01-03-06
BY JACK BULLOCK
SESSER - Last season, head coach Danny Kirk saw his team lose close games where they couldn't 'close the deal' in the fourth quarter.

But on Tuesday night at home, they finished the job but it took two overtime periods to do it.

His Sesser-Valier Red Devils are starting to show signs of coming out of that slump by winning a few of those contests.

Using 29-points from 6-foot-1 guard Ty Vandekerkhove and a strong defensive effort that kept Zeigler-Royalton off-balanced for most of the contest, Sesser-Valier outlasted and out hustled the Tornadoes, 63-60 in double-overtime at home on Tuesday night.

With the victory, S-V has surpassed by two the entire win total of 2004-05.

Coach Kirk's club is now 5-7 overall, 2-2 in the BDC West.

Vandekerkhove came up big in the extra sessions, scoring 14 of his teams 18 markers in the overtimes.

His 3-pointer banked in from the right corner with :20 remaining in the first overtime and sent the two rivals into the second session.

His conventional three-point play with 1:13 to go in the second extra period gave his team a 60-57 lead that they would not relinquish.

"We only one three games last year and we had trouble finishing games that we were in and we are doing a better job with that this year," said Kirk. "This is the second overtime game that we have won."

Chad Menckowski, Zeigler-Royalton's 5-foot-11 senior guard, scored a team-high 24-points.

But it was the defensive effort by Sesser-Valier on Tornadoes 6-foot-5 sophomore forward Aaron Jones that was an early key to the victory.

Jones finished with 16-points, but he found it difficult to get the ball much in the first half and never seemed to get into any sort of flow within the Z-R offense.

"Drew Pettit and Kyle Crocker both did a great job on Jones tonight," added Kirk. "They gave up a lot of size on him but they did an outstanding job on him. He (Jones) is a good player."

Sesser got going early in the game offensively and their defense never took a break.

A pair of early 3-pointers got things rolling for S-V with Vandekerkhove and Stephen Whitehead each hitting from behind the arc in the opening eight minutes of the contest.

A Todd Carpenter score from the baseline and a Josh George basket from the right side staked the Red Devils to a 14-8 lead with just under a minute to play.

But a pair of Tornado 3-pointers, one by Chris Prosise and another by Menckowski, closed the quarter at 14-all.

Menckowski hit another 3-pointer midway through the second quarter, giving back Z-R the advantage.

His shot from the top of the arc made it 22-20 with 3:49 until halftime.

Six more points from Vandekerkhove highlighted the second quarter for Sesser.

His third bucket of the quarter on a drive and shot in the lane evened the game at 22.

Then Whitehead hit a pair of big shots.

His second basket was a 3-pointer that beat the buzzer after the Red Devils held the ball the final 1:05 of the second quarter.

Whitehead took a pass from Vandekerkhove and his 'trifecta' from the top of the circle sent the teams to the locker rooms at 27-24 S-V.

Sesser-Valier took advantage of some cold shooting in the third quarter from the Tornadoes to increase its lead.

The Red Devils put five straight points on the board on a pair of baskets by Crocker and Vandekerkhove and a free throw by Carpenter, making it 32-24 early in the quarter.

Zeigler-Royalton missed its first four shots and had a turnover in that stretch.

But coach Jon Dawson's Tornadoes rallied at the end of the frame.

A rebound basket by David Fletcher and a score in the lane by Prosise finished the quarter on a high note for Z-R, trailing just 36-33 heading into the final frame.

Menckowski came alive offensively in the fourth quarter, getting his club back even to send the game into overtime.

He scored six points in the frame and his running bank shot with :26 left deadlocked the game at 45-all.

Zeigler-Royalton's Van Nix came up with a steal late in regulation, giving his team back the ball in the waning moments.

However, after a timeout, Jones rimmed out a 3-pointer at the buzzer that would have won the game sending the contest into overtime.

The Tornadoes appeared to have weathered the storm in the first extra session, with Menckowski scoring five more points and two free throws by Jones made it 54-51 with :30.4 remaining.

But once again, Vandekerkhove came up big. His banked 3-pointer ten seconds after the Jones charities evened the score again.

Z-R worked for a final shot but Sesser reserve Jon Hall came up with a steal from Jones and the two teams headed into a second overtime.

Coach Dawson's club had one final lead in the game on Menckowski's third and final shot from behind the arc that made it 57-56 with 1:50 left.

But then Sesser took command with a 7-0 run.

Carpenter came up with a huge defensive effort, blocking a shot by Fletcher in the lane.

That block turned into a Vandekerkhove score at the other end on a three-point play.

A steal and lay in on a fast break by Crocker sealed the victory at 63-57 with :11 remaining.

Jones hit a 'window dressing' 3-pointer just before the buzzer cutting the final margin in half.

After Vandekerkhove's 29, Sesser got 11-points from Whitehead and 10 from Carpenter.

"One thing was that we didn't get Todd (Carpenter) involved that much tonight," explained Kirk. "They (Z-R) kind of surrounded him and took him away from us offensively. But Stephen (Whitehead) stepped up and hit some big shots for us."

The Red Devils shot 20-of-42 from the field overall but were 5-of-10 from 3-point range.

Z-R made 6-of-9 from behind the arc but was just 17-of-40 on two-point attempts.

Fletcher, with 11-points, joined Menckowski and Jones in double figures for Z-R who lost for the first time this season in the conference.

The Tornadoes held a slight 25-24 rebounding edge and the turnovers were close at 14-13 Z-R.

Zeigler-Royalton played without brother's Matt and Josh Bramlett who sat out the game for disciplinary reasons.

"When Vandekerkhove hit that 3-pointer off of the backboard there in the overtime that kind of broke our backs there," said Dawson, whose team is now 6-6 overall, 2-1 in the Black Diamond West.
"I am proud of the kids effort. We had some kids step in for the two kids that were missing tonight and did a good job. Other than the loss I am very happy tonight."

Both teams' head back to the hardwood on Friday night as Z-R with host Christopher while Sesser-Valier will travel to Steeleville.

	1	2	3	4	1OT	2OT	Final
Zeigler-Royalton	14	10	9	12	9	6	60
Sesser-Valier	14	13	9	9	9	9	63

Zeigler-Royalton (60) - Menckowski 7 3 1-2 24, Nix 0 0 2-2 2, Jones 3 2 4-4 16, Fletcher 5 0 1-2 11, Prosise 2 1 0-0 7, Parino 0 0 0-0 0, Fitch 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-17, 3FG-6, FT-6-8, PF-17.
Sesser-Valier (63) - Hall 0 0 0-0 0, Whitehead 1 3 0-0 11, George 3 0 0-0 6, Vandekerkhove 9 2 5-6 29, Crocker 3 0 1-2 7, Pettit 0 0 0-0 0, Carpenter 4 0 2-7 10, Wingo 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-20, 3FG-5, FT-8-15, PF-16.
Fouled Out - Whitehead, Sesser-Valier.
Technical Fouls - None.