High School Sports Archives - Page 49 of 67 - Benton, West Frankfort, Illinois News

HS Basketball scoreboard 12/6/16

December 7, 2016 By Jim Muir Leave a Comment

HS SCOREBOARD 12/6/16

A trio of Sophmores for the Tigers- PG Tyson Kessler (23) at the free throw line, and Reed Raubach (11) and Anthoney Darge (21) in the post

GEC

Carrier Mills 58 THOMPSONVILLE 34
Gallatin County 53 Crab Orchard 48
Galatia 60 Pope County 31

NON CONFERENCE

Okawville 72 SESSER-VALIER 45
Eldorado 60 WEST FRANKFORT 48
Carmi-White County 76 NCOE 63

BDC EAST

Fairfield 55 Johnston City 28

SOUTH EGYPTIAN

Joppa 93 Shawnee 49

Century 87 Egyptian 59

Meridian 81 Agape Christian 35

MIDLAND TRIAL

Wayne City 47 Cisne 40

Webber Township 83 Sandoval 40

GIRLS

SOUTHERN ILLINOIS RIVER TO RIVER

Ohio

Muphysboro 57 Herrin 39

Mississippi

Du Quoin 52

Pinckneyville 44

Non Conference

CHRISTOPHER 49 Gallatin County 24

Graves Co. KY 48 Massac County 15

New Athens 57 Trico 10

FCHS Lady Redbirds Win At Du Quoin

December 6, 2016 By Jim Muir Leave a Comment

The FCHS Lady Redbirds basketball team traveled to Du Quoin Monday and came out on top 60-51. West Frankfort led at every

Team photo from westfrankfortsports.com

quarter break 13-8, 25-20 and 43-35 on their way to the 9 point victory. Morgan Griffith led the Lady Redbirds with 32 points. She also tied for the team lead in rebounds with 7 and led the team with 5 assists and 3 steals. Griffith, who led the state in scoring last season, has now scored over 30 points in six of West Frankfort’s seven games and is averaging 36 points per game. West Frankfort’s Megan Beery had a very good game as she scored 18 points including two 3-pointers. Cali Wright scored 8 points, while Madison Freeman chipped in with 2 points Please click to read the entire story from West Frankfort Sports.

Filed Under: High School Sports, Sports, West Frankfort High School Sports

Franklin County Basketball Preview 12/6/16

December 6, 2016 By Jim Muir Leave a Comment

Steve Dunford-Franklin County Hoops and Gridiron

Three of the counties teams are in action tonight. West Frankfort and Thompsonville make trips to Saline County tonight as they go to Eldorado and Carrier Mills respectively. Sesser-Valier makes the trip down west down I 64 to Okawville.

Thompsonville (3-2)(1-1) at Carrier Mills (2-4)(1-1)

Last season the Carrier Mills Wildcats bit Thompsonville Twice. The first was an eight point loss at home. The return trip on the road last year was a 22 point loss that T’ville did not play well at all.

Both teams have everyone back, except two freshmen who are playing big roles, Will Gibbs for CM and Corbin Fitch for Thompsonville.

Thompsonville has the size advantage and Carrier Mills is quicker. This has been a match up that has intrigued me since the start of the season. The Wildcats 2-4 record is deceiving. Even though they went 2-3 at Vienna, talking Eldorado to the wire they lost to Galatia last Friday night. Thompsonville has upset on their conference record falling to Pope County last Tuesday night with both teams sitting with a 1-1 conference record.

For the Tigers to come away with the win tonight, they are going to have to shoot the lights out to bring Coach Keil Peebles out of that 2-1-2 zone they play a lot. Walker, Hill and company are just going to be too much. I am going with Carrier Mills by three tonight. If the Tigers come out of this week with a split, as an alumnus, I will take it.

Sesser-Valier (1-3) at Okawville (4-0)

I have repeatedly said that Sesser-Valier plays a very brutal schedule for a 1A school at the start of the year. Tonight they make the trip to Washington County to play in that palace that I would like to make a trip up there one day.

Noah Fredreking will be the nemesis in the side maroon teams around here for the next few years. After he graduates, will be a thorn in the Saluki’s side. He has signed a letter of intent to play for Marty Simmons and the Evansville Purple aces.

They have another nice player in Gant. It is a little harder to keep track of the Rockets since the no longer are in the BIT and play in their own tournament.

