12-11-04
BY JACK BULLOCK
NASHVILLE - Andrew Wilson is Nashville's defensive stopper, plain and simple.

Coach Darin Lee gives Wilson the responsibility to guard the other teams' top guard or forward. For the past two seasons, this 6-foot-4 senior has gotten the assignment of shadowing West Frankfort forward Ryan Patton.

Once again, as was the case last season, Wilson held Patton to just eight points; all coming in the fourth quarter in the Hornets 60-52 win Saturday night at the Assembly Hall in Nashville in a battle of stat-ranked clubs.

Wilson also contributed on the offensive end scoring 21-points while hitting the Hornets only two three pointers on the night.

The win was the second straight victory of the weekend for Coach Lee's club after a surprising loss to Red Bud last Friday.

The win has the Hornets sitting at 5-1 on the season.

Nashville jumped out to a 17-6 first quarter lead and held off two big second half runs by the now 4-2 Redbirds.

"Andrew Wilson is a tremendous defender and he did a great job on him (Patton) last year holding him to eight points and he did it again tonight," said Lee, who notched his 300th win with the victory.
"He is long armed and quick enough to bother people. It is hard to shoot over him."

Matt Weeks was the top gun for the Redbirds, hitting for 22-points while Josh Webb hit for 10.

But the rest of the West Frankfort offensive machine struggled, namely 6-foot-7 senior Ryan Kirkpatrick, who was held scoreless by the Nashville front line.

"What they did to us tonight is a tribute to the defensive scheme that Coach Lee and his kids can do," said West Frankfort mentor Kevin Toney.

"To shut down Ryan Patton is quite a task and they did it tonight so 'hats off' to them."

Joey Dial gave the Redbirds their only lead of the game in the first quarter with a rebound basket and a pair of free throws, making it 4-2 with 5:37 left.

But it didn't take long before Lucas O'Rear to make his presence felt. This 6-foot-5 sophomore phenom scored 10 quick points.

His first two buckets came while WF was trying full court defensive pressure.

The plan backfired for the Redbirds when he scored on a pair drives to the basket. His second score put the Hornets back up 6-4 with 4:47 remaining.

"We try to mix up our presses, either 'diamond-and-one' or 'man-to-man,' but tonight neither one was working so we scraped the idea after the first quarter," said Coach Toney.

Dial scored once again to even things at 6-apiece on a lay up on a pass from Weeks.

But that proved to be the final tie of the game as Nashville scored the final 11-points of the frame to get some breathing room.

Three more baskets by O'Rear and two big shots by Wilson put the Hornets in the lead that they would not relinquish.

A skip pass from O'Rear to Wilson in the right corner set up the Hornets first 3-pointer of the night.

A rebound basket by O'Rear near the end of the stanza made it 17-6.

The lead reached its largest at 19-6 when Wilson scored on an inbounds play just :11 into the second quarter.

But behind the scoring of the 6-foot-2 junior Weeks, the Redbirds got back to within striking distance before halftime.

His 10-second quarter points from all over the court helped keep his team in the game.

While the 'stingy' stinger of the Hornets defense overwhelmed Patton and Kirkpatrick, Weeks was a bright spot.

Weeks' final shot of the quarter, a 17-footer from near the top of the arc closed the deficit to 26-22.

Wilson hit a pair of free throws and Webb connected on a shot from the left wing to close out the half at 28-24 Hornets.

"We need to focus more on getting Kirkpatrick and Patton more involved in our offense," added Coach Toney. "We need to concentrate of getting them in better position to score and we didn't do a good enough job of that tonight. Ryan (Kirkpatrick) is capable of scoring for us, we just have to do a better job of getting him the ball where he can put points on the board."

Wilson received a pair of nice inbound assists by O'Rear during a low scoring third quarter.

His first shot, a 15-footer from the right corner, extended the Nashville advantage to 30-24 in the first minute of play.

The second score, later in the frame, was a back door lay in to make it 36-30. In both cases, the Hornets caught West Frankfort napping on the defensive end.

Wilson (baseline jumper) and 5-foot-10 senior teammate Clint Harre (two free throws) each scored in the final minutes to close the quarter at 40-30.

A high scoring, foul plagued fourth quarter saw West Frankfort crawl back into contention only to see Nashville hold them off at the end.

Patton, who was held scoreless for the first three quarters, suddenly came to life offensively.

He hit a pair of 3-pointers, one of which while being fouled by Wilson.

When he converted the 4-point play, the Birds were back in the contest trailing just 55-49 with 1:30 remaining.

Another 3-pointer, this time by Webb from the left wing cut the Nashville advantage to 56-52.

However the Hornets then went into a spread offense and West Frankfort was forced to foul.

With Kirkpatrick on the West Frankfort bench with five fouls, Nashville came up with a big rebound by O'Rear off of a missed free throw by Harre.

This allowed the Hornets to run some more clock before Scott Forys was fouled with :39 remaining. He made one of his two charities and then came up with a steal and a fast break lay up to seal up the 60-52 victory.

Wilson's 21-points topped the Hornets offense on the night while Lucas O'Rear followed up with 19-points.

Coach Toney talked about his team's inability to take care of the ball as a big factor in the defeat.

"When you play a team like Nashville and you are going to be very good, you can't just throw the ball away like we did tonight," added Coach Toney. "They (Nashville) are good enough defensively that you don't want to carelessly give the ball back to them."

Coach Lee, despite the win, thinks that his team can get even better.

"We are getting better but we still have a way to go," said Coach Lee.

West Frankfort (52) - Cunningham 0 0 0-0 0, Webb 3 1 1-2 10, Patton 0 2 2-3 8, Weeks 8 1 3-3 22, Conaughty 2 0 0-0 4, Dial 2 0 2-2 6, Kirkpatrick 0 0 0-0 0, Jones 1 0 0-0 2.
2FG-16, 3FG-4, FT-8-10.
Nashville (60) - Price 1 0 0-2 2, Harre 0 0 5-8 5, Wilson 6 2 3-4 21, Forys 2 0 3-5 7, L. O'Rear 7 0 5-9 19, C. O'Rear 3 0 0-0 6.
2FG-19, 3FG-2, FT-16-28.
Fouled Out - Conaughty, Kirkpatrick - West Frankfort.
Technical Fouls - None