02-16-07
BY JACK BULLOCK
ELDORADO - With senior leadership taking control during the mid-season the Eldorado Eagles put their best foot forward in a seven game winning streak that has them now sitting on top of the Black Diamond Conference East Division standings at season's end.

On Friday night Coach Greg Goodley's team finished off a fine league slate with a convincing 70-57 win over rival Cairo in a game that decided the final order of finish.

A Pilots win would have forced a tie at the top of the standings and given Cairo the BDC East crown on the strength of winning both regular season matchups.

But a strong second half - starting in the opening moments of the third quarter - swung the momentum into the Eagles nest as the club improved its record to 21-9 (8-2 in the BDC East) heading into the postseason next week at the Gallatin County Class A Regional.

The same kids that have led the Eagles on this winning run did the damage to the Pilots on Friday night.

Austin Bradley, Coby Creamer and Cody Lane all had a hand in snuffing out any Cairo thoughts of a comeback in the final 16 minutes.

That trio combined for 53 of the 70 Eagle points and helped overshadow a monster game from Cairo's 6-foot-6 senior Russell Mackins.

Mackins crashed the boards on both ends of the floor – finishing with 19 points and 14 rebounds.

However the Pilots problems that have plagued Coach Dion Real's team throughout the 2006-07 campaign stung the visitors again in this pivotal game.

Cairo (10-16 overall, 6-4 in the BDC East) connected on just 25-of-61 shots - which included a measly 2-of-13 from behind the 3-point arc.

Eldorado's defense forced 14 Pilot turnovers and Coach Goodley's troops efforts were responsible for the Eagles BDC title.

“Whether it is points or getting other people the ball they have played like seniors,” said Goodley, talking about his veteran players Bradley and Creamer. “Everyone talks about their seniors stepping up and our seniors have done that.”

Getting to the free throw line the Eagles converted 20-of-24 chances – including their final 13 in a row.

Eldorado closed out the contest with 12-of-12 charities in the final quarter.

“They (Eldorado) did a good job doubling down on our post players and our outside shot was non-existent,” said Cairo head coach Dion Real. “We only made two 3-pointers tonight and one of those was right at the end. The outside shooting hurt us but it has all season. Eldorado stepped up and made plays tonight. They are a pretty tough team.”

Cairo began the game with Mackins flexing some offensive rebounding muscle.

He had three rebounds that turned Cairo missed shots into points in the opening eight minutes.

His first basket crashing the boards with 3:53 to go gave Cairo a 7-5 lead.

Mackins followed that up with two more scores – one after cleaning up his own mess – and the Pilots led 14-9 at the end of one. With seven points and five rebounds – it was clear Mackins had come ready to play.

Unfortunately for Cairo's hopes – Mackins didn't get much help the rest of the contest.

In spite of having problems offensively Cairo held a 28-22 lead following a Mackins rebound bank shot in the lane and a steal and fast break score from Danny Brown with 2:45 remaining the second quarter.

The contest – and eventually the conference title – belonged to Eldorado from that moment on.

The Eagles scored the stanza's final six points – with Creamer and Bradley doing the damage.

Creamer nailed a 12-footer in the lane and then Bradley's 3-pointer just before the halftime buzzer evened the score at 28-all.

Cairo forced one final tie in the game with Mackins taking a pass from Jeserick Pilgrim to convert a shot in close to the basket to make it 30-30 with 6:47 remaining in the third quarter.

A Bradley offensive rebound and a conventional three-point play by Isaiah Cunningham sent the Eagles on a subtle - but steady - 14-7 run to end the quarter.

Bradley finished off his own three-point play by taking a pass from backcourt mate Dallas Robinson an converting a free throw after being fouled by Brown.

Alex Parker – a 6-foot-2 junior – finished the quarter for Eldorado by splitting Cairo's defense for an easy score in the paint to give Eldorado a 44-37 lead heading into the final quarter.

Cairo was just 4-of-14 in the third quarter and committed three costly turnovers that turned into Eagle points.

The Pilots made a short-lived run to open the final quarter.

Baskets by Arthur Williams and Pilgrim gave Cairo a glimmer of hope with 6:22 remaining and just a 46-43 deficit.

However the Eagles scored eight of the games next ten points with Creamer scoring twice in the run.

His nice spin move on the right side of the lane resulted in a 10-footer and - when Cunningham followed Creamer with a 15-footer in transition – Eldorado led 54-46.

Cairo could get no closer than six points the rest of the way.

The Pilots missed eleven shots in the fourth quarter and couldn't dent the Eldorado lead in the final 3:31.

“We were able to extend our runs tonight and kept them (Cairo) from making a big run,” added Goodley. “We just have a group of guys that are playing really well together at the right time of the year. They are staying enthusiastic about playing the game, they're energetic and excited about playing each game.”

Bradley topped all players in the scorebook with 22 points while Creamer added 18. Lane – just a freshman – continued to impress with 13 points.

While Cairo was having problems from the field – Eldorado hit exactly 50 percent of its shots (24-of-48) even though they were cold from far outside with a 2-of-12 effort from behind the arc.

Behind Mackins' double-double – Cairo got 10 points from Charles Johnson and seven points each from Brown and Pilgrim.

The Pilots won the rebounding battle 35-31 but the war – and conference championship – belonged to the hosts.

“Our kids have been playing as hard as they can all year but improvement takes time,” added Real, whose team fell just short of a league championship. “When I look at our game tonight and back to our first game and we've come a long way. But we couldn't make the big run, we couldn't make the big play. “We had a few steals down the stretch but we just couldn't put it in the hole.”

Eldorado is the top seeded team at the Gallatin County Class A Regional and will play the winner of Monday's Galatia/NCOE matchup on Wednesday.

Cairo will travel to Mounds Meridian next week for the Class A Regional and will take on Egyptian at 8 pm Monday.

	1	2	3	4	-	F
Cairo	14	14	09	20	-	57
Eldorado	09	19	16	26	-	70

Cairo (57) – Pilgrim 3 0 1-2 7, Williams 3 0 0-0 6, Johnson 3 1 1-3 10, Mackins 8 0 3-5 19, Madison 2 0 0-1 4, Brown 2 1 0-0 7, Woodson 2 0 0-0 4. 2FG-23, 3FG-2, FT-5-11, PF-23.
Eldorado (70) – Bradley 4 1 11-12 22, Creamer 5 1 18, Robinson 2 0 2-2 6, Lane 6 0 1-3 13, Cunningham 3 0 1-1 7, Parker 2 0 0-0 4.
2FG-22, 3FG-2, FT-20-24, PF-13.
Fouled Out – Pilgrim, Cairo.
Technical Fouls – None.