Bearcats defeat Hamilton County, improve to 7-1

By Tom Wheeler

Coach Eric Stallman’s Christopher Bearcats played their third game of the week, all with the same results — wins. The Cats defeated the Hamilton County Foxes 52-40 at home on Saturday night to give then a 7-1 record on the young season.

If anybody would have told coach Stallman before the game that his Bearcats would defeat the always tough Foxes by 12 without their leading scorer Tyler Atchison scoring a field goal, he might not have believed you, but that is what happen.  Atchison only scored three free throws but his defense on the all-south candidate of the Foxes Levi Lueke set the tone for the game. The Cats showed they are not a one man team and have five guys capable of being the leading scorer each night.

Junior Eric Young led the Cats scoring with 19 points after dropping 24 on the Foxes last year.

Christopher jumped off to a quick 12-5 first quarter lead behind eight points from junior sharp shooter Eric Young. The home team outscored the Foxes by five in the second frame to go into half time leading 26-14 as big Kevin Mercks chipped in seven of his thirteen points and Young added four charity tosses on his way to scoring 19 on the night.

The third quarter the Foxes scored 15 points but still trailed 38-29 going into the final eight minutes. It was then time for junior point guard Jake Towers to step up.  A true point guard’s job is to protect the ball and hit his free throws and Towers showed the maturity of a seasoned veteran as he knocked down 8-of-10 free throws with the game on the line.  Towers joined Young and Mercks in double figures with 13 points on the night while senior R.J.Kuh had a hustling game scoring four points including two crucial free throws early in the last frame. Freshman Haunter Wheeler and Josh Calloni saw limited action without scoring.

The game was won at the free throw line for the Bearcats who hit 19-26 (73 percent) free tosses compared to 9-18 (50 percent) for the Foxes.

Hamilton County was led in scoring by Lueke with 11 who sat out most of the last quarter with foul problems. Logan Billington scored 9, Tyler Cross 5, Baliee Gay 5, Garrett Biggerstaff 5, Nathan Anselment 3 and Travis Stevens chipped in 2.

When Fox coach Keith Welch was asked about Young’s scoring he answered “it wasn’t a surprise, he dropped 24 on us last year at Mcleansboro.”  Christopher coach Eric Stallman called the victory “a big win for us.”

The Bearcat junior varsity of Coach Jeremy Varner also won all three games this week to raise their record to 3-0 going into Tuesday night’s home game with Cobden.