01-13-15
BY JACK BULLOCK
RAMSEY - There are still a handful of gyms that the ABV bandwagon hasn't landed in over the years.

Of the over 110 schools that fall into the ABV umbrella, 12 of the schools had never seen an ABV appearance and Ramsey was one of the spots until last night.

Now there are “11.”

In almost a Twilight Zone manner, that particular number showed up often on Tuesday.

On the way up to the see the battle between St. Elmo-Brownstown and the host Rams, the signs all seemed to have one common numeral in them. The number “11”

North of Vandalia the sign said “Ramsey 11 miles.”

The sign on the way into town said “Ramsey – Population 1,100.”

As the contest began, the catalyst for the host club was Carter Hunt, a 5-foot-9 senior guard who wears, you guessed it, Number “11.”

Late in the game, with the pressure building, Hunt stepped to the foul line for a “1-and-1” opportunity with :21.9 remaining.

He hit both of the foul shots for a 44-40 lead.

Even after St. Elmo-Brownstown had gotten a long range shot from sophomore Landon Feezel, the Rams were still in control.

Fast forward to :11.8 remaining (there's that number again) Ramsey's Kyle Adermann had a chance to put his team up by three and force the Eagles into a long range shot to tie the score.

However the senior failed to hit either of his shots and St.Elmo-Brownstown's Landon Feezel grabbed the rebound on the second miss and raced up the court.

This 6-foot-4 sophomore launched a 3-pointer from the left wing that bounced off the rim but teammate Brock Oberlink was right there in great position for a second-chance.

Oberlink grabbed the ball and his follow up found the bottom of the net as the horn sounded for a 45-44 stunning victory for the Eagles.

It was the 11th offensive rebound for the visitors on the night as they held a 25-20 rebounding edge.

As it turned out that 11th board was the back breaker for the host Rams.

Coach Feezel's squad improved to 5-11 on the season and evened their EIC mark to 1-1 following the victory.

Ramsey dropped to 3-11 overall, 1-4 in the league.

“I told the kids (before the free throws) whoever gets the rebound has to “go” and Landon got the rebound and I'm glad he got the shot off with two or three seconds left so we could have a chance at a rebound,” said Coach Feezel. “We finally got a break for this team. We didn't play as well as we would have liked but we finally got a break here.”

As for the contest, the Rams had jumped out to an early 20-10 lead at the end of a quarter and, for the majority of the game, they held some sort of advantage.

Hunt got his club going with a eight points in the first minutes on his way to a team-high (drum roll please) 11-points.

His 3-pointer from the left corner triggered a 12-2 run to give the Rams a 20-6 lead.

Teammate Brady Black also got in on the scoring in the run, driving the baseline for a score that forced a St. Elmo-Brownstown timeout at the 2:04 mark.

Ramsey had used its quickness advantage to jump out to an early lead but the Eagles rallied quickly to get the game back to 20-10 at the first horn.

Baskets by Feezel, who topped the club with 15-points on the night, and cohort Malachi Maxey (11-points on the night, go figure) got the advantage down to ten.

The hosts had an opportunity to pull away from the Eagles but only managed four-points in the second quarter.

The Rams missed three consecutive free throws in the frame and St. Elmo-Brownstown got production from its bench with sophomore Klayton Kroll stepping off the pine for a couple of key baskets in a quarter that the Eagles outscored Ramsey, 10-4, and went to intermission down just four.

Freshman guard Lewis Brown, a 5-foot-9 guard, hit a shot from the top of the circle that beat the buzzer as the two teams took a break at 24-20.

The Eagles managed their first lead of the game, scoring the first five points on the second half.

A pair of free throws by junior Kyle Hardimon and a 3-pointer by Feezel made it 25-24 early in the third quarter.

But Ramsey turned in a pair of scoring runs of their own and got back a comfortable lead by the end of three quarters of play.

An 8-0 run with two trey's from Adermann and junior forward Brady Reiss and two free throws by senior Michael Camez pushed the Rams back in front.

This turned out to be part of a 14-4 move that culminated with seniors Michael Lay and Carson Thomas adding points along with Black for a 38-29 lead.

But as with the first two quarters, the Eagles rallied each time.

A reverse lay in by Feezel and a drive to the basket by Maxey cut the lead to just seven.

Maxey provided the Eagles with its second consecutive horn-ending shot as he drove the lane for a score.

The final quarter turned out to be interesting to say the least.

Normally if a team comes out and misses its first six shots from the field in the fourth quarter, it will spell doom.

St. Elmo-Brownstown did just that, misfiring on five 3-point shots.

Under somewhat normal circumstances this would have ended all chances of a win but as it turned out Ramsey wasn't much better.

In fact it took 4:19 before either team scored.

Ramsey got a pair of made free throws from Black which could have put the Eagles in the “red” for the rest of the night.

As luck would have it, that rebounding and size advantage that the visitors had began to take hold.

Following a 2-of-4 free throws by Feezel and Oberlink, St. Elmo-Brownstown still trailed 40-35.

Consecutive baskets by Maxey and Oberlink cut into the Rams lead even more.

With Ramsey struggling from the foul line, the Oberlink on a shot from the right baseline made it 40-39 with 2:01 remaining.

With two more free throws by Black after running nearly a minute off of the clock, Ramsey lead 42-39.

The Eagles hit just 1-of-4 free throws and committed two more turnovers but the Rams didn't close the door.

The one made charity, by Kroll, with :26.6 left, set the stage for the final frantic seconds.

Following Hunt on the scorebook for Ramsey was Black with eight-points and Adermann with seven.

Hardimon added, amazingly enough, “11” points for St. Elmo-Brownstown.

Neither team ended up shooting the ball well on the night.

After a fast start, Ramsey finished 13-of-35 from the floor (37.1 percent) but they hit 4-of-9 from the 3-point stripe.

The Rams committed eight of their 11-turnovers in the second half. Another 11.

The Eagles ended up 16-of-42 (38 percent) themselves but with the rebounding edge they came up with enough stops to get away with a victory on Tuesday night.

St. Elmo-Brownstown ended up with 12-turnovers.

“They (Ramsey) penetrate well and when they hit shots (early) but we are a young team and we will get better,” added Coach Feezel. “We needed something like this to happen. I'm pleased that we got a win and we haven't been playing well enough to win ballgames like this and we finally fought through it.”

St. Elmo-Brownstown hosts Patoka in a key EIC battle on Friday night in their next action while Ramsey will not play again until next Tuesday when they host Edinburg.

St. Elmo-Brownstown (45) – Brown 1 0 1-2 3, Brooks 0 0 0-0 0, Maxey 3 0 0 0-0 6, Roll 2 0 0-2 4, Noll 0 0 0-0 0, Smithson 0 0 3-4 3, Feezel 4 2 1-2 15, Oberlink 1 0 1-2 3, Hardimon 3 0 5-6 11
2FG-14, 3FG-2, FT-10-18, PF-19.
Ramsey (44) - Lay 1 1 0-0 5, Hunt 3 1 2-3 11, Reiss 1 1 0-2 5, Camez 1 0 4-4 6, Thomas 0 0 2-2 2, Adermann 1 1 2-4 7, Black 2 0 4-6 8.
2FG-9, 3FG-4, FT-14-21, PF-14.
Fouled Out – Maxey - St. Elmo-Brownstown; Camez - Ramsey.
Technical Fouls – None.