01-19-07
BY JACK BULLOCK
BENTON - For head coach Andy Palmer and his Carlyle Indians the road to the final day of the 34th Annual Benton Invitational Tournament started out bumpy but has smoothed out considerably since the opening night on Monday.

Having overcome an early tourney loss to Okawville, the Tribe responded with a pair of wins and - with one more victory on Saturday afternoon - will put themselves in the championship picture.

Getting a balance scoring attack and taking advantage of a poor shooting night from Cairo in the Friday night opener, Carlyle improved to 2-1 in the BIT and 9-10 overall with a 62-48 win.

The Pilots self-destructed in a huge way on Friday evening, connecting on a paltry 19-of-67 shots from the floor (28 percent) including just 9-of-43 from two-point range.

That scoring figure dampened the Cairo offensive rebounding effort as the Pilot corralled 21 offensive boards but had little in the way of points to show for it.

Meanwhile Carlyle took care of its own business, effectively running its offensive attack and polishing off the game from the foul line with a 13-of-18 effort.

“Our efforts the last two games has been a lot better and we got off to a good start in both of our wins here,” said Coach Palmer. “There were a couple of times in the second half where we didn’t play very smart and kind of let them (Cairo) back in it but gathered ourselves and righted the ship. This was a good team effort, tonight.”

On the other side of the coin, the Pilots and head coach Dion Real continue a frustrating run as they dropped to 0-3 in the tournament and 5-11 on the season, this coach’s first at the helm.

“This is kind of the story of our year,” said Coach Real, referring to the Pilots inability to get shots to fall. “We haven’t been able to consistently stick the ball in the hole. We’re in the process of trying to build a program here and we are taking some lumps right now. We got a good win on Monday night but we came back up here Wednesday night and tonight and didn’t play very well.”

James Snider led Carlyle with 14 points while Palm and Travis Isaak added 13 each in a contest that the Indians led from the outset.

Carlyle converted three Matt Palm passes into points in the early going to get ahead of the Pilots.

Nathan Novsek dialed long-distance without a toll charge when he canned a 3-pointer from the top of the arc with 4:25 left.

Snider – a 6-foot-6 senior postman – delivered the goods on one nifty pass from Palm in the lane and teammate in the front court Seth Knollhoff did the same with less than a minute to go.

Cairo’s Russell Mackins and Charles Johnson each hit early shots for Cairo.

But when the first horn sounded, the Pilots had already missed eleven shots and trailed 17-9.

Cairo made a brief run in the second quarter behind Mackins and Jesserick Pilgrim who combined for five points to answer five early Carlyle markers.

But Palm piloted the Indians to a comfortable halftime advantage by hitting all four of his free throws and getting a short shot from the left blocks to fall.

His personal six-point run finished the half at 29-16 Carlyle.

“We felt like offensively we could take advantage of their overplaying defense and we made them pay a few times on back cuts. Matt (Palm) does a good job of passing the ball and seeing the floor,” added Palmer. “We’ve been doing a better job out of our regular offense. We got some high-low scores and our big guys have been finishing better lately.”

Staggering to the locker room, Cairo was just 3-of-14 from the field in the second quarter and were now sitting in a deep ravine of shooting woes.

Cairo outscored the Indians in the third quarter 13-10 but never really made a sizable dent in the Carlyle advantage.

In fact a 3-pointer from Cairo’s Pilgrim was the final bucket of the frame making it 39-29 heading to the fourth.

Cairo made its only real run in the middle of the fourth quarter and finally cut the Indians lead to under ten.

Four consecutive trifectas from the Pilots’ Marquis Lemmon, Danny Brown and Pilgrim (2) gave Cairo a bit of hope.

But while the 3-pointers were falling, the Pilots couldn’t stop the Indians at the other end of the Rich Herrin Gymnasium floor.

Carlyle slammed the door with an 8-0 run to make it 62-45 with under :10 remaining.

Pilgrim nailed a 3-pointer before the buzzer to doll up the final margin.

