12-10-11
BY JACK BULLOCK
WAYNE CITY – The Crab Orchard Trojans led a quartet of teams winning lopsided contests on the opening day of the 58th annual Conrad Allen Wayne City Holiday Tournament.

Led by Ben Kissing with 29-points and 13-rebounds the Trojans crushed Grayville, 82-40 in the second game of the day.

Cisne pulled away from Midland Trail Conference rival Clay City-Noble with a 20-0 run in the third quarter to win 63-38 in the tournament opener.

Edwards County improved its stock in the tournament with a commanding 73-58 win over Zeigler-Royalton while the host Indians pulled away from Thompsonville, 43-24.

CRAB ORCHARD 82, GRAYVILLE 40
The Ben Kissing show was on display again on Saturday afternoon as this 6-foot-5 senior not only led his team to its tenth straight victory to begin the season but also set a school record, becoming the Trojans' all-time leading scorer in passing Jason Dwyer on the list.

Dwyer had held the record of 1,881-points but Kissing moved past Dwyer and now has 1,885.

Kissing should surpass the 2,000-point mark sometime this season.

Coach Jon Brown's club jumped out to an early lead on the Bison and were never headed.

Drew Johnson also came up big for the Trojans, scoring 15-points including nine points in the opening stanza.

His 3-pointer from the top of the arc with 5:35 left gave Crab Orchard its first double-digit lead at 12-2.

Forcing five first quarter turnovers Crab Orchard scored 14 points in transition.

Its final two baskets of the quarter were just seconds apart with Kissing and Coty Wece each getting lay up attempts to fall.

When Wece scored with just under :10 remaining in the quarter, Crab Orchard led 30-8.

Grayville (0-1 in the Pool A) hit just 4-of-17 shots in the first eight minutes in falling behind.

Crab Orchard scored the first 14-points in the second quarter to end any Bison hope.

Johnson nailed another trey and Wece scored twice more on fast break lay ups.

Coach Brown went to his bench late in the second quarter and played a lot of players.

Grayville responded with its best run of the night, scoring the final ten points of the second quarter to trail just 46-20 at intermission.

With his regulars back on the floor to open the second half, Crab Orchard put away the victory with yet another big run.

Kissing netted 16-points in the third quarter.

His tip-in of his own missed shot gave Crab Orchard its first 30-point lead at 54-24.

A 3-pointer by Hunter Arnold and two more Kissing scores pushed the lead to 72-33.

Continuous clock in the fourth quarter wrapped up the Trojans' win.

“We wanted to take command of the game early and set the tone,” said Coach Brown. “This was a chance to get some reserve kids some minutes and get them some experience in a varsity game.”

Kissing finished with 11 2-point baskets and was 7-of-8 from the foul line.

Johnson was also good from the line (3-of-4) while the team finished 11-of-14.

Arnold added 11-points from the unbeaten Trojans, who shot 25-of-42 overall and committed just 13 turnovers. Five of those miscues were by reserves in the final mop up minutes.

Grayville struggled from the floor, connecting on just 20-of-45 shots overall.

The Bison committed 20-turnovers while being out rebounded 37-19.

“They (Crab Orchard) are a really good team but we could have been in that game early if we could have finished some shots,” said Grayville head coach Richie Nelson. “I can't count how many missed lay ups we had. We just couldn't finish at all. We just need to learn how to limit our mistakes.”

Grayville's next game is against Edwards County on Monday night while Crab Orchard will play Webber Township on Tuesday.

Grayville (40) – Ch. Neeley 2 1 3-4 10, Gray 3 0 0-0 6, Alldredge 2 0 0-0 4, Bell 6 0 2-2 14, Murphy 3 0 0-0 6, Burdin 0 0 0-0 0, Guthrie 0 0 0-1 0, Crespo 0 0 0-0 0, Hall 0 0 0-0 0, Thompson 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-16, 3FG-1, FT-5-7, PF-9.
Crab Orchard (82) – Johnson 3 2 3-4 15, Wece 4 0 0-0 8, Kissing 11 0 7-8 29, Arnold 4 1 0-0 11, Bailey 1 0 0-0 2, Perry 1 1 0-0 5, Deaton 2 0 0-0 4, Emery 1 0 0-0 2, Ray 1 0 1-2 3, Marks 0 0 0-0 0, McCree 0 0 0-0 0, Galloway 0 1 0-0 3, Tarlton 0 0 0-0 0, Stevens 0 0 0-0 0, Craig 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-25, 3FG-4, FT-11-14, PF-9.
Fouled Out – None.
Technical Fouls – None.

