College signing day: ISU keeps talent close to home

By Todd Golden
The Tribune-Star

TERRE HAUTE April 16, 2009

— Indiana State coach Kevin McKenna bolstered the Sycamores' guard depth and cut down on the expense report to boot.
"When you look at the whole recruiting for this year. It's not like we weren't recruiting outside of 30 miles," ISU coach Kevin McKenna jested.
Yet each of the four players who signed letters-of-intent on Wednesday - Terre Haute's Jake Odum, Marshall, Ill.'s Lucas and Logan Eitel, along with one-time Marshall and Vigo County resident Jake Kelly - all hail within a stones' throw of the Hulman Center.
Kelly and Odum earned scholarships to play for ISU. The Eitel's come as walk-ons.
The local talent - Rockville's R.J. Mahurin signed last fall - means a lot more to the Sycamores than the gas savings. All four are guards and will bolster ISU's backcourt depth significantly and help the team play McKenna's desired style, which involves pressing and a quicker offensive pace. All of the recruits have their legion of fans in the area and have created more buzz for the ISU program than its had in the last decade. McKenna wants to hone that energy in the right direction - recognizing the potential of the players, while not wanting to create "too much, too soon" expectations that could sidetrack any one of them.
"We're excited to have local players join our program. Time will tell whether these guys develop into productive players, but they're quality kids, and I think they're a good fit for our program. We're glad to have them," McKenna said.
Kelly transferred to ISU after two years at Iowa, stating a desire to play closer to home after his mother died in 2008 (see related story). Odum, the Eitel's and Mahurin all showed an early desire to become Sycamores.
Mahurin made a verbal commitment during his sophomore season with the Rox. Odum committed as a walk-on last fall. The Eitel's both committed as walk-ons in January.
Odum's case was the most fluid. He was eventually offered a scholarship by ISU after a sterling senior season where he averaged 22 points, 6.4 assists, 5.8 rebounds and 3.4 steals. There was conjecture that he might head elsewhere to seek a scholarship, but he ultimately earned what he wanted from the Sycamores.
"My senior year, it was huge," Odum said. "Obviously I impressed the coaches enough to get that scholarship. It's a huge honor for me. I grew up watching Michael Menser and Matt Renn. Its been in my head to work hard to get that scholarship."
McKenna was also swayed by Odum's fine senior campaign.
"The more I watched him, the more he grew on me," McKenna said.
McKenna also likes the way the Eitel twins fit into the program. Marshall's system is similar to ISU's, and the Eitel's ability to score, rebound and pass is one thing McKenna liked about them.
"They fit in real well with the way we play. They pass, handle, shoot. They need to get bigger, stronger, faster. But I say that about every player we bring in. They're very, very well-coached," McKenna said.
The influx of guards begs several questions. For starters, how are all of the backcourt minutes going to be doled out? McKenna believes his system will allow for players to play the kind of minutes he prefers.
"We play four perimeter guys anyway, so I consider the 1-to-4 spots interchangeable. Jake [Kelly] can play 1-3, Dwayne Lathan is a 2-4, [Carl] Richard is a 3-4, Koang Doluony is a 3-4, [Aaron] Carter is a 3-4, [Jordan] Printy is a 1-3. [Rashad] Reed and Harry [Marshall] are both 1-2's," McKenna said.
"I think we have enough versatility. I don't want Marshall playing 38 minutes, I don"t want Printy playing 37. I want them to play less minutes, but be able to play them harder when they're in. If they can, their production should be about the same," McKenna added.
It also raises the possibility that the incoming freshman could be redshirt candidates, though McKenna said he doesn't approach player expectation that way.
"I tell all of our players, work like you're going to play. Regardless of whether redshirting is a possibility, be ready - you're going to work out and get ready for season," McKenna said. "I've never forced anyone to redshirt. For example, Koang wanted to redshirt, it was best for him developmentally, it was best for him and best for our program.
"We haven't had any conversations with R.J. or Jake [Odum], but do they have some need to get stronger? Yes they do, along with the Eitels," McKenna added. "Very few freshman are ready-made big-bodied, strong athletic players. Our selling point is to develop them as players - as far as any set thing? Plan on playing and we go from there."

BREAKING NEWS: Kelly, Odum, Eitels officially join Sycamores

By Todd Golden
The Tribune-Star

TERRE HAUTE April 15, 2009

— Indiana State's men's basketball program received signed letters-of-intent from Jake Kelly, Jake Odum, Logan Eitel and Lucas Eitel today, the first day of the NCAA men's basketball signing period. It means the quartet are officially part of the ISU program.
Each of the players come from within 20 miles of the ISU campus. Odum lives in Terre Haute and played at Terre Haute South. The Eitel's hail from Marshall, Ill. and played for Marshall High School's IHSA Class 2A third-place team. Kelly, who is transferring from Iowa, played at Marshall during the first two years of his high school career.
They're joined by Rockville's R.J. Mahurin, who signed last fall.
"When you look at the whole recruiting for this year. It's not like we weren't recruiting outside of 30 miles," ISU coach Kevin McKenna jested. "But we're excited to have local players join our program. Time will tell whether these guys are quality players and a fit for our program, but they’re quality kids and we're glad to have them."
McKenna said interest on the part of local players to come to ISU was a combination of a desire by the coaching staff to have them along with desire on the part of the players to be at ISU.
"They see the potential that we have, they see the players we have and the coaches who will work hard to make them better. They all kind of just came to us and there was mutual interest," McKenna said.
For more on men's basketball signing day, see Thursday's Tribune-Star and tribstar.com.

What team did you make on the Amey Awards?

April 03, 2009

— We’ve already talked about what a wonderful season of high school basketball we were blessed with recently, so while the Amey family is packing its bags for spring break — look for a recap of central Missouri in a couple of weeks — you can enjoy the Amey Awards.
One captain of the Clutch Team had already been selected by the end of December, for the many different things he accomplished and for the fact that he’d do all of them at the most crucial moments of the game. That Mike Conley-like performance was turned in by Jordan Pearson of West Vigo, whose co-captain — to no one’s surprise — is Jake Odum of Terre Haute South.
But as good a way as any to evaluate the recent season is to look at this list of clutch performers who weren’t captains: Donnie Abrams and Bobby Swaby of North Central; Austin Akers of Northview; Chase Brinkley of Paris; Colin Brown and Jake Weaver of Turkey Run; Tyler Collier and Randy Lientz of Owen Valley; Jacob Duncan and Lucas Eitel of Marshall; Jordan Hickam and Wade Huber of Greencastle; B.J. Howard of Union; Ben Jones and Meyers Leonard of Robinson; Zach Jumps and Jacob Rankin of North Vermillion; Will Kennedy and Kyler Rhodes of Clay City; R.J. Mahurin of Rockville; Billy Newton of Shakamak; and Josh Wilson of Riverton Parke. Those are some pretty good players.
He wasn’t the best player on his team, but he was the indispensable one. West Vigo can’t win 19 games unless somebody like Jeremy Lucas plays big around the basket, which is why he and another undersized but never outhustled inside player, Jarrid McLaughlin of Riverton Parke, are captains of the Competitors Team.
Other battlers were Thomas Anderson and Daniel Gabbard of Terre Haute North; Chris Babcock of Bloomfield; Justin Bartrum and Tyler Lewis of Greencastle; Jordan Borders, Jordan Langford, Ethan Stanifer and Jarred VanHorn of Shakamak; A.J. Boyll and Dylan Walker of North Central; Seth Brewer, Riley Scales, Kirk Shawver, Mitch Snyder and Chris Unzicker of Casey; Ryan Buchhaas, Jacob Harrison and Kody Lenhart of North Vermillion; Logan Chesterfield and Dustin Howard of Union; Keith Cunningham, Jordan Tharp and Jake Tibbett of Linton; Jordan Defore and Levi Seymour of Clay City; Taylor Duncan, Logan Eitel and Dalton Sanders of Marshall; Derek Hannahs of Robinson; Logan Henness and Avery Mason of Paris; Jeremy Hudson, Cody Meyer and Jake Montgomery of Tri-County; John Michael Jarvis and Chris Rose of South; Josh Karr of Turkey Run; Matt King and David Parsons of Rockville; Trent Lancaster and Hunter Robertson of Northview; Dustin Lawson and Kyle Yeargin of Riverton Parke; Cody Mumaw, Dylan Reyher and Andy Walsh of South Vermillion; Zach Roth of Owen Valley; Thad Thompson of Sullivan; and Tyler Wampler of West Vigo.
You wouldn’t think it would be easy — by definition — to pick a captain of the Unsung Team, but Rockville’s Josh Reed set the perfect example for role-players everywhere.
Others like him included Kaleb Barnhart, Kruz Kusterman and Clinton Scott of Casey; Billy Bettis, Tyler Bradburn and Aaron Bridge of Rockville; Tyler Bishop, Trey Brashear, Dustin Morey, Jake Tucker and Austin Wetnight of Marshall; Blane Boyd, Jacob Phegley, Tanner Reynolds and Michael Talpas of Union; Dreyson Boyd, Dalton Hiatt, Austin Nash and Jordan Turner of Sullivan; Ethan Clark and Scott Leigh of North Vermillion; Austin Cook and Jathan Davies of Turkey Run; Ryan Crowther and Brodey McCalister of West Vigo; Derrik Enstrom and Storm Lindsay of North Central; Andrew Gauer and Jordan Mauk of North; Ross Gentry, Chase Rhoten and Stefan Sparks of Linton; Dayton Gobert, Sean Hollows and Cody Vest of Owen Valley; Jarret Hastings of South Vermillion; Orry Heffner and Logan Higgins of Clay City; Graham Helms, Ricky Tally and Gavin Thompson of Bloomfield; Jeremy Helton of Riverton Parke; T.J. Hill of Shakamak; Jason Hollis of Paris; Stephen Jones, Brandon Shaw and Austin Siler of Robinson; Bobby McKenna and Ike Worrell of South; Patrick Miller and Curtis Washburn of Tri-County; Griffin Moore and Kyle Nobles of Greencastle; and Clint Reynolds of Northview.
Captains of the Unselfish Team are a pair of seniors who were team-first all the way, one of them — Jake Smith of Sullivan — for four years of varsity play. His co-captain is Zach Walls of Paris.
Other selfless players included Jacob Allen and Carter Morgan of North Vermillon; Jordan Allen, Jordan Keller and Brad Wilson of Northview; Jordan Arford and Mitch Hobson of Bloomfield; Adam Austin and Nate Housley of South; Ryan Cash and Logan Spung of Paris; Jordan Caylor of South Vermillion; Jared Clapp, Jimmy Clifton and Jacob Richardson of Tri-County; Phil Compton and Jarrod Wrightsman of Turkey Run; Ethan Delp of Marshall; J.D. Fish of Linton; Kyle Herbert, Brandt Warner and Woody Worland of Owen Valley; Keaton Langley and Jacob Wilkes of Union; Eric Lear of Rockville; Brett Livvix and Ryan Shull of Casey; Graham Shuee of Greencastle; Jacob Stevenson of Shakamak; Brett Taylor and Scott Weatherford of North; and Derek Watson of Robinson.
Most self-explanatory this season are the captains of the Most Improved Team, who merely stepped in as seniors with little varsity experience and played huge roles in teams that won 40 games — Ian McIntyre of South and Joel Modesitt of West Vigo.
Others who got better were David Bedwell of Sullivan; Jonathan Bradshaw, Jacob Musgrave and Trent Sims of Northview; Fred Brust of Union; Sean Burton, Lucas Mackey and Scott West of West Vigo; Lucas Clark of North Vermillion; Jordan Crowe, Tyler Richardson and John Smith of Shakamak; Spencer Davies, Seth Marshall and Jon Sowers of Turkey Run; John Dayton, Taylor Haddix and Zach Henn of Paris; Justin Gant, Zach Harrison, Chase Jones and Jerrel Thompson of North; Braxton Griffith and D.J. Newton of Clay City; Dylan Haltom, Patrick Harpenau and Logan Laswell of South Vermillion; Daniel Hardesty of Riverton Parke; Kyle Harlan and Ashton Marshall of Greencastle; Logan Hennecke, Corbin Rehmel and John Stefancik of North Central; Drew Kelley, Caleb McMullen and Sam Wake of Rockville; Evan Magni of Linton; Anthony McGill and Jacob Tanoos of South; Ian Mitchell and Eric Vaughn of Riverton Parke; Ross Rhoades of Tri-County; Kurt Schulte of Bloomfield; and Aaron White of Owen Valley.
I’d been looking forward to seeing this year’s captain of the Most Promising Team for a long time, and he was much better than I’d expected. That’s Rhett Smith of Sullivan, of course.
Others who could be great are Tommie Bolden, Jordan Marshall and Ross Sponsler of North; Logan Cannady and Jordan Grooms of Marshall; James Craigmyle and Kevin McMasters of South Vermillion; Trent Collins and Tyler Talpas of Union; Lance Elliott, James Lisman and Caleb Turner of Sullivan; Tyler Gilstrap of Owen Valley; Josh Griffin and Dalten Temples of Paris; Jacob Hayn of Turkey Run; Jordan Houser and Cody Thornton of West Vigo; Nick Hutcheson, Spencer Moore and Keegan Remsburg of Greencastle; Damon Hyatt, Caleb Mershon and Jordan VanHorn of Northview; Cody Jeffries and Clint White of Rockville; Gary Secuskie and Cody Vauters of Riverton Parke; Jermaine Smith and Lemuel Young of South; Caleb Stuppy of Linton; DeJohn Walden of Holy Cross; and Brandon Wilson of Tri-County.
And for captain of the Left-handed Team (remember, all of us can shoot) I’ll take the guy who hit one of the biggest shots in the big Marshall season, Taylor Duncan. He’ll team with Ryan Crowther and Cole Lydick of West Vigo; Zach Henn of Paris; Jordan Hickam of Greencastle; Jordan Keller of Northview; Seth Marshall and Jarrod Wrightsman of Turkey Run; Austin Nash and Caleb Turner of Sullivan; Cory Slaven of Bloomfield; Bobby Swaby of North Central; and Jarred VanHorn of Shakamak.

Marshall’s coach Brannan: Put the ball in Jake Kelly's hands and let him go

By Craig Pearson
The Tribune-Star

April 1, 2009

— Marshall (Ill.) High School coach Tom Brannan connected with Jake Kelly on the phone about once a week during the future Sycamore’s two-year career at Iowa, and he had an inkling Kelly might dazzle Hawkeye fans late in the season when he heard Kelly would be moving from shooting guard to point guard.
“I was really intrigued just to see what he would do once he was given that opportunity to play that position,” said Brannan, who inserted Kelly as his starting point guard as a freshman at Marshall. “Put the ball in his hands. We knew what he could do. I just wish he could’ve done it here for a couple more years. He was awesome when he had the ball in his hands. Sometimes I caught myself as more of a fan in awe of what he could do.”
Kelly averaged 20.4 points over Iowa’s last seven regular-season games, and had games of 11 assists and nine assists during that span.
“I can see [ISU coach Kevin McKenna] putting that ball in his hands and letting him go,” Brannan said of Kelly’s potential at Indiana State. “I think he will fit in real well to the system. I respect coach McKenna. I think sometimes coaches have to adapt their system to the players they have and vice versa. Players have to adapt their style to the coach’s system.”
Brannan first saw Kelly play when the now 6-foot-6 guard moved to Marshall, Ill., as a sixth grader; he knew right away he had a future varsity standout.
“He just loves the game, and he loves playing the game. Every time I saw Jake, it didn’t matter where he was, he was dribbling a basketball up and down the sidewalk … working on that crossover, which I think has definitely paid off for him.
“That’s what I remember seeing as a young kid, was how well he could handle the ball, how well he could set up teammates. You could tell he was going to keep getting better.”
As a sophomore, Kelly impressed fans and opponents alike in the Pizza Hut Wabash Valley Classic in Terre Haute, and he led the Lions to a 25-4 record. His importance to that team was substantiated by what happened when he wasn’t on the court. Kelly suffered in a broken hand in the first play of a Class 2A regional championship game against Paris, and Brannan’s squad went down much earlier than anticipated.
Brannan, a point guard who led small Carrollton High School to Peoria for the state finals 25 years ago, sensed he could make a return trip with Kelly running the show.
“That team was just beginning to play its best baskteball,” Brannan said. “As a coach, I thought this is my shot at going to Peoria, a state championship.”
It turns out, this year’s 2008-09 Marshall squad was that team.
Future ISU walk-ons Lucas and Logan Eitel were in junior high when Kelly was playing with their older brother Derek Eitel, now the quarterback and standout pitcher for Rose-Hulman in Terre Haute.
“He always got me excited. I went to all their games,” Lucas Eitel said. “I loved watching all of them play. Their team inspired me as much as anything for us to get better.”
The Eitel twins will now have a chance to play with Kelly, who has two years of eligibility left at ISU.
Kelly went on to finish his high school career at Carmel. He stepped right in as a starter as a junior and helped two balanced Greyhounds teams to a 17-8 record in 2005-06 and a 14-7 mark in 2006-07.
In addition to his offensive skills, Kelly offers a long wingspan on the perimeter. Brannan wishes he had two more years of Kelly at Marshall.
“I’m a defensive minded coach,” Brannan said. “I just though wow, this kid could just dominate games with his length. What I was always envisioned was him playing the top on our 1-3-1.”
Iowa coach Todd Lickliter told the Tribune-Star in mid-January that Kelly was developing into a solid Big Ten defender.
“Every game, he draws the other team’s best perimeter player on defense,” Lickliter said. “He’s doing a great job of one-on-one defense. He’s made good progress over the last year and a half.”
Kelly plans to help pass along some of his skills at a Marshall basketball camp this summer, said Brannan.
“I’m going to have a lot of young excited Marshall Lions after our success — what a great year — now you’ve got Jake coming back,” Brannan said.
Kelly’s addition to the Sycamores — he’s applying for an NCAA waiver to play right away due to his mother’s death in June of last year — will make for a crowded backcourt at Indiana State.
“I just think a lot of competition like that is good for a team,” said Lucas Eitel. “I think people sometimes sit back and do the minimum. With so much competition, no one can do that. Not only is [Kelly] going to help with depth in games.
“I think this summer’s going to be huge for everybody to earn a position or keep a position. I think it’s going to be a really fun year.”

LIC picks up rare victory over NTC

Effingham Daily News

March 30, 2009

— TOLEDO — The Little Illini Conference picked up a rare victory in Saturday's Central Illinois All-Star boys' basketball game at Cumberland High School's Waldrip Gymnasium, winning the 16th annual event for just the fourth time in the series by a 99-88 final over the National Trail Conference's senior all-stars.
Cumberland's Jeremy Jansen, who missed the Pirates' last few games with a knee injury, was named the MVP of the LIC seniors on his home floor; the 6-5 forward racked up 17 points along with Cumberland teammate Dalton Sowers and Casey-Westfield's Mitch Snyder.
The LIC, which got 24 points from Logan Eitel, Lucas Eitel and Trey Brashear of Class 2A state runner-up Marshall, led 50-39 at halftime and opened the second half on a 14-0 run.
Trailing by as many as 25 points, the NTC club rallied back within an 89-86 margin before the LIC closed it out on a 10-2 run.
Teutopolis' Tony Zerrusen was named the NTC MVP with a game-high 23-point effort; Zerrusen knocked down five three-pointers as he scored 13 in the first half and 10 after the break.
Neoga's Austin Robinson chimed in with 11 of his 16 after halftime, and another Wooden Shoe, Brian Haskenherm, was the third double-figure scorer with 12 for the NTC.
The NTC squad was coached by Neoga's Jason Hanson and Cowden-Herrick's Brett Boehm.
Lone Cowden-Herrick representative D.J. Hovis tallied seven points, while Macaulay Mason, the only Beecher City eagle on roster, scored a second-half basket for two points.
Altamont, which along with Neoga reached a sectional semifinal for the conference's deepest postseason run, was represented by Devin Frailey, Keiffer McCarron, Landon Duckwitz and Greg Sperry.
Frailey, who also won the slam dunk contest prior to the game, led the Altamont contingent with nine points, while McCarron had seven, Duckwitz hit a free throw and Sperry was scoreless.
T-town had two other players on the team; Jeremy Schumacher scored five and John Runde had four.
From Stewardson-Strasburg, Josh Tabbert scored two and Travis Ballinger didn't score; Windsor's Jake McIlwain also didn't score. St. Anthony's John Steppe didn't play.
Logan Eitel of Marshall also scored 11 for the LIC, while twin brother Lucas added nine. Lucas also won the three-point competition; the duo heads to Indiana State University next year to walk on to the men's basketball team there.
16th Annual Central Illinois All-Star Game
At Waldrip Gymnasium
Cumberland High School
LITTLE ILLINI CONFERENCE (99)
Mitch Snyder (Casey-Westfield), 7-0 — 17, Kirk Shawver 1-0 — 2, Dalton Sowers (Cumberland) 7-0 — 17, Jeremy Jansen (Cumberland) 8-0 — 17, Zach Bolin (Cumberland), 1-0 — 2, Jacob Columbia (Edwards County), 1-0 — 3, Jeremy Wallace (Flora) 0-0 — 0, Ethan Blankenbaker (Hutsonville/Palestine), 0-0 — 0, Josh Hawkins (Red Hill) 1-2 — 4, Josh Potts (Lawrenceville) 3-0 — 7, Logan Eitel (Marshall), 3-4 — 11, Lucas Eitel (Marshall), 4-1 — 9, Trey Brashear (Marshall), 2-0 — 4, Kendrick Greathouse (Oblong), 2-0 — 4, Elliott Smith (Oblong), 2-0 — 4. TOTALS 41 FG 7 FT.
NATIONAL TRAIL CONFERENCE (88)
Macaulay Mason (Beecher City), 1-0 — 2, D.J. Hovis (Cowden-Herrick) 3-1 — 7, Devin Frailey (Altamont), 3-0 — 9, Landon Duckwitz (Altamont), 0-1 — 1, Kieffer McCarron (Altamont) 3-0 — 7, Greg Sperry (Altamont) 0-0 — 0, Tony Zerrusen (Teutopolis), 9-0 — 23, Brian Haskenherm (Teutopolis), 4-3 — 12, John Runde (Teutopolis), 1-2 — 4, Jeremy Schumacher (Teutopolis), 2-1 — 5, Josh Tabbert (Stewardson-Strasburg), 0-2 — 2, Travis Ballinger (Stewardson-Strasburg), 0-0 — 0, Austin Robinson (Neoga), 6-2 — 16, Jake McIlwain (Windsor), 0-0 — 0. TOTALS 32 FG 12 FT.
Little Illini Conference------50---49---—---99
National Trail Conference---39---49---—---88
3-point FG — LIC 10 (Snyder 3, Sowers 3, Jansen 1, Columbia 1, Potts 1, Lo. Eitel 1), NTC 12 (Frailey 3, McCarron 1, Zerrusen 5, Haskenherm 1, Robinson 2).
NTC MVP — Tony Zerrusen, Teutopolis
LIC MVP — Jeremy Jansen, Cumberland
Slam Dunk Champion — Devin Frailey, Altamont
Three-Point Champion — Lucas Eitel, Marshall

IU great Ray Tolbert talks faith, hoops with Marshall Lions

By Brian Boyce
The Tribune-Star

TERRE HAUTE March 30, 2009

— Hometown heroes heard from an old-school great Sunday at the New Life New Beginnings Church in Marshall.
“You guys think I’m big,” Ray Tolbert joked to the congregation, recalling his time on the New York Knicks with Patrick Ewing. “He was the original beast, trust me.”
Tolbert served as guest speaker as the church honored the Marshall High School Lions boys basketball team, which finished this year’s season 32-1, placing third in the Illinois State Tournament.
Tolbert’s career spanned more than 260 NBA games, but the Anderson native got his start at Indiana University under Bobby Knight as a four-year starting forward, where he played on the 1980-1981 NCAA Championship team before being picked as a first-round draft pick by the Knicks.
Tolbert’s 6-foot-9, 290-pound frame towered over the Lions as he held all of their framed congratulatory certificates in one of the hands that were once “the biggest in the Big 10.”
He joked he’s “shrunk” a little from his 6-foot-10 playing days, but moved up from 225 lb..
“But I can still dunk it, easily,” the 50-something former Slam Dunk Contest champ said.
The Rev. Tim Foster praised the Lions as they and coaches Tom Brannan and Pat Duncan accepted certificates, bookmarks and DVDs containing a 3-minute video of their season’s highlights.
“You can do great things with this small army,” Foster said, asking for a few words on how they made school history by going further into the state tournament than any other Marshall team.
Brannan and Duncan were quick to return the thanks back to the community.
“One of the reasons we do what we do is things like this,” Brannan said, noting the community’s support for the team.
But the answer to how they won is work.
“We’re the hardest-working team around here. We have the hardest practices of anyone around here,” Brannan said.
Duncan said good parents help build the foundation of kids’ success. “Parenting means everything,” he said. “You can tell the ones that have great parents.”
Tolbert coaches youth organizations and works with inner-city teens these days, and he offered a firsthand perspective of life in the NBA’s fast lane during the 1980s and 1990s.
Self-described “trade bait,” Tolbert saw a lot of court time in the pros, but as he explained, he was always “good enough to play and good enough to trade,” meaning his contract was often used as a bargaining chip to get younger players.
Tolbert recounted his first trade from the Knicks to Seattle which occurred halfway into a long season full of road games. After one road game with the Knicks, he was literally told to go from one hotel to another to meet up with the Supersonics staff for whom he’d be playing the next night.
He didn’t even have time to go back to his apartment in New York before the move.
And for most of his career, Tolbert joked that he rarely unpacked his bags, always expecting the next trade.
From Seattle he went to Detroit, where he played again with former Hoosier teammate Isaiah Thomas on the Pistons, and then for Pat Riley in the glory days of L.A. Lakers’ teams with Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, A.C. Green and James Worthy.
Tolbert’s career took him to a number of NBA teams as well as to Europe and the CBA.
But it was Green, whom Tolbert said “talked the talk and walked the walk,” who helped bring him to become a “fighter for Christ.”
Green asked him one morning over breakfast if he was a Christian, and if he had a personal relationship with Christ.
The conversation and work that ensued helped change his perspective on life in professional sports, and when he was traded from the Lakers, Tolbert said he didn’t worry so much.
Like Duncan and Brannan, Tolbert emphasized the importance of role models and parents for kids, and advised the team that “you got third place, and that’s great. But in Christ, you’re number-one.”
And that relationship lasts longer than the roomfuls of trophies and newspaper clippings, he said, joking that he too sees pictures of himself doing things at 25 that he can’t do anymore.
“…yeah, you guys can beat me now one-on-one,” he grinned. “Well, maybe not.”
Brian Boyce can be reached at 812-231-4253 or brian.boyce@tribstar.com.

