12-30-04
BY JACK BULLOCK
SESSER - After losing in the opening round to Johnston City, the Woodlawn Cardinals set their sights on the consolation title of the 24th Annual Sesser-Valier Holiday Tournament.

Behind the 15-point, seven-assist game by point guard Mike Pool, those Jefferson County Redbirds finished the four-day event on a three-game winning streak to nab the consolation championship with a 53-42 win over New Athens Thursday afternoon.

The win got Woodlawn above the .500 mark for the season at 7-6 and gave coach Shane Witzel and Co. a boost heading into the second half of the Mid-South Conference season.

"He (Pool) is as good a point guard as we have seen this season," said New Athens' coach Erik Hager. "He gets his teammates involved and sets them up for some easy baskets. We talked about him before, during and after the game and he is a good one."

NA (6-7) tried to hang in with Woodlawn early in the contest, thanks to the inside scoring from Nick Parker.

This 6-foot-4 sophomore has turned into quite an offensive weapon for NA, especially when he gets the ball in deep.

He scored six points in the opening period, all the right block.

His first bank shot in low gave New Athens its only advantage of the contest at 4-2 with just more than a minute gone in the game.

But the remainder of the game the Yellow Jackets were forced to play catch up.

After scoring from the left corner to give his team a 6-4 lead, Pool got his crew involved and they responded when called upon.

Mike Tiemann got started early in the game, hitting a pair of shots.

His first was a 17-footer from the right elbow to give Woodlawn an 8-4 advantage.

After yet another score by Parker in the paint, Tiemann scored again on the next Cardinal trip on a 3-pointer from the left corner.

Consecutive baskets by Pool and Justin Bonifacius ended the frame at 15-8 Woodlawn.

Parker's final bucket of the second quarter pulled the Yellow Jackets within 21-13, but the Cardinals scored the final eight points of the half.

Bonifacius was the benefactor of two more Pool assists.

Both came underneath the basket and when his second shot banked in, the Cardinals had themselves a 29-13 halftime lead.

"I may be biased, but I think he (Pool) is one of the best players in this tournament," said Woodlawn coach Shane Witzel. "We have tried to do more of getting up and down the floor and spread things out so Mike can create things for the other kids. He has averaged over seven assists in this tournament."

New Athens made its best move of the game by opening the third quarter by scoring the first six points.

Two buckets by Drew Schatte sandwiched around a Parker rebound and put back cut the Woodlawn lead to 29-19 and forced Witzel to burn a time out at 6:12 in the quarter.

After a Jody Kabat basket on another Pool assist and 3-pointer by Parker cut the Cardinals lead down to 31-22, the Cardinals put the game away with a 14-6 run.

A 3-pointer from John Kindle and a conventional three-point play by Pool gave Woodlawn its biggest lead of the game at 45-28.

The Yellow Jackets could get no closer than ten points the rest of the way.

"We have struggled getting our post players the ball this season but we are better at it than we were at the beginning of the season," added Hager. "We made a lot of mental mistakes that you can't make if you want to beat good teams like Woodlawn. From the start of the season, our guards have gotten better, but there is still room for improvement."

Pool and Tiemann shared scoring honors for Woodlawn with 15-points apiece while Bonifacius added 13.

Parker and Schatte topped New Athens with 15 and 14 points respectively.

GOREVILLE 76, VIENNA 67
The sign of a good ballclub is being able to rebound from a tough loss to win the following day.

The Goreville Blackcats did just that, with nine players scoring in the game, coach Todd Tripp's troops took home the third place trophy with a big win over SEC rival Vienna.

Jordan Tebbe scored 19-points in the win to make Goreville a 'very good' 10-2 on the season.

Forcing Vienna's 6-foot-8 freshman center Brandon Thompson to the bench with early foul trouble, Goreville took advantage with a big inside game.

"The kids came out and responded well after the Carterville loss," said Tripp. "We played a lot better today and we were more patient on offense than we were last night."

Thompson scored the Eagles first four points of the game on moves in the paint.

But Tebbe got rolling early as well.

His first basket on a baseline drive produced Thompson's first foul and then with the big kid on the bench, another drive tied the score at 4-4.

With Thompson in the bench, Vienna's Garrett Davis picked up some of the scoring slack, especially from the outside.

He hit a pair of early 3-pointers, with the second one giving Vienna a 16-14 lead with 6:10 to go in the second quarter.

However Goreville took command of the contest with a 13-0 run.

Derek Yocum and Brandon Rogowski exploited the Eagles lack of size during the run with a couple of inside baskets.

Then Tebbe scored six points on a 3-pointer from the right wing and 3-of-4 free throws that gave his team a 27-16 lead when Vienna finally called time at 2:05.

"We talked about taking the ball right at their big kid and it worked today," added Tripp. "They are a lot better team when he is on the floor. He alters shots and is a big presence in then paint."

Vienna closed the gap a bit before intermission as Cory Huckleberry and Kyle Willis combined to score seven points to make it 29-21 at the break.

Davis got the Eagles back into the game with a big third quarter push.

Trailing 36-23 at the 6:04 mark, the 6-foot-2 junior guard scored 15-points in the quarter with three 3-pointers.