CISNE 63, CLAY CITY-NOBLE 38
Having just beaten their MTC brother's on Thursday night, the Lions shook off the pesky Wolves with a big third quarter run to improve to 6-1 overall and 1-0 in Pool B.

Coach Kevin Bowen's team led just 27-20 at the half but started the third quarter with a 14-0 sprint to put the game out of reach of the 2-7 Clay City-Noble co-op.

Aaron Billington scored 17-points while teammates Dustin and Austin Atteberry added 13 and 10-points respectively as the Lions are hoping to claw their way into their second championship game of the season after having finished second at the Grayville Thanksgiving event.

Erick Powell scored 11-points for Cisne, including six points in the first few minutes as the Lions jumped out to an 8-0 lead.

Powell hit from the left wing to open the scoring and then converted a transition chance.

His score in the paint with 5:59 left forced a CC-N timeout.

Coach Shawn Taylor's Wolves, to their credit, didn't just lay down.

Clay City-Noble rallied in the second quarter.

A 3-pointer by Jordan Brown and a fast break bucket by Fabian Sholbert cut the halftime deficit to just seven.

Brown topped the Wolves with 17-points while Dylan Wolfe and Nathan Dulaney added nine and eight points.

Cisne opened the second half by taking the game to the Wolves, getting to the foul line and hitting 8-of-10 from the stripe.

Baskets by the Atteberry's and Billington sandwiched around those trips to the line made it 41-20 with 3:03 left in the third quarter.

Cisne finished the game hitting 22-of-46 from the field while Clay City-Noble hit 15-of-35 overall.

But it was the turnover battle that was won by a wide margin by the Lions.

Cisne forced the Wolves into 25-turnovers, including seven in the opening quarter and eight in the third quarter when the Lions took command.

The Lions won the battle of the glass 28-16 and of the ten Cisne turnovers, five of those were committed by reserves in the final minutes.

Cisne will play again at the WCHT on Tuesday night as they will face Patoka.

CC-N will play the host Indians on Tuesday night as well.

Clay City-Noble (38) – Brown 3 3 2-2 17, Dulaney 1 2 0-0 8, Wolfe 4 0 1-2 9, Prosser 0 0 0-2 0, Kessler 1 0 0-0 2, Sholbert 1 0 0-0 2, Lybarger 0 0 0-0 0, Young 0 0 0-0 0, Klinger 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-10, 3FG-5, FT-3-6, PF-16.
Cisne (63) – A. Atteberry 4 0 2-2 10, Billington 6 0 5-6 17, Hughes 0 0 1-2 1, D. Atteberry 4 0 5-6 13, Powell 4 0 3-4 11, Howard 0 1 1-2 4, Allison 1 0 0-1 2, Wilson 1 0 0-0 2, Burgener 0 0 0-0 0, Mathews 0 0 0-0 0, Pogue 0 0 1-2 1, Faber 1 0 0-0 2
2FG-21, 3FG-1, FT-18-25, PF-7.
Fouled Out – Kessler - Clay City-Noble.
Technical Fouls – None.

Six-foot-four freshman Chase Hortin topped all scorers with 18 points, hitting nine field goals.

Kevin Schuh, a 5-foot-11 sophomore, added 11-points while senior Brandon Harris added 10.

Coach Nick Toothman's team improved to 5-3 overall and 1-0 in Pool A play.

Zeigler-Royalton and head coach Matt Morgan saw their record slip to 3-4 overall with the loss and 0-1 in the tournament.

The Tornadoes were led by 14-points from 5-foot-9 junior Jeffrey Pedigo and 11-points from Boris Moskoff.

Eleven of the Lions scored in the contest, in which Edwards County led 23-16 at the end of one quarter and increased its lead to 43-28 at the half.

Edwards County will play Grayville on Monday night while Zeigler-Royalton will battle Webber Township also on Monday.

Coach Russ Gerlach's Tribe got balanced scoring in the low scoring affair as Eric Alvis, a 5-foot-11 senior, topped WC with 10-points.

Haden Smith added eight points while Arminius Caldwell chipped in seven.

The Tigers saw its mark slip to 3-5 overall, 0-1 in Pool B.

Coach Brandon Chaplain got nine points from Lance Darnell in the loss while Quentin Henson, a 6-foot-5 sophomore, added eight points.

Wayne City held Thompsonville point guard Brady Householder to just three points in the win.