TOLEDO -- The first girls' Central Illinois basketball all-star game between the National Trail Conference seniors and the Little Illinois Conference seniors was won by the NTC, 54-47 and Neoga's Megan Kramep was named the NTC Most Valuable Player with 12 points.  The LIC MVP was Chauncey Leonard of Flora, while Nicole Gardner of Cowden-Herrick/Beecher City won the 3-point contest.

The LIC won the 16th annual Central Illinois All-Star boys' basketball game 99-88 as Cumberland's Jeremy Jansen earned MVP honors for the LIC. Cumberland's Dalton Sowers also had 17 points as did Casey-Westfield's Mitch Snyder. Teutopolis' Tony Zerrusen, who scored 23 points was the NTC MVP. Marshall's Lucas Eitel won the 3-point contest and Altamont's Devin Frailey won the slam dunk contest.

The LIC led 74-49 with 11:47 left in the game. The NTC battled back to within two on three different occasions in the final 3:47, including 86-84 with 2:15 left. The LIC scored 10 of the last 12 points for the 11-point win, its first since 2006 and just the fourth ever.

By MIKE MONAHAN, Staff Writer
mmonahan@jg-tc.com

TOLEDO -- For the first time a Central Illinois All-Star girls’ basketball game is to be at 5:30 p.m. today at Walrdip Gym at Cumberland High School.

The game is to be followed by the 16th annual Central Illinois All-Star boys’ basketball game at 7:30 p.m.

A boys’ 3-point contest is to be at 7 p.m. and a girls’ 3-point contest is set for 5 p.m. The finals are to be at halftime of their respective games along with the boys’ slam dunk contest. Both games feature senior players from the National Trail Conference against seniors from the Little Illini Conference.

“The boys have done it for all those years and we have good girls in the conference and it is time to celebrate them too,” said Cumberland girls’ basketball coach Roy Clapp who helped with the organization of the girls’ game. “It gets the girls’ names out there also. The boys have been successful and their games are fun to watch. Hopefully the girls can relax and have some fun. All of the coaches have been great at organizing it and hopefully we can continue to have it in the future.”

Fifteen players are on the NTC boys’ team, coached by Cowden-Herrick’s Brett Boehm and Neoga’s Jason Hanson, the Journal Gazette/Times-Courier Coach of the Year.

Four area players are on the NTC, including Josh Tabbert and Travis Ballinger from Stewardson-Strasburg; Neoga’s Austin Robinson and Windsor’s Jake McIlwain. Four other players were named to the first team all-conference in Tony Zerussen and Brian Haskenherm of Teutopolis along with Effingham St. Anthony’s John Steppe and Altamont’s Kieffer McCarron.

The LIC boys’ team includes Honorable Mention All-State players Logan Eitel and Lucas Eitel along with Trey Brashear of the third=place team in Class 2A.

Casey-Westfield’s Mitch Snyder along with Kirk Shawver are on the team as well as Cumberland’s Dalton Sowers, Jeremy Janson and Zach Bolin. Red Hill’s Josh Hawkins a first team all-conference player is also on the team coached by Justin Roedl. A total of 16 players are on the roster.

“It will be fun,” said Roedl, the all-star games director, who said the team practiced last Sunday. “It would be really nice to have those 16 guys as a team all year.”

The NTC has won 12 of the games, including last year’s 84-74 contest.

Thirteen players are on the NTC girls’ team, which is to be coached by Teutopolis’ Laurie Thompson and Josh Cattrill. This includes four from Neoga in Megan Krampe, Jaimee Roy, Kristin Jansen and Tara Hotze and also is to include first team all-NTC players Courtney Heuerman of Teutopolis as well as Nicole Gardner of Cowden-Herrick/Beecher City.

Fifteen players are on the LIC girls’ team, which is to be coached by Oblong’s Tim Johnson. This includes four area players in Cumberland’s Cherode Sowers, Cheyenne Glidewell as well as Casey-Westfield’s Samantha Schutlz and Nicole Lewis. Red Hill’s Jordan Tucker, Flora’s Hillary Johnson, Marshall’s Keisha Sweitzer and Lawrenceville’s Ashley Lynch, all first team all-conference players are also on the LIC squad.

A MVP for the NTC and one for the LIC, are to be selected with the winners receiving a plaque as well as the 3-point champion for both boys and girls and a Slam Dunk Contest winner. All players are to also receive a plaque for participating.

Admission is $5.

Girls’ Central Illinois All-Star Basketball game

Little Illini Conference team

Traci McCaslin, Red Hill; Jordan Tucker, Red Hill; Chauncey Leonard, Flora; Hillary Johnson, Flora; Keisha Sweitzer, Marshall; Jordan English, Marshall; Cherode Sowers, Cumberland; Cheyenne Glidewell, Cumberland; Ashley Lynch, Lawrenceville; Camille Andrews, Lawrenceville; Ashley Rich, Oblong; Jalyne Goss, Oblong; Samantha Schultz, Casey-Westfield; Nicole Lewis, Casey-Westfield; Tanya Reid, Edwards County

Coach: Tim Johnson, Oblong

National Trail Conference team

Courtney Heurman, Teutopolis; Beth Kreke, Teutopolis; Jenna Funneman, Teutopolis; Megan Krampe, Neoga; Jaimee Roy, Neoga; Kristen Jansen, Neoga; Tara Hotze, Neoga; Kelsey Myers, Cowden-Herrick/Beecher City; Megan Moore, Cowden-Herrick/Beecher City; Nicole Gardner, Cowden-Herrick/Beecher City; Kathleen Rebbe, Brownstown; Jessica Behrends, Brownstown; Emily Strobel, Brownstown

Coaches: Laurie Thompson, Teutopolis; Josh Cattrill, Teutopolis

16th annual boys’ Central Illinois All-Star Basketball game

Little Illini Conference team

Mitch Snyder, Casey-Westfield; Kirk Shawver, Casey-Westfield; Dalton Sowers, Cumberland; Jeremy Jansen, Cumberland; Zach Bolin, Cumberland; Jacob Columbia, Edwards County; Jeremy Wallace, Flora; Ethan Blankenbaker, Hutsonville-Palestine; Zach Manley, Lawrenceville; Josh Potts, Lawrenceville; Logan Eitel, Marshall; Lucas Eitel, Marshall; Trey Braschear, Marshall; Kendrick Greathouse, Oblong; Elliott Smith, Oblong; Josh Hawkins, Red Hill

Coach: Justin Roedl, Cumberland

National Trail Conference team

Macaulay Mason, Beecher City; D-Jay Hovis, Cowden-Herrick; Devin Frailey, Altamont; Landon Duckwitz, Altamont; Keiffer McCarron, Altamont; Tony Zerrusen, Teutopolis; Brian Haskenherm, Teutopolis; John Runde, Teutopolis; Jeremy Schumacher, Teutopolis; John Steppe, Effingham St. Anthony; Josh Tabbert, Stewardson-Strasburg; Travis Ballinger, Stewardson-Strasburg; Austin Robinson, Neoga; Jake McIlwain, Windsor

Coaches: Brett Boehm, Cowden-Herrick; Jason Hanson, Neoga

CENTRAL ILLINOIS ALL-STAR GAME HISTORY

2008: NTC 84, LIC 74: NTC scoring leader: Colton Booher, St. Elmo 15, Ben Giertz, Stewardson-Strasburg 15; LIC scoring leader: Logan Boyd, Casey-Westfield 19; NTC MVP: Colton Booher, St. Elmo; LIC MVP: Logan Boyd, Casey-Westfield; Dunk Contest champ: Ian Ridge, Flora; 3-point champ: Chris Wampler, Red Hill

2007: NTC 164, LIC 98: NTC scoring leader: Wade Koester, Teutopolis 25; LIC scoring leader: Robert Petty, Red Hill 20; NTC MVP: Wade Koester, Teutopolis; LIC MVP: Robert Petty, Red Hill: Dunk Contest champ: David Massengill, Neoga; 3-point champ: Bart Holsapple, Cumberland

2006: LIC 135, NTC 123: NTC scoring leader: Cody Rincker, Stewardson-Strasburg 17; LIC scoring leader: Aaron Warner, Casey-Westfield 25; NTC MVP: Cody Rincker, Stewardson-Strasburg; LIC MVP: Aaron Warner, Casey-Westfield; Dunk contest champ: Joe Hill, Oblong; 3-point champ: Andy McLeod, Effingham St. Anthony

2005: NTC 112, LIC 107: NTC scoring leader: Brandon Thompson, Neoga 19; LIC scoring leader: Blaine Headlee, Flora 13 and Lucas Brown, Cumberland 13: NTC NVP: Brandon Thompson, Neoga; LIC MVP: Lucas Brown, Cumberland: Dunk contest champ: Casey Leinberger, Marshall; 3-point champ: Eric Adamson, Red Hill

2004: NTC 99, LIC 95: NTC scoring leader: Tony Golding, Cowden-Herrick 17; NTC MVP: Tony Golding, Cowden-Herrick; LIC scoring leader: Ryan Kull, Lawrenceville, 21 MVP: Ryan Kull, Lawrenceville; 3-point contest winner: Lowell Beaven, Marshall

2003: NTC 120, LIC 91: NTC scoring leader: Chris Bochtler, Effingham St. Anthony, 26; NTC MVP Chris Bochtler, Effingham St. Anthony; LIC scoring leader: B. J. Crozier, Casey-Westfield, 20; LIC MVP: Ryan Blankenbaker; 3-point contest winner: Mike Hardiek, Effingham St. Anthony; Slam Dunk champ: Zac Morgan, Cumberland

2002: LIC 129, NTC 112: NTC scoring leader: Doug Swingler, Teutopolis, 23; NTC MVP: Doug Swingler, Teutopolis; LIC scoring leader: Tyler Claypool, Marshall, 32; LIC MVP: Tyler Claypool, Marshall; 3-point contest winner: Jon Braden, Neoga

2001: NTC 136, LIC 98: NTC scoring leader: Jason Ludwig, Effingham St. Anthony, 23; NTC MVP: Kurtis Bryant, Neoga; LIC scoring leader: Craig Martin, Martinsville, 21; LIC MVP: Craig Martin, Martinsville; 3-point contest winner: Jason Ludwig, Effingham St. Anthony

2000: NTC 140, LIC 122: NTC scoring leader: Nick Braden, Neoga, 22; NTC MVP; Nick Braden, Neoga; LIC scoring leader: Dustin Chapman, Casey-Westfield, 17; LIC MVP: Dustin Chapman, Casey-Westfield; 3-point contest winner: David Scott, Marshall

1999: NTC 116, LIC 100: NTC scoring leader: Kevin Hoene, Effingham St. Anthony, 21; NTC MVP: Kevin Hoene, Effingham St. Anthony; LIC scoring leader: Brad Carrell, Casey-Westfield, 17; LIC MVP: Drew Kusterman, Casey-Westfield; 3-point contest winner: Tony Hodge, Casey-Westfield

1998: LIC 123, NTC 119: NTC scoring leader: Sam Irving, Windsor, 21: NTC MVP: Sam Irving, Windsor; LIC scoring leader: Ben Huffington, Marshall, 24; LIC MVP; Josh Walker, Edwards County; 3-point contest winner: Josh Clark, Casey-Westfield

1997: NTC 116, LIC 110: NTC scoring leader: Kyle Weber, Teutopolis, 22; NTC MVP: Todd Wente, Effingham St. Anthony; LIC scoring leader: Dallas Richardson, Hutsonville, 25; LIC MVP: Dallas Richardson, Hutsonville; 3-point contest winner: T.J. Holmes, Marshall

1996: NTC 118, LIC 89: NTC scoring leader: Jeff Maxey, St. Elmo, 18; NTC MVP: Greg Fearday, Neoga; LIC scoring leader: Jerod Hallam, Edwards County, 19; LIC MVP: Jerod Hallam, Edwards County; 3-point contest winner: Greg Fearday, Neoga

1995: NTC 125, LIC 104: NTC scoring leader: Sam Plum, St. Elmo, 30; NTC MVP: Sam Plum, St. Elmo; LIC scoring leader: Erik Stepp, Marshall, 18; LIC MVP: Kyle Pennington, Cumberland; 3-point contest winner: Adam Crumrin, Martinsville

1994: NTC 110, LIC 107: NTC scoring leader: Curtis Schwarm, Brownstown, 28; NTC MVP; Curtis Schwarm, Brownstown; LIC scoring leader: Mack Thompson, Marshall, 23; LIC MVP: Mack Thompson, Marshall; 3-point conference winner: Carl Hartke, Effingham St. Anthony

South’s standout guard Jake Odum leads talented All-Wabash Valley boys team

By Andy Amey
The Tribune-Star

TERRE HAUTE March 25, 2009

— Jake Odum wrapped up his high school basketball career at Terre Haute South without ever recording a quadruple-double.
So, of course, did or will virtually every other prep player in the country. But considering that the Braves’ point guard had double-figure totals in scoring, rebounding, assists and steals at various points in the 2008-2009 season — and that he averaged 22 points, 5.7 rebounds, 6.4 assists and 3.4 steals per game — the thought of him combining all those stats in one monster game wasn’t as far-fetched as it would be for a lot of players.
For that reason, and because he also led the Braves to a 21-5 season and a Class 4A top-10 ranking most of the season, Odum was a unanimous choice by the Tribune-Star sports staff as its Player of the Year for the All-Wabash Valley boys team.
He’s also been named Winter Sports Male Athlete of the Year, although the competition was tough. Addison Bray, also of South, earned Swimmer of the Year honors and was in the running for a state championship in breaststroke, and Wade Bohannon of South Vermillion, this year’s Wrestler of the Year, reached the state finals for a second consecutive time.
For that matter, the 2008 Male Athlete of the Year was a returnee: R.J. Mahurin of Rockville closed out a record-breaking career with the Rox and joins Odum — his future college teammate at Indiana State — on the all-Valley first team along with Marshall’s Logan and Lucas Eitel (two more future Sycamores) and West Vigo’s Tyler Wampler.
Even the all-Valley basketball second team is loaded, with Northview’s Austin Akers, Marshall’s Taylor Duncan, Terre Haute North’s Justin Gant, South’s John Michael Jarvis and Robinson’s 6-foot-11 Meyers Leonard. All 10 basketball players figure to be Division I athletes soon, although Wampler could do so in baseball and Duncan in football.
But it was Odum’s year, and not even a severely injured ankle late in the season slowed him much.
“[A quadruple-double] definitely crossed my mind,” Odum said, semi-seriously, this week. “I might have gotten a triple-double one time. But it would be a great thing to do.”
“We’ve got good kids coming back [to South next season], but the loss of Jake to our team would be like the loss of Magic Johnson to the [Los Angeles] Lakers,” coach Mike Saylor of the Braves said recently. “He was our leading scorer, but he was also helping someone else score [with his assists]. And he was our leading rebounder.
“I think he wound up in the top five in the state in steals and assists, was in the top 25 in rebounding and the top 15 in scoring,” Saylor added. “It’s hard to get all that stuff done.”
The reason Odum would like to get stats like that is because they’d be helping his team be successful. South’s 39-10 record the past two years, he indicated this week, was a lot more important to him than his individual accomplishments.
“It’s obviously a great honor to be selected as Player of the Year,” he told the Tribune-Star, “but I give it to my teammates and coaches; they helped me do what I did … it’s such a team sport; this is more of a team thing than anything I did.
“It was a great year for Terre Haute South. We had kids stepping up who didn’t get a lot of playing time the previous year.”
Odum’s first varsity contributions for the Braves came during a nine-win season his sophomore year. Although the Braves finished strong that season, reaching the sectional championship game, the year as a whole was one he and his teammates didn’t want to experience again.
“It took hard work to turn things around,” he said. “Nobody wants to be on a losing team; everybody in the whole South program didn’t like that feeling. But guys stepped up, and we doubled our win total in one year [finishing 18-5 in 2007-2008].”
“He’ll be tremendously missed,” Saylor said, “but we’re appreciative of the impact he had. Our last two teams were 39-10, and that’s the best two years a Terre Haute team has had since we joined the [Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference] and since the class system started.
“He was one of those players who can do it all. Sometimes it seemed the weakest part of his game was free throws — until it came time to win a game, and then he made those too.”
Kevin McKenna and the rest of the ISU coaching staff probably won’t be surprised to hear that Odum isn’t ruling out a quadruple-double sometime in his Sycamore future. They probably also hope that his vision of that ISU future, after spending time with his 2009-2010 teammates in open gyms recently, is correct.
“[The Sycamores] finished strong this year too. I think [Indiana State] is kind of like where we were [at South] between my sophomore and junior year,” Odum said this week.
Let’s see, doubling 11 wins would mean …

All-Wabash Valley boys high school basketball
First team
Jake Odum, Terre Haute South, Player of the Year
Logan Eitel, Marshall
Lucas Eitel, Marshall
R.J. Mahurin, Rockville
Tyler Wampler, West Vigo
Second team
Austin Akers, Northview
Taylor Duncan, Marshall
Justin Gant, Terre Haute North
John Michael Jarvis, Terre Haute South
Meyers Leonard, Robinson
Special mention — Chase Brinkley, Paris; Zach Harrison, Terre Haute North; Ben Jones, Robinson; Will Kennedy, Clay City; Billy Newton, Shakamak; Jordan Pearson, West Vigo; Mitch Snyder, Casey; Dylan Walker, North Central.
Honorable mention — Donnie Abrams and Bobby Swaby, North Central; Thomas Anderson, Terre Haute North; Jonathan Bradshaw and Trent Lancaster, Northview; Aaron Bridge, Matt King and Josh Reed, Rockville; Colin Brown, Spencer Davies, Josh Karr and Jake Weaver, Turkey Run; Ryan Buchhaas, Zach Jumps and Jacob Rankin, North Vermillion; Blake Callaway, Hutsonville-Palestine; Jordan Defore, Braxton Griffith, Kyler Rhodes and Levi Seymour, Clay City; Derek Hannahs and Stephen Jones, Robinson; Patrick Harpenau, Logan Laswell, Cody Mumaw and Andy Walsh, South Vermillion; Jared Higginbotham and Ryan Slater, Martinsville; B.J. Howard, Union; Jeremy Lucas, West Vigo; Anthony McGill and Ian McIntyre, Terre Haute South; Jarrid McLaughlin and Josh Wilson, Riverton Parke; Rhett Smith and Thad Thompson, Sullivan; Dalten Temples, Paris; Jordan Tharp, Linton.

Marshall Lions: behind the scenes part 2

http://www.wthitv.com/dpp/sports/sports_wthi_marshalllionsbehindthescenespart2_3172229

By JG/T-C Staff
sports@jg-tc.com

MARSHALL -- Casey-Westfield senior Mitch Snyder, who finished his career with over 1,000 points, was named to the 10-member first team all-Little Illini Conference boys’ basketball team along with Cumberland senior Jeremy Jansen.

Snyder led the Journal Gazette/Times-Courier area in scoring with 20 points per game. He led the 10-14 Warriors in steals (two per game) and assists (three per game).

Jansen averaged 14.1 points per game for the 17-11 Pirates.

Both Snyder and Jansen were also on the first team last year and Snyder received honorable mention as a sophomore.

Marshall, the IHSA Class 2A third place team, had three players on the first team (most of any team in the conference) in Logan Eitel, a unanimous selection, Lucas Eitel and Taylor Duncan. The Lions finished 32-1.

Cumberland’s Silas Gabel and Dalton Sowers were on the five-member second team, while Casey’s Kirk Shawver was one of the eight players to receive honorable mention selection.

