Redbirds win in overtime

Sophomore Braxston Koehl was the Redbirds’ scoring leader Wednesday night at the Midwinter Classic tournament.

By BRUCE A. FASOL

Former Hall of Fame basketball coach David Lee would tell his teams, “just win trips down the floor and the rest will take care of itself.” Coach Dan Dewerff may have given his team much the same advice Wednesday night.

The Redbirds held a short lead at two of the three quarter breaks going into the final frame. At times, the Redbirds cruised and held as much as a 13-point lead in the second half. However, a Joel Boulds three point shot was enough to send the Eagles into an overtime period at Max Morris gym.

It is then that the timely message of “winning trips” began to pay off. In the overtime, the Redbirds held Eldorado to three points total.

Tyler Deaton scored all three of those points. Meanwhile the Redbirds cobbled together some offense of their own, basically from the free-throw line. The only field goal scored was a Braxston Koehl bucket, and ensuing free throw. What did not show up in the box score was the fact that the Redbirds controlled the rebounding boards, limitting Eldorado to single shots in the extra period.

In the extra period, the Redbirds were 8 of 11 from the foul line as they wrapped up the victory.

With the win, the Redbirds are now 2-0 in pool play in the tournament. Saturday’s match-ups are determined by pool play and the Redbirds could move to the title game with a win Friday night. Friday’s 9 p.m. game is a match-up with Carterville. The winner will play for the championship against the winner of the other pool.

The Redbirds were led by sophomore Braxston Koehl with 17, and senior Trenton Easley with 14.   Eldorado was led by Joel Boulds’ 15 points.