01-28-12
BY JACK BULLOCK
HARRISBURG – After losing the first two battles to GEC rival Crab Orchard in the 2011-12 season, Coach “Radar” Patton knew that his team had to come up with a better game plan going into the conference tournament championship game on Saturday night at SIC.

Part of the plan was to get back on defense to keep the Trojans from getting many easy baskets by defending better than they did in a 74-67 loss to the Trojans back on January 20th at home.

This mentor also knew his club needed to get the ball inside to 7-foot junior center Andrew Drone.

In the title game on Saturday night it was Mission Accomplished!!!

Drone hit for 20-points while dragging down 14-rebounds and the Hawks forced the normally good shooting Crab Orchard team into a horrendous night offensively.

Despite crashing the offensive boards for enough field goal attempts to make an NBA team arm weary, Coach Jon Brown's club connected on just 17-of-71 shots from the floor, for a paltry 23 percent.

“It seemed like we missed everything tonight. We couldn't get any kind of flow offensively,” said Coach Brown. “We tried getting the ball inside and even there the ball wouldn't drop for us. We just addressed that in the locker room. We told them that there are going to be nights where we don't shoot the ball well. I thought the defensive end of the floor we kept them in the game because we gave up too many second, third and fourth shots.”

Gallatin County used an 8-0 run to begin the fourth quarter and connected on a 8-of-12 free throws in the final frame to hold off the Trojans, 52-50 to nab the GEC title.

“We changed our game plan. We had seen them twice (Crab Orchard) and they out played us both times,” said Coach Patton. “But we played a nice ballgame and we defended well.”

Drone scored 10 of his points in the last eight minutes, including a pair of conventional three point plays while being fouled by Crab Orchard's Ben Kissing.

His first one on a spin move in the lane triggered the 8-0 burst and when senior teammate Bryant Aud nailed a 3-pointer from the top of the circle, the Hawks had erased a 30-27 deficit at the end of the third quarter and led 35-30 at the 5:32 mark.

“No question, he (Drone) is our 'bread-and-butter' and I've said it a thousand times, we forget sometimes he's on the floor,” added Coach Patton. “He rushed a couple of shots tonight which is unusual for him to do that. But he got it done down the stretch.”

Crab Orchard had multiple opportunities to take back the lead but failed to make enough shots.

Drew Johnson topped the Trojans with 20-points and this 5-foot-10 senior scored nine of his markers in the final quarter, as both teams combined to wake up a bit offensively.

His drive to the basket with 3:22 remaining breathed some life into the Crab Orchard sails, making it 40-39 Gallatin County.

But every time the Trojans made a move Gallatin County responded.

Six-foot-five junior forward Patrick Lowe came up with a pair of big scores in the fourth quarter and his second bucket of the period came on a drive down the baseline for a 45-42 lead.

Following two Johnson free throws which got Crab Orchard back to within 45-44, Gallatin County scored the next six points to ice the game.

Drone scored on a nice left hand shot in the lane and junior guard Daine Hish, Lowe and sophomore guard Mitch Ramsey combined to close the door by hitting 4-of-6 free throws in the final 1:18.

Crab Orchard missed a pair of shots in that time-frame, including Drone's rejection of a shot by Kissing.

Johnson and Kissing both hit 3-point shots in the final moments to make the score closer than the outcome really was.

Gallatin County was much more selective on offense and hit a much better percentage from the floor.

The Hawks knocked down 20-of-42 field goal attempts overall and made 3-of-5 from deep.

Gallatin County held a slight rebounding edge of 35-31 but gave up 19-offensive rebounds to Crab Orchard.

Unfortunately for the Trojans, this led to more missed chances from the field.

Coach Brown's team missed a combined 54 shot attempts (26 2-point attempts, 28 3-point attempts).

Following Johnson in scoring for the Trojans was Kissing with 16.

After Drone on the scoring list for Gallatin County was Aud with 13-points and Lowe with seven.

Despite its problems with shooting on the night, the Trojans jumped out to an early first quarter lead as Johnson hit his first 3-point attempt and Coty Weece, who finished with eight points, got loose for a fast break lay in and a 9-3 lead with 2:33 remaining.

Johnson scored an early basket in the second quarter on a fast break which turned out to be significant.

It was the final transition points of the game for Crab Orchard as the Hawks got back and defended better than the they did in the previous two defeats to the Trojans.

A Hunter Arnold 3-pointer and another Johnson drive gave the Trojans a 20-18 halftime lead.

The defending tournament champions were just 8-of-39 in the first half yet held a two point lead.

After spotting the Hawks a run to begin the third quarter, Kissing scored the quarter's final seven points on a 3-pointer from the right corner, two free throws and an offensive stick back.

When his left handed lay in found the mark after cleaning the offensive glass, Crab Orchard was clinging to a 30-27 lead.