2008-09 All-Little Illini Conference boys’ basketball team

First team

Logan Eitel, Marshall*; Lucas Eitel, Marshall; Taylor Duncan, Marshall; Mitch Snyder, Casey-Westfield; Jeremy Jansen, Cumberland; Paul Knapp, Flora; Drew Morecraft, Oblong; Zach Manley, Lawrenceville; Dane Kelly, Lawrenceville; Josh Hawkins, Red Hill

Second team

Silas Gabel, Cumberland; Jacob Columbia, Edwards County; Jeremy Wallace, Flora; Matt Wirth, Red Hill; Dalton Sowers, Cumberland

Honorable mention

Kirk Shawver, Casey-Westfield; Chad Smith, Edwards County; Bryton Krustinger, Flora; Nick Potts, Lawrenceville; Trey Brashear, Marshall; Kendrick Greathouse, Oblong; Ethan Blankenbaker, Palestine-Hutsonville; Trevor Albertson, Red Hill

Marshall's journey to the State Finals

http://www.wthitv.com/dpp/sports/sports_wthi_marshallsjourenytothestatefinals_20093152010

Marshall Lions finish 32-1, third place in state

Marshall head coach Tom Brannan addresses the media following his team's third place finish in the IHSA Class 2A state finals on Saturday in Peoria as players Logan Eitel, Lucas Eitel and Taylor Duncan and son Kobe, listen in the background. Terri Cox Photo

By Terri Cox
Contributing Writer

‘Marshall community has been unreal,’ coach Brannan says

By Brian M. Boyce
The Tribune-Star

Marshall, Ill. March 16, 2009

— The gravel parking lot outside Marshall’s Don G. McNary Gym began to fill up about 1 p.m., an hour before Sunday’s pep rally.
Vehicles full of red and white T-shirts and the fans wearing them made their way around the lot, loaded with banners, as the Marshall Lions returned home from Peoria with a third-place finish in the Illinois Final Four.
They always said Marshall has great fans. Coach Tom Brannan, decked out in his commemorative T-shirt with a medal around his neck, stood to the packed house with a table full of trophies by his side.
“Number one, the Marshall community has been unreal,” he said to cheers. “These guys will never, never, ever forget this, what you’ve done.”
Banners with “32-1” and “You Made History” waved outside in the sunshine as temperatures neared 70 degrees, and it was a Clark County Sheriff’s deputy’s sirens that alerted the crowd that the Turner bus with its team was entering the parking lot.
Brad Bartrum, wearing a Marshall letter jacket with “73” on the sleeve and a conference championship badge for track on the chest, clapped for the ’08-’09 Lions.
“I watched them all the way up,” the old Lion said. “These guys are tough.”
Inside, the cheerleaders had a crowd of all ages on its feet, “Get on your feet and yell...Red and white!”
“Red and white!” the crowd cheered back. “We are Marshall!”
Brannan told the audience, “we had the best crowd there. Hands down.”
Conditioning coach Pat Duncan, father of teammates Taylor and Jacob, said, “What a ride.”
Duncan lauded Brannan’s “passion for basketball” and remarked that how one handles adversity explains their character.
“It’s a really neat feeling to sit on the bench as a coach and a parent,” he said, thanking Brannan.
And one by one, the players thanked a crowd that traveled the Land of Lincoln to watch them play a season the likes of which they’d never seen.
Marshall’s last regional championship was 17 years ago. It had never been to the Final Four.
“We have the best fans of any team we played,” said senior Logan Eital.
“There is no team in Illinois that works harder than the Marshall Lions,” Brannan said, recounting how his players spelled out Peoria during conditioning drills last year. “Twenty-five years ago I played, and I thought it was the greatest moment of my life. But man, this is awesome,” he said through tears.
This year’s Marshall boys basketball team went further into the Illinois tournament than any in school history.
The team went undefeated into the Final Four before losing 60-43 to Massac County Friday night. They came back Saturday to beat Winnebago 66-55 for third in the state.
And though senior twins Lucas and Logan Eital hope to play for Indiana State University next year, the Marshall community is certain its stock of underclassmen, including junior Taylor Duncan, will be ready again in the fall.
“One more thing...I think we’re going back,” Brannan told the crowd before joking, “Open gym begins Monday.”
Brian M. Boyce can be reached at 812-231-4253 or brian.boyce@tribstar.com.

From the Press Box: Duncan keeps the future bright at Marshall

By Todd Golden
The Tribune-Star

Peoria, Ill. March 16, 2009

— The future for Marshall twin brothers Logan and Lucas Eitel is blue — Sycamore blue. Both will be walk-ons for Indiana State’s men’s basketball program next season.
Even though the Eitels stamp on the Marshall boys basketball program is massive — no Lions team has ever gone as far in a rich basketball history — there’s no reason for Marshall to be blue just because the Eitels will be.
Taylor Duncan will see to that.
He’s the only part of Marshall’s “big three” that returns next season. The junior will be the fulcrum as the Lions work in some new contributors next season. Starter Dustin Morey returns as well as Jacob Duncan, Logan Cannady, Jake Tucker and several other Lions, all of whom had big moments in their own right during Marshall’s third-place run.
But Marshall coach Tom Brannan made it clear in Saturday’s press conference that Duncan is going to be the Lion in the spotlight in 2010.
“Taylor Duncan has arrived on the scene. I’m prejudiced, but he’s going to be one of the best players in Illinois next season. I’m prejudiced, but he’s already one of the best defenders in the state. He’s a real player,” Marshall coach Tom Brannan said.
Duncan took Brannan’s comments in stride.
“It’s great when you get mentioned with those two. They’re great players. I’m proud to be a part of that with Marshall and its school history,” Duncan said.
And that’s about all Duncan had to say about it. No surprise. Duncan has the same quiet grit that seems to be part of the DNA among Marshall’s best players.
Duncan’s exploits are hardly news to Marshall’s faithful; he’s been a rock all season. There’s a big reason Brannan calls his primary contributors “the big three” and Duncan doesn’t have to hold anyone’s candle as far as where he fits in the Lions’ triumvirate.
Yet ... Duncan can be overlooked.
Even though they’re two-thirds of “the big three,” Logan and Lucas Eitel cast a long shadow. They grab plenty of local media attention because they’re future Sycamores and they’re intelligent, well-spoken ambassadors for Marshall’s program and town. The Eitel family itself has been such a huge part of Marshall’s success in several sports past and present, boys basketball just being one of them. It’s hard to fathom a time when there wasn’t an Eitel kicking tail for Marshall’s teams in the last half-decade ... at least.
Basketball-wise, the Valley and the rest of the state of Illinois is understandably captivated by the unique story of the twin brothers who play so smart and complement each other so very well on the court.
The attention the Eitels get is well-earned. Expect that attention to be funneled Duncan’s way now that he’s the Lions’ focal point.
Duncan does many of the same things the Eitel brothers do and adds a few other wrinkles. He’s Marshall’s go-to defender. He’s probably Marshall’s best finisher in a double team. He can score inside and out.
He was Marshall’s most consistent player in the two state finals games. The junior averaged 19.5 points, 5.5 rebounds and 2.2 steals in games against Massac County and Winnebago. He was the only Lion to score with any regularity against Massac County — he was 6 of 19 in that game and scored 18 points — as no other Lion made more than two shots on a collective off-night from the field.
Duncan also made some of the key plays that got Marshall untracked in its third-place game against Winnebago, including a steal that helped start a fourth-quarter 9-0 run that helped Marshall put Winnebago down for good on Saturday.
“Taylor Duncan had a few steals, he had a few coast-to-coast plays. He played a whale of a game,” Brannan said.
That he did. And his presence will continued to be felt at Marshall as it tries to make Peoria trips more frequent in the future.

Todd Golden is sports editor of the Tribune-Star. He can be reached at (800) 783-8742 or todd.golden@tribstar.com. Please check out Golden’s blog at blogs.tribstar.com/downinthevalley.

‘Big three’ lead Marshall to third place in Illinois 2A

By Todd Golden
The Tribune-Star

Peoria, Ill. March 15, 2009

— The Marshall Lions can play in Peoria.
It took a half to get untracked, but the Marshall good-shooting, fundamentally sound Lions that area fans came to know made their presence felt in a dominant second half. The Lions pulled away from Winnebago late to post a 66-55 victory to claim third place in the IHSA Class 2A boys basketball state finals Saturday at Carver Arena. The victory ended the careers of storied twins Logan and Lucas Eitel, as well as starter Trey Brashear, on a winning note as Marshall went further than it ever had in school history.
“I’m proud to wear this jersey, I’m going to be proud to take it off. This is one of the best moments of my life. To get third in the state, not many teams can say they did that. I’m just proud to be here,” Logan Eitel said.
It was a familiar story for the Lions as its “big three” led the way once again.
Lucas Eitel and Taylor Duncan had 21 points apiece, with Logan Eitel adding 20 points. Lucas Eitel had 10 rebounds, Logan Eitel and Taylor Duncan had eight boards each. It was a return to form for the “big three” after all but Duncan struggled in Friday’s loss to Massac County.
“I refer to them as the Big Three when I talk to the team. ‘The Big Three have to do this, the Big Three have to do that.’ They really stepped up tonight. They made shots, they played with a lot of heart,” Marshall coach Tom Brannan said.
Marshall’s victory was historic in other ways. No team from Clark County had ever won a state finals game. It had been since 1951 (Robinson) since a team from either the Apollo or Little Illini Conference from Edgar, Clark or Crawford Counties had won a state finals game.
Marshall was just happy they could leave Peoria with a win. It took some sting out of Friday’s semifinal defeat.
“It feels real good to go out on a win. Not many teams get to come back and redeem themselves after a loss and get a W. It feels really good, it’s really a good way to cap off your career to get third place and make some history within your school,” Lucas Eitel said.
Saturday’s game started much as Friday’s game did as Marshall had trouble making shots. The Lions started 3 of 15 from the field as Winnebago — who also entered the state finals unbeaten — built an 18-11 lead. The problems were particularly acute from 3-point range as Marshall came up empty from beyond the arc for the entire first half. Winnebago had no such issues as the Indians (31-2) drained three 3-pointers in the first 11 minutes. The last one, a Brad Reinke bomb, gave Winnebago its biggest lead at 25-16 midway through the second quarter.
Marshall couldn’t rely on its offense, so it turned to defense. Down 25-18, a Lucas Eitel block might have been a turning point. It led to a Logan Eitel bucket-and-foul, and even though Logan Eitel missed the free throw, there was a change in the Lions’ intensity from that point on.
Marshall eventually cut the lead to 27-24 when another defensive play — a block by Taylor Duncan — led to a Logan Eitel turnaround jumper to make it 27-26. Winnebago got its bearings to take a 29-26 halftime lead, but momentum seemed to be in the Lions’ corner.
The Lions kept the pressure on in a close third quarter. Marshall tied the game at 31 on a Lucas Eitel 3-pointer — the Lions’ first 3-pointer of the game — and took the lead a possession later on a Lucas Eitel layup to make it 33-32.
“The biggest turning point was for Lucas to hit that shot. He hit that three. The whole coaching staff, the whole team said, ‘Yes!’ finally,” Brannan said.
The lead changed hands six more times with Winnebago taking its final lead at the end of the third quarter. There was no doubt, however, which team owned the fourth quarter.
Marshall regained the lead for the final time on a pair of Taylor Duncan free throws to start the period. Duncan then stole the ball on Winnebago’s subsequent possession and turned it into a layup to make it 47-44. After Winnebago was called for a charge, Lucas Eitel buried a 3-pointer with 6:36 to go to make it 50-44.
“Our defense really rolled over to our offense tonight. It got us going, it motivated the players, it got the crowd into. Those defensive plays were big plays for us,” Duncan said.
Winnebago had little answer the rest of the way. Marshall’s lead reached double-digits with 3:53 left on a Lucas Eitel bucket. Winnebago’s last gasp came when Reinke made a 3-pointer to pull the Indians within five with 3:14 left, but Marshall put the hammer down for good with a 10-0 run, nearly all of it gained at the line.
“These guys are winners and its all about winning. We were pretty loose today. We were upset, but I don’t think we were crushed by our defeat [60-43 on Friday] to Massac County. I had the confidence in these three guys to carry us,” Brannan said.
South Holland Seton Academy won the Class 2A championship, beating Massac County 83-63.
n Pep rally — There will be a pep rally for the Marshall team at 2 p.m. (CDT) at the Marshall High School gym.

Marshall 66
Player fg 3pt ft r s pf tp
Lo. Eitel 8-16 0-3 4-5 8 1 4 20
Brashear 1-3 0-1 0-0 4 0 1 2
Lu. Eitel 7-16 2-7 5-7 10 0 4 21
T. Duncan 7-11 0-1 7-11 8 3 2 21
Morey 1-5 0-0 0-0 2 0 0 2
Delp 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
J. Duncan 0-2 0-2 0-0 2 0 2 0
Wetnight 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Grooms 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Tucker 0-0 0-0 0-0 2 0 1 0
Cannady 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Sanders 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Francis 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Bishop 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Totals 24-54 2-14 16-23 37* 4 14 66

Winnebago 55
Player fg 3pt ft r s pf tp
Reinke 4-11 3-8 0-1 4 0 2 11
Cross 6-9 1-1 1-3 6 2 5 14
Doty 0-1 0-0 0-0 1 0 0 0
Misuraca 3-6 1-1 2-3 5 3 1 9
Fiori 1-5 0-2 0-1 0 1 0 2
Clinite 1-2 0-0 0-0 1 0 0 2
Mann 0-5 0-1 0-0 6 0 0 0
Gustafson 1-2 0-0 0-0 2 2 5 2
Johansson 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Sartorius 2-6 1-4 1-2 2 4 2 6
Bronkema 1-1 0-0 0-0 1 0 0 2
DeMars 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Thomas 3-4 1-1 0-0 4 0 5 7
Totals 22-53 7-18 4-10 35* 5 20 55
Winnebago 11 15 17 23 — 66
Marshall 18 11 15 11 — 55
FG pct. — W .444, M .415, 3P pct. — W .143, M .389. FT pct. — W .696, M .400. Blocks — W 2 (Lo. Eitel, Lu. Eitel 1), W 1 (Mann 1). Turnovers — W 8, M 14. Team rebounds* — W 1, M 3.
Next — Marshall finished its season 32-1 and claimed third place in IHSA Class 2A. Winnebago finished its season 31-2.

Marshall boys top Winnebago 66-55 in 2A third-place game

Sunday, March 15, 2009

By Associated Press

PEORIA -- Marshall defeated Winnebago 66-55 Saturday to capture the boys Class 2A consolation crown in a battle of two teams previously unbeaten before arriving in Peoria this weekend.

Both teams had been 30-0 on Friday before losing in semifinal action. Marshall lost to Metropolis Massac County 60-43, and Winnebago was trounced by Seton Academy 83-58.

Marshall was powered by twins Logan and Lucas Eitel, senior guards who are not only identical in looks but turned in nearly identical scoring lines.

Lucas Eitel scored 21 while Logan Eitel had 20 points. Junior guard Taylor Duncan also scored 21 points for Marshall. Lucas Eitel led the team with 10 rebounds.

Winnebago was led by Chas Cross, who had 14 points and six rebounds.

Sports

Marshall’s unbeaten run ends with 60-43 loss in Illinois state semifinals

By Todd Golden
The Tribune-Star

PEORIA, Ill. March 14, 2009

— The iron wasn’t just unkind, it was cruel to Marshall and its undefeated boys basketball dream.
The Lions made 5 of 27 from the field in the first half, while Massac County countered with a 12-of-18 shooting performance. Marshall trailed by 15 at halftime and it was too big a hole to dig out of as the Lions lost 60-43 in the IHSA Class 2A state semifinals at Carver Arena.
“Everything went wrong,” Logan Eitel said. “It was there, we could have had it. Everything started bad and it kept rolling.”
Marshall made 27.3 percent overall from the field. The Lions were 2 of 18 from 3-point range. Massac County shot 46.3 percent overall and was 19 of 25 at the line.
“We’ve always said it would be our worst nightmare if we started missing shots,” Marshall coach Tom Brannan said. “Last year, we shot similar in our regional and it was the same today. We had real good looks, we took the ball to the basket, we had wide-open shots, they just didn’t fall. The basketball gods just weren’t looking at us tonight.”
Taylor Duncan led Marshall (31-1) with 18 points. Dustin Korte led Massac County (33-1) with 15 points and Byron Bailey added 13, despite sitting out most of the first half. Two other Patriots reached double-figure scoring.
“It’s frustrating for sure. You look at it and we had more steals, we came in with our game plan, we did everything we wanted to do except make shots,” said Lucas Eitel, who had four points. “It’s good to know that if we would’ve knocked down shots we could have played with them. We just didn’t finish.”
Marshall’s nightmarish shooting hurt from the start. After Taylor Duncan scored the first bucket of the game, Marshall would only make one more for the remainder of the first quarter on their way to 2-for-16 first-period shooting. Massac County did a good job defending Marshall on its perimeter handoffs, but the Lions also missed a lot of open looks.
“If we shoot like we normally shoot, these numbers are flip-flopped. We shoot 50 percent from the field, 40 percent from the 3-point line. We were 2 of 18 from three and we had open looks,” Brannan said.
Meanwhile, Massac County couldn’t miss. The Patriots were 5 of 8 in the first quarter and started 9 of 12 from the field. Many of the buckets were scored in transition off of Marshall’s missses. Massac County built a 28-11 lead at the 3:26 mark of the second quarter.
“That’s probably the most defensive pressure they’ve seen all year,” Massac County coach Joe Hosman said. “Our team did a great job locking them down. We held their starters to 38 points.”
Marshall didn’t see it the same way.
“We had four turnovers and 10 steals. They had 13 turnovers and one steal,” Logan Eitel observed. “It all came down to making shots; we just didn’t make them.”
Marshall closed to within 11 with 1:40 left in the second quarter, but couldn’t escape their shooting woes as they missed the last three shots of the half. Massac County scored the final two buckets to take a 32-17 lead at the break.
Marshall fought back in the third quarter, cutting its deficit to eight at one point. Marshall did a better job keeping Massac County from scoring in transition and forced turnovers in its half-court defense. A technical foul on Hosman also helped as Marshall scored four points as a result of the call.
Marshall trailed 38-28 when an intentional foul call on a Massac County breakaway restored the Patriots’ gap. Byron Bailey made three of four free throws as a result of the possessions as Massac County took a 41-28 lead.
A 9-2 run to start the fourth quarter put the game out of reach. Massac County’s lead was stretched to 53-34.
“You can’t really focus on one play that got it away from us. We just didn’t knock down shots and that’s what it came down to,” Marshall guard Taylor Duncan said.
Logan Eitel, who played a taped right thumb, scored nine points. He said his injury didn’t have a major impact.
Marshall will play Winnebago in today’s third-place game. The game begins at 6:30 p.m. (CDT), 7:30 p.m. (EDT). It will be televised on WFXW-38.
“I think we’ll be all right. We’ll show our Marshall pride tomorrow,” Brannan said.
• Robinson’s Leonard wins dunk contest — Robinson’s Myers Leonard won the Class 2A dunk contest on Friday night. The junior scored 44 points in the final round, besting Greenville’s Rutger Neece by a one point.
“It was a pretty awesome experience. It was fun to show my skills in front of a bunch of fans. It was fun,” Leonard said.
Leonard got off to a good start. He bounced the ball between his legs and slammed the ball one-handed. He also did a tomahawk off a bounce, a windmill, an off-the-shot clock stuff and a standard two-handed stuff. He whiffed on only one attempt.
“I missed a couple of dunks I wanted to make, but I made the dunks I thought I could make,” Leonard said.
Leonard had some support as Marshall’s fan contigent backed their eastern Illinois cohort.
Leonard advanced to the finals on Thursday by scoring 32 points to win his group. Teammate Derek Watson also won his group with 29 points, but other dunkers scored more in other groups. Paris’ John Dayton competed but failed to score. Marshall’s Logan Eitel was entered, but did not compete.
• 3-point contest — None of the local players in the state 3-point showdown advanced past the group stage.
Dalten Temples of Paris, a sophomore, made seven 3-pointers during his Class 2A session. Eleven makes were needed to advance to the finals.
Two players who advanced out of the Robinson Regional — Olney’s Brandon Berry and Effingham St. Anthony’s James Jensen are among the Class 2A final four.
Hutsonville’s Blake Callaway, a junior, made eight 3-pointers during his Class A group. Thirteen makes was the cutoff in Class A.

Marshall 43
Player fg 3pt ft r s pf tp
Lo.Eitel 2-12 0-2 5-7 7 0 3 9
Brashear 0-2 0-0 0-0 1 2 4 0
Lu.Eitel 2-11 0-6 0-0 7 3 4 4
T.Duncan 6-19 0-4 6-6 3 2 2 18
Morey 1-4 0-1 0-0 3 1 3 2
J.Duncan 1-2 1-2 0-0 1 0 3 3
Tucker 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 1 0 2
Cannady 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 1 0
Delp 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 1 0 0
Wetnight 1-1 1-1 0-0 1 0 0 3
Grooms 1-1 0-0 0-0 1 0 0 2
Sanders 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 0 0 0
Francis 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 0
Bishop 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Totals 15-55 2-18 11-13 *26 10 20 43
Massac County 60
Player fg 3pt ft r s pf tp
Kester 5-6 0-0 1-1 9 1 4 11
Lang 3-4 0-0 0-0 2 0 1 6
Bailey 2-5 0-0 9-14 8 0 2 13
Ayala 2-6 0-0 0-0 10 0 1 4
Johnson 3-9 1-3 4-5 3 0 1 11
Korte 4-7 2-4 5-5 2 0 1 15
Henry 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Morse 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Maxie 0-2 0-1 0-0 1 0 0 0
Sommer 0-2 0-0 0-0 2 0 1 0
McManus 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Totals 19-41 3-8 19-25 *40 1 12 60
Marshall 8 9 15 11 — 43
Massac County 16 16 10 18 — 60
FG Pct. — Marshall .273, MC .463. 3-pt FG Pct. — Marshall .111, MC .375. FT Pct. — Marshall .846, MC .760. (*) Includes team rebounds — Marshall 1, MC 3. Turnovers — Marshall 4, MC 13. Assists — Marshall 6 (Lu.Eitel 4), MC 14 (Ayala 5). Blocks — Marshall 5 (T.Duncan 2), MC 3 (Bailey 2). Technical foul — Massac County team.

Massac County boys beat Marshall 60-43 in 2A semis

Corey Ayala, left, of Massac County and Logan Eitel of Marshall battle for a rebound in the first half of their Class 2A semifinal Friday night, March 13, 2009, at Carver Arena in Peoria, Ill. (AP Photo/The Peoria Journal Star, Matt Dayhoff)

Saturday, March 14, 2009

By Associated Press

PEORIA -- Senior forward Dustin Korte scored 15 points and sophomore guard Cory Ayala grabbed 10 rebounds to lead Metropolis Massac County past Marshall 60-43 in a 2A semifinal on Friday night.

Massac County will meet South Holland Seton Academy Saturday night for the Class 2A championship.

Junior guard Taylor Duncan led Marshall with a game-high 18 points and senior guard Logan Eitel, a first-team All-Stater, grabbed seven rebounds.

Massac County was in charge throughout and led by 22 points late in the game. Marshall led only once, briefly in the first quarter.

Massac County shot 46.3 percent from the field while holding Marshall to 27.3 percent shooting. Marshall was 2-for-18 from 3-point range and Massac County was 3-for-8.

Patriots have little trouble with Marshall in Class 2A

PEORIA - The Massac County Patriots proved just how good of an overall team they are in Friday's IHSA Class 2A State Tournament semifinal at Carver Arena.

Byron Bailey, a second-team all-state selection, is the Patriots best player but he missed the end of the first quarter and all of the second because of foul trouble.

It didn't matter.

Massac County pushed its lead from eight to 15 with Bailey on the bench and knocked off previously unbeaten Marshall 60-43.

"We're where we dreamed to be and we worked to be," said Massac County coach Joe Hosman. "I'm so happy for these guys, our community and our former players."

Zack Kester, a 6-4 forward, played a tremendous game for the Patriots (33-1). The senior tallied 11 points and pulled down nine rebounds. He nailed a baseline jump shot to start a 12-0 Massac County run in the second quarter.

"Well if he didn't do something he's not going to get to date my daughter anymore," Hosman said of Kester. "Zack's a competitor and when it's a big game Zack has stepped up every time."

Forward James Lang drained the nearly the same shot to cap off the streak as the Patriots led 28-11.

The Patriots played superb defense, especially in the first half. They held the Lions to just 5-of-27 shooting from the field. Massac County went to the locker room at halftime with a 32-17 advantage.

Massac County put the clamps down on Logan Eitel and Lucas Eitel. The twins average 33 points per game but were held to just 13 in this contest on 4-of-23 from the field.

"The biggest thing is I just think we played tremendous defensively," Hosman said. "The two twins did not get any easy looks."

After Hosman was called for a technical foul early in the third quarter Marshall ripped off six straight points to pull within eight. However, the Patriots were simply too quick and too deadly with their transition offense.

"You always worry that you put your team in jeopardy," Hosman said of receiving the technical. "That's the first technical I've gotten in three yearas. I used to get way too many, but I try not to get any. My kids responded and kind of saved the day for me again."

Dustin Korte added 15 points for Massac County and Jarelle Johnson chipped in 11. Bailey scored 13 points in just 21 minutes of action.

Seton Academy whipped Winnebago in the other 2A semifinal, 83-58. The Patriots and Sting clash for the state championship at 8:15 p.m. today.

