01-20-16
BY JACK BULLOCK
WEST FRANKFORT - The Herrin Tigers won-loss mark is not a very good barometer of how good this team can be.

Head coach Irv Lukens has a club that is battle tested and it has showed this week at the 30th annual West Frankfort Mid-Winter Classic.

The squad delivered a very impressive performance on Wednesday night, taking control in the second half to pull away from Anna-Jonesboro for a relatively easy 58-44 win.

This victory, coupled with its 20-point win over Eldorado on Monday, puts the Tigers in position to reach the title game of this event with one more victory.

Behind 23-points from 6-foot-4 junior Jake Downen and an outside barrage of 3-pointers, Herrin moved to 2-0 in the event.

With a win over Johnston City on Friday night, the Tigers could find themselves in the title game on Saturday.

Coach Lukens club used a 12-0 run to close out the third quarter as Downen scored six of the points consecutively on shots in the lane.

The Tigers not only were successful on the inside on this cold night but they kept the fire burning from the outside as well.

Herrin nailed nine 3-pointers in the game and when sophomore Brandon Nesler closed the run with a bomb from the left wing, the Tigers turned a four-point deficit into a 44-36 lead at the end of the quarter.

The Tigers didn't slow down a bit as they use another run (9-0) to close out the Wildcats.

“I thought we did a lot better job of moving the basketball in the second half and we got the ball inside. We penetrated and got people were they needed to be. And we started making shots,” said Coach Lukens. “Jake Downen had a heck of a second half and that is what we needed out of him. Nesler and Bush were shooting the ball well.”

For coach Mike Chamness and his A-J club, the second half wasn't what he had hoped for.

Anna-Jonesboro didn't execute on either end of the floor as they fell to 1-1 in the tournament and 11-8 overall.

After a pretty good start to the contest, A-J was just 6-of-23 from the floor in final 16-minutes with six-turnovers.

Downen led the Tigers with eight rebounds and Nesler ended up with 15-points as he canned five of the team's 3-pointers.

Five-foot-eight senior guard Savion Yarbrough didn't score but he helped out by dishing eight assists.

All of the figures added up to an impressive victory for the Tigers, who entered this event with just three victories on the season but now have won back-to-games for the first time in 2015-16.

The contest featured 15-lead changes with 13 of those coming in the first half.

The Wildcats hung close by getting 15-points from sophomore Jake Parr.

The 6-foot-2 forward scored six points in the first quarter with all three baskets coming on drives to the basket.

His third bucket gave A-J an 11-10 lead in the see-saw first half.

Consecutive 3-pointers from Herrin's Dalton Bush and Anna-Jonesboro's Hunter Garver knotted the contest at 18-all at the end of one.

“I knew in the first quarter (18-18) that we couldn't keep up that pace and that we needed to get some stops,” added Coach Chamness. “We just can't score that much. And in the second half we just weren't very good. It seemed like every time we messed up, they (Herrin) made us pay.”

Herrin took its largest first half lead with a rebound basket by Downen and another trey from Nesler for a 24-19 spread.

Anna-Jonesboro responded with baskets by sophomore Sheldon McGrath and a 3-pointer from Garver.

When senior Garrett Nimmo drove the lane for a conventional three-point play while being fouled by Nesler, the Wildcats led 29-27 at the break.

Parr netted two more scores in the third quarter with three-point play of his own and another bucket off near the basket which gave the Wildcats its final lead at 36-32 at the 5:50 mark.

The rest of the night belonged to the Tigers.

The Nesler-Downen run put Herrin up for good as they cruised home in the final minutes for the victory.

“I thought when we went to our 2-3 zone I thought that changed the game. We got them out of sync a little bit. We did a good job with our zone,” added Coach Lukens. “We got two wins in a row and that is the first time this season. Hopefully we can keep this thing going.”

The Tigers ended up 21-of-41 from the floor (51.2 percent) and committed just nine turnovers.

Anna-Jonesboro was just 17-of-40 from the field after a very good start to the game.

Coach Chamness' club held a slight 21-19 rebounding edge but they committed 14-turnovers with five of them coming in the second quarter where they could have put some distance between themselves and the Tigers.

After Parr the Wildcats got nine points from Garver and seven points from senior guard Ryan Stark.

“We didn't pass the ball well. Every time we hit an open shooter we would make a bad pass, threw it at his feet or threw it to where he had to move. They went to that zone in the second half and we became stagnant,” added Coach Chamness. “You can't do that and it is frustrating.”

After Downen and Nesler, the Tigers' got points from Dalton Bush, a 5-foot-11 senior guard who added 12-points with three of the long range shots that fell for Herrin.

Actually the final margin could have been more lopsided had the Tigers been better from the foul line.

The Tigers were just 7-of-14 from the stripe including a 2-of-7 stretch in the final quarter.

Unfortunately for the Wildcats during that time frame, A-J didn't score a point.

By the time Parr scored in the final minute, the final margin was cut to just 14.

Anna-Jonesboro will play at 5:30 pm on Friday against Eldorado.

“I thought that in the second half they (Herrin) did a lot of things really well. They hit a few shots and Yarbrough got in the paint. He hit Downen for some easy buckets,” said Coach Chamness. “We just didn't execute in the second half.”

In the other games Wednesday night Goreville improved to 1-1 in the tournament with a 66-60 win over rival Vienna in the opener while the host Redbirds took down Carterville, 57-44 to improve to 2-0.

Four players scored in double-figures for Coach Todd Tripp's Blackcats as they improved to 12-5 overall with the win over Vienna.

Brant Glidewell, a 6-foot-4 junior, poured in 17-points for the Blackcats while teammates Tanner Dunn and Peyton Massey added 14-points each.

Jared Vaughn chipped in 13-points for Goreville.

The Blackcats held off Vienna by hitting 12-of-14 free throws in the final quarter.

Vienna was topped by Zach Moore with 18-points while Ben Daine added 13.