Carlyle ends Cougars' Cahokia dominance
Cold shooting Breese Central's league win streak snapped at 38-straight

12-14-12
BY JACK BULLOCK
CARLYLE
– The streak is over.

The Breese Central Cougars, the defending Class 2A state champions, had won a convincing 38-consecutive games within the Cahokia Conference Mississippi Division in the past three seasons.

That succession of that success ended on Friday night at Carlyle.

The Indians, playing short handed because a key injury to an important player, mustered up enough points and defensive stops to win a “not-so-pretty” 40-37 victory.

Whether it is ugly or beautiful, it is a triumph over a team that has dominated this league for many moons.

The last league defeat for the Cougars was a loss to Columbia in January of 2009.

Coach Andy Palmer's club, playing without junior forward Matt Hilmes who broke his hand in a game against Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin back on December 1, made just enough shots down the stretch to improve its mark to 5-1 overall and, more importantly, 2-0 in the league.

Coach Stan Eagleson's club has rarely shot the ball as poorly as they did Friday night on the road.

The Cougars were just 13-of-46 (3-of-14 from beyond the 3-point arc) overall from the floor while failing to take advantage of its defensive pressure that forced Carlyle into 20-turnovers.

Central committed 11-turnovers, but five of them came at the absolute wrong time of the contest.

Fourth quarter mistakes doomed the visitors as Carlyle finally made enough free throws at the end to finish off Central.

“We told the kids that they (Central) would try and come out and punch us in the mouth right away (in a basketball sense) and get the lead,” said Coach Palmer. “We just try and stress to the kids that there will be ups and downs and we knew it was going to be a battle. They were going to make a run but we needed to continue to guard. It was a game where I told the kids it (a win) is there for for the taking and we got the win.”

In this low-scoring slug-fest Coach Palmer got 10-points from senior guard Cody Huels and some key minutes and points from his bench, including reserve guard junior Alex Voss.

Voss ended up with eight points with a pair of big 3-pointers and two fourth quarter free throws.

Six-foot-two forward John Becker also ended up with eight points and, with his Indians struggling from the foul line, he hit the big free throws that mattered in the fourth quarter.

This senior stepped up in the final minutes and hit 3-of-4 charity tosses to seal the win.

Although there was a lot of late game drama, the Indians moved into a tie with Columbia for first place in the Mississippi Division.

“Carlyle was much more emotionally invested in the game from the get-go and they seemed to be getting loose balls and rebounds,” said Coach Eagleson. “As the game went on I thought we got better as far as playing hard but we never did shoot the ball well. You have to give them (Carlyle) credit for that, they guarded us well. When you are 13-of-46 from the field, it was amazing the game was as close as it was.”

While neither team set the house a blaze offensively, the defensive intensity was at its usual Clinton County level.

Central had its best run of the night in the opening minutes.

An 8-2 run out of the gate was prompted by Carlyle's eight first quarter turnovers.

Justin Becker, a veteran guard for Coach Eagleson, warmed up early with six of those points.

His fast break lay up on a pass from Jacob Timmermann, followed on the next trip with two free throws, gave the Cougars an early lead.

Huels responded with his own run for Coach Palmer's club.

He notched seven points on a pair of mid-range shots and a 3-pointer from the left corner to cut the Central lead to just 11-9 at the end of the first quarter.

While the shots refused to fall for both teams in the second quarter, the foul totals on both sides increased.

Both teams had to go to their respective reserve units during the frame.

Voss hit the first of his two trey's to open the quarter and both Tyson Boehne and Deven Hicks nailed shots from the beyond the arc

Kyler Scheer, a 6-foot-6 senior forward, grabbed a pair of offensive rebounds that he turned into baskets in the quarter.

When his second rebound bucket found the mark, it closed the half at 21-21.

Unfortunately for both teams, those five made shots were the only ones in those eight minutes.

The two teams were a combined 5-of-22 in the stanza.

Offensively, it got worse in the third quarter.

Central outscored the Indians 7-5 in the third quarter.

A 3-pointer from Huels opened the second half and Breese Central reserve Luke Jackson closed the quarter with a trifecta from the right wing, making it 28-26 heading into the final frame.

Central's final advantage of the contest came in the opening minutes on a steal and subsequent fast break score from Timmermann.

His bucket made it 30-29 Central with 5:07 remaining.

Central stayed close in the final minutes but couldn't get back the lead.

A 3-pointer from senior reserve Greg Meyer, a 20-footer from the left wing, cut the Carlyle lead to just 38-37.

“We had some chances, we finally made some shots down the stretch,” added Coach Eagleson. “But Becker and Timmermann were both in foul trouble and now you have to come out and guard them. I thought Carlyle played a good basketball game.”

The Indians' Becker was fouled on a fast break by Central's Luis Perez.

The foul was deemed intentional, which would give Carlyle back the ball after the two free throws.

Becker hit 1-of-2 from the line to make it 39-37.

On the in-bounds play, Central fouled Boehne.

Boehne could have iced the game but he only hit 1-of-2 with :07.1 remaining.

Central, with time running out, had a chance to send the game into overtime.

However Central's Becker turned the ball over on a pass to Jackson.

When the dust had settled from this conference conflict, Carlyle had taken a big step in dethroning the defending league champs.

“The biggest thing I'm disappointed in is our free throw shooting. We have kids that can really shoot it and they have to knock those in,” Coach Palmer explained. “That (12-of-23) is horrible. But the important thing is that we got the win. It wasn't pretty but we will certainly take it.”

Central won the rebounding battle 27-25 with 14 of the boards coming on the offensive end. They had many chances at second shots because of the 28.2 percent shooting.

The Cougars were led by Scheer with 10-points and Timmermann with nine.

Carlyle didn't shoot the ball much better than the Cougars, as the Tribe was just 11-of-33 (33 percent) overall, 6-of-16 from downtown.

Carlyle will head back into action as they host Vandalia on Tuesday night while Central will play Wesclin at home on the same night.

Both teams are in opposite pools as the Breese Mater Dei Holiday Tournament pairings were released on Friday and could meet again on the final day of the event.

The next scheduled meeting between the two clubs is January 29th at Central.

“We weren't thinking about the streak, we are just trying to get better,” said Coach Palmer. “Playing these games (against Central) is just going to make us better, win or lose. It is a big win obviously because they are a big rival. It feels pretty good right now giving us a loss in the conference but there are a lot of games to be played. We talked about if we are going to have a chance (at winning the conference) we are going to have to protect our home floor.”

1
2
3
4
-
F
Breese Central
11
10
07
09
-
37
Carlyle
09
12
05
14
-
40

Breese Central (37) – Meyer 1 1 0-0 5, Timmermann 4 0 1-3 9, Voss 0 0 0-0 0, Becker 2 0 3-5 7, Perez 0 0 0-0 0, Rickhoff 0 1 0-0 3, Scheer 3 0 4-7 10, Jackson 0 1 0-0 3.
2FG-10, 3FG-3, FT-8-15, PF-19.

Carlyle (40) – Boehne 0 1 1-2 4, Hicks 0 1 0-2 3, Cody Huels 2 2 0-0 10, Voss 0 2 2-4 8, Zachry 0 0 3-7 3, Walker 2 0 0-0 4, Becker 1 0 6-8 8.
2FG-5, 3FG-6, FT-12-23, PF-20.

Fouled Out – Timmermann - Breese Central.
Technical Fouls – None.