12-12-08
BY JACK BULLOCK
SESSER - The Carterville Lions 47-43 loss on Friday night at Sesser-Valier can be blamed on one simple thing.

The first eight minutes of play.

Coach Scott Burzynski saw his club come out of the gate slowly which allowed Sesser-Valier to jump out to a 16-6 lead after one quarter.

Despite playing well the rest of the way – Carterville couldn’t overcome the “rocky” start in the Black Diamond Conference contest.

Justin Matyi scored 23 points for Sesser-Valier including the first six points of the game for a club that is trying to defend the West Division title.

The Red Devils (5-1, 1-0 BDC West) also got double-figures in scoring from T.J. Eubanks who added 14 points.

Carterville (1-5, 1-1 BDC West) received 14 points from Clint Dolce and nine points from Ben Drust in the loss.

In spite of the win Coach Kirk wasn’t very pleased with his teams’ effort.

“I didn’t think we played like a veteran team down the stretch,” said Kirk. “Even though they are mostly juniors they have been playing varsity ball for quite a while. Missing free throws like that will get us beat. We shot free throws this morning so I don’t know what to say.”

The charities Kirk referred to were four missed shots in the final :36.2 of the fourth quarter.

Tinsley (2) T.J. Eubanks and Matyi all missed free throws that could have iced away the win.

But the Lions couldn’t take advantage as they missed four shots from the field in the last few moments and had a unforced turnover late.

“I told the kids we won the game in the first quarter but after that we were pretty lethargic,” added Kirk. “Defensively I thought we were pretty solid but we are not shooting the ball well. I don’t think we have played as well as we can. I was expecting better than that tonight.”

Matyi – a 6-foot-4 junior forward who scored 11 of his 23 in the first eight minutes - dominated that opening stanza.

Three straight buckets in the first two minutes spotted the Devils a 6-0 lead.

He also converted a conventional three-point play to help spur on a 10-0 run that gave S-V its biggest lead at 16-4 with 2:41 left in the frame.

A Drust score with :04 left closed that first quarter.

Carterville committed just 12 turnovers in the game but seven of those came in that opening quarter.

“We needed to control the paint tonight but early they did. They got Matyi the ball inside and he turned and scored on us,” said Burzynski. “Matyi is a good player and we need to do a better job on him next time we play them.”

Drust and Ryan Bonifield – a 6-foot-2 sophomore guard – each hit 3-pointers in the second quarter for the Lions.

When Bonifield canned his trey from the right wing with 1:35 left – the Lions trailed just 24-20.

However T.J. Eubanks hit a 3-pointer from the left corner to close the half at 27-20.

“I thought we had an advantage in the post and that is where we wanted the ball tonight,” Kirk said. “We did a pretty good job of that. But I thought we fatigued pretty early tonight.”

Sesser-Valier appeared to have put the Lions away with a 6-0 run early in the fourth quarter.

Kendall Gibson, Treg Vandekerkhove and Matyi scored. Matyi’s turnaround jumper in the paint with 5:53 left gave the Devils a 44-32 lead.

However Carterville went on its own run – a 9-2 binge - that whittled the lead down to just 46-41 with :30.5 remaining.

That was where the rally ended.

Anthony Lenzini scored with :05 remaining but - after a Carterville timeout – Sesser-Valier got the ball inbounds to Matyi who tipped the ball to Tinsley. Tinsley dribbled to the frontcourt and ran out the clock.

Neither team shot the ball well with Sesser-Valier going 19-of-46 from the field and a “blizzard-like” 2-of-12 from behind the arc.

Carterville struggled, too, going just 20-of-47 (2-of-7 from 3-point range) in the loss.

Sesser-Valier held a slim 25-23 rebounding edge and were 7-of-11 from the foul line.

The Lions only got to the charity stripe two times, making one.

Following Dolce and Drust for Carterville in scoring were Lenzini (eight) and Bonifield (seven).

Tinsley scored six points while Vandekerkhove and Gibson added four apiece.

Sesser-Valier will tackle Elverado on Tuesday night before taking on Christopher next Friday. Both of those contests will be at home.

Carterville will host Goreville on Tuesday before hitting the road for a game at Trico.

“Getting down early our kids could have rolled over but that didn’t happen,” added Burzynski. “We stepped up and competed and had an opportunity. We came out a little bit shaky and they took it to us early and that was a big part of the game. I’m pretty happy with the kids because they're not making the same mistakes that they did early in the season.”

Carterville (43) – Rossi 2 0 1-2 5, Bonner 0 0 0-0 0, Bagwell 0 0 0-0 0, Drust 3 1 0-0 9, Bonifield 2 1 0-0 7, Dolce 7 0 0-0 14, Lenzini 4 0 0-0 8.
2FG-18, 3FG-2, FT-1-2, PF-14.
Sesser-Valier (47) – D. Eubanks 0 0 0-0 0, Tinsley 3 0 0-2 6, Gibson 2 0 0-0 4, Vandekerkhove 2 0 0-0 4, Matyi 9 0 5-6 23, T.J. Eubanks 1 2 2-3 10.
2FG-17, 3FG-2, FT-7-11, PF-9.
Fouled Out – None.
Technical Fouls – None.