02-12-2021
BY JACK BULLOCK
CHRISTOPHER – With neither team being able to do much damage offensively from the outside on Friday night, Christopher turned to its 'man in the middle' to get the job done.

Six-foot-six junior center Peyton Mazur stepped up with a 19 point, 13 rebound effort as he led the host Bearcats to a 58-47 win over Black Diamond Conference foe Goreville.

Mazur was a problem for the Blackcats as he scored three field goals and then added a baker's dozen from the foul line.

After Mazur missed his first free throw attempt of the game, he nailed 13 consecutive charities as Christopher, who took control in the second quarter and never relinquish the lead in the final two quarters, improved to 3-0 on the season, in the West Division and overall.

Coach Eric Stallman's club hit just 21.4 percent from the 3-point line (3-of-14) but it was much better than Goreville.

“He (Mazur) is a really good athlete. He has good footwork and good hands. He is a good athlete and he will play college football somewhere. He is a 6-foot-5 and 345 and he can run like he is much smaller than that,” said Coach Stallman. “If he can get set up down low where he wants then he can do a good job down there.”

Coach Todd Tripp watched in dismay as his club hit just 2-of-24 from the arc (8.3 percent) as they lost for the first time this season to fall to 2-1 overall and in the league.

The Bearcats forced Goreville into foul trouble and they spent most of the second half of the contest at the free throw line.

Senior guard Kye Garver added 14 points for the Bearcats while junior guard Colin Sveda finished with nine points.

After a pretty good first quarter, the Blackcats fell behind and couldn't recover as they suffered their first loss of the season.

Junior forward Chase Quigley paced Goreville with 17 points while senior guard Kanon Webb and junior guard Briley Dunn added 10 points each.

Quigley was the top performer overall for the Blackcats as he hit 5-of-8 shots from the floor, including his only 3-point attempt.

Everyone else hit 11-of-44 from the field (25 percent).

However the real story of the contest was Mazur as the junior big man dominated the boards, leading the Bearcats to a 30-15 edge.

Garver (six) and Goins (seven) also came up big on the glass for Coach Stallman.
Each team ended up with 16 turnovers, in a game that wasn't pretty at times.

The two clubs combined for 48 personal fouls but the Bearcats managed to get to the foul line more often, hitting 27-of-37, when spelled the difference on this cold night.

Goreville was 13-of-19 with Quigley being the standout with 6-of-7.

The Blackcats got off to the best start, as they jumped out to a 13-4 advantage with Quigley scoring four of his six first quarter points in the run.

Dunn nailed down a pair of shots, including a 3-point bomb.

Christopher responded by getting 3-of-4 free throws from Mazur, a basket by sophomore Try Cole and a 3-pointer from Sveda.

A Quigley reverse lay in on a baseline drive closed the first quarter with Goreville up 15-11.

After Mazur hit a shot in the lane and then added a pair of free throws to even the game at 15-15, Goreville got right back to scoring with Webb scoring twice on drives to the basket.

His first one turned into a three-point play as he was fouled by Garver.

Webb converted the free throw and the foul sent Garver to the bench with his third personal.

The next Webb bucket gave the Blackcats a 20-15 lead with 4:08 to go in the second quarter.

Unfortunately for Coach Tripp and his squad, not a lot went right for the team the rest of the evening.

Christopher closed the half with an 8-0 run to take the lead.

Mazur scored twice in the paint on nice spin moves.

Then Goins and Sveda hit shots in transition.

The second Mazur basket closed the half at 23-20 Bearcats.

“I think what we did on offense, taking our time and being a bit more methodical, helped keep the score where we wanted it,” added Coach Stallman.

Goreville hit just 2-of-12 shots in the second quarter and committed five of their 16 turnovers in this frame.

“We just played 'not smart basketball' tonight,” said Coach Tripp. “We needed to attack, to get to the free throw line and get easier shots and we didn't do that tonight.”

Goins canned back-to-back shots to open the second half for the Bearcats.

His second shot, a wide open 3-pointer from the top of the circle, gave Christopher a 28-20 spread.

“Our big's are big. They (Mazur and Goins) are big and strong and they do a very good job of what they do,” said Coach Stallman. “I thought we did a pretty good job of taking care of the ball on the perimeter because Goreville does a great job pressuring the ball. I felt like we did a better job handling the ball in the second half.”

Garver scored twice on drives to the basket in the third quarter and Mazur added six consecutive made free throws as the Bearcats led 38-29 heading into the fourth quarter.

Dunn opened the fourth quarter scoring with a three-point play on a drive to the basket, which made it 38-32 with 7:21 left.

However Christopher kept the visitors from getting any closer.

Christopher could have ended the drama much earlier but they missed seven fourth quarter free throws (15-of-22).

Goreville, however, hit just 5-of-19 field goals in the final stanza and added four additional turnovers.

Each team committed 16 turnovers in the contest.

The Bearcats head back into action with a Saturday afternoon game at Sesser-Valier with both teams at 3-0 in the BDC West.

Sesser-Valier defeated Chester on the road Friday night, 53-51.

Goreville plays Massac County on Saturday.

“We are just excited to be playing and we are excited to be playing,” said Coach Stallman. “We are going to play the ones that we can play.”

Goreville (47) – Bishop 0 0 2-4 2, Green 0 0 0-0 0, Webb 4 0 2-2 10, Dunn 3 1 1-3 10, Quigley 4 1 6-7 17, compton 1 0 0-0 2, Sopczak 1 0 2-3 4, Lingle 0 0 0-0 0, Schuetz 1 0 0-0 2, Geyman 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-14, 3FG-2, FT-13-19, PF-26.
Christopher (58) - Garver 3 0 8-14 14, Rolla 1 0 1-1 3, Sveda 1 2 1-2 9, Cole 1 0 2-4 4, Goins 2 1 2-2 9, Mazur 3 0 13-14 19.
2FG-11, 3FG-3, FT-27-37, PF-22.
Fouled Out – None.
Technical Fouls – None.