shearer 0 0 1-2 1, Funk 0 0 2-2 2, C. Buser 9 1 8-9 19, J. Shread 0 1 0-0 3, L. Buser 0 0 0-0 0, McRoy 0 0 0-0 0, Kimmel 0 0 0-0 0, Floyd 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-10, 3FG-6, FT-11-14, PF-7.
Shawnee (27) – Freeman 3 3 1-2 16, McLane 0 0 0-0 0, Kaufman 2 0 0-0 4, Schaefer 1 0 0-0 2, Camp 0 0 0-0 0, Abraham 1 0 0-0 2, Baltzell 0 1 0-0 3, Hammonds 0 0 0-0 0, Wigley 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-7, 3FG-4, FT-1-2, PF-13.
Fouled Out – Kaufman - Shawnee.
Technical Fouls – None.