by Steve Dunford
WEST FRANKFORT – In game one, the Sesser-Valier-Waltonville Lady Red Devils experienced their first loss of the season falling to the Herrin Lady Tigers 54-48 in the opening game of the girls side of the West Frankfort Mid Winter Classic yesterday afternoon.
Herrin Coach Bill Green employed a 1-3-1 zone against the Devils and they handled it quite well in the first half. There were several dribble drive penetrations out of it and a lot of run outs for Jayln Haley.
Herrin getting ready to in bound the ball in the middle of the fourth quarter.
S-V-W led by double digits in the first half by several times and a late rally by Herrin at the close of the first half sent the teams to the locker room with the Devils having a five-point lead.
One of the keys to the game is when the Devils had the ball around the five minute mark of the third quarter. They had the lead by seven. They were very patient attacking the zone and missed a bunny inside. S-V-W had one of their very few turnovers the next possession.
In the meantime Emma Deaton drains back to back threes for Herrin and it was a big momentum switcher, as the Tigers cut it till one.
Herrin took the lead and slowly built it to as high as eight. S-V-W cut it to a one posession game late several times, but the gave the number eight team in the last Class 2A their first loss of the season.
Emma Deaton led Herrin with 15 points on the evening. Makayla Smothers added 14, and Maggie Connor had 12 on the evening.
Jaylin Hayley led the Red Devils with 25 on the night and Sami McCowen added nine.
The Hannah’s for both teams which are also their leading scorers Grotauge for Herrin, and Garascia for S-V-W was held to six each.
When I was talking to S-V-W coach Rick Metcalf after the game, he said two of the top teams in Southern Illinois were on the floor this afternoon, we just came up short.
Both Pinckneyville and WF battle for the boards in the nightcap…..
In Game two of the night, Pinckneyville coach Alan Engleheart ran a triangle in two defense against WF most of the night with one defender keying on Morgan Griffith and the other either on Cali Wright or Megan Beery.
Griffith had a game high 33 on the night, three points below her average for the season and Wright had 14 including two deep threes in the first quarter as West Frankfort defeated Pinckneyville 54-45.
The Panthers had the lead whittled to four with three in some change left on the clock but Griffith iced it away from the free throw line.
Megan Breslin led the Panthers in scoring with 16 on the night. Kiya Hagene added 11 in a losing cause.
The thrid game of the night was a boys game. Jackson Connor, son of Z-R standout Sean Connor had a game high 25 points and Justin Shadowens had 10 as the Marion Wildcats held on to beat the Cairo Pilots 57-53.
Dave Taylor had 12 points, Malachi Brown 11, and Damarius Taylor added ten points for the Pilots.
SCHEDULE FOR THE NEXT TWO DAYS
Monday, January 16
- 5:30 p.m. Anna Jonesboro vs. Herrin (boys)
- 7:00 p.m. Eldorado vs. Carterville (boys)
- 8:30 p.m. WEST FRANKFORT vs CHRISTOPHER (boys)
Tuesday, January 17
- 5:30 p.m. Herrin vs Pinckneyville (girls)
- 7:00 p.m. WEST FRANKFORT vs SESSER-VALIER-WALTONVILLE (girls)
- 8:30 p.m. CHRISTOPHER vs Eldorado (boys)
GIRLS BOX SCORES -SATURDAY
HERRIN (54): Deaton 0 5 0-0 15, Smothers 5 0 4-6 14, Connor 3 0 6-7 12, Groutage 2 2-6 6, Mad. Russell 2 0-0 6, Lehnhoff 0 01-2 1, Smith 0 0 0-2 0,
SESSER-VALIER-WALTONVILLE (48): Haley 6 3 4-7 25, S. McCowen 0 3 0-0 9, Tucker 3 0 0-0 6, Garascia 3 0 0-0 6; Frank 1 0 0-0 2; Wilderman 0 0 0-0 0; Genesio 0 0 0 0-0; Hale 0 0 0-0 0; Breese 0 0 0-0 0; Page 0 0 0-0 0
HERRIN (14-6)(1-0) 11 8 15 20 – 54
S-V-W(18-1)(0-1) 16 8 6 18 -`48
PINCKNEYVILLE (45): M. Breslin 4 1 4-4 16, Hagene 4 1 0-0 11 Anderson 1 1 5-5 9; Bartnicki 2 0 0-0 4; Doerflein 1-0 1-2 3, Yates 1 0-0 2, Kling 0 0 0-0 0
WEST FRANFKORT (54): Griffith 9 1 12-14 33; Wright 3 2 2-2 14, Beery 1 1 0-0 5, Prather 1 0-1 2, Peavey 0 0 0-0 0; Carpenter 0 0 0-0 0; Turner 0 0 0-0 0; Britton 0 0 0-0 0
PINCKNEYVILLE (11-11)(0-1) 11 12 9 13 45
WEST FRANKFORT (10-5)(1-0) 14 16 12 12 – 54
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