Marshall 8 9 15 11 - 43

Massac County 16 16 10 18 - 60

MARSHALL (43) - Eitel 2 5-7 9, Eitel 2 0-0 4, T. Duncan 6 6-6 18, Morey 1 0-0 2, J. Duncan 1 0-0 3, Wetnight 1 0-0 3, Grooms 1 0-0 2, Tucker 1 0-0 2. Totals 15 11-13 43.

MASSAC COUNTY (60) - Kester 5 1-1 11, Lang 3 0-0 6, Bailey 2 9-14 13, Ayala 2 0-0 4, Johnson 3 4-5 11, Korte 4 5-5 15. Totals 19 1-25 60.

3-Point Goals - Marshall 2 (Duncan, Wetnight), Massac County 3 (Korte 2, Johnson). Team Fouls - Marshall 20, Massac County 12. Technicals - Massac County Bench. Records - Marshall finishes 31-1. Massac County is 33-1.

Marshall's Logan Eitel still bothered by thumb injury

By Todd Golden
The Tribune-Star

Marshall, Ill. March 13, 2009

— It’s the most talked-about thumb in the Wabash Valley.
Unfortunately for Marshall guard and leading scorer Logan Eitel, the only way his right thumb can talk back is via pain that has dogged him since Tuesday night.
Eitel injured his right thumb during the Lions’ Macomb Super-Sectional 65-62 victory over Stanford Olympia on Tuesday. Eitel jammed it early in the game while chasing down a loose rebound. He was held scoreless, though he did manage five rebounds.
Eitel didn’t have any tape on the thumb as he departed for Peoria, Ill., on the team charter Thursday morning, but he admitted that the injury is still bothersome.
“It’s all right, but I don’t think I’m 100 percent, but I’ll do the best I can. It’s a little painful, but I have to play, it’s [the season] all I left,” Eitel said.
Eitel was asked how the injury most affects his game.
“Ball-handling, catching, shooting … everything,” Eitel said.
Marshall coach Tom Brannan said he does not plan to change the way Eitel is used in tonight’s IHSA Class 2A state semifinal against Metropolis Massac County.
“It’s still a day-to-day thing. He’s going to play, nothing is broken, but it’s jammed,” Brannan said.

Daunting state field for Lions

By Todd Golden
The Tribune-Star

Marshall, Ill. March 13, 2009

— Cinderella won’t be in Peoria, Ill., this weekend for the IHSA Class 2A boys basketball state finals this weekend. … she won’t be close.
Only the big dogs need apply for this tournament field — unbeaten Marshall among them.
There are only three losses among four teams in the Class 2A state tournament at Carver Arena this weekend. Joining Marshall among the unbeaten is Winnebago — also 31-0. Metropolis (Massac County) (32-1) — Marshall’s opponent tonight — and South Holland Seton Academy (29-2) round out the field.
By contrast, the Class A field being played the same weekend at Carver Arena has 16 losses among its four teams.
It’s a given that Marshall is going to be challenged, starting tonight against Massac County in an 8:15 p.m. (CDT) state semifinal. As they have all year long, the Lions are depending on their team-oriented brand of basketball and good defense to see them through to what would be their first-ever state championship.
“I don’t know where it came from, but everyone on this team has it in their heads that this is a team game, no one cares about individual goals or statistics, we just care about the W. Some teams have more talent than us, but we get it done with defense and teamwork,” Marshall guard Lucas Eitel said.
Brannan had a Marshall representative at Carbondale on Tuesday to make sure he had sometimes hard-to-obtain tape on Massac County, who defeated Breese Central 62-59 in Tuesday’s Carbondale Super-Sectional.
The tape revealed a familiar style for Brannan.
“Probably the best way to describe them is that they’re a mirror-image of us. They’re very quick, athletic, they like to play a lot of man-to-man with a little zone. They want to use their quickness to guard you. They want to push the ball up the floor and attack you as much as they can,” Brannan said.
Massac County, whose only loss was to Carbondale on Jan. 23 in a tournament, has four scorers averaging double-figures. Guard Byron Bailey is the Patriots’ most versatile threat. He averages 18.1 points, 8.2 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game.
Taylor Duncan, who has often guarded the other team’s best player throughout Marshall’s season, will be on Bailey.
“It’s looking that way,” said Duncan, when asked about whether he’d defend Bailey. “He’s left-handed, he can jump, he’s quick, he looks like a really good player.”
He’s not the only one. Guard Corey Ayala (12.9 ppg), forward Dustin Korte (11.2) and guard Jarelle Johnson (10.2, 4.3 assists) are all capable contributors. The Patriots like to score in transition, so getting back on defense is a priority for the Lions.
“We’re going to have to get back on defense as much as we can, they get a lot of points off turnovers. We can’t let them get out ahead of us,” Marshall guard Logan Eitel said.
Of course, Marshall can counter with plenty of its own firepower. Logan Eitel (17.8 ppg, 6 rpg) will play despite a jammed right thumb (see related story). Lucas Eitel (15 ppg, 5.9 apg, 4.3 rpg, 47.5 percent from 3-point range) will need to continue to be versatile. Taylor Duncan (16 ppg, 4.5 rpg) provides grit and defense.
Other contributors, Dustin Morey (7.9 ppg, 2.1 rpg), Trey Brashear (5.8 ppg, 3.5 rpg), Logan Cannady (4.1 ppg) and Jacob Duncan (4.1 ppg), have all had their moments in Marshall’s postseason run.
Brannan noted that the bundle of nerves and excitement that comes along with playing in the state tournament shouldn’t faze the Lions. Marshall has played in big tournaments this year, notably its championship in December’s Pizza Hut Classic.
However, few teams make it to the level, especially for the first time, and burn up the nets.
“At state tournament time, teams tend to not shoot 85 percent from the field, they tend to go the other way and not shoot well … the floor, the nerves, I think rebounding is at a premium,” Brannan said.
As for what Marshall faces after Massac County? Brannan said he hasn’t even looked at either Winnebago or South Holland Seton Academy.
Winnebago had rode its defense (46.3 points allowed, a shade better than Marshall’s 46.5 average) and forward Chas Cross (16.9 ppg, 10.4 rpg) to an unbeaten mark.
Seton Academy — located in South Holland, a southside Chicago suburb — has only been co-ed since 2003, but is a major threat.
The Sting boast plenty of size with 6-foot-7 forward Jordan Walker (13.6 ppg, 5.6 rpg) and 6-foot-6 forward Corbin Thomas (11.6 ppg, 7.5 rpg). Guard D.J. Cooper, who will be one of Armon Bassett’s teammates at Ohio University, averages 13.7 points, 4.5 assists and 4 rebounds per game. Another member of the Sting, forward Tony Nixon (10 ppg) is headed to Northern Illinois.

Class 2A IHSA State Finals
At Carver Arena, Peoria, Ill.
Friday
Winnebago (31-0) vs. South Holland Seton Academy (29-2), 6:30 p.m. (CDT)/7:30 p.m. (EDT)
Metropolis (Massac County) (32-1) vs. Marshall (31-0), 8:15 p.m. (CDT)/ 9:15 p.m. (EDT)
Saturday
Third place game, 6:30 p.m. (CDT)/7:30 p.m. (EDT)
Championship game, 8:15 p.m. (CDT)/9:15 p.m. (EDT)
TV: WFXW-38. Web stream: www.foxjox.com.
Radio: WMMC-FM (105.9)

WABASH VALLEY IHSA STATE PARTICIPANTS
1911 — Paris (20-5, 1-2 at state)
1916 — Robinson (21-4, runner-up, 2-1 at state)
1928 — Hutsonville (27-5, 0-1 at state)
1933 — Hutsonville (28-4, 0-1 at state)
1936 — Paris (18-9, 0-1 at state)
1938 — Paris (34-4, third place, 3-1 at state)
1939 — Paris (37-3, runner-up, 3-1 at state)
1940 — Paris (31-6, 1-1 at state)
1940 — Casey (20-9, 0-1 at state)
1941 — Paris (31-4, 0-1 at state)
1942 — Paris (39-1, runner-up, 3-1 at state)
1943 — Paris (36-2, state champions, 4-0 at state)
1944 — Paris (23-9, 0-1 at state)
1946 — Robinson (31-3, 1-1 at state)
1947 — Paris (40-2, state champions, 4-0 at state)
1948 — Robinson (30-4, 0-1 at state)
1949 — Robinson (25-7, 0-1 at state)
1950 — Paris (26-5, 0-1 at state)
1951 — Robinson (29-5, 1-1 at state)
1955 — Paris (27-7, 0-1 at state)
1971 — Paris (30-1, 0-1 at state)
2002 — Robinson (29-3, 0-1 at state)
Note: Teams included are teams in the Tribune-Star’s coverage area.

Marshall
Roster
10 Logan Eitel G 6-4 Sr.
12 Ethan Delp G 5-9 Sr.
13 Jacob Duncan G 6-0 Fr.
20 Austin Wetnight G 5-10 Jr.
21 Jordan Grooms G 6-0 So.
22 Trey Brashear G 6-2 Sr.
23 Lucas Eitel G 6-4 Sr.
24 Jake Tucker G 6-2 Jr.
30 Logan Cannady G 6-0 Fr.
32 Taylor Duncan G 6-3 Jr.
33 Dallton Sanders C 6-4 Jr.
34 Dustin Morey G 6-5 Jr.
40 Joey Francis G 5-11 So.
44 Tyler Bishop F 6-1 Jr.
Coach — Tom Brannan
Nickname — Lions
Record — 31-0
Postseason — Defeated Casey 77-49 and Teutopolis 55-49 in the Effingham St. Anthony Regional. Defeated Robinson 77-70 and Paris 62-30 in the Robinson Sectional. Defeated Stanford Olympia 65-62 in the Macomb Super-Sectional.
Leading scorers — Lo. Eitel (17.8 ppg), T. Duncan (16 ppg), Lu. Eitel (15 ppg).
Leading rebounders — Lo. Eitel (6), T. Duncan (4.5), Lu. Eitel (4.3).
Leading in assists — Lu. Eitel (5.9), T. Duncan (3.2), Lo. Eitel (3.0).
Previous state tournament experience — none.
Fun fact — Marshall is the first team from the area to go to the state finals unbeaten since Paris made it in 1971 with a 30-0 mark. The Tigers lost 63-61 to Danville in the first round.

Metropolis Massac County
Roster
5 Byron Bailey G 6-4 Sr.
10 Corey Ayala G 6-1 So.
11 Jarelle Johnson G 6-0 Jr.
12 Zack Kester F 6-4 Sr.
14 Zac Henry G 6-0 So.
21 Calvin Morse G 5-10 Sr.
22 Dustin Korte F 6-2 Sr.
24 Archie Maxie G 6-0 Sr.
33 Quincy Glass G 6-0 So.
40 Tyler Sommer F 6-3 Jr.
42 Zach Bremer F 6-3 Sr.
44 Malcolm Amos G 6-0 Fr.
45 James Lang F 6-3 Jr.
50 Adam McManus F 6-2 Jr.
52 Jalin Thigpen G 6-0 Jr.
Coach — Joe Hosman
Nickname — Patriots
Record — 32-1
Postseason — Defeated Carterville 67-40 and Murphysboro 69-66 in the Anna Regional. Defeated Herrin 66-50 and McLeansboro 60-49 in the West Frankfort Sectional. Defeated Breese Central 62-59 in the Carbondale Super-Sectional.
Leading scorers — Bailey (18.1), Ayala (12.9), Korte (11.2), Johnson (10.2).
Leading rebounders — Bailey (8.2), Ayala (5.8), Kester (5.5).
Leading in assists — Johnson (4.3), Bailey (3.4), Ayala (2.3)
Previous state tournament experience — In 2004, Massac County was beaten by Peoria Christian 79-65 in the Class A state finals.
Fun fact — Massac County is the southernmost team in either the Class 2A or Class A field. Metropolis is a small town on the Ohio River.

Winnebago
Roster
3 Chuck Misuraca G 5-11 Sr.
10 Brandon Clinite G 5-10 Jr.
11 Russell Fiori G 5-11 Sr.
12 Mike Mann G 6-1 Jr.
13 Seth Gustafson G 5-9 Jr.
14 Alex Johansson G 5-10 Jr.
15 Jeff Sartorius G 5-11 Jr.
22 Marcus Posley G 5-10 Fr.
23 Joe Bronkema G 5-10 Jr.
42 Brad Reinke F 6-4 Jr.
43 Jake Doty C 6-6 Sr.
50 Zach Draves F 6-3 Jr.
51 Derek DeMars F 6-2 Jr.
53 Chas Cross F 6-7 Jr.
55 A.J. Thomas C 6-3 Jr.
Coach — Joe Murphy
Nickname — Indians
Record — 31-0
Postseason — Defeated Oregon 64-38 and Byron 35-30 in the Winnebago Regional. Defeated Morrison 57-45 and Springfield Lutheran 58-38 in the Plano Sectional. Defeated Princeton 69-41 in the DeKalb Super-Sectional.
Leading scorers — Cross (16.9), Reinke (8.8), Misuraca (8.5).
Leading rebounders — Cross (10.4), Reinke (4.5), Thomas (3.9).
Leading in assists — Misuraca (2.9), Reinke (2.2), Gustafson (2.2.)
Previous state tournament experience — Two appearanes. In 2004, Winnebago was runner-up in Class A, beaten 67-55 by Chicago Leo. In 2005, Winnebago was Class A runner-up, beaten 78-62 by Chicago Hales Franciscan.
Fun fact — Cross, who also averages 4.5 blocks per game, is a third generation player at Winnebago. Illinois State is among the schools he’s considering to continue his playing career.

South Holland Seton Academy
Roster
2 D.J. Cooper G 5-10 Sr.
4 Brandon Merriweather F 6-4 Jr.
10 Toryan Smith G 5-9 Sr.
11 Khameron Harper G 6-3 Jr.
12 Andre Jackson G 5-10 Jr.
15 Murray Hayes G 5-10 Jr.
21 Kenny Stevenson G 6-2 Jr.
24 Tavares Ingram G 6-2 Jr.
32 Kendall Lett F 6-4 Jr.
33 Jordan Walker F 6-7 Sr.
35 Corbin Thomas F 6-6 Sr.
45 Chris Olivier F 6-8 Jr.
52 Tony Nixon F 6-5 Sr.
Coach — Ken Stevenson
Nickname — Sting
Record — 29-2
Postseason — Defeated Manteno 80-37 and Momence 70-37 in the Kankakee McNamara Regional. Defeated Herscher 64-57 and Westmont 64-49 in the Momence Sectional. Defeated Chicago Hales Franciscan 69-52 in the Romeoville Super-Sectional.
Leading scorers — Cooper (13.7), Walker (13.6), Thomas (11.6), Nixon (10.0).
Leading rebounders — Thomas (7.5), Walker (5.8), Cooper (4).
Leading in assists — Cooper (4.5), Stevenson (2.8), Harper (1.5).
Previous state tournament experience — none.
Fun fact — Seton Academy was an all-girls school until it went co-ed and began fielding boys teams in 2003. The Sting are 96-57 since it began boys basketball that season.
— Capsules by Todd Golden

Marshall turns out to send basketball team to Illinois State Finals

By Todd Golden
The Tribune-Star

MARSHALL, Ill. March 13, 2009

— “We are Marshall!”
That’s the rallying cry of all Marshall High School athletic teams … heard at all Marshall sporting events.
The chant is especially thunderous for the undefeated boys basketball Lions, who are headed to Peoria to play in the Final Four of the Class 2A IHSA State Finals beginning tonight at 8:15 p.m. (CDT). Marshall meets Metropolis Massac County at Carver Arena.
“We are Marshall!” could just as easily be a mission statement as it is a rallying cry.
Although the Lions have been an area powerhouse in several sports, this is their first trip to Illinois’ brand of boys basketball March Madness (a phrase originally coined in 1939 for the IHSA tourney) in school history.
While Marshall’s basketball prowess is well-known on both sides of the state line in the Wabash Valley, the small city is not located near any Illinois population centers.
Media coverage beyond Marshall’s home area inside its home state has been scant. The Lions have an air of mystery about them … their 31-0 record notwithstanding.
“We’re not in the middle of nowhere, but we’re not up north where all of the cities are either. I’m real proud because Marshall’s never gone this far. Hopefully we’ll represent them well,” Marshall guard Taylor Duncan said.
Marshall hasn’t had a losing record since 1993 and has had nine 20-win seasons since then. But Marshall hasn’t made its presence felt outside of its regional since 1994.
“It feels good to put us on the map. We’ve always had a good program here, but we never made it as far as we could,” Marshall guard Lucas Eitel said. “It’s good for the future because we have a lot of good guys coming up. I think in the future we’ll have more runs like this.”
Not all of the Lions are in a reflective mood just yet, as evidenced by Logan Eitel.
“I wouldn’t want to represent another town, but right now I’m just focused on the game. All the other stuff is in the back of my mind,” he said.
The “other stuff” included a send-off from Marshall High School on Thursday morning. Led by the Marshall drum corps, the team paraded through the halls of the school. The players boarded a chartered bus for Peoria as well-wishers lined Sixth Street in front of the school.
Tonight’s game will be televised by WFXW-TV 38. The IHSA TV feed will be picked up at 8 p.m. (CDT).
If Marshall wins tonight, the team will play in the state championship game at 8:15 p.m. (CDT) on Saturday. If the Lions fall, the third-place game is at 6:30 p.m. (CDT).
If Marshall wins even one game in Peoria, the Lions will end a long area state tournament drought.
No team from the Wabash Valley (in the Tribune-Star’s coverage area) has won an Illinois boys basketball championship since Paris won the 1947 title.
No area team has won a game in the state championship at all since Robinson defeated Chicago Parker in the 1951 tournament.

Todd Golden can be reached by e-mail at todd.golden@tribstar.com or by phone at 1-800-78308724, ext. 276.

Massac County, Woodlawn ready for state

The Massac County Patriots and Woodlawn Cardinals each picked up victories at the Carbondale super-sectional Tuesday and compete today at the IHSA State Tournament at Peoria's Carver Arena in boys prep basketball.

The Patriots (32-1) knocked off Breese Central Tuesday and take on Marshall (31-0) at 8:15 p.m. with a berth in the Class 2A state title game on the line.

Massac County won its first 19 games of the season before falling to Class 3A Carbondale, 89-84, in late January. After that misstep the club ripped off 13 consecutive victories.

"They've just handled the pressure," Massac County coach Joe Hosman said of his players. "I've never seen them panic all year long."

The Patriots face a tough opponent in the Marshall County Lions. They've pretty much destroyed every team they've faced this season. The Lions' average margin of victory is 28 points.

Logan Eitel, a 6-foot-4 senior guard, averages 17.8 points per game, and Lucas Eitel (6-4) scores nearly 15 per contest.

Massac County will counter with 6-4 guard Byron Bailey. The senior scores 18 points per game and leads the team in rebounding as well. Corey Ayala, a 6-1 sophomore guard, is the team's defensive standout but he also tallies 13 points per game.

Look for senior guard Dustin Korte to come off the bench and shoot from downtown. Korte torched Breese Central for 18 points, including four 3-pointers in the super-sectional.

Seton Academy (29-2) takes on Winnebago (31-0) in the other Class 2A semifinal at 6:30 p.m.

Woodlawn (29-1) pulled away from Okawville in the second half for a 47-30 win in the Class 1A super-sectional. The Cardinals battle Lewistown (25-7) at noon in the Class 1A semifinals.

Jase Green, a 6-3 senior forward, tallied all 13 of his points in the second half of the super-sectional for Woodlawn. Dawson Verhines, a 6-foot sophomore, added 11 for the Cardinals.

One impressive aspect of Woodlawn's 17-point victory is that its two leading scorers were held to single digits. Bronson Verhines and Casey Hammond average 26 points combined and were held to just 13 in the super-sectional.

Quentin Hatfill and Brent Burrows, a pair of guards, lead Lewistown in the scoring column. The duo combines to score 28 points per game.

Macon Meridian takes on Annawan in the 1:45 p.m. Class 1A semifinal.

scott.mees@thesouthern.com/618-351-5086

By RICK DAWSON, Staff Writer
rdawson@jg-tc.com

MARSHALL -- The 1980s are fondly remembered by some as a strong era in the Little Illini Conference, a time when several programs were churning out consistently good results in several sports. One of those teams, Martinsville, was cavorting through a regular season undefeated and another, Casey-Westfield’s football and softball teams were bringing home state championships.

In just a few months, the 2008-09 season is doing something for the league’s image that has never been done before. In virtually any other year, Marshall’s basketball rise would be the undisputed highlight. It may yet turn out to be, but for the time being it’s one of many.

Casey advanced to the state football championship for just the second time in school history. Cumberland was in the state volleyball tourney for the first time. One can only imagine what will happen during the spring when a quartet of softball contenders already ranked in the preseason – Casey, Cumberland, Edwards County and Oblong – reach the postseason in separate classes.

Four-class basketball may do wonders for the exposure of previous unknowns, but anyone who has watched Marshall this season realizes that the Lions aren’t your average team. No one in conference history has gone 31 wins into a season without a loss. And the following they have produced goes beyond their northeasternmost location.

Denis Bennett, the coach at Hutsonville-Palestine, played at Marshall and coached at Martinsville. It became clear to him that once Marshall’s unbeaten season took off, a large bandwagon would pursue.

“The one thing that strikes you right away is that they’ve got three players (6-4 senior twins Logan and Lucas Eitel and 6-3 junior Taylor Duncan) that can play anywhere from a point guard position to a center position,” Bennett said. “All three can handle it. They distribute, they can drive, they score in and out, they defend. It was obvious it was going to be a matchup nightmare for anybody who plays this team.”

Bennett is one of those headed to Peoria’s Carver Arena when the Lions face Massac County in the second semifinal at 8:15 p.m. today.

“People from all around the area, you can’t help but get excited for an area school – especially when they get into territory where Marshall’s at,” he said. “It rarely happens. During football, a lot of people got excited about Casey. It’s such a great accomplishment. You don’t just get excited for the community. It’s something to hang their hat on.”

Strikingly, though, Marshall has been one of Class 2A’s most well-kept secrets. It barely ventured into the top five in the state’s poll despite beating one of the most highly regarded teams in the state of Indiana, Terre Haute South, on its home floor in December.

Part of the reason, no doubt, is the school’s location. Few media members from the area participate in the Associated Press’s polling every week. Moreover, it isn’t the first time a unique team from the area has been overlooked.

Nellie Bennett, Denis’s father, coached the 1973 Marshall squad that toppled third-ranked Effingham St. Anthony and top-ranked Lawrenceville to reach the Sweet Sixteen. He fielded a call from a Chicago newspaper expressing surprise after the first win, then a second one before Venice finally ended the run.

Even though he is unable to get to as many games as he used to, Nellie has watched the current group with interest.

“We kept beating everybody for two or there years and we ended up seventh or eighth in the poll and everybody was wondering where we were,” Nellie said. “It was a different situation then. We didn’t have 3-pointers and (Howie) Johnson could make them from everywhere. But these kids are really good and they play so well together. It brings back a lot of memories.”

Kevin Ross has an interesting perspective on current prep basketball events. The former basketball coach, now the principal at Shelbyville High School, played on a 20-win team at Marshall just prior to current coach Tom Brannan’s arrival 17 years ago. He went to college at Millikin, teaming with Shannon Cloyd and Eric Smith, former members of powerful teams at Findlay before its consolidation. Findlay won the state title in 1992; Shelbyville in 1996.

For once, he can share the March Madness experience with his alma mater – although he finds it not unusual to run into people in the hallways who are keeping up with the Clark County school, too. Even his small kids are interested.

He’s seen the guestbook on the “Marshall Assist Club” Web site, organized by Fred Eitel, the father of the twins, and the number of widespread entries it has amassed.

“The best attendance we’ve had at a game (at Shelbyville) since then – there’ve been a few trips to regional finals – the best was the 10-year reunion game that we played on a Sunday afternoon,” Ross said. “The place was packed. Communities want to get a taste of that. They want to see that one more time. The players are community icons, really.

“People were just interested to see those guys that gave them so much joy. It didn’t matter that they were 10 years older and hadn’t laced them up for 10 years.”

