Jumping out to a 14-0 lead and using a trapping full-court zone defense to force early Z-R mistakes, Coach Todd Tripp saw his team take care of business and stay undefeated in league play with a 82-45 victory.

Goreville coaxed the hosts into 22-turnovers in the BDC contest, which included six in the first few minutes of the opening quarter, and were never in danger as they improved to 20-4 overall and 9-0 in the West Division.

The Blackcats were balanced in the scorebook, with six different player reaching double-figures.

Senior guard Blake Gray topped to scoring list with 15-points while 6-foot-3 senior Dayton Tripp and 6-foot-4 senior Zeke Snell added 12 each.

Kyefer Cavins, Alex Andros and J.T. Russell added 10-points apiece.

“They (Zeigler-Royalton) shot the ball pretty well when I saw them before so we knew we had to guard them. All around the floor we knew that we were bigger and stronger than them,” said Coach Tripp. “We got back to that when we made our runs. We got back to business after they made a bit of a run. We got the ball inside and got some 'and-one's' which helped.”

It was a workman like victory in typical Blackcats' fashion.

Speeding up the game and making the Tornadoes play faster than they wanted to, Goreville turned the game into a “rock'em-sock'em” contest in which Coach Matt Morgan's club couldn't keep up.

In the early run, Goreville scored three different times directly off of Zeigler-Royalton turnovers.

Gray did most of that damage, scoring 10 of those 14-points.

He nailed back-to-back 3-pointers in the run and added an assist to Tripp for a 14-0 lead at the 4:30 mark.

When the Blackcats weren't exploiting the Tornadoes in transition, they were pounding the ball inside to take advantage of their size.

Six-foot-four junior Zeke Snell got going inside, scoring twice in the opening frame.

His basket on another assist from Gray, and a made free throw by Russell, made it 18-6 at the end of one.

Goreville's advantage and Zeigler-Royalton's deficit would have been much greater if the 'Cats been able to do a better job converting free throw opportunities.

Coach Tripp's team missed seven charities in the first quarter. The normally 70 percent free throw shooting club hit just 10-of-28 in the contest.

Zeigler-Royalton's best run came courtesy of junior Nick McPhail.

This 5-foot-9 guard scored six consecutive points off of a pair of Goreville turnovers, which made it 20-13 with 6:14 left.

However Goreville closed out the half strong, getting three buckets in succession by Cavins.

This junior got inside for a conventional three-point play and his short jumper along the baseline sent the teams to the break at 35-21.

Despite eight turnovers of their own and inaccuracy from the foul line, Goreville was in command at intermission.

“We talked about it in the locker-room that you can not come out and get punched in the mouth (figuratively) and you have to keep away from that big run that they (Goreville) will make,” said Coach Morgan. “We battled back and the kids played hard. I told them that we can score off their press but you have to make the right decisions. But the mental mistakes, the shooting percentage and the turnovers; we can't dig ourselves that kind of hole and expect to beat good teams.”

The Blackcats secured the triumph with a 13-0 run to close the third quarter.

Tripp delivered the first of his two trey's in the third quarter run and Andros got in on the fun by taking an assist from Tripp for a score while being fouled by Brandon Stubblefield.

The made free throw closed the period with an exclamation point as Goreville was in complete control at 57-28.

The onslaught continued into the final quarter as the Blackcats stayed intense.

Andros scored twice in the lane to open the fourth quarter and Russell scored a pair of baskets on an assist by Tripp and later on an offensive rebound.

Tripp nailed his second trifecta from deep near the right sideline for a 71-36 lead.

Goreville was better than Z-R (other than free throw shooting) in every statistical category on Tuesday night.

The Blackcats were hot from the field, nailing 27-of-50 shots overall (54 percent) and hit half of their 3-point attempts (6-of-12).

Goreville crushed the Tornadoes on the glass, holding a 43-27 edge.

Zeigler-Royalton managed just one first half offensive rebound.

Coach Matt Morgan's club hit just 17-of-52 shots (32.6 percent) and they also struggled from the foul line, making just 10-of-19.

Z-R fell to 14-11 overall and 3-7 in the West Division.

Goreville will head back into BDC action on Friday when they travel to Sesser-Valier.

Zeigler-Royalton will play host to Thompsonville on the same night.

Having joined the league last season, Goreville can win its second consecutive BDC West title if they can win its final three regular season league contests.

“I thought the guys did a good job sharing the ball, we had six guys in double-figures,” said Coach Tripp. “Our halftime speech you would have never known it was 35-21. We talked to them about the little things that we weren't doing. We don't want to get into bad habits out there, especially with the regional coming up. I thought we corrected ourselves in the second half.”