02-01-08
BY JACK BULLOCK
SESSER - If there was any question who was the best team in the Black Diamond Conference West Division heading into Friday night's rubber game between Sesser-Valier and Zeigler-Royalton then the answer became crystal clear after the Red Devils' 71-53 win at home.

The Tornadoes had thumped the Red Devils early in the season in winning the Christopher Thanksgiving Tournament while S-V squeaked out a 53-51 victory at Z-R on January 8th.

But behind an outstanding performance from four S-V players who hit for double-figures in scoring and a crushing 44-21 rebounding edge as a team – head coach Danny Kirk's club left the gym after their victory with the BDC-WD championship nearly sewn up.

Dane and T.J. Eubanks scored 18 and 12 points respectively while Todd Carpenter added 15 points, 12 rebounds and five blocked shots in the victory.

Justin Matyi added 14 points for the Devils as offensively the club clubbed Z-R with a 26-of-48 shooting performance from the field overall.

If it weren't for an uncharacteristic 23 turnovers the Devils would have been nearly flawless in improving to 17-3 overall and 7-0 in the league.

Having split a pair of contests with their Franklin County rivals this season – Sesser-Valier jumped out to an early 22-7 first quarter lead and never let head coach Jaime Moyers' club off the canvass in dropping the visitors to 12-7 on the season by handing the Tornadoes their fifth loss in the conference in eight league contests.

Perhaps the biggest key of the contest was the defensive blanket that the Red Devils threw on Z-R sophomore Tyler Mitchell.

Coming into the contest Mitchell was averaging 17.5 points per game but this 6-foot-2 sophomore guard was held to just six fourth quarter points after the outcome was decided.

The Tornadoes – despite a couple of good second half runs – never cut the S-V lead under double-digits in defeat.

“Defensively tonight we were pretty solid,” said Coach Kirk whose team move into a commanding lead in the league standings. “They (Z-R) hit some big 3's tonight but as a whole we have made some progress.”

The S-V defensive effort forced the Moyers' club into a 21-of-66 showing from the field.

“I told the kids at halftime and I just told them again after the game that you don't play a good team like Sesser and let them get a big lead 22-7 at the end of the first quarter and expect to come back,” said Moyers whose club fell out of the title chase with the loss. “We fought hard tonight and I was proud of that but the first quarter they looked ready and we didn't.”

Subtracting that opening quarter Z-R played pretty even with the hosts.

Unfortunately for the Tornadoes the game off basketball doesn't have “do-overs” as the mulligan of an opening frame cost them a chance to get back into the conference race.

After having cut the Red Devils lead to 5-2 with a basket by Jones with 6:11 remaining in the first frame – Sesser-Valier took off on its first big run of the contest.

The Devils took advantage of Z-R sleeping at the defensive wheel with a couple of easy transition baskets by Matyi and T.J. Eubanks.

Both scored after missed shots and defensive rebounds on fast break baskets.

“We wanted to come out and run the floor early because they (Z-R) have a tendency to not get back,” added Kirk. “So we wanted to come out and run to get some easy buckets and it worked tonight.”

Z-R got to within 11-7 with a 3-point basket Tim Downen and a pair of free throws by Jones.

However S-V polished off the quarter by scoring the next 11 points to take complete control.

Dane Eubanks had his hand in seven of those points.

He sandwiched a length of the court drive for a bucket and a quarter ending 3-pointer around a nice feed to Carpenter for a fast break slam dunk that gave the Devils their due with a 22-7 lead at the first stoppage.

The key stat of the night was the rebounding domination.

The Tornadoes missed 12 first quarter shots. Sesser-Valier had the same number of defensive rebounds. “One-and-done” was the motto of the S-V defense on this night.

Coach Kirk was leery coming into the contest because of the problems his club had with Z-R in the two previous meetings. He knew his team needed a strong defensive effort.