He imagines that in 25 years the 2008-09 team will earn something akin to local superstar status. And the fact that its survival has never been guaranteed helps.

When Martinsville soared through its perfect regular season in 1986-87, reaching as high as third in the rankings, it beat the likes of eventual state runnerup Okawville and Madison on the road. But that didn’t prevent it from a heartbreaking loss to Flora in the sectional.

Marshall conquered one historical hazard along the way. In the past, it always seemed, National Trail or North Egypt powers stood in the way. This year it was Tetutopolis. The Lions’ regional championship win was a benchmark.

“The timing has to come together,” Ross said. “The same thing in ‘95-96 at Shelbyville with (Mike) Steers and (Kevin) Herdes and (Todd) Wilderman and (Rich) Beyers and that crew. You can have that kind of success and you’re still going to need a little luck. Take that parallel to Taylor Duncan’s 3 that sent the super-sectional to overtime. (Shelbyville’s) Roger Jones had to hit a turnaround 3 against Nokomis or they were going to be out of the regional. You have these ultra-talented groups, you put yourself in position, you do everything right — you still have to have a little bit of luck on your side.”

Brannan is 339-137 through 17 seasons, suffering just one losing season in 1992-93, his first at the school. In one sense, the community of Marshall has Kevin Ross’s father, Russell, to thank for his presence at the school.

Russell grew up in Carrollton and played with Brannan’s uncle Mike. When Tom turned to coaching after his own prep career at Carrollton, Marshall might have been the furthest thing from his mind, if not for the fact that Russell was the superintendent here.

“My brother recommended Tom when we had a basketball opening,” said Russell, who attends the same church as the Eitel twins, Dustin Morey and freshman Logan Cannady.

Yet it wasn’t the start of Brannan’s prep coaching career. When he first applied at Marshall, he was turned down. Still, he came from a basketball family that lived in Elder, and the Brannan name was legendary in Carrollton. He quickly got another shot.

“He was a little too young at the time, just out of college,” Russell said. “When the opening occurred two or three years later we felt Tom was ready and would be the right man for the job. I knew the potential of the school being a Class A powerhouse at the Class A level. The talent pool was here, the facility was good, the community support was there. It was just ripe for the pickings. It’s been fun to watch him mature over the years.”

Twenty-five years to the day of the 2009 super-sectional at Macomb, Tom Brannan played on the same court when Carrollton advanced to the state finals, a neat aside to the team’s trip to Peoria this year.

Several people from Carrollton made the trip to Macomb to see Marshall and Ross expects “many, many more” at Carver Arena this weekend.

For Brannan himself, it’s been quite the season on more than one level. Few may realize that all of Marshall’s high school programs went unbeaten during the regular season. Some of Marshall’s players have been constants on the Terre Haute AAU circuit. One can only wonder where the school’s first basketball trip to state is about to carry it.

The most important fact in the birth of traditional state powers like Teutopolis or Pinckneyville was their ability to develop players at younger levels. No one is about to confuse Marshall with those longtime powers just yet, but they are heading in the right direction at least.

“That’s pretty elite company,” Brannan said. “That’s great praise. If we can continue to have seasons like this . . . that’s kind of what we strive for.

“As coaches you always catch yourself thinking about the future. Our coaching staff has talked about this is an unbelievable year. This is a great team that we have right now. But I think we’re going to be all right next year.”

Contact Rick Dawson at rdawson@jg-tc.com or 238-6855.

Marshall hopes to buck unbeaten IHSA trend

By Todd Golden
The Tribune-Star

March 12, 2009

— Don’t tell the Marshall boys basketball team the odds.
Chances are … they don’t care.
Marshall (31-0) is joined by fellow Class 2A qualifier Winnebago (31-0) as IHSA teams to take an unbeaten record into the state finals in two seasons.
The last team to go to March Madness unbeaten was Nashville in 2007 in the last year of the two-class Class A state finals. The Hornets lost to Teutopolis in the quarterfinals and suffered a fate familiar to unbeaten teams, especially in recent seasons.
Since 1946, when reliable records are available, 43 teams have gone to the IHSA state finals with an unbeaten record regardless of class. Only 16 have emerged unscathed, and only one — Seneca in 2006 — has pulled it off since 1993. A total of 27 teams have had their unbeaten seasons end oh so close to the finish.
Eight of the last nine unbeaten teams to go to Peoria or Champaign have lost.
Marshall coach Tom Brannan isn’t concerned. He said the Lions have not made the unbeaten record a part of their mission as they head to Carver Arena and the state finals for the first time in school history.
“I’ll be totally honest, we know we’re unbeaten, but we don’t talk about it. It’s the furthest thing from our minds,” Brannan said. “We’ve focused on what’s at hand. Defensively, guys are focused on how and who they’re guarding. Offensively, we’re focused on the gameplan. It’s hard not to think we’re unbeaten, but the guys have done a good job dealing with it.”
Brannan credited the intelligence of the Lions in helping them deal with the distractions of being unbeaten. Marshall is also an experienced team that has had success in recent seasons, even if this is their first taste of state-level success.
“If all of that undefeated stuff was the focus, it could get real hairy in your mind,” Brannan said. “These guys have focused on the small things and they’re good at it. I’ve told them if they can do the small things, it takes care of a lot of big things.”
From a local perspective, Marshall will break a long local drought if they win the Class 2A state championship. No team from Clark County has ever won a boys basketball state title. The closest Marshall ever got until now was a supersectional appearance in 1973.
Robinson’s 2002 team that lost in the quarterfinals of the Class A state finals is the only team from Clark, Crawford or Edgar Counties’ Apollo or Little Illini Conference schools that has made it to the state finals since class basketball was adopted in Illinois in 1972.
Between 1956 and 1971, when Illinois had a one-class system with supersectionals, only one area team — Paris in 1971, one of the unbeaten teams that lost in the state finals — made it to the state finals.
Prior to the supersectional era, area teams were frequent visitors to the state finals. Paris won state championships in 1943 and 1947 as the Tigers were a state power in the years before, during and after World War II. The Tigers made 12 of their 13 state finals appearances when it was a 16-team state finals field.
They weren’t alone. Robinson went to the state finals five times in that era, Hutsonville made it twice, Casey went once.
Marshall will leave for Peoria this morning from Marshall by charter. The school will be hosting a sendoff for the team.

Class 2A IHSA State Finals
At Carver Arena, Peoria, Ill.
Friday
Winnebago (31-0) vs. South Holland Seton Academy (29-2), 6:30 p.m. (CDT)/7:30 p.m. (EDT)
Metropolis (32-1) vs. Marshall (31-0), 8:15 p.m. (CDT)/9:15 p.m. (EDT)
Saturday
Third place game, 6:30 p.m. (CDT)/7:30 p.m. (EDT)
Championship game, 8:15 p.m. (CDT)/9:15 p.m. (EDT)

Unbeaten IHSA champions
1944 — Taylorville (45-0)
1950 — Mt. Vernon (33-0)
1953 — LaGrange (29-0)
1958 — Chicago Marshall (31-0)
1961 — Collinsville (32-0)
1970 — LaGrange (31-0)
1972 — Dolton Thornridge (33-0, AA)
1978 — Lockport Central (33-0, AA)
1981 — Quincy (33-0, AA)
1982 — Lawrenceville (34-0, A)
1983 — Lawrenceville (34-0, A)
1984 — McLeansboro (35-0, A)
1986 — Teutopolis (33-0, A)
1990 — Chicago King (32-0, AA)
1992 — Proviso East (33-0, AA)
1993 — Chicago King (32-0, AA)
2006 — Seneca (35-0, A)

Seton beats Hales, earns Class 2A Final Four berth

Downstate berth a first since Seton turned coed in '03

By Bob Sakamoto

TRIBUNE REPORTER

March 11, 2009

The scene was special Tuesday night as Seton students mobbed their players in celebration at Lewis University in Romeoville.

Seton will be making its first appearance Downstate in any sport since turning coed six years ago after a 69-52 victory over Hales in a Class 2A supersectional.

Seton (29-2) will face Winnebago (30-0) in the 6:30 p.m. semifinal Friday at Carver Arena in Peoria.

"We knew Hales would make a run, so I had to answer back," said Corbin Thomas, who led Seton with 25 points and 12 rebounds. "This is a great feeling — a chance to make history."

Seton has never won a state championship in any sport, boys or girls.

Patrick Miller (21 points, six steals) and Kenneth Rhymes (16 points) ignited a 10-2 run late in the third quarter that brought Hales (13-17) within 51-43. But the Spartans got no closer.

"This is the most excitement I've had in my whole life," said Jordan Walker, who came away with 12 points and 12 rebounds. "We won because of all the teamwork, everyone stepping up as one."

Tony Nixon contributed 12 points and three assists for Seton, while point guard D.J. Cooper added nine points, five assists and five steals.

"I've never had a feeling like this before," Cooper said. "For the four senior starters, this was our last chance to go Downstate."

 

Lions roar into Final 4

By HARTMANN PHOTOGRAPHY/Courtesy photo

Olympia High senior guard Matt Flynn goes up for a shot while being guarded by senior Logan Eitel of the Marshall Lions in the IHSA Class 2A Supersectional Tuesday evening at Western Hall. Marshall would extend its perfect record to 31-0 by defeating the Spartans 65-62 in overtime. Marshall is now part of the final four in the hunt for a state title in Peoria.

Marshall wins Super-Sectional in O.T.

THE MARSHALL LIONS won their IHSA 2A Super-Sectional Championship against Stanford-Olympia Tuesday night, 65-62. (T. Cox)

By Terri Cox
Contributing Writer

Published: Wednesday, March 11, 2009

     MACOMB – You can call it destiny or fate. You can say it was luck or that they are just that good. However you say it, the Marshall Lions have advanced to the Final 4 in the IHSA Class 2A state basketball finals, defeating the Spartans of Stanford Olympia Tuesday night in a thrilling 65-62 contest that took an extra period to decide the victor on the campus of Western Illinois University.

    "Wow," said an very emotional Tom Brannan after his team's 31st consecutive win of the season. "We're going to Peoria!"

    "We take a lot of pride in our conditioning and how hard we work throughout the season. When we run our touches during practice, we spell out P-E-O-R-I-A, not in an over confident kind of way, but in a way that we always kept what we were working for in perspective...and here we are.

    "(Stanford) is a great ball club and are tremendous perimeter shooters. We knew they would make runs at us (after we got up by 12 in the first quarter). We kind of played in spurts; we'd let down, then push the pedal, let down, then push the pedal all night long."

    It looked as though the wheels might have fallen off the Mashall Lion Express as the final seconds were ticking quickly off the clock and the Lions were trailing by three points, 62-59. The season was rescued by an offensive board by Trey Brashear with nine seconds on the clock and Brannan quickly called a timeout.

    The coaches drew up a play designed for Lucas Eitel and while he factored heavily in the basket, it was his points. Eitel drew a double team which left Taylor Duncan with a wide open shot; after getting the perfect feed, he found nothing but net to deadlock things at 62-62. A pair of timeouts by the Spartans with :00.6 showing on the clock did not garner any offensive production and an extra frame would be needed.

    Over the next four minutes of play, only three combined points would be scored and all of them came from the hand of Taylor Duncan.

    "I caught a good look," the elder Duncan said of his shot that kept the Lion's season alive. "As a shooter, I just have to know that it's going to go in."

    Logan Eitel, who did not score in the contest, showed exactly how far he was willing to go for his teammates.

    "Logan played the entire game with a possibly broken and dislocated thumb," said Brannan after the game. "We needed his presence on the floor because he calms things down, especially my nerves, when he's out there.

    "When (Lucas and Logan) both had four fouls on them, they played with great composure and were very smart about what they did on the floor. Trey Brasher also stepped up big for us tonight; he is a very good ball player and has a very nice looking shot. During shoot around (before the game) he looked very confident in all he did and that carried over.

    "We've relied on our defense all year and tonight, that's what got us to where we are now. I just can't say enough about this team."

    Olympia coach Gerry Thornton truly believed after his Spartan squad took the lead with just nine second left, they had it won.

    "We had a three point lead and fouls to give," Thornton said. "(Duncan) got the shot off before we could foul him. This was a great high school basketball game and was truly a state tournament level game.

    "It came down to the fact that great players make great plays and (Marshall) did that. I had heard that the Duncan boy was as good or better than the ISU kids, but I really didn't believe it. Based on what I saw tonight, I'd say he's every bit as good and may be better."

    Things started fast and furious for the Lions as they opened up an early 8-0 lead on threes by Lucas Eitel and Brashear and a deuce by Taylor Duncan. A basket by Matt Flynn at the 5:09 mark put the Spartans on the board but a pair of charity tosses by Brashear upped the lead back to eight, 10-2.

    A pair of Taylor Duncan baskets and five consecutive points by Lucas Eitel upped the lead to 19-4 with under two minutes to play in the opening quarter. Olympia closed out the scoring, rattling off five unanswered points to cut the lead to 19-9 after one complete.

    As the second quarter got underway, Flynn started to turn the tides for Olympia, hitting for consecutive threes cut the lead to four, 19-15. Jacob Duncan got in on the action, draining a trey of his own but a jumper by Trevor Strubhar narrowed the led to eight, 22-17. A three ball by Taylor Duncan was matched by Brady Cremeens but a bucket by Brashear made it a seven point Marshall lead with 5:05 in the half.

    The Spartans hit for back-to-back threes by Spencer Pratt and Cremeens then Frahm hit the second of a pair of tosses from the stripe deadlocked things at 27-27, as Brannan signaled for a timeout.

    Following the break in the action, Lucas Eitel hit a pair of shots from beyond the arc to widen the gap to six, 33-27 lead. Olympia's Cremeens matched Eitel's effort and a pair of Taylor Duncan freethrows proved to be the difference in the half as Marshall took a slim 35-33 lead into the locker room.

    Following the break, Marshall came back to the court very focused and got big play out of Dustin Morey and Brasher in the third quarter. Morey converted a pair of offensive boards for points while Brashear added six of the Lions 17 points as Marshall extended their lead to five, 52-47 heading into the final quarter of regulation.

    But Olympia refused to go quietly as they opened up the fourth quarter with five unanswered points to deadlock things at 52-52. The Spartans outscored the Lions 15-10 over the eight minute span, but Taylor Duncan refused to be denied as the junior tallied all 10 points for Marshall including the three pointer that sent the game into overtime.

    Duncan led all scorers with a game high 26 points and handed out seven assists while Lucas Eitel tallied 19 points, seven boards and four blocked shots and Brashear added 13 in the win.

    For Olympia, who concludes their season with a 27-5 record, four players finished in double figures led by Cremeens with 17, followed by Strubhar, Pratt and Flynn who contributed 13, 12 and 11 points respectively. Strubhar pulled down a team high eight caroms in the loss.

    Marshall will now face Metropolis (who defeated Breese Central 62-59) in the 8:15 p.m. semi-final Friday at Carver Arena in Peoria. The winner of that contest will play for the state title at 8:15 p.m. Saturday while the loser will participate in the third place game at 6:30 p.m. Saturday.

Marshall  19  16  17  10  3  -65

Olympia    9  24  14  15  0  -62

MARSHALL: Lo. Eitel 0-0-0; Lu. Eitel 7-0-19; Morey 2-0-4; Brashear 5-2-13; T. Duncan 10-4-26; J. Duncan 1-0-3; Cannady 0-0-0; TOTALS 25-6-65

OLYMPIA: Frahm 3-3-9; Strubhar 6-1-13; Pratt 4-2-12; Cremeens 5-2-17; Flynn 3-3-11; Stroud 0-0-0; Gaither 0-0-0; TOTALS 21-11-62

3-point goals: Marshall 9-17 (Lo. Eitel 0-1, Lu. Eitel 5-8, Morey 0-1, Brashear 1-1; T. Duncan 2-4, J. Duncan 1-1; Cannady 0-1); Olympia 9-21 (Frahm 0-2; Pratt 2-3; Cremeens 5-11, Flynn 2-5)

Team Rebounds: Marshall 29 (Lu. Eitel 7, Lo. Eitel 5, Morey 5, Brashear 5, T. Duncan 4); Olympia 26 (Strubhar 8,, Frahm 6, Flynn 5, Pratt 3)

Team Fouls: Marshall 13, Olympia 12

Team Turnovers: Marshall 10, Olympia 10

 

 

Olympia boys come back, fall in overtime of super-sectional

Olympia's Spencer Pratt goes around Pleasant Plains' Derek Betzer, center, and teammate Joel Harney, right, Wednesday, March 4, 2009, during a Class 2A sectional semi-final game in Riverton. (The Pantagraph/CARLOS T. MIRANDA)

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

By Randy Sharer
rsharer@pantagraph.com

MACOMB -- In the words of Olympia High School basketball coach Gerry Thornton, Tuesday’s Western Illinois University Class 2A Super-sectional was a great game ... if you didn’t care who won. | Box scores, schedules and stats

But, alas, a lot of blue-clad fans in the crowd of 1,841 cared deeply, which explained the sting left by a 65-62 overtime loss to unbeaten and No. 6-state ranked Marshall.

No. 10 Olympia heroically dug itself out of a 17-2 hole and twice had a three-point lead in the final two minutes of regulation only to watch Marshall’s Taylor Duncan make like Superman.

Duncan scored his team’s final 13 points en route to a game-high 26. The dagger Olympia will remember was Duncan’s 3-pointer to tie it at 62 with :07 left to force overtime.

The extra-period was all Marshall as the Spartans missed all five of their shots and committed one turnover.

Brady Cremeens, who led Olympia with 17 points, sank two free throws with :37.2 left in regulation to put his team in front, 62-59.

“We’re up three with nine seconds to go, we had four team fouls and two fouls to burn and they got it off before we could get them fouled,” Thornton said. “Duncan made a great shot. Duncan is a tremendous player.”

Thornton had heard Duncan, who came in averaging 16 points, was better than 6-foot-4, Indiana State-bound twins Lucas and Logan Eitel. Lucas Eitel had 19 points, seven boards, four assists and four blocks. Logan Eitel, who played despite a possible broken hand, was held scoreless.

Marshall took control of overtime when Duncan drove the baseline for a basket. He ended the scoring with a free throw with :10.5 left.

“We didn’t get as good of shots in overtime as we should have,” Thornton said. “A lot of times in overtime the first score is so critical. They got us back on our heels a little bit.”

Marshall (31-0), which won its first super-sectional, advanced to face No. 5 Metropolis Massac County (32-1)in Friday’s 8:15 p.m. state semifinal at Peoria.

Olympia ended its second straight Elite Eight trip at 27-5.

“It’s the best season I’ve been a part of,” said Spartan forward Trevor Strubhar, who had 13 points and a game-high eight rebounds. “We have great guys and we all realize the sun is going to come up tomorrow.”

“I’m just amazed at the quality of that basketball game,” added Thornton, whose team shot 43 percent from the field compared to 51 percent for Marshall. “That was truly a state tournament level basketball game.

“I’m incredibly proud of these young men. They are very good basketball players. They are good human beings. They’ve been a joy to coach for three years.”

Marshall had never run the play it used to force overtime.

“We just drew it up,” said Marshall coach Tom Brannan. “He (Duncan) got the look. He buried it. It was awesome.”

Marshall didn’t get the opening tip, but it got hot immediately, sinking seven of its first nine shots to grab a 19-4 lead. Olympia responded with an 11-0 run featuring back-to-back 3-pointers by Matt Flynn to pull within 19-15.

The teams traded baskets until Spencer Pratt and Cremeens drained back-to-back 3-pointers before a Matt Frahm free throw created the first tie at 27-27 with 3:14 left in the half.

On the sprint to intermission, Lucas Eitel converted back-to-back 3-pointers for the Lions before Cremeens sandwiched a pair of 3-pointers around a Duncan free throw as Marshall took a 35-33 lead to the locker room.

Both teams were 7 of 11 (63.6 percent) from 3-point range the first half. Marshall finished 9 of 17 and Olympia 9 of 21.

“They are such a great perimeter shooting team,” Brannan said. “That’s what they’ve done the last couple years.”

The Lions led all of the third quarter with help from six points by Trey Brashear, who finished with 13, seven over his average.

Olympia got its first lead when Cremeens’ 3-pointer made it 58-56 with 2:00 left. He was joined in double figures by Pratt with 12 and Flynn with 11. Frahm added nine points, six boards and four steals.

“They played us real close even though we started out really well,” Lucas Eitel said. “That’s the trait of a really good team that they came back. They’ve got a lot of really good shooters. I would say they are definitely top three (among teams we’ve played), maybe the best.”

Illinois Class 2A Super-sectional; Lions move to 31-0 with 65-62 victory; reach Final Four in Peoria

By Craig Pearson
The Tribune-Star

Macomb, Ill. March 11, 2009

— P-E-O-R-I-A.
Marshall High School’s boys basketball players spelled the name of the city hundreds of times this season, saying each letter as they reached the progression of lines on the court for suicide drills.
Marshall needed overtime Tuesday against Stanford Olympia, but the Lions prevailed 65-62 to reach the Class 2A state semifinals in Carver Arena at Peoria. Marshall (31-0) will face Massac County on Friday night.
“We finally got our goal,” senior Logan Eitel said on the court in Western Hall on Tuesday after putting on a pre-made “Marshall Final Four” T-shirt.
Junior Taylor Duncan made the victory possible by swishing a 3-pointer from the corner with five seconds left in regulation to send the contest to OT. Marshall’s team defense stepped it up a notch in overtime, holding the Spartans without a point in the extra period.
“We’ve never run that play,” Marshall coach Tom Brannan said of the game-tying shot. “We just drew it up. We had a double screen. We had Lucas coming up through the double [to the top of the key] and we had Taylor coming off. Taylor got the look and he buried it, baby. That was awesome.”
“I caught it, got a pretty good look, Logan gave me a good pass. You’ve got to know everything’s going in. That’s what a shooter does,” Duncan said.
Duncan scored eight points in the final four minutes of regulation and he came up with the only field goal of overtime by anyone in an otherwise well-executed offensive contest. The left-handed Duncan spun to his right toward the baseline and laid it in with 3:10 left in OT. Duncan knocked down the first of a one-and-one to give the Marshall a 3-point cushion, but neither he nor Dustin Morey could hit another foul shot to make it a two-possession game.
Still, the Marshall defense stood its ground, pressuring Stanford Olympia sharpshooter Brady Cremeens.
Lucas Eitel led the Lions out to an outstanding first quarter as both teams settled in at well above 50-percent shooting in the first half.
After pulling ahead 17-2 by the 2:44 mark of the first period, Marshall allowed Cremeens to catch fire. Cremeens pulled the Spartans within 27-26 midway through the second quarter.
After Lucas Eitel drilled his fourth triple of the first half, Cremeens hit his third of the half to make it 35-33 at the break.
Both teams played outstanding first halves offensively: The Lions went 12 for 21 from the field for 57.1 percent and the Spartans 12 for 22 for 54.5 percent. Lucas Eitel’s 14 points and Taylor Duncan’s 11 accounted for 25 of the Lions’ 35 in the half.
“They’ve got a lot of great shooters,” Lucas Eitel said. “They’re definitely top three as far as teams we’ve played [this season].”
Logan Eitel was held scoreless throughout the game. He played through an injured thumb that he hurt in the game’s opening minutes going for a loose rebound. The senior still contributed four assists, including the in-bound pass to Duncan for the game-tying basket.
“I jammed my thumb like the third or fourth play on defense. I swiped up on a rebound and jammed it into the ball,” Logan Eitel said. “The rest of the game I was struggling to catch the ball, I just tried to stay in there and do what I could, grab some rebounds, play some defense.”
Senior Trey Brashear also knocked down several clutch shots from the outside. Brashear was perfect all-around Tuesday, hitting all five of his field-goal attempts and both free throws. One of Marshall’s defensive stalwarts, Brashear also clamped down on Cremeens in the overtime as Olympia tried in vein to get him free.
Taylor Duncan, whose brother Jacob Duncan added a first-half 3-pointer, also held Olympia’s leading scorer Matt Frahm to nine points on 3-for-8 shooting.
“It’s just great team defense, but I do take a lot of pride in shutting down an opponent’s top scorer,” Duncan said.
Duncan, whom Olympia coach Gerry Thornton said he was warned about being every bit as talented as the Indiana State-bound Eitel twins, was not surprised how Olympia battled back and played better defense in the second half.
“They’re a good team and they stepped it up defensively in the second half. In the end, we just played tougher, I guess,” Duncan said.

