Battle tested teams hook up at 68th Conrad Allen Holiday Tournament
12-team event has plenty of talented squads with new format

12/10/2022
BY JACK BULLOCK
WAYNE CITY - Not only has the Conrad Allen Wayne City Holiday Tournament reached its 68th annual, the event has expanded to feature 12-teams for the first time since the old days of the 16-team bracket.

The brain-child of Wayne City head coach and athletic director Jake Talbert, the 12-team bracket will feature four pools of three teams, a format used over the years by the Litchfield Invitational Tournament.

The first, second and third place finishers in each pool will then feed into gold, silver and bronze brackets.

It should make for an interesting week.

Heading into the event, nine of the 12 teams have a winning record or at .500.

And two of the schools have records that don't look as sharp as others but they competition has been tough.

The host Wayne City Indians started the season 3-0 with victories coming at the Christopher Thanksgiving Tournament, defeating New Athens in a close contest and they downing Midland Trail Conference rivals Webber Township and Waltonville to capture the title.

But since that time Coach Jake Talbert's club have just a single win (67-44 over Grayville) to go with three losses, all at home.

Centralia Christ Our Rock Lutheran (61-36), Mount Carmel (58-31) and Cisne (62-49) have the Tribe at 4-3 heading into the Conrad Allen.

Justin Durham, a 6-6 senior forward, leads the Indians while seniors Jonny Durham, Grant Lewis and Chase Smith are part of a solid nucleus.

The Indians play a tougher than average schedule for a 1A school.

North Clay enters the fray with 4-4 record with a loss at Newton, 66-57 before heading to the tournament.

Coach Josh Zink has done a fine job with this program and part of the plan was beefing up the schedule.

They opened their campaign with a pair of wins at the Cumberland Thanksgiving Tournament over 2A Newton and the host Pirates.

A 55-54 loss to state-ranked Casey-Westfield in the title game was a heart-breaker.

They picked up a 54-49 win over Effingham St. Anthony and a victory over St. Elmo/Brownstown with other losses coming to Casey-Westfield on the road, 66-51 and at Graves County (KY.) 97-78.

The Cardinals are led by first team 1A ABV selection from a year ago 6-1 senior Logan Fleener, who was also named National Trail Conference 'Player of the Year' in 2021-22.

Cisne picked up a win on Thursday night over Oblong/Palestine/Hutsonville (76-49) to improve to 7-1 on the season.

Head coach Kevin Bowen has his club playing well, with just a single loss to Dieterich on the road 56-44.

The Runnin' Lions have victories over Georgetown-Ridge Farm, Neoga and Georgetown La Salette to win the Neoga Thanksgiving Tournament.

Cisne also topped Edwards County and Red Hill before handling their Wayne County rivals, 62-49 last Tuesday.

A group of underclassmen have shined so far for the club with Anden Atwood, a 6-1 junior, along with sophomores Cooper Bowen, Gavyn Harrell and Landen Keck who have all played well.

Russel Best is the lone senior on the squad and Kade Atwood is a freshman; both have contributed to the successful start.

South Central (3-2) enters the WCHT for the first time as the Cougars bring a strong squad to the event for head coach Blake Doehring.

Five-eleven senior Aidan Dodson has been one of the team leaders for the Cougars as the club has victories over Flora (54-44), Ramsey (67-58) and Patoka/Odin (58-34) with a lone loss to 2A Vandalia (49-44).

He scored 25 points in the loss to Vandalia.

Ethan Watwood, a 5-11 senior, 5-11 sophomore Brody Markley, 6-1 junior Jacob Smith, 5-11 senior Anthony Buonaura and 6-2 sophomore Seth Bergmann have all been part of the 3-1 start.

The Cougars lost to Altamont in a key NTC game on Friday night.

Perhaps the best game in the Pool Play portion of the tournament will be the event opener on Saturday at noon.
Cisne and Webber Township will hook up as the two Midland Trail Conference rival square off.

Head coach Brad Beaty's club lost just a single senior from last season (Seth Hamerski) and they have a 4-2 mark coming into the tournament.

Wins include Zeigler-Royalton and Christopher to get third in the Christopher Thanksgiving Tournament along with triumphs over Edwards County (71-47), and Thompsonville (71-36).

The two defeats came against Wayne City (59-40) and Hamilton County (49-44).

The Trojans have 6-8 senior Hunter Danberry along with senior teammates Weston Hails, Aidin Reed and Elijah Marlow, and junior Josh Lewis, who have all been around the program for multiple seasons.

The wild card team in the event is Lovejoy a metro-east St. Louis team making the trip to the WCHT.

Led by head coach Kim Haywood, the Wildcats have no problem getting on the bus as this team will log a bunch of miles over the next three months.

