01-06-03
ST. ELMO @ FARINA SOUTH CENTRAL
BY JACK BULLOCK
FARINA - After winning the Vandalia Holiday Tournament last week, the South Central Cougars were due for a bit of a let down.

And for a first quarter against upstart St. Elmo they were feeling sluggish like New Year's Hoop Hangover.

But the Cougars finally got their A-game going in the second quarter and, behind Brock Adam's 20-points, finished off the Eagles 68-29 at home Tuesday.

They improved their record to 12-2 by winning their sixth-game in a row.

St. Elmo saw it's record slip to 3-9 on the season.

At the beginning it looked like the Eagles were the ones riding the winning streak.

Coach Kevin Jackson's squad hung tough with the Cougars, mostly on the strength senior Matt Hutson first period scoring.

He hit a 10-footer on an inbounds play to tie the game at six-all with 5:50 to play and tallied six of his team-high 13 in the frame.

But that would be the last time St. Elmo would be close to the lead.

On the next possession South Central's Tyler Burns, missed a 3-point shot but was fouled by St. Elmo's Zach Gillespie.

Burns canned all three charity tosses to give the Cougars a 9-6 advantage.

At this point Adams, who had already scored four early points, took charge of his team and the game.
The 6-2 senior had a hand in the final nine South Central points in the quarter.

His 3-pointer from the 'top of the arc' gave the Cougars a 14-10 lead with 1:48 left.

He then picked up a pair of nice assists, feeding Burns and Nathan Lotz for easy baskets, pushing the lead out to 18-12 at the first quarter horn.

"If we don't send them to the line, and let them score on a couple of inbound play and lay ups, then they wouldn't have scored much in the first quarter," said Cougars coach Gary Shirley, whose team is currently the top-ranked team in the ABV Charleston Supersectional rankings. "We had a bit of a let down early but that is to be expected after the week we had up at Vandalia."

St. Elmo's Jacob Shewmake hit a shot in the paint to open the second quarter scoring while cutting the SC lead to 18-14.

However a much more motivated South Central club woke up from their first quarter nap to outscore the visitors 21-4 in the remainder of the half.

Nick Jones and Adams hit for 'back-to-back' 3-pointers to get the Cougars churning while pushing the lead to 24-14.

Two other players for Coach Shirley got in the scoring act before halftime.

Matt Hicks delivered on a fast break lay up after picking off a pass to give his club a 33-17 lead.

Late in the quarter sophomore Spencer Patton received a nice pass on a 'back-door' cut to the basket from Burns to score the Cougars last bucket of the half, which ended at 39-20.

The Cougars quickly ended any doubt of the outcome of the game by going on a 11-2 run to open the third quarter.

When Lotz scored on a pass underneath the basket from Jones, the lead had ballooned to 45-22 with 5:06 remaining.

Hutson then hit his only 3-pointer of the night to make it 45-25.

But South Central's final salvo came in the form of a 13-0 scoring sprint that carried over into the opening moments of the final quarter.

Burns finished off the quarter with a pair of steals, with one resulting in a fast-break lay in and conventional three-point play.

When Adams opened the final stanza with a '3-ball' from the left corner, the lead was 58-25.

Each team went to the bench for the final minutes of the non-conference game.

The game started at 7 pm, with no JV game being played because of some player suspensions at St. Elmo.

"We really didn't get into a great rhythm tonight but it is a game that we needed," added Shirley, who reached the 400-win mark last month. " It wasn't a great game for us, but it wasn't terrible, either."

Adams' 20-points led both teams in scoring while teammates Burns, Lotz and Patton added 14, 12 and 10.

Hutson's 13-points topped St. Elmo while Zach Gillespie added six points.

The Cougars head back to action Friday hosting Odin in Midland Trail Conference play.

Coach Jackson's Eagles will host Stewardson-Strasburg in a National Trail Conference match up.

St. Elmo (29) - Hutson 3 1 4-4 13, Gillespie 2 0 2-2 6, T. Haslett 1 0 2-4 4, Shewmake 2 0 0-0 4, Wright 0 0 2-2 2. 2FG-8, 3FG-1, FT-10-12
South Central (68) - Hicks 1 0 0-0 2, Burns 5 0 4-4 14, Jones 2 1 0-0 7, Adams 4 4 0-0 20, Patton 2 2 0-0 10, Roberts 0 1 0-0 3, Lotz 5 0 2-2 12.
2FG-19, 3FG-8, FT-6-6.