02-26-14
BY JACK BULLOCK
GOREVILLE – From the very beginning of Wednesday night’s Goreville 1A Regional semifinal game, the tempo of the contest was not going to be to the liking of the visiting Steeleville Warriors.

The host Blackcats like to “speed things up” and they went “full-tilt” pressure on Coach Bryce Bainter’s club.

Within a blink of a Cats’ eye Goreville was ahead 13-1.

By the time the visitors knew what hit them, the game was essentially over as Coach Todd Tripp’s top-seeded Blackcats rolled to an offensively impressive 94-69 win to advance to Friday nights’ championship game.

The two catalysts for Goreville, seniors Zeke Snell and Kyefer Cavins, went way past their season averages in the victory.

The 6-foot-4 senior forward Snell went off for 37-points and 11-rebounds.

Cavins, a 6-foot-1 senior guard, drained home 30-points and grabbed 14-rebounds.

Those two nearly outscored Steeleville by themselves as the Blackcats improved their mark to 17-12 on the season with the victory in front of a large crowd in their home gym.

“That (fast tempo) is what we wanted to do and we felt like we could get them tired,” said Coach Tripp. “He (Snell) got some easy looks early and we got him going. They were on him, but he got touches. When he gets touches he gets us kick-started.”

The play of these two seniors helped overshadow the one true bright spot for Steeleville.

Six-foot senior forward AJ Jeffers netted 30-points in the final game of his prep career.

His play around the basket helped keep the Warriors heads above water for most of the second half.

But every move that Steeleville tried to make after falling behind by 24-7 at the end of the first quarter, Goreville answered.

Using its full-court, full-throttle defense to offense philosophy, Coach Tripp’s troops extended the pressure and in the process extended their season for at least one more game.

The Blackcats also got 11-points from Daniel Lanham, a 5-foot-9 senior guard, who like the other seniors got to extend their prep basketball careers.

“We talked about slowing the game down to a half-court game because we didn’t want to run with them, but we got down and had to play their style,” said Coach Bainter. “For us to win, we have to keep the game in a half-court style. Their athletes and pressure got to us.”

From the outset, Snell proved to be a major match up problem for Steeleville.

Snell scored the Blackcats first ten points, as he not only got open looks but he crashed the boards for second chance points.

His tip in off a missed shot forced a timeout by the Warriors at 10-1 with 4:33 left.

Cavins got his first points moments later as he converted a conventional three point play for a 13-1 advantage.

While all of this offense was going on for the Blackcats, Steeleville was having problems.

The Warriors missed their first seven shots and committed four of their six first quarter turnovers before they even scored a field goal.

Steeleville sophomore Nic Hagel netted a couple of shots for the Warriors to try and stop the bleeding.

However it turned out to be a Band-Aid applied where a Tourniquet was needed.

Snell ended up with three more baskets, including a fast-break two-handed dunk.

By the time he hit a midrange shot with 1:00 left in the opening stanza, Goreville led 24-5.

Steeleville was just 3-of-13 in the first quarter and trailed by 17.

At this point, the Warriors showed some signs of life as they began to get going offensively.

Jeffers scored ten of his points in the second frame, and his score with 3:07 remaining before the half gave Steeleville 20-points total.

Unfortunately a quick look at the scoreboard showed the Warriors still down 39-20.

Trading baskets the rest of the quarter, Steeleville went to the locker room down 43-24 at intermission.

“Then Cavins gets in there and gets rebounds. You look up and Snell has 20 and there is Kyefer with 18 or 20. He (Cavins) just plays so hard all the time,” added Coach Tripp.

The Warriors made some runs in the second half but could get no closer than 14-points.

Forced to play in a hurry-up mode, Steeleville got the ball to Jeffers a lot in the second half.

His score in the lane with 6:50 to play in the fourth quarter got the lead down to 72-58.

But Snell and Cavins finished off the Warriors with an 8-0 run, with Snell netting six of the points and Cavins took a pass from Snell for a lay up and a 80-58 lead.

A rebound basket by 6-foot-5 senior Tyler Bishop and a pair of free throws by sophomore Kyle Kinder put a stamp on the win for Goreville, pushing the score to 90-63 before both teams emptied their benches.

“They have some players that can put the ball in the hole and it was tough for us to match up with them,” added Coach Bainter. “I thought for us to have a chance we had to slow the pace. As soon as they got us sped up, we couldn’t stop them.”

The Blackcats finished the contest at 35-of-68 from the field overall (51.4 percent) and held a commanding rebounding edge thanks to Snell and Cavins (41-25).

With the helter-skelter way that they play, 15-turnovers isn’t too bad for Coach Tripp’s team.

Steeleville finished 29-of-65 from the field, which were likely 20 more shot attempts than Coach Bainter wanted to take.

The Warriors finished just 5-of-17 from beyond the arc and committed 14-turnovers in the defeat that ended the season at 15-15.

Behind Jeffers 30-points, Steeleville got 12-points from senior Steven Utchman.

“The last two years, AJ has been everybody’s favorite player. If you look at him he isn’t going intimidate you but he has the biggest heart and he has worked hard for me,” said Coach Bainter about Jeffers. “I appreciate everything he has done.”

Goreville will play the winner of Thursday night’s semifinal between Black Diamond Conference rivals Trico and Zeigler-Royalton.

The title tilt will take place Friday night at 7 pm.

“Our focus to start the game was good tonight. The energy was good and I thought our ball movement against the zone was really good,” said Coach Tripp. “The kids were ready to go tonight.”

Steeleville (69) – Utchman 6 0 0-1 12, Asbury 0 2 0-0 6, Garlit 0 0 2-2 2, B. Ebers 0 0 0-0 0, Parker 0 0 0-0 0, Feldmann 0 0 0-0 0, Smith 3 0 1-4 7, Hagel 3 0 0-0 6, Wilson 0 0 0-0 0, Dinkins 0 1 0-0 3, Jeffers 12 1 3-6 30, Eisenhauer 0 0 0-0 0, Pim 0 0 0-0 0, C. Ebers 0 0 0-0 0, Lutz 0 1 0-0 3.
2FG-24, 3FG-5, FT-6-13, PF-19.
Goreville (94) – Kinder 0 0 2-2, Seavers 0 0 0-0 0, Vaughn 1 0 4-4 6, Lanham 4 1 0-1 11, Cavins 9 2 6-9 30, Madden 0 0 0-0 0, Bishop 2 0 2-2 6, Snell 15 0 7-7 37, Messmer 1 0 0-0 2, Schuetz 0 0 0-0 0, Troop 0 0 0-0 0, Melot 0 0 0-0 0, Hill 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-32, 3FG-3, FT-21-25, PF-14.
Fouled Out – Smith - Steeleville.
Technical Fouls – None.