01-13-06
BY JACK BULLOCK
BENTON - What a game fitting of a Friday the 13th?

West Frankfort and Benton staged their usual competitive battle at Rich Herrin Gym and it was equally fitting that this hard fought contest turned on an offensive rebound just before the final horn.

Matt Weeks tipped in a missed shot at the final buzzer, finishing a madcap sequence of events, giving the visiting Redbirds a thrilling 55-54 win in front of a very large crowd at Benton.

Having coughed up an 18-3 first quarter lead to get behind by as many as nine in the fourth quarter, West Frankfort responded with a big finish to doom their Franklin County rivals from the North.

As it turned out, the team that blew the biggest of all the leads in the game ended up leading at the most important time of the game. The end.

Perhaps the most important player on the floor in those waning moments was 6-foot-5 sophomore Isaiah Simelton.

His 'volleyball-like' effort kept the ball alive after a Matt Brown 3-point attempt did everything but go in the basket.

After two tip attempts by Simelton failed to go in, Weeks was in the right place at the right time to bank home the game winner just as time expired.

"Some games you see are like this, when a team that gains the momentum and seems to have the game won ends up losing the game at the end and tonight that happened," said West Frankfort coach Kevin Toney, whose team is now 11-3 overall and 4-1 in the SIRR Ohio Division.
"Matt hit some big shots early then he came up big for us in the end. Isaiah just kept the ball alive and he kept tipping the ball and finally Matt got it to go."

Benton can point to a 4-of-12 free throw shooting in the game including a 1-for-6 run in the final minutes that kept the Rangers from holding off their rivals.

In a game in which the Rangers overcame a large deficit and outplayed West Frankfort for the most part, coach Matt Wynn's club failed to close the deal in falling to 8-7 overall, 2-3 in the conference.

Opening the game on 13-1 run, Weeks and Co. appeared to be headed for an easy night.

The 6-foot-2 senior guard scored 11 of those Redbird points, as Benton was held scoreless from the field until Seiger Shurtz connected on a drive to the basket with 2:58 to go.

A 3-pointer from West Frankfort's Kyle Brown and a 15-footer from teammate Simelton made it 18-5 at the first horn.

The Rangers, known as a 3-point shooting team, were not a 3-point making team in the opening eight minutes missing all seven of their attempts from behind the arc.

However in the long-standing history of this rivalry, double-digit leads evaporating is the norm.

Benton clawed back into the contest in a hurry in the second quarter thanks to a change in strategy and the play of a couple of Rangers not known for their scoring.

Casey Ainslie led all Benton players in the contest with 15-points and Ryan Sanders stepped off of Wynn's bench to spark his team.

Ainslie's first two buckets in the quarter from inside the lane helped get the Rangers back into the ballgame.

Then Sanders made his presence known.

Scoring eight points in the quarter, this 6-foot-2 junior took the ball to the basket against a much bigger Redbirds' front line with success.

Perhaps the biggest play of the quarter came with just :51.6 left in the half as smallish Sayler Shurtz, a 5-foot-6 sophomore, drove in the lane and took the ball right at Simelton.

Simelton fouled Shurtz as the ball went in the basket. Although he missed the free throw attempt, the play seemed to give the Rangers a 'pick-me-up' as the momentum turned around to the hosts.

The quarter ended with Sanders getting a pass from Mason Satterfield on a backdoor cut to the basket, sending the game to the half at 26-21 West Frankfort.

As hot as Coach Toney's club was early (7-of-12) they cooled down considerably in the second frame going just 4-of-13 from the field to allow the Benton offense to get back into the game.

Just when the fans at Rich Herrin Gym thought that the home team was going to continue to pound the ball inside, the Rangers stepped out to the skill that has served them so well in the past.

Ainslie and Bryson Hammond got rolling in from long range in the third quarter.

Hammond hit back-to-back 3-pointers to give Benton its first lead.