I am just going to be honest, after this week S-V can be 1-5. They would still deserve a decent seed in the Holiday Tournament after playing a very brutal schedule. I have to take Okawville by 20 tonight. This is a team that you can see at Peoria. I just hope the IHSA sends them north again.

West Frankfort (1-0) at Eldorado (6-0)

The Eagles record is a little gaudy. The Vienna tournament is basically a 1A tournament now. The only regular season game they have played is an OT win over Gallatin County.

Traxler and Attebury both are a load inside, but Kevin Toney has a lot more size this year than Austin Glodich. What I am trying to remember from last season, the Redbirds have the advantage in the backcourt. It will be a great matchup tonight down at Duff-Kingston gym.

This is a game that can have some big time implications on the seedings of the Eldorado Holiday Torunament that should be coming out soon. I am not knocking the GEC, but when you barely get by Carrier Mills and Gallatin, it makes me wonder how they will match up with the Redbirds. I am going with WF by five.

Filed Under: High School Sports, Sesser-Valier High School Sports, Sports, Thompsonville High School Sports, West Frankfort High School Sports

The Officiating Crisis: What Can I Do?

December 5, 2016 By Jim Muir Leave a Comment

Long time official Bobby Blondi with C-Z-R assistant football coach Buddy Velasco (Randall Risley photo)

NOTE: This was passed on to me by long time official Bobby Blondi. It is getting tougher to find officials as the days go on. This has been a matter of discussion for years. Please click to read the following article from The National Federation of High School Sports….For the past several years, state association leaders have warned that we were about to face a crisis relative to the number of officials we have. The crisis is upon us and it has reached epidemic proportions. Newspapers across the country all have the same headline in the sports section: “Schools forced to reschedule games due to officials’ shortage.” The next headline will be even worse: “Games cancelled due to a lack of sports officials.” The writing has been on the wall for quite some time but little has been done to truly heed the warning and to address the problem – the “why” of where we are and the “how” to fix it…

Filed Under: Benton High School Sports, Christopher High School Sports, High School Sports, Sesser-Valier High School Sports, Sports, Thompsonville High School Sports, West Frankfort High School Sports, Zeigler-Royalton High School Sports

Thompsonville beats NCOE for first GEC win

December 4, 2016 By Jim Muir Leave a Comment

Steve Dunford-Franklin County Hoops and Gridiron

THOMPSONVILLE- The high octane offense of Norris City-Omaha Enfield lowest point output of the season was 73 on opening night against the Christopher. The Bearcats put up 100 with Bradley Young in foul trouble all night.

I understand the Tigers played stellar defense and was patient on the offensive end. This resulted in a 71-55 win Friday night at Doc Harvey gym on homecoming night. T’ville is the only team to hold sharp shooting guard Matt Long to under 30. He was held by to 26 by Thompsonville twice this seaon. The other time was at the Christopher Turkey Tournament.

When Tiger Coach Pete Gordon sent me an e-mail with the stats, he said they killed them on the boards. They pulled down 55 rebounds to NCOE’s 37. Tiger Center Anthoney Darge had a game high 13 boards.

The Diaper Dandies came up big for T’ville again. Sophomore point guard Tyson Kessler led the Tigers with 20 points on the night. Coach Pete Gordon said he was “outstanding.” Freshman Corbin Fitch added 15; and Sophmore Reed Raubach added 12; Darge came close to a double double with eight, as Coach Gordon has as a positive for being a very balanced attack.

Jared Payne was the fourth Tiger in double figures with 11.

The curse at the Free Throw line came back for the Tigers, as the shot 6-18 (33%) from the charity stripe. This is a relapse in what was the Achilles heel for Thompsonville last year. They were outstanding in their last two games in a win against Z-R (83%) and in a loss to Pope County (72%)

The Tigers improve to 3-2 on the season and 1-1 in the conference. The Fighting Cardinals fall to 1-4 on the season and 0-2 in the GEC.

T’ville has two very tough road games this week. Tuesday night they have a Greater Egyptian conference game against Coach Keil Peebles’ Carrier Mills Wildcats. NCOE plays cross county rival the Carmi-White County Bulldogs, who is fresh off winning the DuQuoin Tip-off classic.