His last two of the quarter with under a minute to play got the Eagles to within 52-47.

However Tebbe was not to be outdone as he answered with a huge 3-point bomb of his own with :03 to go to send the two teams into the final quarter at 55-47 Blackcats.

Vienna got close one final time with three straight rebound baskets by Davis, Huckleberry and Willis cut the score down to 69-63 with 1:48 remaining.

But Goreville canned 7-of-10 free throws to ice the game.

Tebbe's 19 points led Goreville while Brandon Rogowski added 15-points and Derek Yocum chipped in 14.

Garrett Davis' 28 points led Vienna followed by Corey Huckleberry (14) Thompson (12) and Kyle Willis (13) as the Eagles finished 2-2 at Sesser and sit at 9-5.

JOHNSTON CITY 60, COBDEN 58 2OT
Cruising along with a 21-point third quarter lead, the Indians let the Appleknockers back in the game in a big way.

Outscoring JC 19-5 in the fourth quarter, Cobden forced overtime.

The Indians finally were able to get the win when the Sawyer Smith's 3-point attempt for the Appleknockers missed at the second overtime buzzer.

Johnston City (5-9) picked up 19-points from Kris Ray while Alex Terrill pitched in 11.

Eddie Draper had a spectacular second half for the Appleknockers scoring 25-points total, including 19 in the final 24-minutes.

Cobden (8-4) received 14-points from Kris Sweitzer with 12 of those coming after intermission.

GALATIA 53, CARTERVILLE 51 OT
The Bearcats picked up their first ever Sesser-Valier Holiday Tournament championship with a hard fought win over Carterville.

Leading nearly the entire game, Galatia let the Lions off the mat in the second half.

But four free throws by Seth Cockrum and Kyle Hodson held up in overtime as Galatia improved to 10-1 overall.

A shot that would have won the game for Carterville by D.J. Thompson missed at the overtime buzzer.

Derek Sloan and Cockrum topped the Bearcats with 19 and 18 points.

Trevor Poore led Carterville with 16 points. Ben Drust added 15.

ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
Derek Sloan, Galatia
Eli House, Galatia
Seth Cockrum, Galatia
Mike Pool, Woodlawn
Kris Sweitzer, Cobden
Garrett Davis, Vienna
Jarvis Smith, Sparta
Ben Drust, Carterville
Kris Kirkpatrick, Johnston City
Jordan Tebbe, Goreville

New Athens (42) - Z. Parker 1 0-2 3, Montgomery 1 0-0 3, Forrester 1 1-2 3, N. Parker 6 3-4 15, Schatte 6 1-2 14, Roddy 1 0-0 2, A. Jansen 1 0-0 2. 2FG-14, 3FG-3, FT-5-10, PF-14
Woodlawn (53) - Pool 5 5-7 15, Kindle 1 1-2 4, Tiemann 7 0-0 15, Bonifacius 6 1-4 13, Kabat 3 0-1 6. (2FG-20, 3FG-2, FT-7-14, PF-12)
Fouled Out -- None.
Technical Fouls - None.

Vienna (67) - Huckleberry 3 8-12 14, Davis 10 2-4 28, Willis 1 11-12 13, Thompson 5 1-3 12. Totals 19 23-31 67. (2FG-12, 3FG-7, FT-22-31, PF-18)
Goreville (76) - Stone 2 0-0 6, Hood 3 3-3 9, Reynolds 2 2-2 6, Fischer 0 1-2 1, Tebbe 6 5-7 19, Maze 0 4-6 4, Rogowski 6 2-5 15, Trovillion 2 0-0 4, Yocum 5 1-1 12.
(2FG-20, 3FG-3, FT-18-26)
Fouled Out - Thompson, Vienna; Yocum, Goreville.
Technical Fouls - Fischer, Goreville.

Johnston City (60) - Humes 1 1-3 3, Terrill 3 3-6 11, M. Ray 1 1-2 3, Anderson 0 4-8 4, Bernhardt 1 2-2 4, Peebles 1 5-7 7, K. Ray 9 1-4 19, Kirkpatrick 2 5-6 9.
(2FG-16, 3FG-2, FT-22-38, PF-18)
Cobden (58) - Sweitzer 6 2-4 14, Smith 3 0-1 6, Sitton 5 1-2 11, Dean 1 0-2 2, Draper 7 8-8 25, Ballance 0 0-2 0, Brumleve 0 0-2 0. Totals 22 11-21 58. (2FG-19, 3FG-3, FT-11-21, PF-18)
Fouled Out -- Kirkpatrick, Johnston City; Sitton and Dean, Cobden.
Technical Fouls - None.

Galatia (53) - Cockrum 5 8-10 18, Moore 1 0-2 2, Sloan 8 0-0 19, Hodson 2 6-6 10, House 2 0-0 4. Totals 18 14-18 53. (2FG-15, 3FG-3, FT-14-18, PF-8)
Carteville (51) - Bleyer 0 1-2 1, Drust 7 0-0 15, Thompson 3 0-1 8, Poore 7 1-2 16, Lantagne 0 1-2 1, Martin 4 0-0 8, McCann 1 0-0 2. (2FG-18, 3FG-4, FT-14-18, PF-18)
Fouled Out - None.
Technical Fouls - None.