Marshall’s success is a family affair

By Craig Pearson
The Tribune-Star

TERRE HAUTE March 10, 2009

— In four years as starters for coach Tom Brannan at Marshall, twin brothers Lucas and Logan Eitel have compiled a 90-25 record (.783).
A majority of the losses came during a 16-14 campaign during the twins’ sophomore season, and that season also included what Brannan refers to as a “turning point” for the program.
In a game at Lawrenceville, Brannan and assistant coaches Pat Duncan and Chris Kessler blasted the Lions at halftime.
“It was a game we won, but we played unbelievably soft so there was kind of a blow-up at halftime,” Brannan recalled this weekend as his team prepared for tonight’s super-sectional game at Macomb, Ill. On the bus ride home, Brannan, Duncan and Kessler talked about the future.
“We are going to start playing tough basketball. We are going to be the best-conditioned team,” Brannan said of that conversation.
“The time [for playing soft] is over. From that point on, we made it a prerogative to play intense, fierce tough, tough basketball.”
In addition to the role Pat Duncan would fill in piloting the return to an emphasis on conditioning, Duncan’s two sons have helped make this the best season in Marshall basketball history.
A letterwinner for the Indiana State football team from 1983-86, Pat Duncan went on to become a drill instructor in the U.S. Army.
“Conditoning’s a factor you can control,” assistant coach Duncan said. “We did a lot more running, more full-court drills, lots of push-ups, weight lifting. We started kettle-bell conditioning [a popular total-body cardio/muscle workout].”
“When [Brannan] was a younger coach, he had put more emphasis on conditioning,” Duncan added. “We just got to talking about how we were pretty athletic and we needed to start playing more man-to-man, running the court and getting out of the half-court game.”
These days, the Lions break from every team huddle with “play tough.”
Taylor Duncan, a junior averaging 16 points, five rebounds and two steals, and Jacob Duncan, a freshman sharpshooter averaging 6 ppg, fit right into that mode of the toughness Marshall has shown to become an undefeated basketball team.
Taylor, a left-handed shooter who’s already getting college attention for his ability to throw a football, is listed as one of Marshall’s four starting guards, but his strength and athleticism make him a versatile defender.
“I believe he is the best defender in the state,” Brannan said. “No. 1, his versatility: he can guard big, he can small. No. 2, his toughness: he’s physical, he’s determined to stop his man.”
Brannan saw that determination in action last week in the first-round regional game against Robinson. With five seconds left, Marshall led by nine and Ben Jones of Robinson sized up Taylor and tried to drive to the hoop.
“Taylor was bound and determined to stop him, he barely fouled him,” Brannan said. “I just love that mindset of ‘I don’t care if we’re up nine, I’m going to stop him.”
In that game, Duncan drew four charging calls on the Maroons: two on 6-foot-11 Illinois recruit Meyers Leonard, one on Stephen Jones and one on Ben Jones.
On the offensive end, Taylor has the deft passing skills that all the Lions seem to possess, but it’s his ability to penetrate that causes the most problems for defenses.
“I try to attack the basket,” Taylor Duncan said. “I’m not a bad outside shooter, but I like trying to muscle around a little bit. I just try to use my strength — I wouldn’t consider myself a big man.”
“Me and the twins been playing together for how many years in the summers and everything,” Taylor added. “It just comes with experience and knowing what each other can do. We just try to spread it out, get to the basket.”
As for the youngest Duncan, Jacob has not lost a basketball game since 2007. His eighth grade team suffered just the one loss to Charleston early in that season, going on to win a state championship.
The freshman was unsure how big a role he would play as he watched the Lions’ varsity squad rack up 25 victories last season.
But Jacob had his coming out party on a big stage, drilling five 3-pointers in a tightly contested matchup with Rockville in the Pizza Hut Wabash Valley Classic. It was Lucas Eitel’s runner at the buzzer that allowed Marshall’s tourney run to continue, but without Duncan’s poise under pressure, Brannan wonders how things would be different if Marshall had lost that game to Rockville.
“That’s a turning point in our season,” Brannan said. “[The Rox] had us on the ropes … Jacob made some huge shots.
“What’s happening now might not have ever happened. We probably wouldn’t be ranked and [wouldn’t be] undefeated.”
Jacob drained three 3-pointers in the final three minutes of the first quarter of Friday’s sectional title victory over Paris. He had his feet set and ready to shot all three times without hesitation.
“In practice before that, I said ‘Jacob, you’re doing a good job, but it looks like you’re not prepared to shoot. You’re a shooter, you can’t be catching it and thinking about it before you shoot,’ Brannan said. “In the game the next day [against Paris], you saw those feet were set. He was ready to go.”
Jacob credits his smooth accurate release to “repetition.”
“What I’m amazed about is the confidence level that Jacob comes in and plays with,” Brannan said. “He’s not afraid to take the big shot, and he will make the big shot. When that shot goes up you know [if it’s good] — and it echoes around the bench — ‘that one’s in.’ ”
More than anything else, Jacob is impressed by the ability of the Marshall upperclassmen to “keep everybody on the same page and keep everybody calm.
“It’s really fun to play with them,” he said. “We all play so good together, have really good chemistry and can read each other really well.”

Tigers lose sectional championship to undefeated Marshall Lions, 62-30

Avery Mason (A. Kennedy)

By AARON KENNEDY
Sports Editor

Undefeated Marshall takes its show to Macomb, Ill., on Tuesday to face Olympia

By Andy Amey
The Tribune-Star

March 09, 2009

— Tom Brannan and Gerry Thornton agreed on at least two things in separate telephone conversations Sunday with the Tribune-Star.
The Illinois Class 2A Macomb Super-Sectional high school basketball game at 7:30 p.m. CDT Tuesday night between Brannan’s Marshall Lions and Thornton’s Stanford (Olympia) Spartans will be a lot of fun.
And it might even be more fun if it weren’t at Macomb.
Marshall will leave at 10 a.m. Tuesday by chartered bus for the long ride to Western Illinois University, breaking up the trip with a lunch stop at Springfield. The Lions will have a walk-through practice at Macomb High School, then have a place to rest prior to the game that sends the winner to Friday’s Class 2A Final Four at Peoria.
The Lions will be fed on the bus during their ride home, Brannan added. Although their arrival at Marshall isn’t expected to be until at least 3 a.m. Wednesday, the team has been given permission to delay its arrival at school that day until 10.
But at least it’s not supposed to snow.
“We played Olney last year [at the Macomb Super-Sectional], and there was a blizzard that day,” Thornton recalled. “It took them eight hours to get here.”
Although Stanford is a mere 90 minutes from Macomb, Thornton — whose team lost that game to Olney a year ago — isn’t a fan of the site either.
“I just wish we were playing somewhere besides Western Illinois,” he said Sunday. “Last year we had to take our own balls [for practice], and there was only one shower.”
The Spartans were something of a surprise participant in last year’s super-sectional, Thornton noted.
“We’d finished fifth in our league [the Corn Belt Conference] and had only one senior, but we caught lightning in a bottle,” the coach said. “This year [and its success] was kind of expected; we had five of the top six kids back, and we won our league for the first time in 15 years.”
Olympia’s five starters are led by 6-foot-6 guard Matt Frahm, 6-0 guard Brady Cremeens and 6-0 guard Matt Flynn, all seniors and all double-figure scorers. Frahm also leads the team in rebounds and ranks second in assists.
Junior point guard Spencer Pratt, another 6-footer, and 6-2 center Trevor Strubhar complete the starting lineup, and all five of its members were also members of the 2008 Class 2A state championship baseball team at the school.
“They’ve been in big games, and played better in the sectional atmosphere [last week],” Thornton said. “We’re very balanced; all five have been the leading scorer at one time or another.”
Tuesday’s matchup looks intriguing, with nine of the 10 expected starters all listed as guards. Marshall, with 6-4 senior twins Logan and Lucas Eitel plus 6-3 junior Taylor Duncan, 6-2 senior Trey Brashear and 6-5 junior Dustin Morey, calls its lineup a five-guard unit and three more backcourt players — 6-0 freshmen Jacob Duncan and Logan Cannady and 5-9 senior Ethan Delp — are first off the bench.
“[The Spartans] are a perimeter-oriented team,” Brannan agreed. “Four guys who can score on the perimeter, who can put the ball on the floor and who can shoot 3-pointers. Frahm is the school’s all-time leading scorer, so he’s been doing it for awhile, and they are well coached and disciplined.”
Marshall, at 30-0, has the better record of the two, and one of the losses by the 27-4 Spartans came against a St. Joseph-Ogden team that the Lions beat handily.
“[The Lions] know what the scores are; anybody can get on the internet and find them,” Brannan said, “but we know that’s now how things work.
“We have to play the way we’ve been playing, play the right way,” he continued. “Defending is our No. 1 priority, and rebounding will be a determining factor. We have to keep [the Spartans] off the glass and take care of the ball.”
The Lions responded to their own sectional test in fine fashion, overcoming a deficit that lasted the first three quarters to beat Robinson on its own court, then throttling a red-hot Paris team.
“That’s what has to happen this time of year,” Brannan said, “different people stepping up in different ways … it was definitely a team effort that put us where we are now.”
“I told people last week [before the sectionals were played] that [the Lions] might be the best 2A team in the state,” Thornton said. “It’s a real honor to play such a great team.”

Spartans Super: Olympia boys advance to 2A super-sectional

Olympia boys basketball players celebrate with fans after winning the Riverton Class 2A Sectional title Friday (March 6, 2009). (Pantagraph/Randy Sharer)

Saturday, March 7, 2009

By Randy Sharer
rsharer@pantagraph.com

RIVERTON -- Coach Gerry Thornton and his Olympia High School basketball team just want to spend as much time together as possible. By playing together in Friday night’s Riverton Class 2A Sectional final to down Decatur St. Teresa, 68-58, the Spartans are guaranteed another four days of fun. | Box scores, schedules and stats | Olympia season photo gallery

“I just want to spend one more week with them,” Thornton said. “I told them before the game started, I was proud to be their coach and wanted one more week. So we’ve got a half a week. Now we have to work on a full one.”

No. 10-state ranked Olympia (27-4) will face 6-foot-4, Indiana State-bound twins Logan and Lucas Eitel and No. 5 Marshall (30-0) in Tuesday’s 7:30 p.m. Macomb Super-sectional.

“We’ve been there before,” said Thornton, whose Elite Eight team last year lost to Olney East Richland in the Macomb Super-sectional. “Marshall has an outstanding ballclub. They might be the best team in the state. They are tremendous, but we’ve got a lot of guts and heart ourselves.”

Olympia, which won its fourth sectional in school history, displayed its usual balance as Matt Frahm, now up to a school record 1,431 career points, scored 22 to go with 13 rebounds while Brady Cremeens had 16 points, Spencer Pratt 13 and Trevor Strubhar 12. Cremeens sank five 3-pointers.

“I’m just thrilled for our kids,” Thornton said. “It’s been a joy this year.”

Olympia got off to a slow start as it did in Wednesday’s win over Pleasant Plains, falling behind 11-6 and 14-9 before Pratt followed his 3-pointer with a three-point play to put the Spartans in front, 15-14, at the quarter break.

The defensive pressure displayed early by the Bulldogs (22-7) was at a level few teams could maintain.

“They really came at us hard early,” Thornton said. “I told the kids at halftime, I thought we’d score (well) the second half. It’s hard to try to sustain that kind of defensive energy for 32 minutes.”

St. Teresa, led by 10 first-half points from Nick Sanford, stayed with Olympia and even led, 21-20, after the last of Preston Shelley’s three first-half 3-pointers.

The Spartans used a zone to open some daylight with a 9-2 run to end the second quarter. Frahm, who scored eight second-period points, led off with a driving 4-footer.

Pratt then made back-to-back steals to set up his own three-point play ahead of a Frahm rebound basket. Sanford and Frahm traded baskets to end the half with Olympia up, 29-23.

“These kids are gritty,” said Thornton, whose team scored a dozen points on putbacks and finished with a 28-24 advantage on the boards.

Sanford finished with 19 points while St. Teresa’s lone senior, Chris Harter, had 12 and Shelley 11.

“They have six guys and they can all shoot, do drives, kicks ...,” said St. Teresa coach Bill Ipsen. “They hit some big 3s. We knew they were going to hit 3s.

“When they went to the zone at the end of the second quarter, that’s where I thought we kind of lost it.”

“I thought we came out with a little more power,” Strubhar said. “I thought we wanted it more.”

Frahm opened the second half with back-to-back 15-foot jumpers to make it 33-23.

St. Teresa never got closer than 35-29 in the third quarter and never got closer than 64-56 in the fourth.

“None of us want to end it,” said Frahm, who guarded Sanford part of the second half.

“I thought Matt Frahm was special tonight,” Thornton said. “I thought he played like a first-team all-state player, offensively, defensively and on the boards.”

Olympia finished 12 of 22 at the line, which included a shaky 5 of 8 stretch the final 2:22.

“The only real disappointment was we missed so many free throws down the stretch,” Thornton said. “We are good free throw shooters.”

Undefeated Marshall Lions take Sectional Championship

The IHSA Class 2A Sectional Champion Marshall Lions capture the moment for posterity after earning their first Elite 8 basketball berth in school history Friday night, defeating the Paris Tigers 62-30 in Robinson. (Terri Cox Photo)

Travel to Western Illinois University Tuesday to face Stanford Olympia

By Terri Cox
Contributing Writer

Dream season continues: Marshall wins sectional

By Craig Pearson
The Tribune-Star

ROBINSON, ILL. March 07, 2009

— Paris could count on one hand the number of open shots it had Friday against Marshall in high school basketball, the Tigers seeming to constantly hear footsteps of a Marshall defender approaching.
The result was an 8-for-33 shooting night for Paris and a Marshall rout by the score of 62-30 in the Class 2A Robinson Sectional title game. The Lions improved to 30-0 on the season, and coach Tom Brannan’s squad is one of just eight remaining in Class 2A — the farthest a Marshall team has ever gone in an IHSA tournament. The 1973 squad reached the Charleston Super-Sectional, but that was the final 16 teams in a two-class system.
The Lions have absolutely bought into a team defense.
“When I get done [with halftime speeches], that’s what they say to one another: ‘Come on, let’s go out, let’s guard.’ Nobody’s saying ‘Hey, I’m open, give me the ball here on the wing ‘cause I’m open.’ They’re saying ‘Hey, you’ve got to do a better job guarding that guy and we’ve got to hedge on that.’ It’s all about defense,” Brannan said.
In front of a sold-out crowd, Marshall showed off some offensive skills as well, mostly during a short stretch late in the first quarter.
Marshall and Paris felt one another out in the opening minutes as both team’s employed zone defenses.
Senior guard Trey Brashear blocked two shots and made a steal in the game’s first four minutes, but Lucas Eitel’s 3-pointer was the only field goal by either team until Taylor Duncan knocked down a triple to make it 8-1 with 3:05 left in the first quarter.
Then Marshall exploded with a 16-4 run in the final three minutes to take a 24-5 lead after one period.
Freshman Jacob Duncan drilled all three of his 3-point attempts in that three-minute spurt. Taylor Duncan converted on a drive and Lucas Eitel made one of his five steals and broke away for a layup to account for the other points during the game’s decisive run.
Paris guard Chase Brinkley, one of nine seniors, was held scoreless in the opening half as Marshall went into the locker room with a 32-12 advantage.
“There was some big shots by a lot of people,” Brannan said. “We’ve got trust in them. To get that trust, you’ve got to put the work in. When you shoot thousands of shots in the summertime, we’ll let anyone shoot.”
Brinkley was held to one point, a free throw at the 3:12 mark of the third quarter, which is about 19 points below his season average.
Lucas Eitel finished as the game’s high scorer with 16 points and added five assists.
Fresh off a 41-point night Tuesday, Logan Eitel added 13 points. Taylor Duncan also had 13 to go with a game-high eight rebounds.
The adage goes that defense wins championship.
“That’s why we’re undefeated right now,” Brashear said after cutting down his share of the net. “Our emphasis all year has been defense. We like to fly around on the perimeter and that’s the focal point of our team defense. It feels good to be moving on.”
Paris finished 17-12, and coach Terry Elston left the Robinson gym optimistic about the direction of the program.
“I think we probably played the best team in the state tonight,” Elston said. “We’ve had a lot of young guys at your games all year. I hope that continues to build excitement about this program.”

Paris 30
Player fg 3pt ft r s pf tp
Brinkley 0-5 0-2 1-3 3 1 3 1
Haddix 0-4 0-3 4-7 4 0 0 4
A.Mason 1-2 0-0 0-1 6 1 2 2
Temples 0-7 0-4 2-2 2 1 0 2
Hollis 0-0 0-0 1-2 1 0 1 1
Henn 3-5 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 6
Henness 1-1 0-0 0-0 2 0 3 2
Dayton 2-5 1-3 2-2 1 0 0 7
Walls 0-2 0-0 0-0 1 2 0 0
Griffin 1-2 0-0 0-0 3 0 1 2
E.Mason 0-0 0-0 2-2 0 0 0 2
Spung 0-0 0-0 0-2 1 1 0 0
Ball 0-0 0-0 1-4 1 0 0 1
Totals 8-33 1-12 13-25 *25 6 10 30
Marshall 62
Player fg 3pt ft r s pf tp
Lu.Eitel 6-13 2-5 2-2 5 5 2 16
Lo.Eitel 4-7 1-3 4-6 4 2 3 13
Brashear 2-4 0-1 0-0 4 2 3 4
T.Duncan 6-9 1-2 0-0 8 2 3 13
Morey 1-4 1-1 2-4 2 0 1 5
J.Duncan 3-4 3-4 0-0 1 0 4 9
Cannady 1-4 0-2 0-1 2 0 1 2
Delp 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 0 1 0
Tucker 0-0 0-0 0-0 2 0 1 0
Bishop 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 1 0
Francis 0-1 0-1 0-0 1 0 1 0
Grooms 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Wetnight 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Sanders 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Totals 23-48 8-20 8-13 *30 11 21 62

Big sectional night on both sides of border

By David Hughes
The Tribune-Star

TERRE HAUTE March 06, 2009

— Whether you’re a boys high school basketball fan in Indiana or Illinois, the word “sectional” is likely to carry special meaning this weekend.
In Indiana, the Class 4A sectional will resume at Terre Haute North tonight with Terre Haute South (18-4) making its postseason debut against Plainfield (13-8) at 6 o’clock. Don’t be surprised if recently injured South standouts Jake Odum and John Michael Jarvis try to play.
On a history note, Plainfield knocked the Braves out of the state tournament last season. If it makes any difference, and it probably doesn’t, South eliminated a good Plainfield squad from the sectional two years ago.
Following that matchup will be Martinsville (8-12) vs. Mooresville (13-8) at about 7:30. The sectional title contest is scheduled for 7 p.m. Saturday.
If Plainfield reaches the championship game, the Quakers can feel confident because they defeated Martinsville (75-63) and Mooresville (58-56) in the regular season. On Dec. 6, South slipped past Mooresville 67-57.
In Class 3A action at South Vermillion, Edgewood will put its 14-7 mark on the line against the host Wildcats (7-14) in a battle of Western Indiana Conference foes at 6 p.m. today. Then in another WIC reunion, West Vigo (18-5) will take on Owen Valley (12-11) at about 7:30.
The winners will clash at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
On Wednesday, Owen Valley edged Greencastle 51-48 and West Vigo outlasted Brown County 88-76 behind Tyler Wampler’s 29 points. Edgewood advanced to the semifinals by nipping Sullivan 59-55 in overtime Tuesday. South Vermillion received a first-round bye.
If the favorites win tonight, an Edgewood-West Vigo rematch would give the Vikings an opportunity to avenge a 52-42 home loss Feb. 4.
Turning to Class 2A, the Eastern Greene Sectional will feature Bloomfield (11-10) vs. South Knox (17-4) and Linton (4-17) vs. Eastern Greene (10-12) tonight for the right to meet for the championship at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
Class A No. 4-ranked Rockville (19-3) continues to be the heavy favorite to cut down the nets Saturday night at North Vermillion, especially after it knocked off the host Falcons 95-52 Tuesday behind Aaron Bridge’s career-high 29 points. But first, the Rox must get past Wabash River Conference opponent Attica (9-11) at 6 p.m. today.
Then Turkey Run (15-8) will try to build on its momentum from a 66-57 double-overtime triumph over Covington on Tuesday by challenging Riverton Parke (4-17) in today’s nightcap.
For the record, Rockville has defeated Attica (64-47), Turkey Run (59-45 and 45-28) and Riverton Parke (89-46 and 60-37) this season.
In Class A action at White River Valley, Clay City (15-7) will face Union (6-15) at 6 tonight.
Early in the regular season, the Eels lost to Union 46-45. But they’ve won 10 of their last 12 games to earn considerable respect throughout the Wabash Valley.
On Tuesday, Clay City eliminated Terre Haute Holy Cross 88-50. Union received a first-round bye.
In the second semifinal game tonight, White River Valley (9-12) will square off against Shakamak (12-10). On Tuesday, Shakamak beat North Central 53-41.
Over in Illinois, where folks are accustomed to seeing the sectional follow the regional instead of the sectional-regional order used in Indiana, familiar rivals Marshall (29-0) and Paris (17-11) will tangle for the Class 2A Robinson Sectional crown at 7:30 p.m. CST today.
In the first sectional semifinal Tuesday, Marshall survived a scare from the host Maroons before pulling out a 79-70 victory as Logan Eitel led the Lions with 41 points. The next night, Paris routed Tolono Unity 63-44.
Way back in early January, Marshall overpowered Paris 69-57 at Paris, but it’s a safe bet that the Tigers have improved significantly since then.
Tonight’s survivor will move on to the Macomb Super-Sectional on Tuesday.

NEW: Marshall-Paris game to be streamed online

March 05, 2009

— Friday night’s Class 2A Robinson Sectional championship boys basketball game between Paris and Marshall will be broadcast on the Internet.
Log on to www.areasports.net to view the game. Tip-off is slated for 7:30 p.m. CST.
The Marshall Lions are undefeated and bidding to make a run toward the state finals. Paris is also peaking in March, improving to 17-11 with a 63-44 thumping of Tolono on Wednesday to advance to Friday’s championship battle.
The game will also be broadcast on WMMC-FM 105.9.

Inside the Lions...

