12-21-2019
BY JACK BULLOCK
WAYNE CITY – For the 2019-20 season head coach Josh Zink decided to play some early tough competition to get his team ready for bigger and better things.

Taking on a “Murderer's Row” of state ranked teams produced an 0-3 record after three contests.

The dividends started paying off this week at the 66th annual Conrad Allen Wayne City Holiday Tournament.

The Cardinals haven't lost a game since those three defeats to Woodlawn, Effingham St. Anthony and Casey-Westfield.

Rallying from 13-points down in the third quarter, the North Clay Cardinals did something on Saturday night that they haven't done since 1980.

They hoisted the championship trophy at the WCHT.

After having played a zone defense for most of the early going without a lot of success Coach Zink switched to a trapping defense, which turned up the pressure on Crab Orchard.

The result was a 26-13 fourth quarter advantage and eventually a 70-62 comeback victory.

Tyson Jones, a 6-foot-2 senior, along with 6-foot-2 classmate Luke Fleener, scored 24 and 23 points respectively for the Cardinals, who are now 7-3 overall after the 4-0 sweep this week.

Jones canned three of the North Clay six made 3-pointers (two in the fourth quarter) and Fleener held down the fort and helped seal the championship from the foul line, connecting on 10-13 from the stripe with six straight in the final quarter.

Senior Ian Bailey added 11 points for Coach Zink as the the Cardinals were able to celebrate the win.

“Our boys deserved this. They worked so hard and never gave up. We just kept talking about making the next play and the next play,” said Coach Zink. “We made an adjustment and started trapping. It really changed the momentum of the game.”

Crab Orchard and head coach Jon Brown were cruising along and doing what they do well; hitting shots and cleaning up the ones that they miss.

Six-foot junior forward Kegan Peek led the Trojans (12-2) with 26 points and nine rebounds.

Senior Tony Lakotich and junior Quentin Meyers added 13 and 10 points.

Meyers, like Peek, crashed the boards and was a difference maker for most of the game as he also ended up with nine boards.

However the main issue that led to the Trojans' demise was turnovers.

After doing a pretty good job of handling the ball in the first half and half of the third quarter, Coach Jon Brown's club turned it over 15 times in the second half (22 total).

While North Clay heated up in the final minutes, the Trojans cooled down.

Down 46-33 with 3:02 left, the Cardinals outscored Crab Orchard 37-16 the remainder of the contest to get the hardware.

A 12-1 run to close the third quarter got North Clay the confidence they needed heading to the final countdown.

Fleener scored seven of the points and Jones added a pair of free throws.

When Bailey scored on a fast break lay up off of a Trojans turnover, North Clay had seized the momentum as they trailed just 47-44 as the third quarter ended.

“We just got it done, it wasn't easy but we got it done,” said Coach Zink. “We are really not a zone team but early on we had to be. Then when we had to do it (switch to a trap) there was no turning back. We basically call that our 'run and jump' where we try to get them to the sideline to trap and everyone else rotate. A lot of teams don't practice traps. We try to focus that, especially when we are down. The momentum swung our way when we started to get those turnovers.”

Peek calmed the storm momentarily for Crab Orchard as his driving lay up opened the final frame scoring.

That, however, would be the junior forward's final points of the night.

The Cardinals got their first lead since the end of the first quarter as they took command with a 16-2 championship run.

Junior guard Ethan Bible started the crusade with a drive to the basket and followed that with a rebound bucket.

Fleener added a drive for a score off of another Crab Orchard turnover.

Jones who came up biggest of all in the championship scoring spree.

The senior scored 10 of the 16 points with two big-time 3-point bombs, a rebound bucket and another drive in the lane.

When his lay in found the mark with 3:38 remaining, North Clay had flipped the script to lead 60-53.

Crab Orchard got a couple of scores late in the game by Meyers and Lakotich.

But as all championship caliber teams do, the Cardinals capitalized from the foul line.

Eight consecutive made free throws, with six of them by Fleener (two by Bailey) iced the title game victory.

North Clay looked like anything but champions in the second and most of the third quarter.

Coach Brown's club did pretty much what they wanted offensively and led by double-digits in the third stanza.

A 9-0 run to begin the second quarter, with Lakotich, senior Hunter Throgmorton and Peek, all scoring points led to a 32-26 halftime advantage for the Trojans.

Lakotich scored eight of the points in the frame, including a pair of 3-pointers.

Crab Orchard reached it's largest lead and were eyeing the program's third WCHT championship when it got 3-pointers by Peek and sophomore guard Ian Dawes along with a rebound bucket by Meyers.

Peek scored nine of his points in the period and Throgmorton scored on a drive down the middle of the lane for a 13 point lead.

From that moment on, North Clay controlled the game and eventually the title game result.

Crab Orchard out-rebounded the Cardinals 32-25 with 14 of the boards being offensive.

Coach Brown's club also shot the ball pretty well, hitting 25-of-57 overall (43.8 percent) but the were just 8-of-25 from the arc, a place they are normally more efficient.

North Clay ended up 25-of-54 (46.2 percent) and 6-of-19 from long range.

Coach Zink's club survived its own mistakes (17 turnovers) and posted the victory in front of their faithful who made the journey from Clay County.

