12-04-14
BY JACK BULLOCK
PIASA - A fan off the street, who had no prior knowledge of the two teams playing on Thursday night, could not have been able to tell that one of the combatants was 5-0 while the other one was 0-5.

Piasa Southwestern came into the contest undefeated while Bunker Hill was without a victory.

Using a big start and a big finish, the hosts finally wore down the visitors in a match-up of Macoupin County teams that hadn't played each other in a regular season scheduled match up in nine years.

This renewed rivalry brought out the best in the Minutemen as they held their ground against the highly regarded Birds, winners of the Metro-East Lutheran Thanksgiving Tournament and who had topped Carrollton on the road on Tuesday night.

Coach Jason Darr saw his club let Bunker Hill hang around for three quarters before putting away the pesky bunch, 67-52, to improve to an impressive 6-0 on the season.

The strength of the Southwestern club is the inside game of 6-foot-6 junior Tyler Rose and 6-foot-6 sophomore Collin Baumgartner.

Rose took the ball right at Bunker Hill and led the team with 24-points while Baumgartner, more of a perimeter player, scored 14-points from the mid-range.

Both of these player played key roles in getting Piasa Southwestern a big early lead and were important in keeping the Minutemen at bay.

Coach Jay Goltz saw his bothersome bunch from Bunker Hill hang in for three quarters before the Birds finally took flight.

The Minutemen were paced by Michael Yates, a 5-foot-10 senior, who hit a trio of 3-point shots and finished with a team-best 21-points in the loss.

Teammate Jacob Mueller, a 5-foot-11 senior, added 11-points for a club that has two overtime losses on the resume.

“I was impressed with their shooting. They made some shots tonight and I didn't think they could shoot the ball that well,” said Coach Darr about Bunker Hill's long range shots.

With Piasa Southwestern riding high from the best start in the program's recent history and Bunker Hill struggling to find victories, this contest appeared to be a classic mismatch.

However nothing could be further from the truth as the Minutemen played with the Birds for every second on Thursday night.

The big beginning for Piasa Southwestern proved to be the difference as Coach Goltz's club had to play from behind for the entire contest.

With Rose and Baumgartner clicking early, the Birds jumped out to a quick 8-2 advantage.

Rose hit a pair of shots close to the basket and when senior guard Andrew Fry scored on a drive in the paint, Piasa had an early six-point spread.

After two free throws by Bunker Hill's Mueller and a bucket by junior forward Adam Brewer cut the gap to 8-6, Piasa took off on a 10-0 scoring burst, highlighted by six points from Rose; with two of the baskets coming on slam dunks.

When Baumgartner converted on a fast break lay in off one of Bunker Hill's four first quarter turnovers, Piasa Southwestern was in control at 18-6 with :52 left.

But as fate would have it, the Minutemen were in no mood to shy away from a battle.

After Yates canned a 3-pointer to close the first quarter, Bunker Hill played even with the hosts in the second quarter.

The Birds, playing arguably their worst quarter of the young season, committed six of their 15-turnovers in the frame, which prevented them from assuming complete command.

An 8-0 run, sparked another score from Baumgartner, had the Birds looking pretty good at 27-13.

A “high-low” pass from Baumgartner to Rose, which worked several times for Coach Darr's squad, gave Southwestern a 33-17 lead.

Nevertheless, Bunker Hill charged forward with a 7-zip rip through the Birds' defense as the Minutemen got within nine at the halftime break.

Five-foot-ten sophomore Ben Kahl scored while being fouled by Rose underneath the basket, which turned into a conventional three-point play.

A steal and fast break lay in by Mueller that just beat the second quarter horn cut the deficit to 33-24.

“There is no secret that we are a defensive squad. And that is the way I like it. It is all about defense and we push people into making mistakes. We want to force teams into turnovers,” said Coach Goltz. “We are just trying to work hard and get better and we have improved since the beginning of the year.”

After a halftime speech in which Coach Darr tried to get his team motivated to put away Bunker Hill, the opposite effect happened.

The Minutemen came out firing at will.

After a quick bucket by Rose on an assist by Baumgartner, Bunker Hill scored the next 10-points.

A couple of 3-point shots by Mueller and reserve Christian Summers sandwiched around a pair of drives to the bucket by senior Clay Coffman and Mueller again forced a Piasa Southwestern timeout at 35-34 with 5:36 left in the third quarter.

Like a gnat that just refused to be swatted, the Minutemen were a problem for the hosts that just wouldn't go away.

The Birds got six consecutive points from Baumgartner, with a pair of buckets and two free throws for a 49-41 lead at the end of three.

Five-foot-ten senior guard Blake Lawson hit a pair of 3-pointers for Southwestern in the final quarter as the Birds finally shook loose.

Rose padded his stats in the final eight minutes and reserve freshman Justin Bailey, a 5-foot-9 guard, got some quality minutes off the pine and tossed in a 3-pointer for the Birds.

When Lawson canned his second trey with 1:53 left, Piasa led 65-50.

“We wanted to get some kids in the game and Bailey is a freshman and the (Zack) Seymour kid hasn't gotten a lot of varsity playing time so we are trying to create some depth,” said Coach Darr. “But we quit getting the ball inside and we probably could have ran that 'high-low' every time down the floor but we have to figure out other ways to score other than Rose and Baumgartner, especially against other teams.”

The Minutemen can point to two key figures and Coach Goltz tries to figure out what went wrong.

The turnovers, especially in the first and fourth quarters, doomed his pesky squadron.

The miscues added up to 16 for the contest.

The second blow, detrimental to the cause, was a cold shooting start as they hit just 3-of-15 from the field in the opening salvo.

The totals for Bunker Hill were 20-of-62 overall from the floor (32.2 percent) with 5-of-20 coming from beyond the arc.

Bunker Hill managed to out rebound the hosts, 29-24, with 15 of the boards coming on the offensive end and hit all seven of their free throw attempts.

“We got out rebounded and that shouldn't happen, maybe if we were playing Mater Dei or someone with some size like ours, but that shouldn't happen to our team, ever,” said Coach Darr. “We allowed 15 offensive rebounds. We just flat out got out rebounded and outplayed actually in those two quarters (second and third) and they just played harder than we did.”

Southwestern was 22-of-38 overall (57.8 percent) and 3-of-6 from long range.

The Birds also committed 15-turnovers.

Southwestern plays host to South Central Conference rival Litchfield on December 9 in its next contest.

“In my opinion they (Southwestern) are the best ball club around. However after tonight's game my boys got one of the best compliments they could get. The three officials told me that our boys hustled like Bunker Hill used to do back in the old days. That means a lot to us,” added Coach Goltz. “Not one of our boys let up until the buzzer sounded. They have great potential and I look forward to what they will accomplish as they continue to work hard and improve."

Bunker Hill (52) – M. Yates 5 3 2-2 21, Mueller 3 1 2-2 11, Summers 0 1 0-0 3, Brewer 3 0 0-0 6, C. Coffman 1 0 0-0 2, Kahl 1 0 1-1 3, Sellers 1 0 2-2 4, S. Coffman 1 0 0-0 2.
Piasa Southwestern (67) – Bailey 0 1 1-2 4, Seymour 1 0 0-0 2, Fry 2 0 1-2 5, Johnson 1 0 1-2 3, Lawson 2 2 3-4 13, Robinson 0 0 2-2 2, Baumgartner 5 0 4-4 14, Rose 11 0 2-2 24.
2FG-22, 3FG-3, FT-14-18, PF-8.
Fouled Out – None.
Technical Fouls – None.