The Marshall Lions basketball team takes a break from their traditional practice location as they study game film Wednesday after school, preparing for Friday night's IHSA Class 2A sectional title game against the Paris Tigers. The winner will travel to Western Illinois University on Tuesday, March 10 and face the winner of the Riverton sectional. (Photo By Terri Cox)

A look at the undefeated Marshall boys basketball team

By Terri Cox
Contributing Writer

B-SIDES: Boys high school hoops team gives struggling town a reason to smile

By Mark Bennett
The Tribune-Star

MARSHALL, Ill. March 05, 2009

— Folks in Clark County know all about the law of supply and demand right now.
The unemployment rate has hit 10.7 percent. The stalled U.S. automotive market has forced significant layoffs at the county’s largest employer, TRW in Marshall.
One commodity in record demand has given Marshall residents a welcome chance to smile, over and over again — their undefeated boys high school basketball team.
The school’s allotment of 706 tickets to Friday night’s Class 2A Robinson Sectional championship game went on sale to students at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday. They were gone in 40 minutes.
Down at Robinson High School, all 1,800 seats sold by 11 a.m.
Even the mayor of Marshall couldn’t get one.
“I got [to Marshall High School], and I saw there was no line, and I thought, ‘This can’t be good,’” Mayor Ken Smith said, with a chuckle.
In the midst of an economic crunch unlike any in recent memory, Marshall is blessed with a basketball season just as rare. Coach Tom Brannan’s Lions have won all 29 of their games. They won the Capital Classic in November. They beat powerful Terre Haute South in the Wabash Valley Pizza Hut Classic title game in December. They won the Effingham St. Anthony Regional last Friday. And they beat tall and talented host Robinson 79-70 in the sectional semifinal Tuesday night, sending the Lions into Friday night’s final against either Paris or Tolono Unity.
That incredible run “came at a really nice time,” said Nancy Claypool, director at the Marshall Public Library, where use of computers to file unemployment claims has increased. “You can never have enough good news.”
The town is on a first-name basis with the Lions. Fans, still bleary-eyed from traveling to watch Tuesday’s thriller, showed up at Bishop’s Cafe at 4:30 Wednesday morning to eat bacon, eggs and pancakes and talk some more about the exploits of Logan, Lucas, Taylor and Co.
The café officially opens at 5 o’clock.
“They were pretty excited about it,” said Donna Behrens, cook at Bishop’s.
It shows. “Go Big Red” banners hang in windows at several businesses on the town square. The high school hallways buzzed with energy Wednesday morning. Brannan arrived a little late, caring for his 10-year-old son, Kobe, “just a little tired” after watching his dad’s team the night before. The coach’s U.S. history class cheered him as he walked up with one arm full of their papers and a mega-sized cup of soda in the other.
Brannan’s family is a success story, too. Kobe received a heart transplant when he was just 7 weeks old, and now plays basketball for his fifth-grade team. Brannan’s wife, Sarah, teaches geometry at the high school, and serves as sort of a community liaison for the basketball team. She helped organize a benefit fish fry last month, where 500 fans ate and donated funds to buy the Lions a device to practice shooting.
“She has been awesome,” Brannan said, rubbing his short-cropped hair and shaking his head in wonder.
Lots of town residents used that word to describe his team and their season.
“Any basketball season that ends in a zero or a one is pretty unbelievable,” said Marshall resident Curt Smith, as he helped an older fellow jump-start his truck in the VFW parking lot. “That’s what these guys have earned.”
Smith, 38, graduated from Marshall High in 1988. He works at the Robinson Correctional Facility, and realizes he’s fortunate to be in a fairly recession-proof line of work. “Like most anywhere, a state or federal job is a good job to have,” he said.
His father, the mayor, emphasized that the town of Marshall has several promising employment projects under way. Yargus Manufacturing has expanded. Doric Products, a burial vault maker, is building a $1.5-million facility north of the fairgrounds. Mayor Smith also mentioned Heartland Labels, Custom Films, and other small businesses that recently opened or expanded.
The county’s heavy employment hits included the closing of Casey Tool & Machine, and the layoffs at TRW, an electronic auto parts manufacturer. TRW’s work force is now around 650, down from more than 800 last year.
The national recession’s impact on Marshall is statistically rare. The town’s average annual unemployment rate steadily hovered around a healthy 5 percent throughout this decade, according to Vicki Niederhofer, labor market analyst for the Illinois Department of Employment Security.
Then, as the recession spread throughout the country, the TRW and county job losses began rising. In December, the unemployment rate reached 10.7 percent. The January figures are due out March 13, and IDES labor market economist Dennis Hoffman expects rates in counties such as Clark “to be even higher than it’s been for the past couple months.”
People feel the effects. “Tips are going down,” said Kelly Davis, a waitress at the Marshall Family Restaurant. “People, instead of getting that ribeye, are getting a sandwich instead.”
They’re also getting into high school basketball, more deeply than ever, even for an avid prep sports town.
It’s been a pleasant diversion for townspeople, and Brannan understands that value. “Sports can do that,” he said. “When times are tough, you can still go to watch a ball game, and for a short period of time, a game can take your mind off things.
“It’s amazing how it can bring people together,” he added, “sometimes people who’ve never been together in the same room. You can make a friend, sitting at a ball game.”
Tim Pearison, a 1978 Marshall grad, returned to his hometown to become principal at his alma mater this school year. He’s seen so many former teammates, townsfolk and coaches at games, he’s lost count. In his own senior season, Pearison and his Marshall teammates finished a stellar 24-3. He grins when asked about the 2008-09 season.
“There’s nothing you can’t like about it,” Pearison said, “and they have really given our community something to be proud of. And they’re not done.”
On Tuesday, Brannan spoke to the Marshall Rotary Club hours before the sectional semifinal. Listeners got a sneak preview of the game plan. That night, the Lions uncharacteristically fell behind Robinson early, then battled back and fought off a tough challenge to win.
“They never gave up on their game plan,” Mayor Smith said, “even when they got behind.”
Right now, that’s a quality to admire.

Sectional Championship tickets on sale at PHS

Tigers run away from Unity, 63-44, to advance to sectional championship game

TAYLOR HADDIX looks over the Unity defense in the second half of the Tigers’ 63-44 sectional win over the Rockets. The Tigers were able to put together an outstanding game on offense and defense Wednesday night. (Beacon-News Photo/A. Kennedy)

By AARON KENNEDY
Sports Editor

Unity falls short

ROBINSON – The Paris Tigers won 14 regular season games and the Bismarck- Henning Regional title behind a stifling 2-3 zone and just enough offensive firepower.

Then they showed up Wednesday at sectionals and scrapped their whole plan.

The Tigers scored 32 points in the paint and fast-breaked Unity until the Rockets were blue in the face, coasting to a 63-44 win in a Class 2A boys' sectional semifinal.

"It just seemed like the whole game, our heads weren't quite right," Unity coach Jarrett Brown said. "I don't get it in a sectional game, but we just weren't right."

Though Unity led 24-22 at halftime, the Rockets never looked comfortable against the Tigers' zone. So when Paris began to rally in the third quarter, it didn't take the Tigers long to grab the momentum.

A 14-2 run gave Paris a 40-32 lead entering the fourth quarter, and its offensive outburst continued until the final buzzer.

"Since we've been playing we haven't had that game where we put it all together, and we at least did it for a half tonight," Tigers coach Terry Elston said. "We came out and did a really good job defensively getting after it and we ran the floor."

Brown thought his team could have handled Paris' run better.

"They made some shots and we couldn't stop them, and then we couldn't score," he said. "It was a terrible combination."

Chase Brinkley had 17 points and Dalton Temples added 16 points for the Tigers (17-11), who had 16 players see action.

"When you play a lot of guys you can wear the other team down a little bit, and I felt like we did that," Elston said.

Zebo Zebe and Dylan Sturgeon had 10 points each to lead Unity (21-7).

Brown said it will be hard for him to go to school today knowing his day won't end in practice.

"I think the biggest compliment I can give this team is that aside from spending time with my family at home, they are the highlight of my day," he said. "I love being around them, and I didn't want the season to end."

Paris will play undefeated and fifth-ranked Marshall (29-0) in Friday's sectional final.

"I'm not going to worry about Marshall until tomorrow morning," Elston said. "Right now I'm just glad we're playing our best basketball at this time in the season."

Illinois 2A Sectional: Paris tops Tolono 63-44, will face undefeated Marshall

By Dennis Clark
The Tribune-Star

Robinson, Ill. March 05, 2009

— Paris coach Terry Elston’s halftime speech had the similar effect to a powerful time-released medicine. It took a while to take hold, but when it did, it was certainly a doozy.
Paris is feeling quite well now, thank you, after reeling off a 23-2 run beginning late in the third quarter and continuing well into the fourth quarter. As a result, the Tigers throttled Tolono Unity 63-44 to win their Illinois Class 2A Robinson boys high school basketball sectional semifinal game Wednesday.
“That’s the best half we’ve played by far,” Elston stated afterward. “I’m really ecstatic about how we’re peaking at the right time here.”
Next up for Paris (17-11) is a rematch with undefeated Marshall (29-0) in the Robinson Sectional championship game at 7:30 p.m. CST Friday. The winner of that game will head on a loooong road trip to Macomb, Ill., for a super-sectional matchup with the Riverton Sectional winner Tuesday.
While the Tigers were ultimately an easy victor, it was not smooth sailing for them in the first half — and at the outset of the second half either.
The two teams battled through six ties and a three lead changes, the last tie at 15-15 midway in the second quarter. Tolono Unity scored the next five points — a jumper by Kyler McFall and 3-pointer by Zebo Zebe — to assume a 20-15 lead.
Paris managed to get within 24-22 by intermission, thanks to Chase Brinkley sinking three free throws with 0.9 seconds remaining after being fouled on a 3-point attempt in front of the Tolono bench.
That momentum was shortlived however, as Tolono quickly pushed back in front 28-22 at the outset of the second half.
But the worm turned dramatically for Paris soon after, beginning at the 3:22 mark in the third quarter. Back-to-back 3-pointers by Dayton Temples and reserve John Dayton erased a 30-26 Tolono lead, shooting the Tigers quickly in front to stay 32-30.
The Tigers quickly extended the lead by scoring the next six points, then tallied the first nine points of the fourth quarter. Suddenly, with 4:40 to go in the game, Paris enjoyed a commanding 49-32 advantage.
Tolono utilized a pressure defense to get within 14 points, but Paris stifled that strategy by scoring 10 straight points to take its largest lead at 63-39.
“You play a lot of guys, you’re able to wear the other team down,” Elston said, describing his second-half strategy. “I felt we did that. We got contributions from a lot of guys … hit our free throws down the stretch.
“We took our really big guys out in the second half, tried to get a little quicker. Zach Henn stepped up to play the center position.
“I told the guys at halftime we’re right where we want to be. We knew it was going to be a dogfight. Just instilled some confidence, told them ‘this is what we expected, we’re going to be all right’. We got on a run there … it was just exciting.”
Brinkley, Temples and Henn paced the Tigers with 17, 16 and 12 points respectively. The Tigers outrebounded Tolono 34-27 and shot 88.2 percent at the free-throw line. Defensively, Paris limited Tolono to just 29.8 percent shooting from the field.
Dylan Sturgeon and Zebe topped Tolono with 10 points apiece.
• • •
• 3-Point Showdown — Paris’ Temples and Taylor Haddix advanced to Friday’s round in the 3-Point Showdown by making 13 and 9 shots out of 15 attempted prior to the game.

Paris 63
Player fg 3pt ft r s pf tp
Haddix 2-6 0-1 0-0 3 1 1 4
A.Mason 0-1 0-0 0-0 2 0 0 0
Hollis 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 1 2 2
Temples 4-12 2-5 6-7 5 3 3 16
Brinkley 2-8 0-1 7-7 6 0 3 17
Griffin 0-0 0-0 0-0 2 0 1 0
Henn 6-10 0-0 0-1 6 0 3 12
Henness 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Walls 2-3 1-2 2-2 1 1 0 7
Dayton 2-2 1-1 0-0 2 1 1 5
Spung 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
E.Mason 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Waggoner 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Totals 22-45 4-10 15-17 34* 7 14 63
Tolono Unity 44
Player fg 3pt ft r s pf tp
Perry 0-0 0-0 2-2 1 0 0 2
Sturgeon 3-8 0-0 4-6 3 1 2 10
Gooch 2-7 1-2 4-6 5 1 5 9
Zebe 4-16 2-5 0-0 5 0 4 10
McFall 2-8 0-6 2-2 3 2 4 6
Mannon 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 0 0 0
Brown 1-4 0-2 0-0 4 0 1 2
McNeely 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 0 2 0
Ferguson 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 0 0 0
Siuts 2-3 1-2 0-0 0 0 0 5
Messman 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Buhnerkemper 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Totals 14-47 4-18 12-16 27* 4 18 44

Trojans, Lions advance

Effingham Daily News

March 04, 2009

— MATTOON — Charleston High School came back after trailing Salem early in the Class 3A Mattoon Boys Basketball Regional and upset the top seed 56-53 to advance to the championship game Friday evening.
Ryan Hale guided the Trojans with a 24-point effort, his highest of the season. The Trojans trailed 21-11 after the opening quarter and 27-22 at halftime. Charleston came back to knock down 65 percent of its shots in the second half, outscoring the Wildcats 18-9 in the third quarter.
Hale gave the Trojans a 28-27 lead with a basket and then tallied 10 points in the third period run as the Trojans led 40-36 going into the final quarter.
Charleston lost to Salem 66-59 on Dec. 19 and 70-49 on Feb. 3 and is 9-17. Salem finishes the season with a 13-15 record.
Charleston, who has now won four straight, will face either Effingham or Mattoon in Friday's championship game. Those two teams square off tonight at 7:30.
Class 3A Mattoon Regional
CHARLESTON (56)
Miller 4-0 — 9, Rose 2-0 — 5, Hale 9-1 — 24, Nead 0-2 — 2, Parker 1-0 — 2, Johnson 6-1 — 14, Wheeler 0-0 — 0, Doughty 0-0 — 0. TOTALS 22 FG, 4 FT.
SALEM (53)
Robb 2-2 — 6, Tolliver 2-0 — 5, Lusch 2-0 — 4, Harris 1-1 — 3, Light 7-6 — 25, Conklin 4-2 — 10, Brendel 0-0 — 0, Petrea 0-0 — 0. Totals 18 FG, 11 FT.
Charleston---11---11---18---16---—---56
Salem-------21----6----9---17---—---53
3-point FG — Charleston 8 (Hale 5, Miller 1, Rose 1, Johnson 1), Salem 6 (Light 5, Tolliver 1).
--------------------------------
At Robinson
Marshall continues to roll along. The Runnin' Lions handed host Robinson a 79-70 loss to advance to the championship game of the Class 2A Robinson Regional Friday evening.
The Lions trailed Robinson 20-14 after the opening quarter and by the same six-point margin at halftime, 41-35. But Marshall started its comeback with a 19-13 third quarter run and a final period 25-16 lead fueled by 27 of 30 free throws for the game.
Logan Eitel led the Marshall attack with 40 points, 19 coming from the free throw line as he connected on 19 of 20 attempts. He also hit 10 of 15 field goals, which included two of three from three-point range. Also in double figures were Taylor Duncan with 13 and Logan Cannady with 11. Lucas Eitel led in rebounds with six.
The Lions remain undefeated with a 29-0 record.
Robinson finished with a 20-8 mark. The Maroons were led by Ben Jones with 24 and Stephen Jones with 19. Meyers Leonard led in rebounds with 10 and had nine points. The Maroons coughed up the ball 11 times compared to seven for Marshall.
Marshall will take on the winner of the Paris vs. Tolono Unity contest Friday at 7:30 p.m. Paris and Tolono Unity square off tonight.
Class 2A Robinson Sectional
MARSHALL (79)
Lu. Eitel 2-3 — 7, Lo. Eitel 10-19 — 41, Brashear 1-0 — 3, J. Duncan 1-0 — 3, T. Duncan 5-2 — 13, Cannady 3-2 — 11, Morey 0-1 — 1. TOTALS 22 FG, 27 FT.
ROBINSON (70)
Hannahs 3-1 — 9, Leonard 3-3 — 9, Shaw 3-0 — 8, B. Jones 10-3 — 24, S. Jones 4-10 — 19, Watson 0-1 — 1, Siler 0-0 — 0, Hodson 0-0 — 0. TOTALS 23 FG, 18 FT.
Marshall---14---21---19---25---—---79
Robinson---20---21---13---16---—---70
3-point FG — Marshall 8 (Cannady 3, Lo. Eitel 2, Brashear 1, T. Duncan 1, J. Duncan 1), Robinson 6 (Hannahs 2, Shaw 2, B. Jones 5, S. Jones 1).

Logan Eitel scores 41 as Lions eliminate Maroons from 2A sectionals, 79-70

By Terri Cox
Contributing Writer

Illinois 2A Sectional: Logan Eitel’s 41 points help Marshall stay perfect

By Todd Golden
The Tribune-Star

Robinson, Ill. March 04, 2009

— Logan Cannady gave Marshall a lifeline in its Illinois Class 2A Robinson Sectional semifinal against the host Maroons on Tuesday.
Logan Eitel pulled the Lions to safety.
Cannady made three 3-pointers in the third quarter to cut into a Robinson lead that peaked at nine. With the game tied going into the final period, Eitel outscored the Maroons himself in the fourth quarter as Marshall claimed a hard-fought 79-70 victory in front of a packed house to keep its perfect season intact.
Eitel scored 19 of his 41 points in the final period — 13 were scored at the free throw line.
“It’s all about perseverance. We didn’t give up, we know how to win,” Logan Eitel said.
It was anything but easy for the Lions as the Maroons fought every step of the way. The game was tied 67-67 with 1:28 left, but 6-foot-10 Robinson center Meyers Leonard fouled out on a charging call — his third offensive foul of the game.
Logan Eitel scored Marshall’s last 12 points — all at the free throw line. Robinson made just one field goal in the final two minutes as the Maroons finally ran out of gas after they had presented a formidable challenge with or without Leonard on the floor.
“You might think I’m crazy, but I thought everything in this game was in their favor. They were on their home floor, they were playing well, they were moving in the right direction. I was thinking we had to answer them,” Marshall coach Tom Brannan said.
Ben Jones led Robinson with 24 points. Stephen Jones added 19, making all 10 of his free throws while missing just one field goal attempt.
The Maroons shot 58.9 percent from the field, but were hurt by 15 turnovers. The Lions shot 61.5 percent from 3-point range and were 27 of 30 at the free throw line.
Robinson got off to a fast start as the threat of Leonard opened things up for the Maroons’ other scorers. Ben Jones, Derek Hannahs and Stephen Jones all made big buckets as Robinson had an early 13-4 lead.
Leonard, however, picked up his second foul with 3:09 left in the first quarter, and with the big man absent, Marshall’s press gave the Maroons major problems. A 6-0 Lions run made it 18-14.
It was the Maroons’ only dry spell of the first half. Leonard returned right before the first quarter ended and Robinson’s offense came back with him. The Maroons pushed their lead back to 29-21 with 5:26 left in the half. To that point in the game, Robinson was 11 of 16 from the field.
Taylor Duncan drew Leonard’s third foul on a charge with 2:48 left in the half, but this time there was no falloff from the Maroons. Robinson attacked Marshall’s defense and actually increased its lead to 40-31 late in the half before the Maroons settled for a 41-35 halftime advantage.
Robinson shot 65.2 percent (15 of 23) in the first half.
Marshall squared its circle in the third quarter, thanks primarily to Cannady’s trio of 3-pointers that got the Lions within two and its pressure which kept the Maroons off-kilter a bit. Cannady, a freshman, scored nine of his 11 points in the period.
“I wanted to be the one to hit those shots. I was open and it was awesome. I got going and just kept trying to keep the team going,” Cannady said.
Marshall had a lifeline, and from there, Logan Eitel took it and ran with it. He went on a personal 7-0 run via a pair of free throws, a breakaway dunk and a 3-pointer to put the Lions up 59-54.
“Robinson had to get out of their zone and then we started going to the rim, we got a couple of fouls, and the big guy couldn’t contest us. That was our whole modus operandi,” Brannan said.
Marshall kept Robinson at arm’s length, but could not pull away. Consecutive buckets by Ben Jones tied the game at 67 with 2:03 left. After an empty Marshall possession, Leonard’s final offensive foul was called with 1:28 left.
“We talked about the different areas we could [draw charge calls]. We talked about a lot of different scenarios where we could get him. On the block, when he’s spinning,” Brannan said.
Leonard, a junior who will play at Illinois, had nine points and nine rebounds.
Marshall will play the winner of tonight’s Paris-Tolono Unity game in Friday’s championship game.
• Three-point shootout — Olney’s Brandon Barrett (12 makes), Flora’s Paul Knapp (11 makes), Robinson’s Ben Jones (10 makes) and Effingham St. Anthony’s James Jenson (9 makes) made it to Friday’s final round of the 3-point shootout.
Jenson won a playoff 5-4 over Marshall’s Lucas Eitel to advance.

Robinson 70
Player fg 3pt ft r s pf tp
Hannahs 3-6 2-4 1-2 5 0 4 9
Shaw 3-6 2-3 0-0 1 1 3 8
Leonard 3-5 0-0 3-4 9 0 5 9
B.Jones 10-15 1-3 3-5 2 1 4 24
S.Jones 4-5 1-1 10-10 0 1 5 19
Watson 0-0 0-0 1-2 1 0 1 1
Siler 0-2 0-2 0-0 0 0 1 0
Totals 23-39 6-13 18-23 *21 3 23 70
Marshall 79
Player fg 3pt ft r s pf tp
Lo.Eitel 10-18 2-3 19-20 4 0 4 41
Brashear 1-2 1-1 0-0 0 2 2 3
Lu.Eitel 2-5 0-1 3-4 3 2 3 7
T.Duncan 5-10 1-2 2-2 3 1 4 13
Morey 0-1 0-0 1-2 1 0 3 1
J.Duncan 1-3 1-3 0-0 2 2 1 3
Cannady 3-4 3-3 2-2 3 1 1 11
Totals 23-43 8-13 27-30 *18 8 18 79

Undefeated Marshall’s next test: Robinson and its big man

By Andy Amey
The Tribune-Star

March 03, 2009

— Marshall is hoping for history to repeat itself. Robinson wants to be the perfect example of how hard it is to beat a team three times in the same season. Paris? The tough-in-the-clutch Tigers might just want a close game.
Those are storylines for three Wabash Valley teams remaining in the Illinois Class 2A boys basketball tournament, all of them heading to Robinson this week for sectional play.
Unbeaten Marshall and the host Maroons play at 7:30 p.m. CST today, with Paris facing Tolono Unity at the same time Wednesday. The championship is Friday, its dubious prize a trip to the Macomb — yes, Macomb — Super-Sectional, although any of the four teams will be thrilled to make that long, long trip next week.
Marshall and Robinson will be meeting for the third time, although the Lions’ two victories over the Maroons came in the teams’ first and third games of the season back in November.
The Lions will have to find a way to contain Robinson center Meyers Leonard, while the Maroons will need to slow down a host of Marshall weapons.
“He’s a 7-footer and he’s pretty good,” coach Tom Brannan of Marshall said of Leonard, “a legitimate Division I prospect with an NBA-type body.
“Our guys have done a great job of team defense against him [in the previous two meetings],” Brannan continued. “Taylor Duncan will probably take the brunt of [guarding Leonard], but it’s a team project.”
“About every position is a threat,” coach Bob Coffman of Robinson said of the Lions. “They are good shooters and good at getting to the basket.”
Marshall’s abilities to drive the ball may have made the difference in the two early games. “They were good battles, but [the Lions] got to the free throw line and we didn’t,” Coffman recalled. “But since then, we’re averaging 18 to 20 free throws a game … we had a good week last week [in winning the Olney Regional, Robinson’s first regional championship in seven years].”
“[The Maroons] may be the most talented team we will play,” Brannan said. “They have outside shooters, guys who can put it on the floor, a post presence and good role players.”
It’s Marshall’s first trip to a sectional since 1994, with some unbelievable sets of circumstances thwarting the Lions in recent regionals. Some of those bad-luck thoughts may have entered the heads of the Lions last week, before they fought off a stiff challenge from Teutopolis to win the Effingham St. Anthony Regional.
“There was a lot of pressure,” Brannan acknowledged. “We’ve had a lot of things happen, and luck was not always on our side [during recent regional weeks]. But these boys persevered, stuck with it, believed it would happen and it happened.”
Brannan is optimistic his Lions have better basketball ahead of them as a result.
“Now let’s go out and play,” he said. “Give it your all, fly around and have fun.”
Paris has had fun lately, although in a narrow-escape kind of way. The Tigers upset top-seeded St. Joseph-Ogden in overtime to win the Bismarck-Henning Regional and earn another game with Unity; Paris won the regular-season meeting between those two teams 33-31 on Feb. 14, hitting two game-winning free throws with 1.5 seconds left.
Nothing unusual about those games, coach Terry Elston of the Tigers told the Tribune-Star.
“We’ve won five of our last six, all in the last 10 seconds,” Elston said. “We’re pretty battle-tested, and we’re playing well right now.”
The recent game between the two teams should mean there will be few surprises when they battle Wednesday.
“We’ve got film on them, and they’ve got it on us,” Elston noted. “For us it starts on the defensive end; if we can force them to take bad shots, good things happen.”

