Benton, West Frankfort, Illinois News | Franklin County News
Newspaper covering Franklin County, Illinois
By BRUCE A. FASOL
The West Frankfort Lady Redbirds scored a road win Saturday afternoon, at Meridian High School. The final score was 43-12 in favor of the Redbirds.
West Frankfort opened up a 9-4 lead after the first quarter. However, Matt Hampleman’s team broke the game open by scoring 20 points,and holding the Lady Bobcats to a single field goal, in the second frame. That 20-6 half time lead was strengthened over the final two quarters as well for an easy win.
Individually, the ‘Birds were led by the 12 points from Kiarha Wilce. Other scorers included: 9 Williams, 4 Calvert, 4 Sailiez, 6 Melvin 2 Jones, 2 Vershueren, 2 Cunningham.
The Lady Redbirds are back in action when they host the Herrin Tigers on Tuesday at Max Morris Gym. Junior Varsity action tips off at 6:15pm.
By JIM MUIR
The Benton Rangers opened the new basketball season on a losing note Tuesday night dropping a 68-59 decision to the Egyptian Pharaohs.
Egyptian rode the one-two punch of Demantae Price and Justin Prewett, who combined for 52 points in the victory in second round action from the first-ever Goreville Invitational Tournament. Prewett had 28 and Price had 24 respectively.
The Rangers fell behind 19-10 after one quarter and trailed by 12 points early in the second quarter before rallying behind the play of Nathaniel Higgins and Daulton Ward to outscore Egyptian 19-12 in the second frame and trail only 31-29 at the half.
Benton actually grabbed the lead early in the third quarter surging ahead 34-33 but fell behind again and trailed 43-41 heading into the final frame.
“I thought we showed some character to come back after falling behind early,” said Benton coach Ron Winemiller. “When we got the lead I thought we were going to be all right but we had a couple of possessions where we shot too quickly and we made a couple of ill-advised passes and then when we fell behind again we just couldn’t bounce back.”
The Rangers entered the game with virtually no varsity experience except for Cole Forby who was a mainstay on last year’s 19-9 regional championship team.
“I thought our inexperience showed some during the game and I really do think this team is going to get much better,” said Winemiller. “That is not coach-speak, I think we have the potential to be a pretty good team as the season rolls on. I really like this team, they have been a great group to work with.”
While Benton was playing in its first game of the season Egyptian, who played in last week’s Christopher Turkey Tournament, was playing game number five, a point not lost on Winemiller.
“I think we had some season opening jitters and they (Egyptian) got off to a great start tonight,,” said Winemiller. “But, I think we settled down in the second quarter.”
Nine players saw action for Benton in the season-opening loss but only four hit the scoring column with three of them going for double figures. Ward led the way with 23 points, followed by Higgins with 20 and Forby with 10. Ethan Hughes also added six points for the Rangers.
In other action last night Goreville, who has established itself as the team to beat in the tournament, walloped Anna-Jonesboro by a score of 81-41. The tournament is idle Wednesday night but resumes on Thursday with a pair of games and also two games each on Friday and Saturday.
Here is the schedule for the remainder of the week:
Thursday
AJ vs. Egyptian 6 p.m.
Johnston City vs. Benton 7:30 p.m.
Friday
Benton vs. AJ 6 p.m.
Goreville vs. Johnston City 7:30 p.m.
Saturday
Egyptian vs. Johnston City 6 p.m.
Benton vs. Goreville 7:30 p.m.
By BRUCE A. FASOL
The Meridian Bobcats rode the 26 points from senior Josh Jones enroute to a 67-43 win over the West Frankfort Redbirds. This was the opening game for coach Dan Dewerff and his Redbird team.
Meridian jumped out to a 15-9 lead after one quarter of play. The Redbirds mounted comebacks but could not get close enough to make the game in doubt. Meridian continued to build their lead in each quarter.
