12-09-14
BY JACK BULLOCK
ELDORADO - In the history of ABV, now in its 18th season, there have been many games that have been difficult to describe.

Tuesday night's clash between West Frankfort and Eldorado falls into that category.

Numbers don't lie and all the Christmas sugar-coating won't hide the problems that both of these undefeated teams had on December 9.

These two clubs combined for 44-turnovers, 52-personal fouls and 59-free throw attempts.

To use the term 'slug-fest' might be a huge understatement as these squads struggled to do anything right for most of the evening.

But someone was going to win this game and the team that finally put together enough good minutes finally prevailed.

The visiting Red Birds, behind 18-points from 6-foot-4 senior Christian Dunning, and 14-points from 6-foot-6 senior Hunter Johnson, eventually pulled away from the host Eagles, 54-41, at Duff-Kingston Gymnasium.

The Red Birds took the most advantage of the gifts that they received, especially in the fourth quarter, to improve to 3-0 on the season.

“It was ugly, we didn't have the right mindset going into the game on either end of the floor and we were not cohesive as a team like we were Saturday night (win over Pinckneyville),” said Coach DeWerff. “Coming in here tonight (Tuesday) I kind of felt this was kind of a 'trap game' but we have got to do a better job communicating on the defensive end and taking care of the ball. But we did do a better job in the last four minutes of the game.”

The Eagles committed 27 of the turnovers and were whistled for 27 of the fouls on the night, falling to 1-1 on the young season.

Eldorado got 20-points from 6-foot-2 senior Richard Graceffa as he was one of the few bright spots for Coach Josh Bradley's bunch.

When these two teams weren't turning the ball over and committing fouls, they were missing a lot of shots, both from the field and the free throw line.

West Frankfort shot the ball a bit better than the hosts, hitting 14-of-38 from the field, but they were just 1-of-10 beyond the 3-point arc.

The Eagles, on the other hand, were no better as they connected on just 13-of-45 overall, 4-of-12 from long range.

The silver lining for the visitors is that they managed to hold on to a lead that they got in the second half and survived the few runs that Eldorado made.

They also hit more of their fouls shots, connecting on 25-of-35 from the line, while Eldorado was just 11-of-24.

The Red Birds led early, behind baskets by Dunning and Johnson, along with senior guards Garrett Karoski and Braxston Koehl.

Karoski hit the team's only 3-point field goal of the game, in the first few minutes, and Dunning, Koehl and Johnson followed up with scores to make it 13-6 with 2:43 to go in the opening quarter.

The Eagles managed a brief run to take a short lead in the second quarter when Graceffa and junior guard Adam Ninness hit shots.

Ninness canned a 3-pointer from the left wing, part of an 8-0 run to put Eldorado up 14-13.

The Eagles can look back on a first half with disdain, having squandered chances to take control.

Eldorado attempted 16 free throws in the first 16-minutes, but made just six.

Graceffa did his part, making all four of his attempts, with two coming right before intermission and the two teams heading to the break at 23-21 West Frankfort.

The first two quarters produced a combined 23-turnovers, 33-missed field goal attempts and 29-free throws attempted.

It was not a pretty first half in any sense.

Eldorado could have made a major move in the third quarter, but the Eagles wasted chances that West Frankfort gave them.

After a 6-0 run by the Red Birds, the Eagles produced a drive to the basket by 6-foot-7 junior Clay Boulds and another score from Graceffa, a 3-pointer, to cut the lead to 29-26 with 4:00 remaining.

West Frankfort closed the third with an 8-3 run, with three of the points coming from Koehl, who was fouled while attempting a 3-pointer with :02.8 left by Ninness.

He capitalized by making all three of the shots for a 37-29 spread at the end of three.

Eldorado committed 12-turnovers in the stanza and trailed by eight points.

Coach Dan DeWerff's Red Birds finally got some distance between themselves and the hosts with a pair of fast break scores, including a dunk by Johnson on a pass from junior guard Keegan Easley.

A free throw by Koehl expanded the advantage to 42-29 before Eldorado made a final move late in the contest in which they got to within six points with 3:12 remaining.

Graceffa hit two more shots and his steal and fast break cut the deficit to just 47-41.

But those were the last points for Eldorado, as West Frankfort went into a spread offense and converted 5-of-6 free throws in the final 1:44.

“We talked at halftime about we just have to slow down. We were playing too fast. We told them to just let the game come to you,” said Coach Bradley. “As we clawed back into the game our emotions and excitement got us to speed things up again. They (West Frankfort) played good defense but a lot of it (turnovers) was us trying to make something happen that wasn't there. Going a little bit too fast.”

Despite six fourth quarter turnovers, the Red Birds got out of town with a victory.

Besides Dunning and Johnson, Koehl and Hartley added seven points each.

Following Graceffa for Eldorado was senior Nathan Burnett with seven points with five each coming from Boulds and Ninness.

The Red Birds fly back into action this weekend, hosting Harrisburg on Friday night and Hamilton County on Saturday.

Eldorado will host Fairfield on Friday.

“This was a survival game. We just talked about it. I hope we come out Friday and play better,” added Coach DeWerff. “It was hard to get into any type of flow tonight.”