Lovejoy, including the WCHT, will participate in five regular season tournaments in 2022-23.

The wins have come against Harrisburg and Steeleville at the Trico/Murphysboro Invitational and Barry Western and Greenfield/Northwestern at the Spartan Classic.

The defeats came against Breese Mater Dei at the Metro-East Lutheran Thanksgiving Shootout, and to both Murphysboro and Chester at the Trico/Murphysboro tourney.

They have played arguably the toughest schedule of the teams entered this week.

Coach Haywood has a trio of players who have played well so far this season.

Six-four senior Shantez Holliday, 6-4 junior Jamal Brown and 5-10 senior Pierre Lucas have been mainstays on the club that is sitting at 4-4 after Friday night's 47-30 loss in the title game of the North Greene Spartan Classic against Griggsville-Perry.

Crab Orchard is a long time combatant at this tournament and head coach Jon Brown brings another good squad to the event this coming week.

The Trojans are off to a good start at 7-1 with the lone loss to 2A Sparta (76-70) in the title game at the Elverado Thanksgiving Tournament.

Wins have come against Elverado (66-42), Marion Agape Christian (76-45), Norris City-Omaha-Enfield (60-39), Pope County (84-46), Gallatin County (58-54) and Egyptian (73-28).

Five-ten senior guard Robbie Rooker leads the Trojans so far this season, just like he did as a junior.

Seniors Brinnen Norris and Colton Throgmorton also have experience for the Trojans, who won their Friday night game against Galatia, 86-58 before heading to the WCHT on Saturday afternoon to take on the host Indians.

Coach Brown also has senior Troy Robbins and sophomore Cameron Clark playing well for the Trojans.

Gallatin County, another team from the Greater Egyptian Conference (along with Crab Orchard), comes into the tournament with a just a pair of wins, including an opening night win over Grayville (71-68) to go against four losses.

Head coach Craig Utterbeck club has losses to 2A state-ranked Carmi-White County (56-38), 2A Eldorado (53-27), and GEC rivals Galatia (67-58) and Crab Orchard (58-54).

Rylie Rushing is a 6-6 senior who netted 35 points in the win over Grayville.

Six-fout junior Noah Richardson and sophomores 6-1 Grant Jackson have also been productive for the Hawks.

Gallatin County picked up a 67-43 win over Pope County Friday night.

Grayville under first year head coach Travis Thompson have a 2-3 after a 76-67 loss on Friday night to Sandoval.

The wins came against rival Edwards County (71-62) and Red Hill (82-58) while the defeats were against Gallatin County (71-68) and Wayne City (67-44).

Six-three junior Ty-Zae Rowland is the leading Bison player so far this winter.

Rowland has averaged 29.3 points a game for Grayville while 6-3 freshman Jake Hosman has hit double figures at 10.8 points a game.

Six-foot sophomore Zach Leavens adds 13.8 points a game for the offense and junior Kanaan Worley adds eight-points to the totals.

Sandoval is led by Coach Tyler Mitchell, who produced a winning record for the Blackhawks.

The program is off to a 5-1 mark with a 70-44 loss to Waltonville as the lone defeat.

Wins include a 43-39 victory over Ramsey, along with wins over Mulberry Grove (63-44), O'Fallon FBA (55-28), Elverado (49-37) and the win Friday night over Grayville.

Six-three senior Trenton Dempsey and 6-5 junior Armoni Dempsey have been the 'go-to' guys for Coach Mitchell.

Edwards County (3-4) dropped a close game to Hamilton County (41-36) on Friday night before beginning the tournament on Saturday.

Coach Kevin Schnicker has three wins over Woodlawn (47-43), Oblong/Palestine/Hutsonville (53-27) and Sesser-Valier (46-40).

The three other defeats came against teams in the WCHT.

Grayville (71-62), Webber Township (71-47) and Cisne (63-45) bested the Lions.

Senior Logan Correll, senior Ryder Bell and junior Anjuan Rhodes have been the top players for the Lions.

Coach Schnicker also mentioned Owen Grimes, Jake Gillard and Gavin Smith as contributors.

The Hamilton County JV team is the final club, as they are filling a spot that was vacated by a team that was supposed to be in the field but ended up going elsewhere, causing a substitution to come in.

EDITOR'S NOTE: I can't say for certain how many times I have been to the Wayne City Holiday Tournament over the years. But it has been nearly every year since I began ABV and even before that as a fan and working for other news organizations. It has been an important tournament to myself, fans, schools, players, coaches and everyone involved in putting together this event. Today I will spend another of my birthday's (Number 63) at the Conrad Allen Holiday Tournament.