12-18-13
BY JACK BULLOCK
ST. ELMO – On Wednesday night at the St. Elmo Holiday Tournament, the hosts struggled against rival Mulberry Grove with foul trouble to one of its top players.

Fortunately for head coach Greg Feezel, his other top gun stepped up and made a difference.

With Levi Maxey in foul difficulty for most of the contest, senior teammate Jacob Behrends took control offensively as the Eagles escaped with a win that kept the Eagles hopes for a third consecutive holiday tournament title alive with a 54-45 win over their EIC rival in the opening game of the Wednesday night session of the 54th annual event.

With it being the first season of the St. Elmo-Brownstown boy’s basketball cooperative set up Behrends, from the Bombers program, has fit in well and on Wednesday night he proved to be just the spark for the foul plagued Eagles.

This 6-foot-1 senior starter scored 23-points and hit four 3-pointers in the win, in which the Eagles finally pulled away in the fourth quarter to improve their overall mark to 4-2 on the season.

Coach Feezel’s club, clearly struggling in the contest on both ends of the floor, did just enough to advance.

“This team has just got to win ballgames. We will figure out what is wrong later. Offensively we were a little better at times but we are ‘on and off’ and we showed that tonight,” said Coach Feezel. “We will have a spurt and we are up eight or nine and then suddenly we let them back in the ballgame. We are young as far as varsity experience is concerned. We may have some seniors and juniors on the floor but not all of them have experience.”

With Maxey in foul trouble and on the bench for extended periods of play, the rest of the Eagles stepped forward for an important win.

Six-foot-one junior forward Cole Smithson added 10-points to the totals, scoring six of his points in the first quarter.

Maxey, despite his issues with fouls, scored 12-points. Half of those points came in the final quarter as the hosts finally shook free of the pesky Aces.

Coach Bobby Koontz saw his Mulberry Grove team nearly pull off the upset but they came up short in the final quarter, being outscored 15-8 in the final eight minutes.

Six-foot-three sophomore Ty James proved to be a thorn in the St. Elmo-Brownstown side as he muscled his way to 18-points in the game for Mulberry Grove.

The Aces also got 10-points from sophomore Jack Criner and nine points from junior Damian Latham.

In a game in which neither team shot the ball well, Mulberry Grove missed out on a chance to pull the seeding upset.

After pulling even with the Eagles at 45-all with 3:23 remaining, the Aces failed to score the remainder of the game.

Behrends converted a conventional three-point play when he grabbed a missed lay up by sophomore guard Malachi Maxey and stuck the rebound back in while being fouled by Latham with 1:33 remaining.

The conversion set in motion a stretch in which Mulberry Grove missed shots, turned the ball over and were forced to foul.

The Eagles finished off the contest by hitting six free throws in the final minute.

Not only did St. Elmo-Brownstown convert enough foul shots to pick up the victory, twice during the stretch the Eagles grabbed rebounds off of missed charities, much to the chagrin of Coach Koontz.

“We turned the ball over three straight times when it was 45-all. We also missed some shots. That I contribute to inexperience. But not going after rebounds on their missed free throws is just us letting down,” added Coach Koontz. “They (his team) have to know how to compete all the way to the end. It is a hard thing to do when you are not there (close games) a lot.”

Both Behrends and Malachi Maxey out hustled Mulberry Grove to the basketball for offensive boards that helped seal the win.

By the time the dust had settled, the Eagles had a nine-point victory.

“Levi being in foul trouble all night never helps. He never comes out of the game,” added Coach Feezel. “He never really got into a rhythm like we like for him to do but Jake (Behrends) did a good job carrying us. We had trouble rebounding tonight and their post players hurt us. They (Mulberry Grove) did a pretty good job on use tonight defensively.”

The Aces began the game with James hurting the Eagles in the paint as he scored 10 of his 18-points in the first quarter, which ended at 14-13 MG.

Three of his buckets came on offensive rebounds, as Coach Feezel’s team couldn’t keep this sophomore off of the glass early.

“He (James) is good around the basket and has good hands,” added Coach Feezel.

St. Elmo-Brownstown took back the lead by halftime as Behrends hit three 3’s in the second stanza.

The final bomb by this former Bomber from the top of the arc sent the clubs to the locker room at 31-45 Eagles.

In the third quarter, Mulberry Grove had more chances to make a run but were just 4-of-17 from the field.

Even though they got a gift from St. Elmo-Brownstown at the end of the third quarter, the Aces never got rolling in the second half.

Criner took an inbound pass and went the length of the court for a basket in the final seconds.

His shot in the lane beat the horn as MG trailed just 39-37 heading to the final countdown.

Mulberry Grove saw its overall mark slip to 1-5 on the season as they fell into the consolation side of the bracket after the loss.

Coach Koontz saw his club hit just 34.5 percent from the field (19-of-55) and only 1-of-8 from the 3-point line.

Although they held a slight rebounding edge (34-33) the Aces couldn’t finish the game strong.

St. Elmo-Brownstown wasn’t much better from the field, hitting just 20-of-52 overall (38.4 percent) but they took advantage late in the game, spreading the floor and forcing Mulberry Grove to foul.

Both teams took care of the ball, committing a combined 16-turnovers.

St. Elmo-Brownstown will take on Beecher City on Friday night in the semifinals while Mulberry Grove and Ramsey will play the first game on Friday at 6:15 pm.

“He (James) could be a force. He has a good touch and he finds the ball a lot,” added Coach Koontz. “But tonight Latham didn’t score for us. He is averaging 17-poitns a game and he hit two shots from the field. He has to score and the big kids have to play well like they did in the first half for us to win.”