01-06-15

Following an 18-2 blitz by the host Trico Pioneers these visitors could have folded the tents and went home with another loss.

After getting drilled in its previous game by Woodlawn in the title game of the Sesser-Valier Holiday Tournament, Christopher could have laid down.

However Coach Eric Stallman's club showed everyone in attendance what kind of perseverance they have.

Rallying from 16-down and battling back by scoring 28-points in the final quarter, the Bearcats turned the tables on the hosts with a come-from-behind 66-60 victory on the road at Campbell Hill.

The 'Cats used a big effort from everyone in Orange and Blue and an unbelievable performance from the foul line to complete the rally and the mild ABV rankings upset.

Christopher improved to 12-1 on the season and now stand at 2-0 and in first place all alone in the Black Diamond Conference West Division.

“We are a deep team, there is no question that I can play kids and just keep them coming in,” said Coach Stallman. “Anytime we need some fresh legs out there I can put kids in. And I would tell them 'Hey you only have a minute or two so just go' and then we would go back to our core group. We have some kids that can come in and give us some big minutes.”

The foul line was the Bearcats' best place to be on Tuesday night as Coach Stallman's squad nailed 23-of-26 charity tosses.

While Christopher was excelling from the stripe, Trico fared much worst from 15-feet as Coach Mike Denault's Pioneers were just 7-of-21.

“The most important aspect of the game was we just couldn't make any free throws and I scouted them and they (Christopher) don't miss their free throws,” said Coach Denault. “Five of their starters shoot the ball really well from the free throw line. I knew when we got down to the last couple of minutes it was going to be really tough. And we just dug the hole deeper every time we fouled because they converted them.”

This was a huge factor in the outcome of this league battle.

Despite falling behind early, Christopher never faltered and completed their rally with a big run in the final eight minutes.

The Bearcats capitalized on six late game turnovers by Trico and polished off the game by going on a 14-0 run in the middle part of the fourth quarter, turning a 52-45 deficit into a 59-52 advantage.

This run took just under four minutes to complete and featured two 3-point bombs, a driving lay in and 6-of-7 free throws made, including a bench technical on the Pioneers.

All-in-all the rally by Christopher coincided with Trico not being able to produce points from the foul line themselves.

Trico fell to 9-4 overall and 2-1 in the BDC WD by missing all six of their free throws in the fourth quarter while Christopher was making up ground.

The Bearcats were led by balanced scoring, including major contributions from their bench.

Five-foot-eleven sophomore Isaac McPhail came up big for Coach Stallman as his 20-points led the team.

Other starters Hunter Wheeler and Kaleb Pedigo added nine and eight points respectively while Josh Calloni added four-points from the starting unit total.

However Christopher got 25-points from its reserves, including 10-points from junior forward Luke Saeger and nine markers from Gabe Schimpf.

Bradley Young tossed in six-points in the rally.

The fact that Christopher got this much offense from its bench was a key factor in its comeback for the triumph on the road.

Trico was led in scoring by two senior leaders; Jake Chapman and Chase Rednour.

Chapman, a senior guard, netted a game-high 25-points while Rednour, a 6-foot-7 senior forward, added a double-double with 17-points and 13-rebounds.

Unfortunately, from the Pioneers perspective, these two got virtually no offensive help as the other Trico players added just 18-additional points.

Senior forward Ryan Meyers was third on the scoring list with seven points but none of which came after intermission.

Trico wasted a 41-26 rebounding edge with 12 of the boards coming on the offensive end of the floor.

The reasoning for this amount of chances on the glass came from a 23-of-53 shooting night (43.3 percent) although they managed to hit half of their 3-point attempts (7-of-14).

Christopher didn't exactly light the barn on fire from the field, connecting on just 19-of-55 (34.5 percent) but more than made up for their troubles by hitting 88.4 percent from the foul line.

The Bearcats also did a much better job handling the ball, making just five turnovers in the contest which began poorly but ended with a big flourish.

From the opening tap, had someone just looked at just the early highlights they would have thought the Pioneers would have coasted home with an easy victory.

The hosts came out firing in the first 5:37 of the quarter.

Led by Chapman scoring and Rednour cleansing the glass, Trico broke a 2-all tie with a 16-0 run.

