01-14-08
BY JACK BULLOCK
BENTON - After a tough loss on the road at Columbia Saturday night the Pinckneyville Panthers were anxious to get to work in defending their Benton Invitational Tournament title with an opening round game Monday night.

Unfortunately for opponent Hamilton County the Panthers were ready to make amends for a 49-44 loss to the Eagles just 48 hours earlier.

Behind 26 points from All-State candidate Kyle Cassity and 20 points from Colin Woodside – which included six 3-pointers – head coach Bob Waggoner's club romped past the Foxes 70-47 in the second game of the opening session of the 35th Annual BIT.

Pressuring Hamilton County into 17 turnovers and a 17-of-44 shooting performance – Pinckneyville improved to 12-4 on the season and 1-0 at the BIT.

Cassity – a 6-foot-5 senior guard – scored from all over the floor and was part of a defense that came up with seven steals.

Woodside opened up the floor for Pinckneyville as he spotted up for four of his 3-pointers in the first half to put away Ham Co. early.

“You can sit around and think about it (the loss) or you can just go play,” said Coach Waggoner. “We had a good walk through yesterday and shot the ball well. We came out ready to play. Tonight our guys responded to the challenge of this tournament.”

Pinckneyville didn't sit around at all against the Foxes.

With the game tied at seven-apiece at the 3:49 mark after a Ham Co. bucket by Seth Thomas – Pinckneyville went on its first crushing run to take over.

Outscoring the Foxes 15-4 to close out the quarter – the Panthers led 22-11 at the first horn.

Woodside canned a pair of shots in the scoring spectacle including a second 3-pointer of the frame.

On three consecutive possessions – Hamilton County had the ball stolen by the Panthers. All three turned into points.

Cassity got loose on a fast break for a two-handed dunk with 3:01 left.

In fact Pinckneyville had five transition baskets in the opening quarter with the final one coming on a lay in by Mile Priebe.

Cassity closed the first quarter with a 'top of the arc' 18-footer after his team had milked the final :30 of clock.

“He (Cassity) does a little bit of everything for us,” added Waggoner. “He usually guards the other team's top player. He creates so much offensively and he helps get the other players open looks. We also didn't have Ryan Rushing tonight (ankle) and he is another great defender.”

Hamilton County (5-9) scored the first four points of the second quarter on a pair of free throws from Seth Thomas and drive to the basket by Bryan Thomas to cut the lead to just 22-15.

But at that point – Woodside made the Foxes pay dearly.

Back-to-back 3-pointers – both from the left corner – pushed the lead back to double-digits at 28-15.

Cassity scored Pinckneyville's final nine points in the second quarter.

He took a backdoor pass from Priebe and converted his short bank shot into a conventional three-point play when fouled by Brandon Biggerstaff.

He picked up a couple of offensive rebounds for two more baskets before closing out the second quarter with a fast break lay in to make it 41-22 at the half.

Whether he was scoring or distributing – Cassity kept his team moving forward.

“We tell our kids that they are going to get open looks with Kyle on the floor because other teams have to concentrate so much on him,” added Waggoner. “When he is getting double and triple teamed our other kids have to hit shots and they did tonight.”

The Pinckneyville lead reached 20-points with 6:56 left in the third quarter when Cassity hit a pair of free throws.

He was 6-of-6 from the line in a dominating performance.

Hamilton County kept scratching away but couldn't cut significantly into the Panthers' lead.

Biggerstaff hit a couple of shots in the lane for the Foxes in the third quarter.

However Woodside lined up up and hit 3-pointer number five on the night from the top of the circle.

When the twine was tickled – Pinckneyville led 52-29 with 3:22 remaining.

By the time Woodside finished his long-range onslaught with his sixth and final bomb – Pinckneyville was ready to 'warm up the bus' at 61-33 less than a minute into the final quarter.

The Panther reserve unit played most of the final quarter as Coach Waggoner call off the hounds.