Leading the way for the Redbirds was sophomore Christian Dunning with a dozen points. Seniors Trent Easley and Nick Korolenko were the only other ‘Birds in double figures with 10 points apiece.
The Redbirds stay on the road as they travel to Sesser-Valier Friday night. The home opener is set for Saturday night against Pinckneyville.
By Jim Muir
The Benton Rangers will open the 2012-13 basketball season Tuesday night at the Goreville Invitational Tournament in a 6 p.m. contest against Egyptian.
The Rangers have kicked off the season the past 14 years at the Du Quoin Tip Off Classic but made the move to Goreville to the five-team, round robin tournament. Each team receives a bye during one session in the tournament that runs Nov. 26, 27, 29, 30 and Dec. 1.
Play opened on Monday night with Johnston City defeating Anna-Jonesboro 60-59 when the Wildcats couldn’t get a shot to drop in the final seconds. Johnston City led by as many as nine points in the opening half only to see A-J roar back to tie the game at the intermission 32-32.
The Indians began the second half on a 12-2 run to open up a 44-34 lead but again the Wildcats fought back to actually take the lead in the fourth quarter. After a pair of Hunter Zeigler free throws to give Johnston City a 60-59 lead with 8.1 seconds the Wildcats set up a final play but a Noah Fuller jumper on the baseline lipped off the rim securing the hard fought win for Johnston City.
Luke McCormick led the Indians with 18 points and also in double figures was Hunter Zeigler with 11. Also scoring for JC was Austin McPheron and Levi Tanner with nine, Jake Davison with eight and Derek Smith with five.
A-J was led in scoring by Tyler Vaughn with 14 followed by Noah Fuller with 13 and Ben McFarland with 10. Rounding out the scoring Colton James scored eight, Zach Parr added seven, Jonathan Kemp scored four and Damian Reed contributed three points.
In the nightcap the host Goreville Blackcats jumped out to a quick 17-7 first quarter lead and never looked back in defeating an out-manned Egyptian squad by a score of 75-57. The Blackcats extended the lead with a 21-9 blitz of the Pharaohs in the second quarter to take a 38-18 halftime lead.
Goreville featured a balanced scoring attack with five players in double figures led by Zeke Snell with 18 and Dayton Tripp with 13. Also scoring was Alex Andros with 12 and Blake Gray and Kyefer Cavins with 11 each. Rounding out the scoring for Goreville Nik Dunn had three, J.T. Russell, Daniel Lanham and Caleb Belcher each had two.
Leading Egyptian was the one-two punch of Justin Prewett and Devantae Price who contributed 19 and 17 points respectively. Cameron Grueninger also scored in double figures with 10 with Alex McCrite adding four and Austin Murphy and Brandon Woodson adding two each and Bryce Bigham adding a free throw.
Here is a schedule for the rest of the week at the Goreville Invitational.
Tuesday, Nov. 27
Benton vs. Egyptian 6 p.m.
Goreville vs. Anna-Jonesboro 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, Nov. 29
Anna-Jonesboro vs. Egyptian 6 p.m.
Johnston City vs. Benton 7:30 p.m.
Friday, Nov. 30
Benton vs. Anna-Jonesboro 6 p.m.
Goreville vs. Johnston City 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, Dec. 1
Egyptian vs. Johnston City 6 p.m.
Benton vs. Goreville 7:30 p.m.
By BRUCE A. FASOL
Coach Dan Dewerff begins his third season at the helm of the West Frankfort Redbird boys basketball team on Tuesday night.
The opening game of the season was to have been this past Saturday as the ‘Birds were scheduled to host Benton. However, the Rangers asked to move the game, and it will now be played Dec. 21.
By TOM WHEELER
Eric Stallman’s Christopher Bearcats defeated the Thompsonville Tigers 49-39 Saturday night at the 38th Christopher Thanksgiving Tournament. The Bearcats had defeated Wayne City on Monday and lost to the 2012 champions Waltonville on Wednesday while the Tigers defeated Webber Township on Tuesday and lost to the defending champions Egyptian on Friday night.
