01-26-16
BY JACK BULLOCK
ALTAMONT - The South Central Cougars have had some trouble during the 2015-16 campaign but are playing a better brand of basketball as of now.

With a pair of senior leaders leading the way, Coach Rick Simmons' team pulled a mild upset on Tuesday night at the 81st annual National Trail Conference Tournament.

Behind 20-points from veteran guard Brett Harmeier and 16-markers from senior forward Dre Hill, the fifth-seeded Cougars edged fourth-seeded St. Elmo-Brownstown, 50-44 to advance to the championship semifinals for the second straight season.

The Cougars improved to 8-12 on the year by converting free throws when they counted the most to close out the Eagles.

South Central connected on 16-of-22 from the line, including 11-of-12 in the final 2:11 of the game.

Hill got loose inside on drives to the basket in the fourth quarter and the Cougars and Harmeier did damage from the outside in the first half as their team advanced to play top-seeded Altamont on Thursday night.

The Indians were a 50-34 winner over Neoga in the first quarterfinal of the tournament on Tuesday.

“We have the two seniors with a lot of playing experience. They ran a box-and-one and a triangle-and-two and I just told them, get inside of them and then things will work out,” said Coach Simmons.

For St. Elmo-Brownstown it is the same situation that has plagued the team most of the season as they fell to 8-10 overall and into the consolation bracket.

Coach Greg Feezel saw his team struggle scoring once again, hitting just 16-of-47 from the floor, including 3-of-12 from the 3-point line.

While the Cougars were converting from the foul line, the Eagles were faltering.

St. Elmo-Brownstown finished just 9-of-19 for the contest.

Landon Feezel, a 6-foot-5 junior, led the offense with 16-points while Kyle Hardimon, a 6-foot-4 senior, added 11.

But even with both teams being even up front in size, the Eagles were out rebounded by the Cougars 33-25.

Although the game remained close throughout the contest, South Central led for most of the way.

Coach Simmons' club got the lead midway through the first quarter and never relinquished the advantage.

Six-foot-five senior center Jon Arnold scored just six-points for the Cougars, but all three of his baskets came in the first quarter as South Central established some inside strength.

He scored the first six-points of the game, in fact, all in the paint.

Harmeier followed those points up with a drive in the lane for an 8-5 lead with 2:12 to go in the opening quarter.

Sophomore guard Ryan Matheny grabbed a rebound of his own missed shot, the fifth offense rebound of the quarter for the Cougars, and stuck it home to beat the buzzer for an 11-7 lead.

Harmeier netted 10 of his points in the second quarter, which helped keep the lead for his club.

He nailed a pair of long range 3-pointers, with his second bucket from deep in the left corner making it 21-17.

Although the Eagles were getting points in the paint from Feezel and Hardimon, they weren't able to put together enough defensive stops to turn their points into unanswered runs.

Hill followed up what Harmeier was doing offensively by adding another inside score and a pair of free throws for a 25-18 lead with under a minute left in the second quarter.

Feezel closed out the half with a basket as St. Elmo-Brownstown trailed by five at intermission.

Hill and Harmeier kept going in the third frame as they were the only Cougars to score points in the middle two quarters.

Hill converted a conventional three-point play and Harmeier scored twice on offensive rebounds.

When Harmeier converted two free throws with :01.1 left, South Central led 34-29 heading to the fourth.

St. Elmo-Brownstown pulled to within a point in the fourth quarter but they never got over the hump.

The Eagles converted a couple of chances when South Central had a brief free throw shooting hiccup and closed the gap to just 37-36 after a Hardimon score in the lane with 3:20 remaining.

That was as close as Coach Feezel's team would get as they missed 13 field goal attempts in the final stanza.

Forced to foul late, St. Elmo-Brownstown watched the successful South Central charity stripe parade as the Eagles fell into the consolation side of the bracket.

“We just don't have enough scoring on this team. We were getting what we wanted (shots) but we just couldn't put it in the basket. I don't understand. We just give up too many big nights to people (opponents),” said Coach Feezel. “Harmeier goes off on us in the first half and then we shut him off and then Hill goes off on us.”

South Central was 16-of-37 overall and they hit 2-of-5 3-pointers, which paints part of the picture of how they made it a point to get the ball inside.

Trevor Markley, a junior guard, scored just three points in the game for South Central, but they were very important.

He was part of the free throw shooting exhibition in the fourth quarter as he connected on 3-of-4 from the line with under :40.8 left.

The Cougars get another crack at Altamont, a team they lost to 77-52 back on December 11.

“We will just try and do what we do (against Altamont) and last time we have too many turnovers and gave them too many run-outs. If we can eliminate that I think we can be in the ballgame,” said Coach Simmons.

South Central beat the Indians at last years tournament in the quarterfinals.

St. Elmo-Brownstown will face Neoga on Thursday night in the consolation semifinals.

“That is the key thing, its a win. We are in the championship round which is where we want to be,” said Coach Simmons, who is in his final season as a head coach as he announced his retirement prior to the 2015-16 season. “You have two really evenly matched teams and I thought tonight we did an excellent job on the boards in the first half. We executed well offensively, I thought we got good shots. We finished it off at the end.”

Klaiton Wolff scored 20-points and Ryan Armstrong netted 15 as the Indians advanced to the championship round.

Leading just 20-15 at the half, Coach John Niebrugge's club refocused and put Neoga away with a 30-19 second half.

Adam Mayhaus added eight-points as Altamont improved to 17-3 on the season.

Neoga (1-20) got eight points each from sophomore Caleb Hill and senior Trevor Easton.