BOX SCORE:

THOMPSONVILLE: (71) Kessler 10 0 0-1 20; Fitch 7 0 1-9 15; Raubach 3 2 0-0 12; Payne 4 0 3-4 11; Darge 4 0 0-2 8; Wilce 1 1 2-2 5; Cardwell 0 0 0-0 0; Woodring 0 0 0-0 0; Kirkman 0 0 0-0 0 Jones 0 0 0-0 0; Bybee 0 0 0-0 0; Summers 0 0 0-0 0

NORRIS CITY-OMAHA-ENFIELD(55) Long 8 2 3-8 26; Wells 2 0 3-4 7; Skaggs 2 1 0-1 7; Healy 1 1 2-2 5; Verble 0 1 0-2 3; Bumgarte 2 0 0-0 4; O’ Neal 0 0 4-6 4; Bumgarte 2 0 0-0 4; Taylor 0 0 0-0 0 Simmons 0 0 0-0 0 Barton 0 0 0-0 0 Travelstead 0 0 0-0 0

SCORE BY QUARTERS:

THOMPSONVILLE (3-2)(1-1) 18 13 20 20 -71

NORRIS CITY-OMAHA-ENFIELD (1-4)(0-2) 13 10 11 21- 55

Filed Under: High School Sports, Thompsonville High School Sports

Devils drop two at Tip-Off Classic….girls win at Chester

December 4, 2016 By Jim Muir Leave a Comment

DuQUOIN- The Sesser-Valier Red Devils dropped two contests yesterday at the DuQuoin Tip-Off classic yesterday. In a ball game they were in the thick of things till late, they fell to the Carmi-White County Bulldogs 56-44. In the night cap, they fell to the host DuQuoin Indians 63-51.

Against Carmi, All Tornament Team selection Tyler Winchester led the Devils with 16 points. In the evening session Charles Farmer led S-V with 12 points. Lukas Gunter added 10, which he was also on the All Tournament Team.

The Devils might be sitting with a 1-3 record, but they played with two very good class 2A teams, as well as one of the top 1A teams in Southern Illinois. This weekend will go along way in helping them in late February.

Carmi-White County 56 Sesser Valier 54

BOX SCORE:

Carmi White County (56) Rice 4 5-6 14; Stubblefield 2 1-1 5; Northcott 4 0-0 10; Black 4 2-3 10, Simon 4 4-4 12; Lamp 1 1-2 4; Yates 0 1-2 1

Three point field goals: Northcott 2, Rice, Lamp; Fouled out: Simon

Sesser Valier (44) Gunter (?) 4 0-0 9; Smith 0 2-2 2; Winchester 6 2-2 16; Farmer 2 4-7 8; Launius 2 2-2 6; Page 1 1-3 3

Three point field goals: Winchester 2; Gunter; Fouled out: none

SCORE BY QUARTERS:

Carmi-White County(3-0) 15 6 16 19-56

Sesser-Valier (1-2) 5 12 16 11-44

DuQuoin 63 Sesser-Valier 51

BOX SCORE:

DuQuoin (63) Vogel 9 4-4 25; Daugerty 4 6-8 14; Heape 1 0-0 2; Smith 3 1-1 7; McBride 1 0-0 2; Woodside 3 4-5 11; Adams 0 2-4 2

Three point field goals: Vogel 3, Woodside Fouled Out: None

Sesser-Valier (51) J. Gunter 2 2-4 6; L. Gunter 4 1-2 10; Smith 0 0-4 0; Winchester 2 0-0 5; Farmer 4 3-3 12; E. Gunter 0 1-2 1; Baxter 1 0-0 2; Launius 4 1-2 9; Lance 3 0-0 6; Page 0 0-1 0

Three Point Field Goals: L. Gunter; Winchester; Farmer

SCORE BY QUARTERS:

DuQuoin (3-1) 15 10 15 22-63

Sesser-Valier (1-3) 17 5 11 18- 51

Sesser-Valier-Waltonville 64 Chester 38

S-V-W girls after winning their sixth straight Sparta Invitational two weeks ago

CHESTER- Coach Rick Metcalf’s S-V-W Lady Devils went on the road to pick up a big BDC-West win against the Chester Yellow Jackets. Jaylyn Hayley led the Devils with 22 and Hannah Garascia chipped in 20 for the win.