Strong play from junior guard Jake Towers, whose defense held Thompsonville’s Brady Householder to no field goals and only two free tosses, was a big key in the victory. Householder, started the tournament with 20 points in an opening win and was the “straw” that stirred the young Tiger team. Towers and senior Tyler Atchison led the Cats in scoring with 13 points each , 6-feet-6-inch senior Kevin Mercks had six, senior R.J. Kuh had 3 and junior Eric Young had 7 points while freshman Josh Calloni had 4 points and Hunter Wheeler one free throw.
The Cats jumped to 15-7 first quarter lead behind two baskets from Young and Atchison while the Tigers were having trouble with fouls as leading scorer Ryan Darnell and twin brother Lance each picked up two fouls. Both teams scored 9 each in the second frame and the Cats were up 24-16 at half.
In the third quarter at the 6:12 mark, Young led a fast break and hit Atchison with a nifty pass for a score, Towers stole the ball on the next exchange and hit Kuh who then fed big Mercks for another great example of the Cats team work. The hosts outscored the Tigers 16-10 in this quarter as Atchison scored 7 and Calloni 4. The Tigers only got 5 shots up in the quarter because they spent so much time at the free throw line where they were 3-for-8.
In fact the free throw line is where both teams spent a large portion of the night and if you happened to go by either high school early in the morning this week there may be some early free throw shooting going on. Thompsonville shot 15-for-30 for the game while the Cats were only 18-for-39 for a 31 percent effort for a combined 69 tosses shot.
Thompsonville was led in scoring by the Darnell’s, Ryan with 14 and the left-handed Lance with 10. Others who scored were
Immediately following the championship game in which Waltonville upset the favorite Egyptian Pharaohs 57-49 the all- tournament team was announced and the Bearcats; Atchison, Mercks and Young were named as were the Tigers’ Ryan Darnell and Householder. Others selected for this honor included J.C. Chapman of Cobden, Jordan Hale and Trey Witges of Waltonville and two named for the second year Egyptian’s Justin Prewitt and MVP Devantae Price (for the second year).
The Bearcats return to action December 4 when they travel to Elverado for their first Black Diamond Conference game. The Tigers face Elverado Nov. 27 at home.
By Jim Muir
The Egyptian Pharaohs left no doubt on Tuesday night that they are the team to beat in the 38th Annual Christopher Turkey Tournament as they defeated Zeigler-Royalton 75-41.
Zeigler-Royalton’s Brandon Stubblefield looks for an open teammate against Egyptian on Tuesday night. (Christopher Kays / Franklin County News)
Behind a combined 53 points from Justin Prewett and Devantae Price the Pharaohs raced to a 20-11 first quarter lead and then outscored Z-R 23-8 in the second quarter to take a commanding 43-19 halftime lead. The second quarter surge was keyed by the play of Prewett, a 6-feet-3-inch junior who scored 14 of his game high 33 points in the second frame. Price added seven in the quarter as the pair of Egyptian standouts combined for 21 of the 23 points scored.
Z-R was led in scoring by Nick McPhail and Brandon Jones with seven points each.
In the first game Tuesday night the Thompsonville Tigers defeated a scrappy Webber Township team by a score of 50-46. The Tigers were led in scoring by Brady Householder with 20 points – 12 coming in the first quarter. Householder hit 11-12 free throws in the win. Also scoring for Thompsonville was Ryan Darnell with eight, Jake Williams with seven, Quint Henson with six and Lance Darnell with four points.
Thompsonville led 19-12 at the end of the first quarter and 27-22 at the intermission. Thompsonville could never pull away from Webber who never led in the ballgame. The Trojans were led in scoring by Ty Henderson with 23 points.
In tonight’s action Cobden will meet Wayne City at 6:15 in a consolation bracket match up with the host Christopher Bearcats squaring off against Waltonville in the 7:45 winner’s bracket game.