“We did a real good job on Mitchell. I think he only had six points,” Kirk added. “Jones is a good player but Kyle (Crocker) did a good job on him tonight. We've struggled against them. They gave us fits in the two other games prior to this one.”

For the Tornadoes there were a couple of bright spots to take away from the loss.

Coach Moyers had a couple of kids step up and hit some shots when they needed them.

Jimmy Stevens and Downen scored 11 and 10 points respectively.

Stevens nailed a 3-pointer to close a mini run of 6-0 in the second quarter to cut the S-V lead to just 28-14.

Jones scored a pair of baskets in the quarter while Downen hit his second 3-pointer of the game to cut the halftime deficit to just 34-22.

“That is one lesson that we have struggled to learn this year is that against average to better than average teams Aaron (Jones) can have his way. But against Sesser's and Trico's they are going to put their best defenders on Jones and the other kids forget that they have to play, too,” added Moyers. “Tonight I hope they learned. In the second half they all stepped up in different ways. We are trying to learn that as a team.”

Z-R stayed close mainly because S-V had problems with TO's. Twelve turnovers in the first two quarters matched the Red Devils turnover average per contest.

“We played pretty good tonight if we had just gotten the turnovers down a bit,” added Kirk – whose team was averaging about 10-to-12 turnovers a game for the season but made some mental errors in the win. “We haven't done that (turned the ball over) this year. We doubled that total tonight.”

Z-R hit seven 3-pointers in the contest and three of them came late in the third quarter to keep them within striking range.

Stevens (2) and Jones (1) connected from behind the arc.

But S-V got a 3-pointer from T.J. Eubanks and a quarter ending bucket from Dane Eubanks on a pass from Matyi to send the teams to the final quarter at 53-39.

Mitchell – who didn't score in the first three quarters of the game – finally got on the board in the final stanza.

A pair of drives to the basket – including a spinning move in the lane that resulted in a bank shot that found the mark with 5:09 remaining - cut the Sesser lead down to 59-45.

Z-R didn't quit on the night and finally got the lead down to exactly ten points with 2:08 to play.

A rebound basket by Mitchell – his final points of the night – made it 63-53.

That was the last time the Tornadoes inked the scorebook in the scoring column.

The Devils closed out the game by hitting 6-of-8 free throws and Dane Eubanks scored on a steal and lay in to finish off the victory.

Kyle Crocker – with his defense presence a factor in holding down both Mitchell and Jones – found time to score eight points for the Red Devils.

While Jones managed 19 points – he had to work hard to get to that total.

Carpenter's defensive effort wasn't lost on Coach Moyers tonight.

“I thought that this was the best game that he (Carpenter) played against us in the two years that I have been here,” said Coach Moyers about the Red Devils 6-foot-6 senior center. “He had never really been a force against in the year and a half I have seen him but tonight he stepped up. If he plays like that I look for them to go pretty far in the postseason.”

Zeigler-Royalton (53) - Jones 7 1 2-2 19, Fitch 2 0 1-4 5, Mitchell 3 0 0-2 6, Downen 0 3 1-2 10, Fann 0 0 0-0 0, Ferguson 0 0 0-0 0, Jasper 0 0 0-0 0, Ingersol 1 0 0-0 2, Stevens 1 3 0-0 11, Wawczak 0 0 0-0 0, Grissom 0 0 0-0 0, Beasley 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-14, 3FG-7, FT-4-10, PF-19.
Sesser-Valier (71) - D. Eubanks 4 2 4-4 18, Tinsley 0 0 0-0 0, Kirk 0 0 0-0 0, Crocker 2 0 4-5 8, Vandekerkhove 0 0 0-0 0, Gibson 1 0 2-2 4, Marlo 0 0 0-0 0, Carpenter 6 0 3-7 15, Matyi 6 0 2-3 14, T. Eubanks 3 2 0-0 12, Smith 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-22, 3FG-4, FT-15-21, PF-12.
Fouled Out - Mitchell - Zeigler-Royalton.
Technical Fouls - None.