11-29-11
BY JACK BULLOCK
FARINA – In a contest in which neither team on the floor played particularly well, it was the visiting St. Elmo Eagles that found a way to win.

Capitalizing on South Central's mistakes in a better way than the Cougars did with the Eagles miscues, Coach Greg Feezel's club escaped with a 53-50 double-overtime win to begin its season 1-0 with an important road victory.

Despite hitting just 3-of-17 3-point attempts and only 16-of-27 free throw tries, St. Elmo walked away with an important triumph to begin its 2011-12 campaign.

Connor Beasley, a 6-foot-4 junior forward, led the way with 14-points on Tuesday night. That included hitting 7-of-10 from the foul line. Blake Pruett added 11-points while Ben Sperry chipped home 10.

“At times it looked like it was our first ballgame,” said Coach Feezel. “We've got better shooters than that. It was awful physical out there tonight and we've got to handle stuff like that. We'll get a lot better. Last year at this time we lost ballgames like that. But we didn't lose this one. I don't care what everybody said we should be. Like I told the boy's, do I want you at your best right now? No I don't but we've got to do better.”

Sophomore Levi Maxey notched just five points on the night coming off the bench but he netted them on back-to-back possessions in the second extra session as his efforts helped change the tide of the contest back toward St. Elmo.

His 3-pointer from the right wing put the Eagles up by five points early in the second overtime and his subsequent steal and lay up a few seconds later put St. Elmo in position to outlast the Cougars.

Maxey stole the ball from South Central's Fischer Tharp and hit a driving left handed lay in which gave St. Elmo a 49-42 lead with 2:31 remaining.

The Cougars wouldn't recover from that sequence even though St. Elmo made it interesting in the final minute.
South Central (0-2) had its own problems at the foul line on this night, hitting just 8-of-17.

But where it really hurt was in the second overtime session as the Cougars missed six charities (five in-a-row at one point) as they couldn't rally for the win in their home opener and second game of the season.

When the contest started it appeared that the Cougars were in for a long night as St. Elmo jumped out to a quick lead with Sperry scoring twice in the early going.

His second bucket on a nice assist from Pruett made it 8-0 with 5:19 left.

South Central responded with a run of its own as Myles Yates scored four of his seven points in the quarter.

A rebound basket and then a baseline drive off an inbound pass that beat the first quarter buzzer cut the St. Elmo lead to just 15-11 at the first stop.

Coach Rick Simmons' squad committed five first quarter turnovers but settled down for a big second quarter run to get the Cougars believing in an upset of the highly-regarded Eagles (ABV Preseason #9 in 1A).

“The kids bounced back, we got off to a really bad start. They (St. Elmo) kind of had us on the ropes but we stayed with our plan as we knew what we wanted to do and finally got things going,” said Coach Simmons. “They (the Cougars) compete. The good thing about them is that they are going to do the best that they can. We are still a little bit inexperienced. We only have two starters back so the kids are learning as they go.”

Holding the visitors to just a single field goal in the second frame, South Central took a halftime lead.

Back-to-back baskets by Tharp and reserve Rudy Hablewitz and a pair of free throws by Colby Bushue gave the hosts a 21-17 advantage at intermission.
St. Elmo, which began the game hitting its first few shots, went cold in the second quarter and committed three turnovers. The Eagles hit just 1-of-7 shots and had zero offensive rebounds in the stanza.

The Eagles took back the lead on a 7-2 run, sparked by Beasley who hit a pair of free throws and then found the range from 20-feet on the right wing on an assist from Sperry.

The low scoring quarter closed with St. Elmo scoring twice after South Central's Luke Krajefska hit a 3-pointer to give the Cougars a brief lead.

Patrick Schaal and Pruett each scored to end the frame at 28-26 St. Elmo.

South Central had a chance to put the Eagles away in the early part of the fourth quarter.

Consecutive scores by Hablewitz and Wilkins and another Wilkins score off of a nice pass from Hablewitz forced a St. Elmo timeout with the Eagles down 33-29.

During the early run, the Cougars failed to capitalize after getting to the foul line.

South Central connected on just 2-of-5 chances.

After St. Elmo got back the lead, Wilkins scored on a shot near the basket with 1:08 to go to even the game at 38-all.

Holding the ball for a potential game-winning last shot with the game tied, St. Elmo burned just over one minute off the clock and a pair of timeouts but came up empty.

However a turnover with :05 left gave South Central a final opportunity in regulation time.

A shot from the right corner by Yates, after getting a pass from Hablewitz, came up short and the two teams went to overtime.

“I told the kids to go out and do what you're good at and don't try to do more than that. If everyone will do that we'll be alright,” Feezel added. “It's good for us to win this kind of game.”

With the game tied at 40 with just :20.9 remaining, the Cougars could have gotten the lead and potentially the win, but Yates missed the front end of a one-and-one and St. Elmo got the rebound and another chance at victory.

Beasley's shot from the right baseline misfired however and a tip-in attempt by Sperry fell short as the two teams would head to a second extra session.

St. Elmo's Blaine Scholes was fouled while attempting a 3-pointer on the Eagles first possession in the second overtime.

Scholes hit 2-of-3 free throws to give the Eagles the lead back for keeps.

After Maxey's heroics Coach Feezel's club could have ended the drama but they, too, had trouble at that 15-foot freebie line.

St. Elmo missed five straight foul shots with both teams being in the double-bonus.

Maxey and Scholes missed two each and Beasley made it five consecutive with the first of two shots with :07.5 to go.

Beasley hit his final attempt to finally shut the door on South Central.

A Hablewitz drive to the basket for a score ended the offensive production as St. Elmo escaped with the hard-earned win.

South Central was led in scoring by Wilkins who collected 13-points. Tharp added 10 as those two Cougars were the only ones in double-figures on the evening.

Coach Simmons' club committed 21 turnovers which helped overshadow a good shooting performance (20-of-37 overall, 2-of-6 from behind the arc) from the floor.

They held their own against St. Elmo in the rebounding department as the teams each ended up with 27 boards.

“This is a game that if we hit a free throw or two down the stretch maybe that would have been the difference in the ballgame,” added Coach Simmons. “You have to give them credit, they're a good team. I told the kids that if it is possible to feel good about a loss than this is it. We continued to compete. We battled back and put ourselves in a position to win the game. Our goal is to make progress every game.”

The Eagles survived in spite of a 17-of-50 shooting display.

“Last year we finished the season defending really well and I think those two overtimes we did a good job defensively,” added Coach Feezel. “This is a win and we'll get better, I know we will. South Central, from what I saw a week ago and then tonight, has improved 110 percent and they will be a tough out in the postseason.”

St. Elmo heads back to action in the National Trail Conference as they host Neoga on Friday night while South Central will travel to Odin in a Midland Trail Conference battle.

St. Elmo (53) – Beasley 2 1 7-10 14, Sperry 3 0 4-6 10, Schaal 1 0 0-0 2, Maxey 1 1 0-2 5, Pruett 3 1 2-2 11, Scholes 1 0 3-7 5, Mansker 3 0 0-0 6.
2FG-14, 3FG-3, FT-16-27, PF-19.
South Central (50) – Bushue 1 0 3-4 5, Hablewitz 3 1 1-4 9, Tharp 4 0 2-2 10, Krajefska 1 1 1-2 6, Schwarm 0 0 0-0 0, Wilkins 6 0 1-2 13, Yates 3 0 1-3 7.
2FG-18, 3FG-2, FT-8-17, PF-20.
Fouled Out – Mansker - St. Elmo; Wilkins, Yates - South Central.
Technical Fouls – None.