When his second shot went through net, the Rangers led 29-28 at the 5:56 mark.
Seiger Shurtz also got going, hitting a 3-pointer and then this 5-foot-10 senior made a steal and his fast break bucket made it 34-31 with just under three minutes to play.

But it was Ainslie that was the key to the Ranger run.

He hit a pair of 3-pointers in the quarter and also a drive to the basket that resulted in points.

His final 'bomb' with :02 finished the quarter at 42-35.

Another Ainslie bucket to open the fourth quarter gave Benton a 44-35 advantage just twenty seconds into the final frame.

Unfortunately for the Rangers, West Frankfort had a run left in them that took all 7:40 remaining to come to fruition.

The Redbirds, methodically, chipped away at the lead.

Despite some additional scoring from Benton (an Ainslie score and an important rebound basket by Todd Browning) West Frankfort wasn't finished.

The Browning bucket with 3:22 remaining was the last Benton field goal.
Coach Toney's titans outscored the Rangers 11-1 the rest of the way.

In that final time, West Frankfort got five key baskets.

Simelton connected on a two of them and his rebound score with 1:12 to go cut the margin down to 54-48.

Kyle Brown scored on a 3-point shot at :58 after Benton's Hammond missed the front end of a 1-and-1 opportunity.

Following a Benton turnover, Weeks scored on a midrange shot as Redbirds turned up the heat at 54-53.

West Frankfort's Keith Jones quickly fouled Seiger Shurtz with :23.9 seconds left.

With a chance to widen the lead, Shurtz uncharacteristically missed his charity shot, setting up Weeks' heroics.

His tip-in was a heartbreaker for the Benton faithful as the Redbirds escaped with the win.

"They made a run at us in the second quarter and we stopped doing the things defensively that we thought that we had to do," added Toney. "Our kids need to be a bit more selfish defensively sometimes. We got caught helping out a bit too much tonight, especially on our post defense, which allowed them some scores in the second quarter underneath the basket."

Benton out shot the Redbirds on the night, connecting on 22-of-46 from the field (48 percent) and 6-of-18 from behind the line.

West Frankfort held a 30-24 rebounding margin that included 12 offensive boards.

That total was fueled by the Redbirds 22-of-58 (38 percent) shooting overall.

Weeks topped all scorers with 20.

He also came up with four steals, including three in the opening period that got his team off to a grand start.

Simelton added 16-points as this sophomore continues to get better with every game played.

Jones and Kyle Brown added eight and six points respectively.

For Benton, following Ainslie's 15 it was Seiger Shurtz with 10 and Sanders with eight.

In a cleanly played game that had just nine total turnovers (Benton 5, WF 4) it was the free throw shooting that eventually told the story.

"Matt's (Coach Wynn) kids showed a lot of pride tonight and came back making a run and I knew they would make a run at us," finalized Toney. "Any win on the road in this conference is important and anytime you can come into here (Benton) and get a win it is special. Sometimes it is better to be lucky than to be good and we got lucky there at the end tonight."

	1	2	3	4		Final
West Frankfort	18	8	9	20	-	55
Benton	5	16	21	11	-	54

West Frankfort (55) - Wall 0 1 0-0 3, Cogdill 0 0 0-0 0, Jackanicz 0 0 0-0 0, M. Patton 0 0 0-0 0, Weeks 7 1 3-4 20, Jones 4 0 0-1 8, K. Brown 0 2 0-0 6, Simelton 8 0 0-2 16, Warren 1 0 0 0-0 2.
2FG-20, 3FG-2, FT-3-7, PF-16.
Benton (54) - Sa. Shurtz 1 0 0-1 2, Se. Shurtz 3 1 1-3 10, Hammond 0 2 0-3 6, Satterfield 1 0 1-2 3, Browning 3 0 0-0 6, Meyers 1 0 2-3 4, Ainslie 3 3 0-0 15, Sanders 4 0 0-0 8.
2FG-16, 3FG-6, FT-4-12, PF-7.
Fouled Out - None.
Technical Fouls - None.