01-08-16
BY JACK BULLOCK
ALBION - Edwards County head coach Russ Gerlach was point blank when assessing his opposition after Friday night's lopsided loss to the ABV top-ranked and state-ranked 2A Lawrenceville Indians.

“In my nine years as being a head coach they are by far the best team I ever coached against. Those Woodlawn teams were really good but they (Lawrenceville) are better than them,” said Coach Gerlach. “They are all athletic, they all can shoot, they all can post. It doesn't matter what you try to do against them defensively, because they can score. They just have better athletes and better players at all five spots.”

Sometimes when one really good team gets a big lead they will let up.

Coach Randy Bishop's club never did until the fourth quarter when the game was no longer in doubt.

The Indians jumped out to an early lead, forcing turnovers and converting lay ups like it was a practice drill.

When they weren't shooting lay ins they were drilling home long distance shots.

However the most staggering number in the 91-62 shellacking was Lawrenceville's assault on the offensive boards.

When they missed a shot they cleaned up the mess to the tune of 28-offensive rebounds, a staggering figure in a 32-minute contest.

They out-rebounded the Edwards County team 42-24 overall as they improved to 13-1 overall and 4-0 in the Little Illini Conference.

“Loeb, Benson and Shick have really worked hard at rebounding on the offensive glass because we aren't very big. So we have to be able to rebound to compete. I told them going in that if we didn't rebound against Edwards County it could be a ten-point game,” said Coach Bishop. “Loeb hit some outside shots for us tonight. It was a pretty good team effort tonight.”

The Indians placed five players in double-figures in the scorebook, led by senior guard Harry Loeb.

The 6-foot-1 starter heated up from the outside early, scoring 18-points while nailing four 3-pointers in the blitz.

Jordan Shick, a 6-foot-1 senior, did his damage on the inside as he was part of the rebounding onslaught.

Shick ended up with 17-points on the night while senior 6-foot senior Brandt Cochran ended up with 15.

Six-foot-three senior Brady Benson tossed in 12-points while Dylan Volkman, a 6-foot-2 senior guard, ended his night with 10-points.

The figures all added up to an relatively easy win as the Indians forced the hosts into 25-turnovers with most of the mistakes turned into points.

The bright spot on the night for Edwards County turned out to be 6-foot-5 junior Nathanial Schmittler who led all scorers with 26-points.

Unfortunately for the Lions, he scored 17 of his points in the second half after the outcome had already been decided.

“Last year we had a problem with that (letting up in games) and we have tried to correct that. We take everybody seriously and don't let teams back in games,” said Coach Bishop. “They have learned that we need to keep pressuring. Edwards County has some nice kids. That post kid (Schmittler) is tough and you start letting them make free throws and it gets to a ten-point game at home it makes a difference. So we really have worked on that trying to maintain our pressure and focus. And I am pretty proud of them because we have been able to do that.”

Lawrenceville roared out to an early lead, using its full court pressure to force six turnovers in the early going.

Before Edwards County knew what hit them, they were down 9-0.

Benson scored on a lay in on a pass from Shick to begin the scoring wave.

Shick hit a pair of free throws and a steal by Cochran turned into a lay in from Volkman.

Loeb nailed his first trey that forced an Edwards County timeout with 5:44 left.

The Lions finally got on the board with a tip-in by 6-foot-5 senior Maverick Troyer.

But the next nine-points were from the visitors.

Shick spun around an Edwards County defender for a bucket and Volkman delivered another long range bomb for the squad.

Benson scored on a short baseline jumper and Cochran gave himself his own assist on an inbounds play as he threw a pass off of a Lions' defender on the baseline and took the carom back for a lay in and an 18-2 lead.

Schmittler tried to keep his club in the contest, scoring on a conventional three-point play and adding a basket in the paint late in the period.

However his last score with :02 only cut the deficit in half, as the quarter ended at 24-12.

After two free throws by Edwards County's Colton Kelsey, Lawrenceville put together another scoring spree.

Three-of-four free throws by Shick and a pair of scores by Loeb made it 31-14.

Loeb scored on a fast break after a Lions turnover and then he muscled in for a rebound in traffic for a put-back with 5:49 left which forced Coach Gerlach into another timeout.

The next run by the Indians put the outcome on ice.

Lawrenceville went on a 14-0 sprint, with Loeb scoring five of the points while some of the other Tribesmen got involved in the fun.

Junior guard Bryce Winningham rebounded his own missed shot for a score in the lane while being fouled by Troyer.

His made free throw gave the Indians their first 20-point lead.

A rebound basket by 6-foot-2 senior Dalton Sholders, another trey from Loeb and Volkman rebound of his own missed shot gave Coach Bishop's team a 45-20 advantage at half-time.

Lawrenceville forced seven turnovers in the stanza and grabbed six additional offensive rebounds.

At this point in the victory march, the Indians could have let up some but the highly regarded club continued to play hard.

They scored 34-points in the third quarter.

Cochran had his best frame of the game, netting 11-points.

He nailed a 3-pointer just seconds into the second half.

Loeb added two more long range scores and Benson started a late quarter 10-0 run to give the Indians a 31-point lead.

By the time Cochran converted another turnover into points, the score stood at 75-34 with 1:59 left in the third.

Mostly reserves played the final quarter for both teams.

“I knew that their half-court offense was pretty good and I knew that if we could get them into a full-court game it would be to our advantage,” said Coach Bishop. “Our pressure has been our key all year. We are a running team and you have to get on the glass to get to do that. They (the kids) like running so they know they have to do that to run.”

Edwards County saw its record slip to 11-5 on the season as, besides Schmittler, only senior forward Eli Mosson (11-points) hit double-digits in scoring.

“He (Schmittler) plays hard every game and he is our leading scorer. He kept attacking the basket and he is a pretty good player,” said Coach Gerlach. “I'm glad we have him for one more year.”

The Lions shot a respectable percentage at 46 (23-of-50) but the turnovers led to too many scores for Lawrenceville.

The Indians shot the ball about the same as the hosts but they did a better job of mopping up the messes.

The Tribe hit 34-of-73 overall as they attacked the basket on each trip.

They committed 16-turnovers but four of them were in the final quarter by the reserves.

This will be the final LIC regular season meeting between the two programs as Edwards County moves to the Black Diamond Conference beginning in the 2016-17 school year.

Coach Bishop's club will play Saturday afternoon at the Effingham St. Anthony Shootout against Troy Triad.

Edwards County travels to Cisne on Saturday night in a battle of Lions.

“We just felt like if we went man-to-man that they were so quick that they would back door us so we felt like we had to play zone,” said Coach Gerlach. “But when you play zone it is sometimes hard to box out. So when they did miss they got a lot of offensive rebounds.”