01-24-04
CAIRO VS. PINCKNEYVILLE
@ BENTON INVITATIONAL TOURNEY
BY JACK BULLOCK
BENTON - Too fast, too deep, too much!

Those words summed up the Cairo Pilots win over its long time rival Pinckneyville in the title game of the 30th Annual Benton Invitational Tournament.

Jumping out to a quick early lead, highlighted by a huge 20-6 second quarter blitz, the Pilots improved to a school-record 22-0 start with the 69-52 dismantling of the Panthers in front of a near-sellout crowd at Rich Herrin Gymnasium.

"We came out and played hard and got some steals early," said Cairo coach Larry Baldwin. "They (Pinckneyville) fought back in the second half, but we were able to sustain the lead."

Brandon Childs, Cairo's 6-0 senior guard, once again proved his ability to virtually take over a game. Scoring on long jumpers and drives to the basket, Childs torched the Panthers with 27-points.

The anticipated classic between these two highly publicized programs never really materialized as Cairo dominated from the second quarter on.

"The ball game was won in the second quarter," said Pinckneyville coach Dick Corn, whose team went 4-1 in the BIT to finish second in the pool play event. "They (Cairo) turned their defense up and we turned it over and they scored in transition. They are quick and they can all shoot the ball very well. It is not just Childs, they have others that can shoot."

The Panthers (14-6) got off to a good start in the first quarter, matching the Pilots on every trip.

A one-handed dunk by 6-8 center Daniel Maddox gave the Panthers a 7-5 lead with 6:26 to go.

But Cairo answered right back as Seville Bell got loose inside for a score and Childs scored on a fast break after a steal making it 9-5 Pilots.

Pinckneyville's Eric Stutes and Mason Woodside combined for 5-straight points to give the Panthers back the lead.

Stutes hit a pull-up jump shot on a fast break and then his teammate Woodside scored in the paint while being fouled by Bell.

His made charity shot gave the Panthers their biggest lead of the night at 12-9.

But Childs, Anthony Jackson and Kalin Lowe all scored for the Pilots giving them a 17-12 advantage 2:08 to play.

Pinckneyville responded right back with Matt Searby and Jordan Priebe scoring the final two baskets of the quarter, which ended at 17-16 Cairo.

At this point everyone at Rich Herrin Gymnasium was thinking about how this game was going to turn into a classic, down to the wire championship game.

However Cairo had other ideas.

The Pilots hit another gear in the second period to take control of the contest.

Coach Baldwin's club scored 11 of the first 13 points of the quarter.

Kalin Lowe opened the second quarter with a fast break dunk.

Although he was whistled a technical foul for taunting at the 7:35 mark, this did little to rattle the Cairo confidence.

Pinckneyville's Jay McCrary hit both technical free throws to cut the Pilot lead to 19-18.

But that score would be as close as the Panthers would get the rest of the evening.

Lowe, who seemed fired up from his technical foul, scored six of his teams' next eight points.

His 3-pointer from the top of the arc followed by another dunk, this time a two-handed one, extended the Panthers' problems at 26-18.

After a Pinckneyville timeout, the Pilots went back to work.

Anthony 'Tim' Duncan came off the bench and made a steal in the open court.

His lob pass to Lowe resulted in another dunk in transition and a 28-18 lead.

"Tim Duncan is good defender and he came off the bench and made an impact," said Baldwin.

Priebe helped keep the Panthers heads above water with a pair of late quarter baskets.

However two more 3-pointers, this time by Anthony Jackson, put the first half to bed with Cairo comfortably snug at 37-22.

"We kept talking about putting a lot of pressure on them to see if we could turn the ball over and it worked tonight, especially in the second quarter," added Baldwin, whose team now is clearly the top club in Southern Illinois.

When dust settled on the first 16-minutes of play, the Pilots had forced the Panthers into a turnover a minute, with Cairo scoring nine times in transition.

"It is not that easy to get the ball to the big guys in the middle against a good team and we didn't work hard enough to get that accomplished. We didn't reverse the ball enough and threw it away too much." added Coach Corn.

The second half started out similar to the second quarter with the Pilots still in high gear.

Jackson and Childs combined for the first five points of the stanza pushing the lead to the biggest of the night at 42-22. Childs scored eleven points in the quarter, including two 3-pointers.

His second one from the right wing matched the 20-point margin at 50-30 with 4:36 left.

Maddox, who had not scored since his early dunk, scored six third quarter points.

But it was Coach Corn's bench that gave the Panthers some late game hopes.

Mathew Bingham, Searby and Priebe combined with starter Woodside for Pinckneyville's first run in the second half to get back into the contest.

They each scored a basket in the 8-0 run that overlapped the end of the third quarter and the opening moments of the fourth.

However in that run, the Panthers missed four important free throws that could have cut the Pilot lead to six.

After that run, the Pilots grabbed back the momentum.

Childs and 6-6 freshman Russell Mackins scored on consecutive trips, with Mackins throwing down a one handed slam to extend the Pilot lead out to 56-42 with 6:00 remaining.

"Our bench played pretty well tonight in the second half and it was our reserves that got us back in the game a bit in the fourth quarter," added Corn. "We got a good effort from them, but their (the Pilots) bench is very good when you can bring a freshman (Mackins) off the bench. He is pretty good."

Two more scores by Childs, on a reverse lay in and a fast break on a pass from Gary Williams, made it 63-48.

Cairo, which had struggled on the night shooting free throws, made good when it counted as they hit 9-of-12 in the final quarter to finish off the Panthers and take home its second consecutive BIT title.

"Our success is due to our work in the summer and playing a lot of summer basketball," added Baldwin, who uses all 25 of his off-season contact days to get closer to his team. "I hope to try and get the kids to understand their roles and I think that everyone is starting to do that now. It has been a great season so far and hope that we can keep it going."

Childs' 27 led both teams in scoring while Lowe and Jackson added 15 and 13 for the Pilots.

Maddox had 12-points for Pinckneyville and teammates Priebe, Searby and Stutes all finished with eight.

"They are a good basketball team, we'll tip our hats to them tonight," said Corn.

Cairo (69) - Duncan 0 0 2-4 2, Childs 9 2 3-8 27, Mackins 2 0 1-6 5, Williams 0 0 1-2 1, Bell 2 0 2-4 6, Lowe 5 1 2-2 15, Jackson 2 3 0-2 13.
2FG-20, 3FG-6, FT-11-28, PF-15.
Pinckneyville (52) - Kellerman 3 0 0-0 6, McCrary 0 0 2-2 2, Searby 4 0 0-2 8, Stutes 2 1 1-2 8, Bingham 1 0 0-1 2, Woodside 2 0 2-5 6, Priebe 4 0 0-0 8, Maddox 6 0 0-2 12.
2FG-22, 3FG-1, FT-5-14, PF-22.
Fouled Out - Kellerman, Pinckneyville.
Technical Foul - Lowe, Cairo.

Benton Invitational All-Tourney Team
Gared Douglass, Hamilton County; Russell Mackins, Cairo; Eric Stutes, Pinckneyville; Tyler Schwierjohn, Carlyle; Lance Rabenort, Okawville; Mason Woodside, Pinckneyville; Kalin Lowe, Cairo; Justin Raby, Benton; Brandon Childs, Cairo; Daniel Maddox, Pinckneyville and Beau Barkau, Okawville.