“We knew that we were going to have to come in ready to play tonight because Hamilton County is such a good program and well coached,” Waggoner added.

Most good teams shoot right around 50 percent from the floor.

Pinckneyville shot exactly 50 percent with a 28-of-56 showing which included 8-of-16 from behind the arc.

Those shooting stats would have been much better had the starters stayed around until the end.

The turnover total of eight was ballooned by five fourth quarter miscues after the game had been decided.

Hamilton County was led in scoring by Jeff Robinson with nine points while Seth Thomas, Bryan Thomas and Rhett Vaughn each scored eight points.

Pinckneyville held a slight 26-24 rebounding edge and will take the floor on Wednesday night against Okawville - who was a 63-60 winner over Carlyle in the tourney opener Monday night.

Hamilton County (47) - B. Thomas 4 0 0-0 8, Taylor 0 0 2-2 2, Williams 1 0 1-2 3, Vaughn 0 1 2-2 8, S. Thomas 3 0 2-2 8, Robinson 3 0 3-4 9, Smith 1 0 1-1 3, Mitchell 2 0 0-0 4, Reyling 0 0 1-2 1, Biggerstaff 2 0 0-0 4.
2FG-16, 3FG-1, FT-12-15, PF-9.
Pinckneyville (70) - Steele 0 1 0-0 3, Choate 0 0 0-0 0, Winter 0 0 0-0 0, Logan 1 1 0-0 5, Hicks 2 0 2-2 6, Cassity 11 0 4-4 26, Hardin 2 0 0-0 4, Woodside 1 6 0-0 20, Sims 1 0 0-0 2, Kellerman 0 0 0-0 0, Smith 0 0 0-0 0, Priebe 2 0 0-0 4, Malinski 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-20, 3FG-8, FT-6-6, PF-16.
Fouled Out - None.
Technical Fouls - None.

OKAWVILLE 63, CARLYLE 50
Behind 19 points from Kyle Heckert and 14 from Brandon Brammeier – the Rockets exploded to an early 21-8 lead and made it stand up after fighting off a furious Carlyle rally to go 1-0 in the BIT.

Coach Jon Kraus' club were just 20-of-31 from the foul line but they hit the ones that counted the most in the fourth quarter.

Topped by Clark Weeke with 6-of-6 from the free throw line in the final minutes – Okawville hit 10-of-13 in the fourth quarter to improve to 12-4 on the season.

Weeke finished with 11 points while teammate Bryan Leadendecker finished with nine.

Coach Andy Palmer's Carlyle team had chances in the fourth quarter but couldn't overcome an early deficit as their record slipped to 11-6 on the season.

Matt Palm – the Indians 6-foot-3 senior leader – paced all scorers with 29 points.

Kurt Peppenhorst was second on the list with nine points while three other Carlyle players (Josh Rosol, Tony Schaeffer and Travis Isaak) added eight points each.

Okawville hit seven 3-pointers including five in the first half to grab control of the contest. Leadendecker, Heckert and Brammeier hit two each.

Carlyle will play the host Rangers at 9:00 pm on Wednesday.

Benton closed the opening night with a 73-61 win over Cairo.

Okawville (63) - Recker 1 0 0-0 2, Weeke 1 1 6-6 11, Leadendecker 1 2 1-2 9, Heckert 4 2 5-9 19, Brammeier 2 2 4-8 14, Clary 1 0 0-0 2, Segelhorst 1 0 4-6 6.
2FG-11, 3FG-7, FT-20-31, PF-17.
Carlyle (60) - Rosol 4 0 0-1 8, Peppenhorst 2 1 2-4 9, Linton 0 0 0-0 0, Palm 11 0 5-7 27, Isaak 3 0 2-2 8, Schaeffer 4 0 0-0 8, Langhauser 0 0 0-0 0, McClaren 0 0 0-0 0. 2FG-24, 3FG-1, FT-9-14, PF-21.
Fouled Out - Clary - Okawville; Linton, Peppenhorst - Carlyle.
Technical Fouls - None.