BY JACK BULLOCK
WAYNE CITY – The Red Hill Salukis have played against some tough competition this season and that seasoning paid off in its first game of the 63rd annual Conrad Allen Holiday Tournament on Saturday against one of the tourney favorites Webber Township.

Coach Bryan Havill has a strong backcourt leader named Kameron Vinsel who has been in a lot of big games in his four-year career.

On Saturday afternoon this 6-foot-2 senior guard came up huge as he and his teammates showed up to the tournament ready to battle.

Vinsel netted a game-high 28-points for Red Hill as the team began its quest for the tournament title with a 64-58 victory over the Trojans.

Teammate Corbin Shoulders, a 5-foot-11 junior guard, added 22-points for the Salukis.

Shoulders put Red Hill on his “shoulders” in the first half, putting in 14 of his points early.

Then Vinsel took over in the second half, especially from the foul line.

Veteran players know how to get to that stripe and Vinsel connected on 9-of-10 foul shots in the final stanza, 11-of-13 for the game.

“Vinsel has been a perfect player and leader for a coach to have. He leads on and off the court for us by example,” said Coach Havill. “Shoulders also had a big game for us today. And we made our free throws when we needed them.”

Coach Havill also got a good effort from Andy Wells, a 6-foot-3 junior forward, who netted six-points and grabbed seven-rebounds for Red Hill.

Entering the event at 3-5, the Salukis played well and as they used this “1-2” scoring punch to floor Webber Township, knocking the Trojans down to 0-1 in Pool A.

Coach Bryan Havill saw his team respond well considering that they were coming off of a road loss at Olney Richland on Friday night.

They also used a combination of defenses to confuse and frustrate the Trojans.

Coach Brad Beaty's club, who were coming off a pair of wins in the past week and normally a very good outside shooting team, struggled on Saturday afternoon.

Webber Township was topped in scoring by 6-foot-4 junior Charles Neal who did his damage inside for 21-points while grabbing 10-rebounds.

Senior Jaxon Helm finished with 15-points and juniors Brody Mount Dylan Stratton added 10 each.

Solid numbers but the figure that was the most damaging was the 32.6 percent.

That was the shooting percentage overall for Webber Township (17-of-52) and a woeful 3-of-22 from the 3-point arc (13.6 percent) which were damaging numbers for a normally good shooting team.

“That is what we want to do on defense, we want to mix things up and try to confuse them,” said Coach Havill. “We knew they (Webber) were a good outside shooting team and we wanted to see what we could do with mixing it up on them.”

The Salukis didn't exactly set the house on fire from the field (21-of-48) but they did enough on this afternoon in the other categories.

Red Hill controlled the boards (32-25) and hit 18-of-28 free throws with Vinsel being the most accurate.

They did commit 12-turnovers, but none of them were in the fourth quarter.

The Salukis, after making a bus ride to Olney on Friday night for a crushing 72-49 loss, they showed no signs of road lag or despair in their tournament opener as they jumped out to a first quarter advantage.

While Red Hill opened the game playing well on the defensive end, the Trojans struggled in the same area.

Shoulders and Vinsel both made Webber Township pay in the early going.

Vinsel scored on an inbounds pass for a wide open score and Shoulders canned a 3-pointer for an early 7-3 lead.

Then Shoulders nailed another shot which was followed by a pair of drives to the basket by the two Salukis, both of which were wide-open drives down the lane as Coach Beaty's club lost both players.

This forced a Webber timeout at 13-5 Red Hill at the 1:36 mark.

Neal scored five-points in the first quarter for the Trojans as he converted a three-point play with under a minute to go.

But Shoulders closed his impressive quarter with a drive in the lane for a short jumper and a 15-8 lead at the horn.

Webber had its best success of the half in the second quarter, as they rallied to tie the Salukis heading into the intermission.

Down 18-8 after a 3-pointer from Shoulders, the Trojans got going with a 7-0 burst.

Stratton canned his only 3-pointer of the contest which was followed by a pair of free throws by Mount and an offensive rebound follow up by Neal.

Webber got its first tie score since early in the contest when Helm hit 3-of-4 free throws on consecutive trips and Neal made a steal and raced to the other end of the floor for a fast break score to even things at 20-all with 1:34 left.

Vinsel and Neal traded scores to close the half at 22-22.

The best chance for the Trojans to get a victory came in the third quarter as they forced Red Hill into five turnovers.

But they failed to make much out of the takeaways.

Stratton scored points on a drive to the basket and a free throw for the first Webber lead since the opening minute.

However Shoulders scored seven-points in the third with yet another 3-point bomb and Vinsel scored on consecutive possessions to give Red Hill a 32-27 spread at the 4:13 mark.

When looking for a bright spot from Webber, it would be their excellence from the foul line.

The Trojans were 21-of-27 from the line and they hit six-straight in a stretch in the third quarter with Neal making four and Stratton adding two to give back the lead to Webber at 33-32.

Stratton added a 3-pointer late in the quarter and Shoulders hit for his final field goal as the two clubs headed to the fourth even at 37-apiece.

Mount drove the lane to give Webber a lead just seconds into the period but Vinsel answered the score with a 3-pointer.

This got the senior guard going.

He made a point of getting to the foul line and he delivered the goods from the line.

Webber got its final lead of the game on a rebound score by Mount while being fouled.

His converted free throw gave the Trojans a 50-49 lead.

After a made free throw by Vinsel evened the score at 50, the two combatants traded points with the final tie being at 54-all.

A combination of made free throws by Red Hill and consecutive missed field goals by Webber gave the Salukis the victory.

The Trojans made just two of their last seven field goal attempts.

In that stretch, Red Hill got defensive rebounds on six of those missed shots and converted 6-of-9 free throws to close out the win.

The Salukis will play again on Wednesday night against Cisne, who was an upset winner over Patoka in the first game of the tournament.

Webber will also play Cisne, on Monday night, in the pool play event.

“I thought we got a little impatient and we settled for a lot of 3-pointers, I thought we should have gotten the ball in the middle more,” said Coach Beaty. “There were times when we did that. But we are going to see a lot of zone this year. It seems like a lot of teams are playing more zone. We will go back and look at the film and work on that.”