After having finished in third place in all three of their 2018-19 tournaments, including the Conrad Allen, the Cardinals can now proclaim they are champions of the 66th annual.

“This (championship run) is why we scheduled Woodlawn, St. Anthony and Casey-Westfield right off the bat so we could prepare. It was no fun during it, but we knew if we could get through it and highlight what we were bad at that we could work on it and improve. Now we are starting to click. Those teams are really, really good. We wanted to play the best.”

Crab Orchard (62) – Throgmorton 2 0 2-2 6, Powell 0 0 0-0 0, Meyers 4 0 2-6 10, Lakotich 2 3 0-0 13, Peek 9 2 2-4 26, Dawes 0 3 0-0 6, Norris 0 0 1-2 1, Rooker 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-17, 3FG-8, FT-7-14, PF-18.
North Clay (70) – Fleener 5 1 10-13 23, Holkenbrink 2 0 0-0 4, Jones 5 4 2-2 24, Bible 4 0 0-0 8, Bailey 3 1 2-2 11, Ballard 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-19, 3FG-6, FT-14-17, PF-15.
Fouled Out – Throgmorton, Peek - Crab Orchard; Holkenbrink - North Clay.
Technical Fouls – None.

Six-foot-three sophomore forward Gavin Fetherling topped all scorers in the game with 24 points while grabbing five rebounds.

Connor Brach, a 6-foot-4 junior forward, added 11 points to the Lions' triumph.

Sophomore guard Jesse Milner contributed nine points as Cisne improved 5-6 on the year with a 3-1 week.

Gallatin County (3-7) and head coach Craig Utterback finished 2-2 this week.

Junior guard Garrett Crane scored 11 points for the Hawks while senior Dawson Hish scored eight.

Senior Will Henson tossed in seven points in the loss.

Gallatin County (42) – Hish 1 2 0-0 8, Neely 0 1 0-0 3, Henson 3 0 1-2 7, Wilson 0 3 1-2 10, Rister 1 0 1-2 3, Scherrer 0 0 0-0 0, Crane 1 2 3-4 11.
2FG-6, 3FG-8, FT-6-10, PF-20.
Cisne (50) – Milner 3 0 3-7 9, Hatcher 0 0 1-2 1, Fetherling 6 2 6-9 24, Brach 3 0 5-6 11, Potter 1 1 0-0 5, Roberts 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-13, 3FG-3, FT-15-24, PF-11.
Fouled Out – Henson, Crane - Gallatin County.
Technical Fouls – None.

Coach Jim Corona's Tribe produced four double-digit scorers in the victory to improve to 8-3 on the season.

Kaiden Taylor, a 6-foot-4 senior forward, led the way with 17 points and seven rebounds.

Sophomore guard Taj McKinney and senior guard Travis Dickey ended up with 14 points each while senior Kent Miller added 10.

Six-foot-two junior forward Drake Allen scored 23 points to lead Red Hill (4-7) in defeat.

He was the only scorer in double-figures for the head coach Bryan Havill's club.

Sophomore guard Anthony Jerrell and junior guard Camren Ray added eight and seven points.

Wayne City pulled away with a 42-24 advantage in the second half.

Wayne City (77) – White 0 1 2-2 5, Taylor 6 1 2-2 17, McKinney 7 0 0-0 14, Duwez 0 0 0-0 0, Anderson 0 0 0-0 0, Miller 2 2 0-0 10, Cooper 2 0 0-0 6, Lewis 0 2 0-0 6, Durham 2 0 0-0 4, Dickey 3 3 2-2 17.
2FG-22, 3FG-9, FT-6-6, PF-15.
Red Hill (51) – Henry 1 0 0-0 2, Volkman 0 0 0-0 0, Moore 0 0 0-0 0, Wirth 1 1 0-0 5, Allen 7 2 3-4 23, C. Ray 2 0 3-6 7, Jerrell 1 2 0-2 8, Maxfield 1 1 0-0 5, Stimler 0 0 1-2 1, P. Ray 0 0 0-0 0, Green 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-13, 3FG-6, FT-7-14, PF-6.
Fouled Out – None.
Technical Fouls – None.

Grayville (35) – Neely 1 0 4-7 6, Kenneth Funkhouser 2 1 0-0 7, Hatcher 1 0 0-0 2, L'abbate 3 0 1-2 7, Collins 0 0 1-2 1, Worley 0 0 0-0 0, Burton 0 0 1-2 1, Finch 0 1 0-0 3, Chambliss 2 0 0-0 4, Koester 1 0 2-2 4, Kaleb Funkhouser 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-10, 3FG-2, FT-9-15, PF-16.
Webber Township (54) – Adcock 1 1 2-6 7, Hill 1 0 0-2 2, Heinrich 7 14, Buchannan 2 3 0-0 13, Hamerski 1 1 0-6 Marlow 3 0 0-0 6, Landreth 0 0 1-2 1, Wilson 0 0 1-2 1, Hails 0 0 0-0 0, Hargrove 0 0 0-0 0, Reed 0 0 0-0 0, Oscar 1 0 0-0 2, Yanez 0 1 0-0 3.
2FG-16, 3FG-6, FT-4-18, PF-14.
Fouled Out – None.
Technical Fouls – None.