02-27-04
GALLATIN COUNTY VS. CENTURY
@ GALLATIN CO. CLASS A REGIONAL
BY JACK BULLOCK
JUNCTION - When a team shoots just 15-29 from the free throw line and fails to make any of their 15 3-point attempts, most teams will be in trouble trying to win a regional championship.

That is exactly what happened on Friday night at Gallatin County for the Century Centurions.

Coach Andy Palmer's club dug themselves a big hole with their shooting woes and never recovered.

And while the highly publicized duo of Ray Nelson and Josh Tabb combined to score 57 points, Eldorado had a much more balanced scoring attack, led by senior's William Carmickle and Shannon Lane.

Despite early foul trouble, the 6-7 center muscled his way to a team-high 22 points while Lane tossed in 19 including 10-of-12 from the free throw line.

Coach Greg Goodley's club improved to 22-9 on the season in winning the school's second straight regional title, 85-77 in front of a packed house at Gallatin County.

Century, the state-ranked representative of the South Egypt Conference, failed to capitalize on first half foul trouble by the Eagles and closed out their season at 22-5.

With both Carmickle and 6-5 frontcourt running mate Walt Hammond on the bench with three fouls each throughout most of the first half, Century could not cut into the Eagles advantage.

"We had the perfect scenario of what we wanted to happen tonight," said Palmer. "We wanted to attack them and attack them and get them in foul trouble and that happened. But we didn't take advantage of it. We let their bench out play us tonight."

Eldorado, behind 10 first quarter points by Carmickle, had a 21-13 lead when Carmickle picked up his third personal foul and joined Hammond on the bench when he made contact with Century's Curt Spalding in the lane at the 1:28 mark in the first quarter.

With both big men riding the pine next to Goodley, the Eagle reserve corps stepped up and secured the lead throughout a wild second quarter.

"Our senior bench players, Joey Jackson and Dallas Basinger, and junior Josh Harner were so important for us tonight," said Goodley, whose bench logged a lot of minutes this season. "Our bench helped win this game for us. If someone would have told me that Carmickle and Hammond would have spent that much time on the bench and we would still be ahead at halftime, I don't know what I could have said."

With both of the big men on the bench, the Eagles opened an aerial attack early in the second quarter.

Daniel Etienne and Lucas Griffin each connected on 3-pointers early in the quarter. Both shots from the left corner stretched the Eldorado advantage to 31-20 with 6:57 before halftime.

After four straight free throws from Lane on two trips down the floor got the Eldorado lead to 35-24, Century put together its best run of the half.

Nelson, Tabb and reserve Brantley Stricker combined for a 9-2 spurt to get the deficit down to 37-33 with 2:40 to go.

However Lane canned a 3-pointer and a free throw on two different offensive chances.

Then his pull up jumper in the lane with :05 left sent his club to the half up 48-36.

"Eldorado was so much more active in the first half," Palmer added. "They got to a lot of loose balls and knocked down some tough shots."

The Centurions jumped all over a stunned Eldorado squad to open the second half as they scored the first nine points to force Goodley to burn a timeout with 5:06 left.

Two Nelson drives to the basket, a fast break lay in after a steal by Tabb and a left baseline romp to the goal by CJ Williams made it 48-45.

But as with all the other Century runs on this night, Eldorado came right back with an offensive answer.
Led by Hammond and Carmickle, who together scored nine points, the Eagles ripped off a quick 12-2 run.

When Etienne hit the second of a two shot free throw opportunity, Eldorado had pushed the lead to 60-47.

Nelson scored the final six points for Century in the last minute of the quarter on a fast break dunk, short jumper in the lane and a fast break lay in after a steal.

However Griffin hit another Eldorado 3-pointer, this time from the top of the arc.

The horn sounded with the Eagles back up to a double-digit advantage heading to the final stanza at 63-53.

With the door nearly closed for an Eagle win, Century made one final attempt to get back into the contest.

Tabb, Nelson and Nicholson scored points in a 6-0 run to make it 74-69 with 3:47 left.

But then Carmickle, who scored six points in the final quarter, and Lane put their squad back up with three late baskets.

Lane's drive down the lane resulted in a lay in and an 80-71 lead.
The Eagles closed out the game and Century's season by hitting 7-of-10 free throws late to head home for the sectional next week.

"This (regional) was a really tough level of competition with three really tough games," added Goodley, referring to playing long-time rival Harrisburg, and then back-to-back nights of having to deal with athletic Meridian and Century. "I thought that Lane and Etienne both stepped up and held this group together when we got into trouble tonight. We played unselfish basketball and found the open man tonight with no hesitation. Kids stepped up and made shots tonight."

The Eagles, now 22-9, received 16 points from Etienne and 10 points from Griffin to go alone with the Carmickle/Lane 41 point combination.

Century closed out its season with Nicholson as the only other double-figure scorer with 11 points.

"The bottom line is that you can't miss that many free throws and go zero-of-15 from the 3-point line and expect to beat anybody," finalized Palmer, whose club graduates just one senior from this team. "Free throws are the name of the game and you have to make them if you are going to win any kind of championship."

Eldorado will head home for next weeks sectional.

They will play Tuesday night against West Frankfort, who edged Thompsonville 49-42 at the Johnston City Class A Regional.

Eldorado (85) - Lane 3 1 10-12 19, Griffin 1 2 2-6 10, Hammond 3 0 1-2 7, Carmickle 9 0 4-6 22, Etienne 1 3 5-7 16, Basinger 1 0 3-6 5, Jackson 2 0 0-0 4, Harner 1 0 0-0 2.
2FG- 21, 3FG-6, FT-25-39, PF-26.
Century (77) - Spalding 0 0 1-4 1, Nelson 13 0 5-11 31, Tabb 11 0 4-8 26, Williams 2 0 2-2 6, Nicholson 4 0 3-4 11, Stricker 1 0 0-0 2.
2FG-31. 3FG-0 FT-15-29, PF-29.
Fouled Out - Harner, Eldorado; Williams and Massie, Century.
Technical Foul - None.