S-V-W BOX SCORE (64):

Haley 8 5-5 22; Garascia 8 4-5 20; Frank 3 1-2 7; McCowen 1 0-1 2; Tucker 2 1-1 5; Wilderman; Breeze 0 0-2 0; Marlo 0 1-2 1; Frederike 1 0-0 2

Three Point Field Goals: Haley Fouled Out: none

UP NEXT:

BOYS: The Red Devils have a really tough week ahead of them, playing two undefeated teams and tournament champs. Tuesday night, they go on the road to face Noah Fredriking and the Okawville Rockets, who were winners of the Carlyle Kaskaskian Classic. They defeated the Pinckneyville Panthers 54-45 last night in the Championship Game.

Friday night they will face the Chester Yellow Jackets in their home and conference opener. Chester won the Trico Tournament last night with a win over the hosts to go 5-0 for the tourney title.

GIRLS: S-V-W will be at home this week for a BDC crossover game with the Johnston City Lady Indians on Monday.

Thursday night they will face their rival just to the south, the Christopher Lady Bearcats.

Filed Under: High School Sports, Sesser-Valier High School Sports, Sports

Chase Her Example

December 3, 2016 By Jim Muir Leave a Comment

NOTE: This is a blog piece from Central Junior High Principal Charley Cass from his blog. It is a touching piece about FCHS basketball player Morgan Griffith, who is the all time leading Scorer at West Frankfort. Please click on the link to read his piece.

Filed Under: Featured, High School Sports, Sports, West Frankfort High School Sports, West Frankfort News

Franklin County Basketball Preview – Saturday 12/3/16 part one

December 3, 2016 By Jim Muir Leave a Comment

Steve Dunford- Franklin County Hoops and Gridiron

Sesser-Valier and Benton will both be playing two games today. The Red-Devils play Carmi-White County at 12:30 this afternoon and DuQuoin at 7:30 tonight in the DuQuoin Tip-Off classic. The Rangers will be playing Johnston City at 2:00 p.m. followed up by Goreville at 8:30 p.m. in the Goreville Invitational Tournament. I will preview this afternoon’s games and will have another preview on the games tonight after the completion of the afternoon session of both tournaments.

When I make an “If I drove” statement, I do not want anyone to feel sorry for me. For those that don’t know, I have not driven in three years because of Seizures. I would be in Perry and Johnson Counties today. I would be checking out the hospitality rooms at DuQuoin and Goreville. There is not one that I have not liked yet. Today I will be getting a look at Hardin County and Goreville on video. I will watch the Rangers and the Blackcats tonight. I will be listening to a lot of radio broadcasts. I will sneak the Salukis in there on this cold cloudy December day.

Sesser Valier (1-1) vs Carmi-White County (2-0) 12:30 P.M. at DuQuoin

It seems like Matt Rice has been in the backcourt and Jake Simon has been down low for the Bulldogs forever. Jack Bullock (ABV Jack) of abaselineview.com has Carmi winning the East division on the BDC.

The Red Devils are coming off a tough 55-53 loss to a very quick and physical Cairo Pilot club last night. Shane Garner can throw 10 different guys on the floor and not miss a beat. Legs will be a factor for the Devils today. The bulldogs had the night off. I am going with Carmi-White County by 10 today.

I might be not a very popular guy in Pitchfork Nation but I will have them going 0-2 today. Playing in the Tip-Off classic and the BIT might not pad the regular season record, but what really matters in late February when the record flips to 0-0. Those are the games that really count.

What jumped out at me in the box score last night, it looks like the Pilot defense shut Charlie Farmer down. Joshua Gunter and Addison Baxter led S-V with 18. There are two more weapons that Coach Shane Garner will have at his disposal of his very deep ball club.

Benton (3-0) vs Johnston City (3-0) at Goreville

If someone would have come up to me last week that Johnston City would be 3-0 a week ago I would have wondered what local watering hole you walked out of.

The Indians has surprised a lot of High School basketball fans across Southern Illinois. I knew going in that EJ Thompson was a player. I have watched Luka Galdoni on the football field the last couple seasons, and knew he was a tremendous athlete.

Chase Selby, Wyatt Rix, and Houston Hall can flat out shoot the ball. You throw big Max Edwards in there in the inside. Johnston City might be one of the better 2A teams in Southern Illinois this year.

Benton Coach Ron Winemiller is concerned about their strength and athleticism. This will be the Rangers toughest test of the year. There were several raving about the Ranger’s defense last night. I am going with Benton by 15 this afternoon in a very hard fought ball game. This might be a close one at halftime.

There will be an evening edition of previews at the completion of both games.

Filed Under: Benton High School Sports, High School Sports, Sesser-Valier High School Sports, Sports