Chapman scored eight of his points in this blitz, hitting a pair of 3-pointers while Rednour hauled in six-rebounds to go with three points.

Meyers produced two buckets, the second of which made it 18-2 with 2:17 left in the opening period.

However Christopher quickly got a couple of scores and its confidence back soon after the Trico run.

With a pair of 3-pointers by Saeger and Schimpf, from off the pine, and a couple of drives to the basket for scores by Schimpf and Wheeler, the 'Cats were back within single-digits at 21-12 at the end of one.

“We let down defensively after that first six minutes of the game. If we defend the same way the rest of the game who knows what happens,” said Coach Denault. “They come out of a thirty-second timeout and come down and hit two 3's on a single pass each trip. You have to bring that same effort (defensively) throughout the game but I thought we relaxed a bit. You have to give them credit. Two guys come off the bench and hit back-to-back 3's.”

Trico seemed to have things well in hand, having answered Christopher's offensive thrust with a solid second quarter.

But as it turned out a pattern was developing for the Pioneers as they found trips to the free throw line non-productive.

The Pioneers hit just 5-of-10 from the line in the quarter, a span in which they could have put some distance between themselves and the visitors.

Rednour scored twice inside for Trico in the second quarter but McPhail matched him with a pair of baskets and two free throws.

When Schimpf added two more free tosses late in the quarter, the Bearcats trailed just 35-28 at the break.

In the second half, it was business as usual for the hosts as they got the ball inside to Rednour who closed his scoring with an eight-point frame.

After Christopher made a 6-0 run with three consecutive scores by Pedigo, Saeger and Wheeler, Rednour scored on consecutive trips.

His rebound of his own missed shot in the lane beat the third quarter horn for a 48-38 lead heading into the final quarter.

Unfortunately for Trico, the final eight minutes couldn't have been much worse than what they appeared.

Chapman made two shots in the first few minutes of the final quarter and his jumper from the right side of the lane on an inbound pass pushed the Pioneers to a 52-45 lead at 4:43 to go.

As the old saying goes, the “Wheels fell off of the Bus” soon there after for Trico.

Fourteen consecutive points flipped the game in favor of the Bearcats with Wheeler and Pedigo each dialing up long distance in the run.

Saeger's salvo from the left corner with 1:24 remaining gave Christopher its first lead of the contest at 53-52.

Trico came right back down the floor but they missed a field goal attempt that was corralled by McPhail who was fouled on the play.

As the teams were walking up the floor to shoot free throws, the Trico bench was assessed a technical foul.

With McPhail (the team's best free throw shooter at nearly 82 percent for the season) heading to the line for his 1-and-1 opportunity, Coach Stallman elected to let him shoot all four of the free throws.

McPhail hit the first three, missing the fourth.

However the momentum of the contest had changed in the Bearcats favor at this point as those shots put Christopher up 57-52.

Trico had a chance to get right back into the game but missed on its next shot.

Christopher put the contest out of reach by making seven consecutive free throws in the waning moments.

By the time the 'Cats finally missed from the foul line, Trico was in trouble at 64-57 with :21.9 remaining.

Two more free throws by Pedigo (who was 6-of-6 in the final quarter from the stripe) “warmed up the bus” for the visitors who soon headed back to Franklin County with a victory and a first-place spot in the division.

Coach Stallman's stalwarts are only two wins away from matching last season's win total as they began the second half of the season with one of the biggest road wins in recent memory for the program.

“What was amazing about it (the comeback) is that as young as they are they showed a lot of maturity. I kept telling the kids to keep grinding and grinding. They just believe that they are going to win games,” said Coach Stallman. “They came back and they battled. We shot the ball from the free throw line extremely well. If you are going to win on the road, you are going to have to do something like that. That was pretty impressive coming done the stretch and hitting those shots. But the right kids were shooting.”

Trico, after a strong showing at the always tough Carbondale Holiday Tournament and a road win at Zeigler-Royalton, will now have to regroup heading into a tough stint of Mid-Winter contests.

A road game at Goreville followed by home games against Sesser-Valier and Murphysboro are part of a challenging stretch. The also go to DuQuoin for a game on January 17 before heading to the Sparta Mid-Winter Classic the following week.

Christopher, who doesn't participate in a Mid-Winter tournament, has games against Hamilton County at home and then at Johnston City in the next week.