11-30-2021
BY JACK BULLOCK
ELKVILLE - After going 1-3 to open the season at the Edwardsville Metro-East Lutheran Turkey Tip-Off Coach Scott Wine and his club were looking to get off to a good start in their non-conference road test at Elverado on Tuesday night.

Marissa/Coulterville probably couldn't have started out any better.

The Meteors raced out to 19-0 lead in the first quarter and survived a bit of a Falcons flurry in the second half to pick up a road win, 53-39 at Piper-Valerius Gymnasium.

A key spark for Marissa/Coulterville came from guard Chase Hurst.

The 5-10 junior guard led all scorers on the night with 23-points, including five 3-pointers in the game.

He nailed down three of those long range shots in that initial first quarter run as M/C improved to 2-3 overall in 2021-22.

Coach Wine got 12-points inside from 6-5 junior Garrett Harrell in the win.

Despite giving up some scoring runs in the second half, the Meteors were never threatened as the lead never dipped below double-digits.

“I just told the kids, every win on the road is a good win but it's just so disappointing that didn't finish like we started. They put a little pressure on us and we started throwing the ball all over the place,” said Coach Wine. “We got pretty complacent. They were playing us 'man-to-man' and we were scoring at will. When they went to their zone we didn't handle it well. Our shot selection was a bit 'iffy' at times. Finishing around the basket has been a problem of ours. I don't know how many five footers we missed tonight.”

Elverado and head coach Daniel Eisenhauer fell behind early and never recovered as they dropped to 1-4 on the season.

The Falcons were led by Chase Buser, a 5-8 senior, who ended up with 17-points on the night.

He helped get Elverado back into contention in the second half but the rally fell short.

Elverado committed 19-turnovers, which didn't help matters, with 11 of the miscues coming in the first half where they trailed by 18.

For the whole game the Falcons ended up 15-of-37 from the floor, and 4-of-13 from the 3-point arc.

One of the key stats for Marissa/Coulterville was rebounding as they owned the glass 32-17 and snagged 12 offensive boards.

After a hot start shooting the ball, the Meteors cooled off and ended up 21-of-57 for the game, 6-of-19 from the arc.

Behind the early long range shooting by Hurst and inside scores from Harrell and 6-3 senior Caleb Trieb, M/C hammered the hosts with a barrage of points.

Tanner Middendorf, a 5-10 sophomore who ended up with four points on the night, scored in the lane in the early run.

That bucket was in between a two long range shots by Hurst that forced an Elverado time out with 5:16 left and the score 10-0 Meteors.

Two more scores from Hurst, another trey and a rebound bucket where he grabbed his own missed shot, pushed the score to 15-0.

Trieb added another basket and two free throws by Hurst finished the 19-0 run.

Elverado finally got on the board on a shot on the baseline by Buser with :35 left in the quarter.

“We have to fight for every point we get and we're down 17 (at the end of the first quarter) because we came out 'sleep walking' in the first quarter,” said Coach Eisenhauer. “We fought back and finally made a couple of shots. I knew they had size and some shooters. We talked about (before the game) get through the screens and get to the shooters. We just have to do a better job defensively.”

The Falcons beginning wasn't what Coach Eisenhauer was hoping for.

Elverado was just 1-of-8 from the field and committed six of their turnovers in the first frame.

Marissa/Coulterville looked like they were headed for a 'continuous clock' type win when they pushed the lead out to its largest to 21-points

An 8-2 run made it 30-9 at the 2:16 mark.

After an exchange of baskets by Harrell and Elverado's Reed Funk, a 6-4 senior, senior guard Jessie Shread nailed a 3-pointer from the left corner to give the Falcons a boost heading to intermission down 32-14.

Following a couple of baskets in the early going of the second half by Trieb and Middendorf, Coach Wine's club went cold for a stretch the third quarter.

Six consecutive trips with zero points (0-6 shooting) allowed Elverado to cut into the lead.

The Falcons switched from a 'man-to-man' defense to a 'zone-trap' that bothered the Meteors.

Buser scored three straight times in the run and a late score in the lane by Funk made it 41-24 heading to the fourth quarter.

The Falcons had one last run in them as they got to within 11-points twice in the final frame.

They scored the first six points coming out of the break with 5-8 junior Kobyn Kimmel hitting a 3-pointer to start a 9-2 run.

Junior Brayden Wright netted a 3-pointer to close the run and close the deficit to 44-33 with 5:41 remaining which force a M/C timeout.

As is turned out, that was as close as Elverado would get.

The Meteors used their own 9-2 run to end the drama.

Senior Chase Weis got in on the fun by scoring on a back door cut while Elverado was trying to trap.

Hurst added his final 3-point bomb of the night and consecutive scores in the lane by Harrell and Weis ended the Marissa/Coulterville scoring.

Wright and Buser each scored late and a 1-2 free throw line trip by Elverado sophomore Gavin Roberts ended the scoring as the Meteors ran out the clock on their second win of the season.

“We talked yesterday about how we wanted to guard them and then we didn't do it in the first quarter. But we bothered them when we switched to a zone,” said Coach Eisenhauer. “We played hard in the second half. We played hard the last three quarters. I told them 'play hard and give it your best effort for four quarters'. We didn't do that tonight.”

Of the visitors' 10 turnovers, six of them came in the second half.

Part of the Marissa/Coulterville rebounding domination was on the defensive end as they only allowed Elverado three offensive rebounds for the whole contest.

The Falcons next contest is Thursday night at home against SEC rival Dongola, although it's not a conference game.

The Meteors travel to Cahokia Conference Kaskaskia Division foe Dupo on Friday night.

“We haven't done that (good start) in any of our prior four games. But you have to learn how to put teams away and our guys haven't found that out yet,” said Coach Wine.

Marissa/Coulterville (53) – Herrell 5 0 2-2 12, Hurst 3 5 2-2 23, Middendorf 2 0 0-0 4, Portz 0 0 0-0 0, Trieb 3 1 0-2 9, Weis 2 0 1-2 5. 2FG-15, 3FG-6, FT-5-8, PF-11.
Elverado (39) – Kimmel 0 1 2-3 5, Shread 0 1 0-0 3, Buser 6 1 2-4 17, Roberts 0 0 1-2 1, Wiggins 0 0 0-0 0, Wright 2 1 0-0 7, Funk 3 0 0-2 6. 2FG-11, 3FG-4, FT-5-11, PF-7.
Fouled Out – None.
Technical Fouls – None.