CAIRO VS. PINCKNEYVILLE
@ BENTON INVITATIONAL TOURNAMENT
01-25-03
BY JACK BULLOCK
BENTON - The Cairo Pilots continue to show that they are one of the top teams the state in Class A.

After a Monday night hiccup against Benton, the Pilots managed to win its next three games at the Benton Invitational Tournament. Although none of these three wins were impressive, Cairo did put itself in position to forge a 3-way tie for the tourney title Saturday night.

Perhaps the Pilots were waiting to put together their best game of the season against old nemesis Pinckneyville in the Saturday night finale of the BIT.

Led by 24 points from Brandon Childs, the Pilots proved to be too quick for the Panthers on this night as they ran past Pinckneyville 73-57 to claim a share of the tourney title.

Cairo led the entire game and improved to 18-3 this season with the win.

Two huge scoring runs by the Pilots allowed coach Larry Baldwin's club to take some chances on the defensive end, which resulted in six first half steals. All six of these steals resulted in Cairo points.

Cairo point guard Gary Williams got things rolling defensively when he picked up two of the steals on consecutive Pinckneyville possessions.

He intercepted an errant Panther pass and was fouled going to the basket. He made both free throws with :38.4 left in the first quarter to push the Pilots to a 21-15 advantage.

He then picked off another pass and hit Childs on the fly down the court. Childs' lay in made the score 23-15 at the end of one quarter.

Deovaunta Williams got in the larceny act in the second quarter for Cairo.

He grabbed the ball away from a Panther player on the wing and his pass found reserve Jason Cross under the basket.

The Cross basket pushed the lead to 31-20 with 4:22 left before intermission.

Just :11 later Childs stole another cross-court pass and went the distance to roll home another chip shot and it was 33-20 Pilots, which forced a Pinckneyville timeout.

After the stoppage in play, the Panthers made their best run of the night to get back close to the Pilots.

Six-seven junior Daniel Maddox, who scored 13 of his 17 points in the first half, took the Panthers on his back in the first 16 minutes of the contest.

With Cairo's top post player Anthony Mackins on the bench since early in the contest with three fouls, Maddox found the going pretty good in the paint in the first half.

He scored on a short bank shot in the lane and laid in a soft one-handed shot on consecutive trips to cut the lead down to 33-24.

After a Seville Bell score in the paint on a pass from Gary Williams got Cairo back up by nine, the Panthers scored the next six points of the game to pull within three with 1:12 before the half.

Derek Beninati scored on a shot in the lane, Maddox hit a 10-footer from the baseline and Beninati canned a pair of free throws after being fouled by Cairo's Tim Duncan.

When his second shot found the bottom of the net, Beninati and the Panthers found themselves down just 35-32.

But Cairo answered the Pinckneyville scoring surge with a 5-0 run to finish the half.

Bell scored in the paint on a swift pass by Childs.

Maddox fouled Bell on the play, which was his second personal of the game.

He missed the free throw, but on Cairo's next chance in the offensive end, D. Williams hit 1-of-2 free throws, and then Childs stole a Panther pass and went the distance to score with :12.0 left in the half to make the margin a comfortable one at 40-32.

The Pilots took control of the contest with a huge third quarter scoring outburst. Cairo outscored the Panthers 17-6 in the first 6:41 of the frame.

Roman Wright had his own eight-point run this stretch.

His first bucket was on a rebound of a Gary Williams miss.

Then came a nice turn around baseline jump shot.

His last bucket came on a 'text-book' fast break. Deovaunta Williams blocked a Pinckneyville shot on the defensive end.

The 6-4 senior corralled the ball and pitched it to Childs, who was fast breaking to the basket. Childs hit Wright with a beautiful pass and Wright stuck it in the basket to make it 51-34 Pilots with 3:51 left in the third.

Maddox got open for a short bank shot that cut the margin down to 53-38 at the 1:46 mark.

However this was Maddox's last points of the night as Cairo tightened its defense.

Pinckneyville's Eric Stutes fueled the Panthers final move of the night to get back into the game.

He scored on a rebound basket and then, after a Maddox blocked shot on Mackins, he hit 1-of-2 free throws to whittle the Pilot lead down to 58-50 with 4:16 left.

But the Pilots scored the next seven points to put the game out of reach.

Bell banked in a short shot on a rebound and then Childs canned a long 3-pointer on the next trip down the floor.

After D. Williams took a charging foul on Mason Woodside, which was his fourth foul with 3:26 left, Mackins finished the job by getting Woodside to foul out just :21 seconds later.

Mackins two free throws made it 65-50.

The Pilots, much maligned for missing important free throws in the past, hit their last six from the stripe to put away Pinckneyville for the second time this season.

Childs led all scorers with 24. Wright and Deovaunta Williams added 14 and 10 to the Pilots total.

Pinckneyville (13-8) got 19 points from Stutes and Maddox had 17.

BENTON 45, HAMILTON COUNTY 44
Ryan Fraulini scored on a 'pick and roll' play on a pass from Justin Raby with :07.7 left as the Rangers beat the Foxes in the second game Saturday night.

Fraulini led the Rangers (18-6) with 24 points. No other Ranger hit for double-figures.

Joshua Wiggins led Hamilton County (8-13) with 16 points. Jacob Gray added 12 points for the Foxes.

OKAWVILLE 42, CARLYLE 40
The Rockets kept the Indians winless in the BIT with the two point win. Joel Hundelt paced the Rockets (17-5, 2-3 in the BIT) with 13 points. Kyle Smith scored 18 points for Carlyle (9-11, 0-5 in the BIT).

FINAL STANDINGS OF THE BIT - Cairo 4-1, Benton 4-1, Pinckneyville 4-1, Okawville 2-3, Hamilton County 1-4, Carlyle 0-5.

ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM - Deovaunta Williams, Cairo; Brandon Childs, Cairo; Anthony Mackins, Cairo; Ryan Fraulini, Benton; Kyle Meyers, Benton; Justin Raby, Benton; Brent Frederking, Okawville; Joshua Wiggins, Hamilton County; Kyle Smith, Carlyle; Michael McConachie, Pinckneyville; and Eric Stutes, Pinckneyville.