11-30-2019
BY JACK BULLOCK
CHRISTOPHER – For junior guard Gabe Motsinger, it couldn't get much better on Saturday night in the title game of the 45th annual Christopher Thanksgiving Tournament.

With head coach Eric Stallman and the rest of the near sellout crowd looking on, the 5-foot-11 senior guard, playing in his final CTT game, put on a show.

His 26-points topped all scorers while nailing down three 3-pointers in the Bearcats' 75-69 victory over Wayne City.

Motsinger was also a perfect 7-of-7 from the foul line as Christopher begins its 2019-20 campaign at 3-0.

He hit 3-of-5 3-point shots and 5-of-6 inside the arc, going 8-of-11 overall from the floor.

For his work in the championship game and the two victories over Webber Township and New Athens, Motsinger was named the Most Valuable Player of the event.

Grant Gordon, a 6-foot senior, added 19-points for Christopher while 6-foot-2 senior Bryce Pratt tossed in 15.

All three Bearcats were part of the 11-man All-Tournament squad.

“Motsinger had an outstanding tournament for us. He, Grant and Bryce all came up big for us this week,” said Coach Stallman. “It was a really great win for us. Wayne City is a talented team and they are going to win a lot of ballgames this season.”

Wayne City, for the most part, played well enough to win.

But the issue that hurt the 2-1 Indians was turnovers.

Coach Jim Corona saw his club cough up seven of their 13 turnovers in the first quarter.

Kaiden Taylor, a senior forward for the Indians, led his team with 19-points while senior guard Travis Dickey added 15.

Senior Marcus Durham added 13-points and sophomore Taj McKinney scored 10.

Both Dickey and McKinney were named to the All-Tournament team.

When you start added up the numbers, Christopher was better at taking care of the ball.

The Bearcats only committed five turnovers with none in the first half and they were also more efficient from the foul line.

Christopher ended up 19-of-24 from the stripe while Wayne City closed out the game 15-of15-of-23.

Besides Motsinger going 7-of-7, Pratt (4-of-4) and Gordon (6-of-8) led the Bearcats to the important win.

All three of the Bearcats hit 3-pointers with Motsinger hitting on three of them.

Wayne City got an early lead when Durham, Taylor and senior Kent Miller each scored for a 6-4 advantage.

Then Motsinger got rolling.

The junior guard netted nine of his points in a run that helped turn a 8-6 deficit into a 17-10 first quarter advantage.

Wayne City rallied and played their best quarter of the night in the second.

The Indians 12-points from Dickey, who made a pair of 3-pointers and nailed six-consecutive free throws, and also eight-points from Taylor.

Still trailing 35-29 with 1:56 remaining, the Indians got two free throws by McKinney, a free throw by Durham, the second 3-pointer from Dickey and a score by Miller to give Wayne City a 37-35 halftime lead.

Wayne City was 12-of-16 from the floor in the first two quarters and they had survived their first quarter mistakes for the lead at intermission.

Unfortunately for the Tribe, the hot shooting cooled off significantly in the second half.

Coach Corona's team hit just 1-of-7 shots from the floor in the third quarter and added three more turnovers as Motsinger and Company took control of the championship game.

The MVP scored the first six-points coming out of the half.

He nailed a 3-pointer from the left corner and they converted a conventional three-point play to give Christopher a 41-37 lead.

Gordon scored the next two baskets for his team, a back door cut to the basket and a 3-pointer.

After closing the gap a bit with scores from Taylor and McKinney, Christopher took its largest lead of the night with junior guard Kye Garver getting in on the fun.

He connected on a 3-pointer from the left wing and then snagged a rebound for a score that produced a 53-42 advantage.

McKinney hit 1-of-2 free throws to close the quarter with Wayne City down 10.

The Bearcats were 7-of-13 from the field in the stanza.

All good teams win championships by taking care of business at the foul line when holding onto a lead.

Coach Stallman saw his club nail 16-of-20 from the line in the final quarter.

Motsinger and Pratt were each 4-of-4 in the frame, Gordon was 5-of-7 while Garver added 2-of-3.

Dickey and Durham each hit late 3-pointers to make the score seem closer.

The Bearcats ended up 25-of-48 overall from the floor, 6-of-16 from the arc.

Wayne City ended up 25-of-40 from the field overall and 4-of-10 from long range.

The Indians held a slight 19-16 rebounding edge but the turnovers, especially early in the game, were costly in the long run.

“Christopher did a great job playing us physical and clamping down on our two shooters. We just couldn’t keep them in front of us,” said Coach Corona. “They got great shots all night and we both know whoever gets the best looks usually wins.”

Christopher will be in action on Tuesday night at home when they face a good Cobden team who opened the season going 4-1 at the Vienna Turkey Tournament.

The Indians jump into Midland Trail Conference play on Tuesday at home against Christ Our Rock Lutheran (2-2).

“This (tournament) is a big deal for our program and our community,” said Coach Stallman about the Turkey Tournament, one of the oldest Thanksgiving tournaments in the state. “The kids remember last season getting blown out by Thompsonville and they didn't want to have that happen again this year.”

Coach Anthony Lowery's club got a 22-point output by senior forward Dillon Banach in the victory.

Reagan Newell added 17-points for Waltonville.

Both Banach (12-of-13) and Newell (11-of-13) were deadly from the foul line.

First year head coach Jimmy Stevens got nine-points apiece from junior forward Gannon Dollins and sophomore Cole Freeman in the loss as they fell to 1-2 overall.

WEBBER TOWNSHIP 46, THOMPSONVILLE 43
The Trojans (1-2) picked up their first win of the season with the victory over the defending champion Tigers in the seventh place game behind 14-points from 6-foot-5 senior Peyton Hill and 12-points from 5-foot-10 freshman Elijah Marlow.

Senior Dalton Adcock and sophomore Seth Hamerski added eight and five points respectively in the victory.

Thompsonville fell to 0-3 on the season, matching the loss total of last season.

Grady Furlow, a 6-foot-2 junior, tossed in 21-points to lead the Tigers while senior Corbin Fitch and Hayden Lindhorst added seven points each.