“You have to give Gallatin County and Coach Patton credit. They made some real nice adjustments,” Coach Brown explained after his team fell to 20-2 on the season. “To get into our press and to get the game up and down the floor you have to score. We didn't do that tonight. It is a frustrating loss but we will pick ourselves up and go on.”

Gallatin County (12-7) turned the ball over 16 times but the defensive work on stopping the Trojans from using its running game ended up being the major factor in the championship victory.

“Obviously this is a big win for us. We didn't play well early and couldn't put the ball in the hole but we finally settled down and played a pretty good second half,” said Coach Patton.

Gallatin County (52) – Aud 3 2 1-2 13, Hish 0 1 2-2 5, Drone 9 0 2-3 20, Lowe 2 0 3-6 7, Cox 2 0 0-0 4, Ramsey 1 0 1-2 3, Patton 0 0 0-0 0, W. McGuire 0 0 0-0 0. 2FG-17, 3FG-3, FT-9-15, PF-13.
Crab Orchard (50) – Johnson 5 2 4-4 20, Wece 1 2 0-0 8, Kissing 3 2 4-5 16, Perry 0 0 0-0 0, Arnold 0 2 0-0 6. 2FG-9, 3FG-8, FT-8-9, PF-15.
Fouled Out – Cox, Gallatin County.
Technical Fouls – None.

In the third place game of the GEC Tournament, the Cougars' Kyle Holloman needed nine points to reach 1,000-points for his career.

Hardin County (43) – Holloman 3 0 5-6 11, Parkinson 4 4 3-5 20, Hays 1 0 0-0 2, McClenahan 2 0 3-5 7, Robinson 1 0 1-3 3, Vaughn 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-11, 3FG-4, FT-12-19, PF-17.
Carrier Mills (41) – Bailey 3 1 0-5 9, Crim 1 1 1-1 6, Morgan 6 0 1-6 13, C. Taborn 3 0 2-5 8, Walker 0 0 1-2 1, D. Taborn 0 0 0-1 0, Stuckker 1 0 2-2 4.
2FG-14, 3FG-2, FT-7-22, PF-14.
Fouled Out – Hays, Hardin County; C. Taborn, Carrier Mills.
Technical Fouls – None.

The Fighting Cardinals were first out of the gate Saturday afternoon, leading all the way in the consolation championship game with a win over the Tigers.

However Thompsonville didn't surrender the consy crown without a fight.

These Cats clawed back in the fourth quarter cutting the lead down to just 37-35 with 4:19 to go.

However NCOE (7-12) held off its rivals for the win while Thompsonville fell to 4-15 overall.

Coach Doug Miller's Cards were led by a pair of double-figure scorers with Justin Knight topping the charts with 18-points while Cole Tucker added 11-points.

“They (Thompsonville) are a young team, just like us so we are going to have to battle them for a few years to come,” said Coach Miller. “We won that game in the first half because we weren't very good in the second half.”

Brady Housholder led the Tigers with 11-points.

Knight scored 10 of his points in the opening quarter, helping NCOE to a 14-4 advantage.

His 3-pointer from the left wing gave the Cardinals a 5-0 start and his short jumper in the paint made it 14-2, the largest margin of the game.

Thompsonville finally got some offense going in the second half.

Five-foot-nine sophomore guard Jake Williams sparked the Tigers during a 14-2 run to begin the third quarter.

Williams scored four of those points and his long two-point shot from the right wing helped Thompsonville grab some momentum.

Householder canned a 3-point shot while being fouled by NCOE's Briar Short turned into a four-point play.

Six-foot-five sophomore Quentin Henson hit a pair of shots in the lane to finish the run at 30-29.

But the Tigers ran out of gas in the final quarter, hitting just 5-of-16 shots from the field and committing a pair of costly turnovers in the final two minutes.

NCOE finished the game hitting on 15-of-40 shots overall while Thompsonville didn't fair as well (15-of-53).

The Cardinals held a 32-27 rebounding edge while surviving 16-turnovers.

“We missed a ton of inside shots and we have to get tougher around the basket,” said Thompsonville head coach Brandon Chaplain. “As young guys they don't really realize how important each possession is.”

Thompsonville (42) – Householder 2 2 2-3 12, Williams 2 0 1-2 5, R. Darnell 3 0 2-2 8, Henson 4 0 0-2 8, McRoy 0 0 0-0 0, Harrison 1 0 1-2 3, Payne 0 0 0-0 0, Kerley 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-13, 3FG-2, FT-10-18, PF-21.
Norris City-Omaha-Enfield (46) – Stecyk 0 0 0-0 0, Short 1 0 2-2 4, Lamb 0 0 0-0 0, Tucker 1 2 3-4 11, marsh 0 0 0-1 0, Knight 6 0 6-11 18, halfacre 1 1 1-2 6, Frymire 0 0 0-0 0, Wheeler 3 0 1-3 7.
2FG-12, 3FG-3, FT-13-21, PF-17.
Fouled Out – Henson, Thompsonville; Halfacre, Norris City-Omaha-Enfield.
Technical Fouls – None.