“For the most part we thought that if we could stop their penetration and keep them off the offensive boards that we would have a pretty good chance to win and for the most part we did that,” added Palmer.

The Indians hit exactly half of their shots as they finished 23-of-46 from the field.

Carlyle did commit 19 turnovers but the Pilots came no where close to making them pay for their mistakes as Coach Real’s players coughed up 14 turnovers of their own.

Cairo was led by Mackins and Pilgrim with 12 points each while Charles Johnson and Arthur Williams added six apiece.

Carlyle was outrebounded by the Pilots 37-34, which included Cairo’s 21 offensive rebounds.

But most of those boards were of the volleyball-type variety that resulted in just three stick-backs in the contest.

Both teams have to get ready for the marathon Saturday at the Benton Invitational Tournament.

Cairo will tackle tournament favorite and state-ranked Pinckneyville at 11 am and then will close out the evening with a 6 pm game against Okawville.

Carlyle’s day will begin with a 2 pm game against Hamilton County and then the Indians will get another shot at the Panthers in the last game at 9 pm.

Coach Andy Palmer’s Indians lost to Pinckneyville in the final game last season in a matchup of eventual ‘Elite Eight’ qualifiers.

“We talked about after our loss on Monday that we can have a shot at winning the tournament if we win our next three games and we have won two of them,” finalized Palmer. “We are 2-1 now and we want to get to 3-1 and give ourselves a chance Saturday night.”

Cairo is hoping to come up with a couple of wins on Saturday to finish above .500 in the tournament, one of which would be a huge upset.

“I was proud of the kids because they continued to fight hard but you have to put the ball in the hole,” added Real. “We’re getting open shots in our offense but we aren’t shooting the ball well.”

Carlyle (62) - Peppenhorst 3 0 3-4 9, Palm 2 1 6-9 13, Novsek 1 1 0-0 5, Cannon 0 0 0-0 0, Isaak 4 1 2-2 13, Huels 1 0 0-0 2, Knollhoff 3 0 0-0 6, Snider 6 0 2-3 14.
2FG-20, 3FG-3, FT-13-18, PF-12.
Cairo (48) - Brown 0 3 0-0 6, Lemon 0 1 0-0 3, Woodson 0 0 0-0 0, Madison 0 0 0-0 0, Johnson 0 2 0-0 6, Mackins 5 0 2-3 12, Wright 0 0 0-0 0, Ivy 0 0 0-0 0, Pilgrim 0 4 0-2 12, Williams 3 0 0-2 6, Baldwin 0 0 1-2 1, Tucker 1 0 0-0 2.
2FG-9, 3FG-10, FT-3-9, PF-20.
Fouled Out - None.
Technical Fouls - None.

PINCKNEYVILLE 90, BENTON 55
The Panthers won their third consecutive BIT game in rousing fashion, slugging the host Rangers in the second game on Friday night.

Twelve Pinckneyville players got ink next two their names with Hayden Hicks topping all scorers with 19 points.

Thad and Zach Hawkins added 17 and 13 respectively for the 17-3 Panthers.

Sayler Shurtz led Benton (7-12, 0-3 in the BIT) with 11 points while Casey Ainslie chipped in 10.

Benton trailed 10-0 within the first few minutes and never got a sniff of the lead in a contest that got out of hand early.

Pinckneyville led 41-20 at intermission and put the hammer down against their long-time rivals with a 27 point third quarter.

HAMILTON COUNTY 37, OKAWVILLE 34
The Foxes held off the Rockets in the final quarter in spite of missing seven free throws in the final eight minutes of play.

Bryan Thomas topped Hamilton County (2-1 in the BIT) with 10 points in the low-scoring fray.

Luke Thomas and Matt Hall added eight points each while Jake Welch finished with seven.

Coach Jon Kraus saw his Rockets drop to 1-2 in the event.

Brandon Brammeier led Okawville (8-12, 1-2 in the BIT) with 10 points.

Kyle Meentemeyer and Lucas Greten added seven points each.