12-12-03
BY JACK BULLOCK
STEELEVILLE - No one in the immediate Steeleville sports family could remember when the Warriors last beat independent school rival Waterloo Gibault.

Some said it was back in the 1970's, maybe.

In any case, it was a dry spell to say the least.

In fact Coach Matt Mason had never beaten the Hawks in his six-year tenure as coach.

But Friday night at Steeleville the Warriors led nearly the entire game and held off Coach Dennis Rueter's club 56-53.

The win was the sixth-straight to open the season for Steeleville after romping to the title at the Pioneer Invitational Tourney at Trico last week.

Six-one senior Jeff Mulholland paced the undefeated Warriors with 28-points, slightly overshadowing the impressive performance by Gibault's Jacob Toal.

Toal paced the 2-3 Hawks with 27 markers.

"I would have to go back to the record books to see if we ever beat them," said Coach Mason, whose team now stands 6-0. "Certainly not since I have been here."

Despite not being able to put the Hawks away, the game had the feel that the outcome was never in doubt.

When explaining the game, Gibault head coach Dennis Reuter put the possible Gibault comeback into his own perspective.

"They outplayed us clearly. They were pretty good and we were not so good tonight," said Gibault coach Dennis Reuter. "If we would have won tonight, it would have been the biggest travesty in the history of sports. We got outplayed."

Steeleville got off to such a great start that it even surprised the kids and the coach.
"I think we were all kind of surprised that we had a big lead in the first half." said Mason. "The kids played hard and we did just enough good things tonight to hold them off."

Both Mulholland and Toal carried their respective teams early.

Back-to-back Mulholland baskets turned a 4-3 deficit into a 7-4 Steeleville lead that they would never relinquish.

Toal scored six-straight points for his team toward the end of the frame.

His third score in that streak was a rebound basket with 1:23 left that cut the Warriors lead down to 13-10.

Mulholland scored on the next trip down the floor to push the lead back to five.

But Scott Amann canned a 3-pointer for Gibault with :23 left that got the Hawks back into position to even things at the finish of the quarter.

However Steeleville worked the ball for a final shot with Adam Eggemeyer driving to the basket, his pass to Tyler Tiemann produced an easy bucket just before the horn for a 17-13 Warrior lead.

Mulholland got busy for Steeleville in the second quarter as his six points in succession: a 10-foot bank shot from the right side, a pair of free throws as a result of a Jacob Toal technical foul and nice drive down the middle of the lane sent the lead to double-digits at 27-17.

Tiemann finished off the 12-4 quarter with a driving basket with 1:15 remaining in the half sending the two teams to intermission at 29-17.

Steeleville started off the third quarter in the same fashion that they had ended the first half.

Eggemeyer opened up the quarter by hitting his first two shots, an 18-footer from the right corner and a 3-pointer from the other side of the court that pushed the advantage to 36-21 with 3:58 left.

"I think Adam (Eggemeyer) is a well-kept secret here in Southern Illinois," added Mason. "He is really an athletic talent for us and people will be surprised how good his is if they see him when he is having a good game."

After Gibault's Nathan Stumpf scored on a baseline drive and Toal hit the second of two free throws to cut the Steeleville lead back to 12, Mulholland went on another scoring binge, this time hitting three straight baskets.

His third shot on a pull-up drive down the left baseline made it 43-26 Steeleville.

A pair of Eggemeyer charity tosses made things appear very comfortable for Steeleville heading into the final frame at 45-27.

But as if they were a 'sleeping giant' all along, suddenly Gibault came out of their slumber to make a game of it in the fourth quarter.

Just :14 into the final quarter, Amann hit a 3-pointer from the top of the arc to make it 45-30.

Just moments later, Toal made a steal and his 'coast-to-coast' lay in got the Hawks flying and changed the momentum in their favor.

On his spin move and basket he was fouled by Mulholland.

Although he missed the subsequent free throw, Gibault quickly got the ball back.

Darren Mehrman scored his only two points on the night and when his basket fell in off the glass, the Hawks had suddenly perked up at 45-34.

After Steeleville's third turnover of the quarter, Stumpf scored on a drive to the basket.

Gibault's 9-0 run made things 45-36 and Coach Mason decided to take a time out with 5:14 to go.

Toal made another free throw before Eggemeyer finally broke the Steeleville scoring drought with a pair of free throws.

Six more points by Toal, closing with a pair of free throws with 1:29 remaining cut the lead back down to 48-43.

Mulholland scored the only field goal of the final frame for the Warriors with just over a minute remaining to make it 50-43.

He then canned four straight free throws that would have put lesser teams away for the night.

But the Hawks final push featured an Amann driving basket and a Toal 3-pointer on an 'out-of-bounds' play, which whittled the score down to 54-50 with :21 seconds to go.

Mulholland was fouled again by Gibault and he made his final two attempts with :14.5 left.

But Toal again answered, this time from 20-feet on the right side of the court right in front of the Gibault bench.

With just :06.2 showing on the clock after a Gibault timeout, Steeleville threw the ball inbounds trying to ice the game with a fast break lay up.

But as the ball sailed toward the out of bounds line, Eggemeyer was able to track the ball down and save it from going out of bounds.

He jumped into the air out of bounds and flipped the ball back inbounds.

A Gibault player intercepted the pass.

But a mad scramble ensued, which resulted in Tiemann coming up with the ball.

He passed it away to Mulholland as the buzzer went off to end the wild finish.

"I wasn't real happy the way we played in the fourth quarter," added Mason. "But we made enough free throws down the stretch. Jeff (Mulholland) came up big tonight for us. He went to the line and made big free throws tonight. He wants the ball in his hands in the fourth quarter of games like this."

Waterloo Gibault (53) - Amann 10, Wegman 4, Stumpf 8, Row 2, Toal 27, Mehrman 2.
2FG-16, 3FG-4, FT-9-13, PF-21.
Technical Foul - Toal
Steeleville (56) - Jausel 1, Eggemeyer 15, Tiemann 10, Mulholland 28.
2FG-16, 3FG-2, FT-18-24, PF-16.