12/29/2025
BY JACK BULLOCK
ELDORADO - Taking control early and taking advantage of every opportunity this week, the Carterville Lions are the champions of the 61st annual Eldorado Holiday Tournament.

After putting together three wins over Carmi-White County, Edwards County and Fairfield, Coach Shane Hawkins' club saved its best performance for the finale.

After the first two minutes, the game got out of hand as Carterville rolled to an early lead and never let up in their 59-28 conquest over Anna-Jonesboro.

The victory was a crowning achievement for a program in its eighth season in the tournament.

After finishing second in last year's tournament to Herrin, the Lions left the floor on Monday night with the globe after a dominating performance.

Tournament Most Valuable Player Colton Hawkins nailed three 3-pointers in the first quarter and finished with a game-best 21-points.

Maddox Gulley scored 14-points for the Lions and Harper Lustenberger scored 11 in the victory for the now 12-1 club.

Hawkins scored his team's first 10-points, including two of his long range shots.

The defensive end of the floor for Coach Hawkins' squad was stellar.

The Lions forced six first quarter A-J turnovers and the Wildcats hit only 2-of-10 field goal attempts to fall behind.

“That (defense) set the tone. I know we made some shots and that always helps. But when you eliminate their ability to get open shots and you take their best player and make him work just to catch it, we took them out of everything that they wanted to do offensively,” said Coach Hawkins. “We have a handful of guys who can go and guard the dribble and we have a bit of length. We defend and we play hard and when you can do those two things you're at least going to have a chance most nights.”

Hawkins added to his stats with a pair of nice assists in the first quarter.

He found Gulley on a cut to the basket and his third 3-pointer in the quarter made it 17-6.

The Lions closed out the quarter with another drive to the goal by Gulley and a score in the lane by Max Lustenberger.

Senior Amareon Adams rebounded his own missed shot and scored while being fouled.

His conventional three-point play closed the first quarter at 26-8 Lions.

Anna-Jonesboro was led in scoring by Kaleb Gore with 16.

Graydon Edmonds added six-points on two made 3-point shots.

Both came in the first quarter and the first one gave Coach Mike Chamness' team a brief 3-0 lead.

Nine-points in the second quarter by H. Lustenberger, a 6-2 sophomore, helped the Lions.

He scored on a nice backdoor cut with an assist delivered by Gulley.

Lustenberger added a nice driving bank shot and post up score for a three-point play.

Another drive in the paint with a left handed finish made it 40-15 at the half.

A-J was just 9-of-26 from the field and committed 11-turnovers in the first two quarters.

“It's deflating. When they know they can't score and we go and make baskets, it snowballed on them (A-J) really fast on them,” said Coach Hawkins. “We've done this several times where we get up 10 or 15 and we lose interest. Maybe this is the maturity of our team because tonight we didn't lose interest. We continued to go win possession by possession by possession. We tell them 'don't play the score' at least not until the last few minutes. You play possession by possession. How many possessions can you win in-a-row. Win a defensive possession and then win an offensive possession. We won a lot of possessions in-a-row a lot tonight. We were good on both ends.”

At no point during the game did Anna-Jonesboro score two unanswered baskets.

Carterville answered each Wildcats' basket with a scoring response.

This carried over into the third quarter as Gulley scored twice after Gore opened the second half with points and then added another basket for a 46-20 advantage.

Hawkins canned his final 3-point shot and then scored on a drive.

Junior Zach Snow scored his only points on the inside on a pass from Hawkins and two free throws by junior Jonathan Miller triggered a fourth quarter continuous clock mercy rule at 57-24.

“He (Colton) is maybe a bit too high risk for me. He has a really high basketball IQ. He can see some things and is very knowledgeable about the game. He gets people (his teammates) in the right spots,” said Coach Hawkins about his son. “And when he is making shots that's just a whole other element to his game.”

The key stats from the contest painted a championship Rembrandt for Carterville.

The Lions controlled the matchup by forcing 21-turnovers, and an 11-of-37 shooting showing by Anna-Jonesboro.

The first quarter 3-pointers by Edmonds were the only ones that found the mark, as they missed the other 15.

Carterville only had two turnovers in the first half before the reserves hit the floor late and total expanded to 11.

Coach Hawkins' squad finished 24-of-44 overall, 5-of-12 from long-range.

The team now has two tournament championships on the resume, the other from Trico, heading into the second half of the season and the SIRR Ohio Division contests.

Anna-Jonesboro is now 7-7 after a 3-1 run at the EHT.

“It (winning the championship) makes the bullseye a little bit bigger and we understand that,” said Coach Hawkins. “We had the bullseye coming in with that number one beside our name in the tournament. I don't think we played that way. We continued to grind and we won these four games the right way and that's why I'm so proud of our guys right now.”

FAIRFIELD 66, VIENNA 48
The Mules, after a tough loss to the tournament champs in the semifinals, took home third place with a win over the Eagles.

Coach Scott McElravy's team jumped out to a 21-9 first quarter lead and maintained the advantage the whole game to improve to 8-5 overall after a 3-1 showing at the EHT.

Seven players scored for Fairfield with 19-points coming from Owen Gruen and 16-points from Jake Easton.

Breychan Kovacich pitched in 11 for the Mules.

Gruen scored nine of his points in the first quarter and Easton closed the book with seven in the final frame.

Coach Burlin Brower and his Eagles fell to 6-7 overall, 2-2 in the tournament.

Two Vienna players hit double-figures; Silas Kreuter (14) and Carter Whitehead (12) in the loss.

The Tigers (8-4) finished 3-1 in the tournament with the win over the Lions.

JJ Gwaltney paced Herrin with 17-points and Jaxon Faulknberry added 12.

Tanner Hall added nine-points for the Tigers.

Edwards County (10-6) went 2-2 in their final year in the event for Coach Kevin Schnicker.

The Lions will stay with the Wayne City Holiday Tournament next year as that event moves to post-Christmas for the first time.

Jax Duncan paced Ed Co with 22-points, 16 of which came in the fourth quarter.

Walker Sledge added 12-points for the Lions.

Fricker scored 30-points for the Cougars and was named to the all-tournament team at the 61st annual event.

But he wasn't alone with heroics.

Teammate Nate Massie scored just 11-points but his 9-of-10 fourth quarter free throws turned out to be the difference for Hardin County as they took home their fourth consolation title and first since 2021 at the event.

Bryden Banks also chipped in with 10-points in the win for the Cougars, who are now 9-6 on the season as they took the measure of NCOE for the second time in three contests between the two Greater Egyptian Conference rivals.

Fricker was also 6-of-6 from the foul line for Hardin County, who as a team were 17-of-23 overall.

Christian Winters added six-points for Coach Rodney Lane's club that trailed 33-22 at halftime but rallied with a 38-19 scoring advantage in the second half.

Norris City-Omaha-Enfield finished the event with a 2-2 mark for Coach Jordan Johnson.

Owen Russell led the Fighting Cardinals with 16-points followed by 15-points from Jaxon Simmons and 14-points from Javan Garrett for the now 8-7 squad.