11-24-06
BY JACK BULLOCK
GRAYVILLE - Not many times will a team ever shoot 35 percent from the field win games against Galatia and Coach Rod Wallace.

When the Bearcats sat back in a zone defense, the host Grayville Bison found out the hard way that they couldn’t hit enough shots from the perimeter to win this important contest on the final night of Pool Play at the 10th Annual Grayville Thanksgiving Tournament.

Falling behind by double-figures early in the second quarter, Grayville managed small runs that never added up to any serious challenge to Galatia.

By the end Coach Wallace saw his team outscore the foul plagued Bison 15-6 from the foul line in a 60-52 win in front of a packed house at Grayville.

Robbie Engle scored 17 points in the contest, including a game changing 12-point second quarter burst that saw his team take control.

Galatia now sits at 3-0 in the tournament and will play Carmi-White County in Saturday’s title game. It marks the first time the Bearcats will play for the title since 2002 when they lost to Cisne.

The two-time defending champion Bulldogs survived a scare from Cisne, edging the Lions 46-43 in the previous game.

“This was a maturing game for these kids. We did a good job of taking care of the ball and protected our lead,” said Coach Wallace. “We spread the floor late and shot high percentage lay ups in the fourth quarter.”

Lay ups and also an 11-of-14 performance from the free throw line in the final quarter put away the Bison.

Coach Will Knight’s club had more than enough chances to beat Galatia, but couldn’t overcome a shooting slump that included an 8-for-30 effort in the first two quarters.

Despite Greg O’Neal and Drew DiMaggio each scoring 12 points, Grayville (2-1) dropped its first game of the season and fell into the third place game on Saturday.

“I wasn’t expecting to see them (Galatia) come out in a zone against us tonight. They played some zone against Norris City the other night but I didn’t think they would do that against us,” said Coach Knight, who will lead his team against Edwards County on Saturday in the third place game. “I was pretty disappointed in our shooting and also the way we attacked the basket. We did a bit better of a job late in the game but we didn’t execute a lot of the things that we wanted to do.”

Even though Grayville wasn’t very good from the field, the Bison hung in for a quarter due to Galatia also having trouble scoring.

The two squads managed to miss 23 shot attempts.

However it was the Bearcats that came out of its slump while Grayville stayed in the fog long enough to fall too far behind.

Grayville’s Ryan Hosman scored a pair of late baskets in the first frame. His second bucket on a rebound evened the score at 11 with just over a minute left before the first horn bellowed.

But at this point, the Robbie Engle Show was on the air.

Hitting his first 3-pointer of the evening which ended the first quarter scoring, this 5-foot-9 junior guard put his club up for good at 14-11.

The second quarter – and subsequently the outcome – belonged to Galatia and Engle.

Following another basket by Hosman - on an assist from Taylor Lynn - Grayville cut the lead to 16-13.

But they the Bison witnessed Engle score eight consecutive points on a baseline drive and a pair of 3-pointers, one from each corner.

Three more points came from Galatia before Grayville answered.

By the time the Bison realized what hit them, Galatia jumped out to a 27-13 lead.

Engle scored two more baskets and the lead reached its largest at 33-17.

A single free throw made by DiMaggio ended the first half scoring at 33-18.

“They (Grayville) left Engle open tonight and he got going,” added Wallace.

Grayville made two nice runs at the Cats in the third and fourth quarters.

The first one was triggered by a 3-pointer by Zach Short and ended with a with a pair of baskets by DiMaggio and one by Hosman. This run was of 9-2 variety and cut the Bison deficit to 43-35 heading into the final frame.

O’Neal fired the final salvo for Grayville as this 5-foot-9 senior guard scored on three straight drives through the Galatia defense.

DiMaggio then added a rebound basket and suddenly Grayville trailed just 56-50 with :45 left.

But that was all for the comeback as Coach Wallace’s crew put the game on ice hitting 4-of-6 charities in the final :29.

A bucket by Grayville’s Travis Rudisill ended the scoring as the Bison suffered its first defeat of the season.

Galatia was like a great pick up truck on this night as four of their players (Engle, Robinson, Brian Gurley and Austin Beaty) each scored four 2-point baskets (4x4) in its win.

Following Engle, Beaty added 15 and Robinson 10.

Chris Jann and Gurley chipped in nine points each.

Galatia shot 21-of-51 (41 percent) and committed just nine turnovers.

Besides the 12 points each from DiMaggio and O’Neal, Lynn scored 11 and Hosman eight.

Grayville’s 22-of-63 shooting was the key stat on the night for Coach Knight and his troops.

“This was a six-to-eight point game and how many shots did we miss in the paint?” said Knight. “We got behind NCOE the other night the same way and came back but I told the kids that sooner or later the percentages will catch up with you when you fall behind good teams. Not taking anything away from Galatia but I feel we gave one away tonight.”

Galatia (60) - Engle 4 3 0-1 17, Gurley 4 0 1-1 9, Robinson 4 0 2-4 10, Beaty 4 0 7-10 15, Jann 2 0 5-7 9, Higgens 0 0 0-0 0, White 0 0 0-0 0, Field 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-18, 3FG-3, FT-15-23, PF-15.
Grayville (52) - Hosman 4 0 0-0 8, O'Neal 5 0 2-2 12, Rudisill 2 0 0-0 4, Short 0 1 0-0 3, Bailey 0 0 0-0 0, Brown 1 0 2-2 2, DiMaggio 5 0 2-2 12, Lynn 3 1 2-3 11, Sexton 0 0 0-0 0, MIlligan 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-20, 3FG-2, FT-6-9, PF-21.
Fouled Out - None.
Technical Fouls - None.