12-18-12
BY JACK BULLOCK
WEST FRANKFORT – Although the West Frankfort Redbirds' basketball program has taken some lumps in the past few seasons, not all is grim at Max Morris Gym.

On Tuesday night at home, Coach Dan DeWerff's squad was the one delivering the lumps.

Using a big third quarter push and forcing Carmi-White County into a poor night shooting, West Frankfort picked up its second win of the season with a 58-42 non-conference triumph.

The Redbirds, with that second win, matched their total amount of wins in the last two seasons.

Trenton Easley and Christian Dunning each scored 15-points while Braxton Koehl and Nic Korolenko notched 11 and 10-points respectively as the Redbirds used an 11-0 run to end the third quarter as they pulled away from the Bulldogs.

Forcing Carmi-White County into six third quarter turnovers (16 for the contest) and a poor night shooting the ball (16-of-45) West Frankfort picked up the victory to improve to 2-5 on the season.

“We told them (the players) before the game we wanted to pressure them (CWC) on the defensive end. We wanted to turn our defense into offense,” said Coach DeWerff. “We got some transition buckets and the guys did a good job of boxing out and we kept the turnovers low. That (turnovers) is something that we have been working on all year. This is the first game at we have done that for all four quarters.”

Leading just 27-26 midway through the third quarter, Coach DeWerff's club took command.

Easley scored six-points in the game-changing run, hitting a pair of free throws to begin the sprint before scoring twice in transition.

He took a pass from Dunning and his fast-break lay in gave West Frankfort a 33-26 lead with 2:05 to go.

Easley then nailed a baseline jumper and, when Koehl added a free throw late in the frame, the Redbirds were in charge at 38-26.

After Carmi-White County's Brodie Brown hit a shot to open the fourth quarter, West Frankfort closed the book on the victory with eight more points in succession.

Easley again was the culprit hitting a pair of free throws and then taking two nice assists from teammates Dunning and Korolenko for two baskets.

His fastbreak bucket on the Korolenko rebound and outlet pass pushed the margin to 46-28.

“He (Easley) showed a lot of fire. He got after it and that is what we are looking for from him. He's a senior and on both ends of the floor he made a difference,” said Coach DeWerff.

Dunning, a 6-foot-3 sophomore forward, nailed a 3-pointer and then crashed the glass sticking back his own missed shot for a 52-33 lead with 3:52 left.

Carmi-White County was led by Brodie Brown and Chase Sailer with nine points apiece as the Bulldogs fell to 2-7 on the year.

Coach Eric Dixon's team had chances, especially in the first half.

A pair of 3-pointers in the second quarter by Andy Vaughan and Brown kept the game close.

Brown's trey from the left corner cut the West Frankfort advantage to just 17-16 late in the half.

However West Frankfort got an important score right before intermission from senior forward Evan Keller as the Redbirds were playing well heading into the second half.

West Frankfort outgunned the visitors 39-26 in the final 16-minutes and led by as many as 21-points before a late push by CWC made the score some-what respectable.

The Redbirds shot the ball much better than their guests, connecting on 24-of-47 overall.

West Frankfort outrebounded the Bulldogs 27-21 and held CWC away from the offensive glass (five offensive rebounds) in the win.

“We knew that they (CWC) shot a lot of 3's and we worked on being solid on the defensive end. We didn't give them many second-chance points,” Coach DeWerff added. “We wanted to push the ball up the floor. We knew that they weren't very deep and wanted to use our depth. We have three or four guys we can use off the bench.”

The outcome could have been laid to rest much sooner had WF made more of its free throws (9-of-18) but to the Redbirds credit, they took very good care of the ball (nine turnovers) in the win.

Carmi-White County hit just 6-of-23 of its long-range shots, a stat that Coach Dixon addressed after the game.

“We knocked some 3-pointers down early in the year and hopefully the kids have figured out after four losses in a row that we have to do more than just stand back and shoot 3's,” said Coach Dixon. “A good three would be that the ball sees both sides of the floor. You kicked it in and you kicked it out. But we are trying to score off of one pass or maybe two passes. That doesn't work.”

West Frankfort will play host to longtime Franklin County rival Benton on Friday night while Carmi-White County will try and regroup as they will have a week off before heading to the Eldorado Holiday Tournament next Thursday.

The Bulldogs will open with a game against another River-to-River team, the Herrin Tigers, at 3:15 pm.

West Frankfort is also at the EHT, with their first round game slated for 11:30 am against Fairfield.

“Our defense was pretty solid and I was happy with our effort,” finalized Coach DeWerff. “The guys executed the game-plan.”

Carmi-White County (42) – Vaughan 1 2 0-2 8, Rankin 0 0 0-0 0, Brown 2 1 2-2 9, Sailer 3 1 0-2 9, Steed 0 1 0-0 3, Large 2 0 1-1 5, Gross 0 0 1-2 1, Vaught 0 1 0-0 3, Matz 2 0 0-0 4..
2FG-10, 3FG-6, FT-4-9, PF-15.
West Frankfort (58) – Easley 4 0 7-8 15, Koehl 5 0 1-4 11, Dunning 6 1 0-1 15, Keller 2 0 0-1 4, Fort 0 0 1-2 1, Korolenko 5 0 0-2 10, Maller 1 0 0-0 2, Sisk 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-23, 3FG-1, FT-9-18, PF-11.
Fouled Out – None.
Technical Fouls – None.