Paris Tigers prepare for sectional game versus Tolono-Unity Rockets

Chase Brinkley (L) and head coach Terry Elston (R) (A. Kennedy)

By AARON KENNEDY
Sports Editor

Undefeated Marshall draws Robinson in sectionals

Tribune-Star staff report

March 01, 2009

— The field was set Friday night for the Class 2A Robinson Sectional for Illinois high school boys basketball teams.
Marshall defeated Teutopolis to win the Effingham St. Anthony Regional and will face Robinson, the winner over Olney at Olney.
Paris defeated St. Joseph's-Ogden to win at Bismarck-Henning and will meet Tolono Unity, which defeated Sullivan 53-44 to win at Monticello.
The winner at Robinson will advance to the supersectional at Macomb.
In Class A regional finals, Catlin defeated Chrisman 60-51 at Danville Schlarman and Neoga bested Stewardson-Strasburg 62-51 at Cumberland, while Red Hill defeated Clay City 61-41 to advance to the second round.

Robinson Sectional
(all times CST)
Tuesday — Robinson vs. Marshall, 7:30 p.m.
Wednesday — Paris vs. Tolono Unity, 7:30.
Friday — Championship, winner advances to Macomb Supersectional on March 10.

Marshall ends T-town bid for regional title

Dustin White
Effingham Daily News

February 28, 2009

— Top-seeded and undefeated Marshall High School started off like a cannon shot in the championship of the Class 2A St. Anthony boys basketball regional, and even though the Lions pulled out a 55-49 win over No. 3 Teutopolis they surely knew they'd passed one of their toughest tests yet.
After falling behind 21-11 after one quarter and by as many as 16 points in the second quarter, the Wooden Shoes (24-4) battled all the way back to a 46-46 tie only to have freshman Jacob Duncan bury a three-pointer from the corner to break the deadlock for good with 2:58 left in the final period.
T-town had two more possessions to try and cut into that lead, but came up short both times before eventually fouling Marshall into the bonus.
The Lions (28-0) responded the way great teams do, hitting just enough free throws down the stretch to pull out their closest victory a 44-42 decision Jan. 23 at West Vigo (Ind.) and just their sixth single-digit triumph of the year.
Another one of those single-digit wins was against T-town in the championship of the Lawrence County Capital Classic all the way back on Nov. 29.
Like Friday night, the Shoes found themselves down double-digits in that contest and came up short in a comeback bid, although they didn't quite have Marshall's back to the wall the way they did at the jam-packed Enlow Center.
"We dug ourselves way too big of a hole," said Teutopolis coach Andy Fehrenbacher. "Marshall is such a great team with so many weapons, but I cannot be prouder of the effort we showed in coming back."
Early on, it looked like it might be a slaughtering as the Shoes committed nine first-half turnovers that led to 14 Marshall points.
Lucas Eitel, who ended up with 14 points, 12 rebounds and three assists, was especially hot before halftime; the senior was 5-for-5 with 11 first-quarter points as the Lions turned turnovers and long rebounds into runouts and easy scores.
Taylor Duncan, a junior and Jacob's older brother, scored seven of his 11 before intermission as well.
Marshall was 16-for-23 (70 percent) from the floor before intermission, while T-town spent the first quarter and a half settling for jumpers and not attacking the rim.
"You can't do that against Marshall," said Fehrenbacher. "You've got to get into a team like that and try to get to the line and get some fouls called."
Luckily, senior Tony Zerrusen hit three first-half three-pointers to keep it manageable, and T-town drew some shooting fouls and hit five of six charity tosses.
Fortunate to be down only 10 at the break, T-town clearly outplayed Marshall for a bulk of the second half as the Lions showed some signs of being back on their heels while a raucous Wooden Shoe crowd worked itself up to a fever pitch.
"We were a lot more aggressive in the second half," said Fehrenbacher, whose club hit seven of nine free throws in the third quarter to get within six.
"They also hurt us on the offensive boards and we committed too many unforced turnovers. In a game like this, one or two possessions can end up costing you everything. The little things add up by the end of the game."
After his twin brother ran the show in the first half, Logan Eitel took over in the second half and took 10 of Marshall's 22 shots. He ended up leading the Lions with 17 and also had a team-high four steals.
The score everyone will remember, however, was Jacob Duncan's triple.
"You may think I'm full of it, but I knew that shot was in as soon as he let go of it," said 17-year Marshall coach Tom Brannan, who last guided a team to a regional championship in 1994.
"That was a dagger," said Fehrenbacher. "(Leaving Duncan open) was a gamble we talked about. We denied both Eitels and the older Duncan kid, so we knew somebody was going to be open."
By and large the strategy still worked as T-town got itself back into the game by switching things up and slowing things down.
"Our guys did a great job, but a whole lot of credit goes to T-town and Andy," said Brannan. "They were the biggest reason this game got close again. I just had to keep telling my kids they were ahead and to play like it. When you play with confidence, good things happen."
Zerrusen wound up with a game-high 18 points and also had five rebounds in his final game. He and fellow seniors Brian Haskenherm, Jeremy Schumacher, Kendall Giles and John Runde will be moving on.
"Tony does everything you ask of him," said Fehrenbacher. "When the game is on the line, you want him to have the ball in his hands. He's a winner, plain and simple, and he left it all out there tonight. It's what he's done all year."
Haskenherm, T-town's second-leading scorer, didn't find his way into the scoring column, but did lead all players with five assists.
"Brian has been such a pleasure to coach," said Fehrenbacher. "You can't ask for a better kid. He didn't score much in this regional, but he does so many other things."
J. Schumacher had 10 points along with sophomore Nick Schumacher.
"Jeremy didn't start for us at the beginning of the season, but he's worked his way into it," said Fehrenbacher. "He always knew his role and what he needed to do to be important to this team.
"Giles didn't play as much as some of the others, but he was always in the game and like another coach for us. He always did his part.
"Runde is just such a warrior. I think he's the poster boy for Wooden Shoe basketball. He doesn't have the most talent, but he works harder than anybody else out there."
Marshall moves on to the Robinson Sectional, where it will take on the host Maroons after they defeated Olney to win the Olney Regional. That semifinal is set for Tuesday, while Tolono Unity and Paris square off in the Wednesday contest. Championship action is set for Friday.
Dustin White can be reached at 217-347-7151 ext. 123 or dustin.white@effinghamdailynews.com.
Class 2A St. Anthony Regional
Championship
At The Enlow Center
TEUTOPOLIS (49)
Niebrugge 0-5 0-0 0, Zerrusen 5-12 4-5 18, Thompson 0-0 0-0 0, Haskenherm 0-5 0-0 0, J. Schumacher 3-6 4-4 10, N. Schumacher 2-3 5-8 10, Giles 1-2 0-0 2, Runde 1-3 3-4 5, Sandschafer 2-2 0-0 4. TOTALS 14-38 FG (36.8) 16-21 FT (76.2).
MARSHALL (55)
Lo. Eitel 7-16 2-4 17, J. Duncan 3-5 0-0 8, Brashear 0-2 1-2 1, Lu. Eitel 6-13 1-4 14, T. Duncan 4-7 2-2 11, Morey 2-2 0-0 4. TOTALS 22-45 FG (48.9) 6-12 FT (50.0).
Teutopolis---11---16---11---11---—---49
Marshall----21---16----7---11---—---55
3-point FG — Teutopolis 5-13 (Zerrusen 4-9, Haskenherm 0-2, N. Schumacher 1-2), Marshall 5-14 (Lo. Eitel 1-3, J. Duncan 2-4, Brashear 0-1, Lu. Eitel 1-4, T. Duncan 1-2). Rebounds — Teutopolis 26 (N. Schumacher 6, Zerrusen 5), Marshall 24 (Lu. Eitel 12, Brashear 5). Offensive Rebounds — Teutopolis 6 (J. Schumacher 2, N. Schumacher 2), Marshall 8 (Brashear 5, Lu. Eitel 2). Second-Chance Scoring — Teutopolis 4, Marshall 5. Team Rebounds — Teutopolis 1 (1 off.), Marshall 0. Total Fouls — Teutopolis 15, Marshall 12. Fouled Out — none. Assists — Teutopolis 11 (Haskenherm 5, Niebrugge 3), Marshall 8 (Lu. Eitel 3). Blocked Shots — Teutopolis 1 (N. Schumacher), Marshall 3 (Lo. Eitel, J. Duncan, T. Duncan). Steals — Teutopolis 3, Marshall 10 (Lo. Eitel 4). Turnovers — Teutopolis 14, Marshall 11. Points Off Turnovers — Teutopolis 11, Marshall 20. Officials — Jim Wagner, Mike Jones, George Martin.
Three-Point Qualifiers — Lucas Eitel (Marshall), Riley Scales (Casey-Westfield), Logan Eitel (Marshall), James Jansen (St. Anthony).

Marshall wins first boys regional title since 1994

By Andy Amey
The Tribune-Star

EFFINGHAM February 28, 2009

— Lucas Eitel put on a show Friday night at the Effingham St. Anthony Regional 3-point contest, and got Marshall’s Lions off to a similar start when the real game started.
But the Lions’ first regional championship since 1994 wouldn’t come easy. After squandering all of a 16-point second-quarter lead, Marshall got a clutch 3-pointer with three minutes left by freshman Jacob Duncan and held on for a 55-49 win over gutty Teutopolis.
“Give a lot of credit to T-town,” coach Tom Brannan of Marshall said after the game. “Their tandem 2-3 zone [defense] kind of hurt us.”
It didn’t appear for a while like anything was going to hurt the Lions. With Lucas Eitel scoring 11 first-quarter points and heading toward a potential triple-double, Marshall closed out the first quarter with a 14-2 run for a 21-11 lead — Lucas Eitel was 5-for-5 fron the field — and built that margin to 28-12 early in the second period.
“We were out there to prove something,” said Lucas Eitel — who hit 12 of his 15 3-point shots in the preliminary — after the game. “Last year [when the Lions lost the Robinson Regional final to Effingham St. Anthony] we were kind of humiliated.”
But then, despite Marshall’s 70-percent first-half shooting from the field, momentum jumped off the Lions’ bus and never really got back on.
Teutopolis cut the lead to 37-27 by halftime, and finished the third quarter on a 9-3 run that brought the Wooden Shoes within 44-38.
“We came out kind of cold [in the second half], and [the Shoes] got in their zone defense,” Lucas Eitel said.
“For a while we went back in a funk,” Brannan said. “We were not attacking the basket with confidence, and playing not to get beat … we were attacking [the Teutopolis zone], but not getting the shots we wanted — but I’m not sure they got the shots they wanted either.”
“Defense was the difference this year,” Lucas Eitel agreed. “We kept [the Shoes] from scoring points too.”
A trade of baskets early in a deliberate fourth quarter kept the margin at six points, but then T-town’s Jeremy Schumacher scored inside. The Shoes came out of a timeout and ran a play for Tony Zerrusen, who hit a 3-pointer that cut the lead to 46-45, and with 4:20 left one of many second-half fouls by the Lions sent Nick Schumacher to the line.
He hit the first, tying the score for the first time since 9-9, but missed the second. Both teams failed on chances to take the lead, but then the younger of the Duncan brothers — “Ice water in his veins,” Brannan said later — connected from the corner. His older brother Taylor Duncan added two free throws with 55.3 seconds left, and the Lions survived despite three missed free throws in the final minute.
Logan Eitel led Marshall with 17 points, getting 10 of the Lions’ 18 in the second half. Lucas Eitel had 14 points, 13 rebounds and seven assists — six of the feeds in the quicker first half — while Taylor Duncan scored 11, Jacob Duncan eight, Trey Brashear had six rebounds and his usual good defensive work and Dustin Morey had three steals.

Teutopolis 49
Player fg 3pt ft r s pf tp
Runde 1-3 0-0 3-4 3 3 2 5
Haskenherm 0-5 0-2 0-0 4 0 4 0
Sandschafer 2-2 0-0 0-0 2 0 1 4
J.Schumacher 3-6 0-0 4-4 4 2 4 10
Zerrusen 5-12 4-9 4-5 5 0 2 18
Niebrugge 0-5 0-1 0-0 2 0 0 0
Giles 1-2 0-0 0-0 1 0 0 2
N.Schumacher 2-3 1-2 5-8 5 0 1 10
Thompson 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 1 0
Totals 14-38 5-14 16-21 *29 5 15 49
Marshall 55
Player fg 3pt ft r s pf tp
Morey 2-2 0-0 0-0 0 3 0 4
T.Duncan 4-7 1-2 2-2 4 1 4 11
Lo.Eitel 7-16 1-3 2-4 3 4 3 17
Lu.Eitel 6-11 1-3 1-4 13 1 2 14
Brashear 0-3 0-2 1-2 6 1 1 1
J.Duncan 3-5 2-4 0-0 0 0 3 8
Cannady 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Totals 22-44 5-14 6-12 *28 10 13 55
Teutopolis 11 16 11 11 — 49
Marshall 21 16 7 11 — 55
FG Pct. — Teutopolis .368, Marshall .500. 3-pt FG Pct. — Teutopolis .357, Marshall .357. FT Pct. — Teutopolis .762, Marshall .500. (*) Includes team rebounds — Teutopolis 3, Marshall 2. Turnovers — Teutopolis 13, Marshall 12. Assists — Teutopolis 13 (Haskenherm 5), Marshall 13 (Lu.Eitel 7). Blocks — Teutopolis 1 (N.Schumacher), Marshall 2 (Lo.Eitel, J.Duncan).
Next — Marshall (28-0) plays Robinson on Tuesday at the Class 2A Robinson Sectional. Teutopolis finished 24-4.

Zebe, Unity make fourth quarter count

MONTICELLO – It was physical. It was intense. It was loud.

It was everything you would expect with the season on the line.

Unity claimed its ninth regional title in 12 years after defeating Sullivan 53-44 on Friday night at the Class 2A Monticello Regional.

"This is what you do everything for" Rockets coach Jarrett Brown said. "All the offseason work and weight training. It's really a great moment. The kids kept their composure and played with a lot of courage tonight."

The win wasn't easy for Unity, which trailed 27-24 at intermission after an all-around sloppy first half that featured 17 turnovers and 16 fouls.

"We didn't play well" said Brown of the Rockets' first half. "We played hard and competed, we just weren't sharp. We had some careless turnovers and were a little bit hesitant."

The struggles extended early into the third quarter before Unity went on a 7-0 run.

With the game tied at 35 after three quarters, Sullivan's Chance Typer hit a jumper in the opening minutes of the fourth.

It was the last lead Sullivan would see.

After trading turnovers on the next two possessions, Unity's Zebo Zebe kicked off a 6-0 run, converting a steal into a three-point play on a fast break.

"Being a senior, you have that sense of urgency" Zebe said. "I knew this could be the last time I'm on the floor, so I had to give it everything I had."

With momentum on their side, the Rockets took full control on the next possession.

After getting blocked from be-hind on a fast break off a Sullivan miss, sophomore Seth Gooch pulled out a little trickery, scoring an easy layup after inbounding the ball off Chris Marrs to give Unity a 40-37 lead with about six minutes to play.

"I just kind of looked at the court to see what was there" Gooch said. "I saw the kid turn his back and thought, heck, I'll try it. I missed a few layups earlier in the game, so it felt great to pop it off his backside and get to the rim. It really swung the momentum our way."

After a pair of misses and an offensive foul on Marrs during Sullivan's next three possessions, Unity forced the game into its strength.

"We always try to get to the four-minute mark with the lead" Brown said.

Like they've done throughout the season, the Rockets iced the game in the final minutes, connecting on 11 of 16 from the free throw line to cap an 80 percent night.

"We've been really strong in that area all year" Brown said. "I felt confident when the game reached that point. There is no question our guys expect to make them. We didn't hit them all, but we made just enough."

Zebe finished with a game-high 14 points and seven rebounds, and junior Kyler McFall added nine points and three steals.

For Sullivan, Typer and Marrs each finished with a team-high 12 points. Marrs grabbed eight rebounds.

Unity is scheduled to play Paris on Wednesday in the Robinson Sectional.

"I feel like when we play with energy and enthusiasm we can play with anyone," Brown said. "We've proven that. I hope we bring that energy to sectionals. If we do, I think we have a chance."

Paris Tigers win regional championship in O.T.

CHASE BRINKLEY scores in the second half of the Tigers’ overtime win over the St. Joseph Spartans. The senior guard led his team with 21 points, four steals and five rebounds. (B. Cunningham)

By AARON KENNEDY
Sports Editor

Six area squads to play for regional titles

Dustin White
Effingham Daily News

February 27, 2009

— By the time tonight's Class 1A and 2A boys basketball regional championship games are through, there could be as many as three National Trail Conference teams moving on to sectional play.
At the Class 2A St. Anthony Regional, NTC champion Teutopolis High School will face one of its greatest challenges all year as it is set to take on undefeated Marshall with a berth in the Robinson Sectional on the line.
In Class 1A, the St. Elmo Regional final is between top-seeded Altamont and No. 2 Dieterich. While former Midland Trail Conference member Dieterich has spent the season playing as an independent, it will join Altamont in the NTC next year.
Over in Toledo, Neoga and Stewardson-Strasburg will square off for the hardware at the Cumberland Regional; the second-seeded Indians battered the top-ranked Comets 76-57 when they last played 10 days ago.
Moving south, more Class 1A championship play will be going on in Woodlawn as the top-ranked host tries to beat No. 2 South Central for the second time this year and also end retiring Coach Gary Shirley's long tenure on the Cougars' bench.
The winners from St. Elmo, Cumberland and Woodlawn all move on to the Red Hill (Bridgeport) Sectional along with the winner of the Edwards County (Albion) Regional, which will be decided between No. 3 Clay City and No. 1 Red Hill.
Tonight's games are all set for 7:30 p.m. tipoffs.
Class 2A St. Anthony Regional
Only five teams have played Marshall (27-0) to a final margin of fewer than 10 points all season, and one of those teams is Teutopolis (24-3).
That was a 63-54 decision way back on Nov. 29 in the championship of the Lawrence County Capital Classic, and it took a late run for the Wooden Shoes to cut that final margin to nine.
It really doesn't matter — one way or another, T-town is one of the few schools that has actually given the Lions a game.
Marshall had an impressive championship run at the Wabash Valley Pizza Hut Classic in Terre Haute, handing losses to Rockville, Terre Haute South and Terre Haute North for a Christmas tourney title.
There's also a nice 44-42 win over West Vigo to Marshall's credit, but that was a Jan. 23 game. Since then, the Lions haven't won a game by fewer than 28 points.
Sure, most of that is due to the undeniable fact that Marshall is an absolutely outstanding team. Playing much weaker conference opposition hasn't hurt, though; the Lions have rolled Little Illini Conference opposition by an average of 36 points this season.
Seems reminiscent to the quarterfinals of the 2007 Class 1A state tournament, when the battle-tested Wooden Shoes came up against a Nashville club that had won its postseason games by an average of almost 28 points.
T-town, which had lost by 14 to Nashville just a month earlier, was pegged as the Hornets' next victim after going down to the wire in its regional and sectional championship games and needing overtime to win the sectional semifinal, but it got the last laugh in a 43-38 win and eventual third place finish.
Does tonight's matchup between the No. 3 Shoes and No. 1 Lions parallel that Nashville game at all? Maybe, maybe not.
One thing is for certain, however. If Coach Tom Brannan's ultra-talented Marshall club takes Andy Fehrenbacher's T-town squad lightly, it will be going home.
It's incredibly unlikely Brannan will allow that to happen, and tonight's game shapes up to be one of the better regional finals the state has to offer.
Class 1A St. Elmo Regional
Three of Altamont's four losses this season have been against teams playing for a regional title; Teutopolis got the Indians twice, while Stew-Stras also won the first of their three meetings when they clashed at the Vandalia Holiday Tournament.
St. Anthony is the only other team to beat the Indians (24-4), but Dieterich would like nothing more than to hang a fifth loss on the state's eighth-ranked Class 1A team tonight.
The Movin' Maroons (20-8) won their first-ever regional title last year and eventually bowed out in the sectional final against Nokomis.
It has been four years since these schools have faced off, although it will become a regular occurrence when Dieterich officially joins up with the NTC next year.
Altamont and Dieterich have 11 common opponents. The Indians have won 16 of 18 games against those opponents, while Dieterich has gone 10-5 against the same field.
The only teams both Altamont and Dieterich have lost to are St. Anthony and Stew-Stras.
Class 1A Cumberland Regional
Neoga had one of its poorer nights offensively in beating Cumberland 37-35 in a Wednesday semifinal, but it can also hang its hat on the fact it held the Pirates to their lowest point total of the year and 25 below their average.
That's in stark contrast to its 76-57 win at Strasburg on Feb. 17, when the Indians hit 67 percent (30-for-45) of its field goal attempts.
Stew-Stras had its way with Oblong as it pasted the Panthers in a 62-34 semifinal, even though junior starter Will Rincker's play was limited by a sore ankle.
The last time these two met for a regional championship game, it was at Pana in 2006. The higher-seeded Indians were 84-44 winners and went on to play in the championship game of the Shelbyville Sectional.
That was Coach Jason Hanson's first year on the Neoga bench, and the championship at Pana broke a six-year regional drought for the school.
Class 1A Woodlawn Regional
The last time South Central took a loss, it was a 50-25 shellacking at Woodlawn with the Midland Trail Conference West Division Title.
It snapped a stretch of 18 wins in 19 outings for the Cougars (23-6), who got things turned around after a 2-3 start.
Senior post man Isaac Grapperhaus has scored at least 30 points in each of his last two games and would like to do the same after being held to 10 the last time he faced the Cardinals (25-1).
Tanner Bushue, the Cougars' other senior standout, was the focus of Odin's box-and-one scheme in Wednesday's semifinal victory, a 47-40 overtime triumph in which he scored just five.
It is often said you never want to face a Shirley-coached team a second time, especially after handing the Cougars a loss.
Twenty-five points are a lot to make up, but if anyone can do it . . . the smart money is on South Central's hall-of-fame mentor with over 500 career victories and 10 regional titles under his belt.
Class 1A Edwards County Regional
Clay City (17-12) beat North Clay (Louisville) in a 46-41 Thursday semifinal to get to the title game at Albion, knocking off the Cardinals to split their season series at 2-2.
That quartet of games was decided by a grand total of 18 points, and that included Clay City's 63-53 win on Dec. 9.
Now, the Wolves face Red Hill (14-10) for a shot at their first regional crown in over 40 years.
According to the IHSA Web site, the last time Clay City won a regional was in the 1965-66 season.
Effingham High School basketball fans ought to know a little about Clay City's coach back then . . . it was none other than Jim Maxedon, who later took the Flaming Hearts to the state tournament.
Dustin White can be reached at 217-347-7151 ext. 123 or dustin.white@effinghamdailynews.com

Hughes, News and Views: How does Marshall's unbeaten season stack up?

February 27, 2009

— Regardless of how Marshall fares against Teutopolis in tonight’s championship game of the Class 2A Effingham St. Anthony Regional, there’s no denying that the 27-0 Lions have treated their fans to one of the most memorable boys basketball seasons in recent Wabash Valley history.
Checks of the ihsaa.com Web site for Indiana high schools and ihsa.org site for Illinois schools revealed few seasons with even close to as good of records as Marshall has compiled in 2008-09.
The ihsaa.com site lists every Indiana school’s boys basketball record since 1993-94.
Some of the best include:
n Terre Haute North went 22-3 (18-2 in the regular season) in 1994-95, 21-6 (15-5) in 1995-96, 20-5 (16-4) in 1993-94 and 17-5 (16-4) in 1997-98.
n Terre Haute South went 22-6 (17-5) in 2004-05, 18-5 (18-4) in 2007-08 and 17-4 (17-3) in 1995-96. Digging a little deeper, a Tribune-Star microfilm search reminded me that South finished 23-2 (19-1) in 1988-89, Tony McGee’s senior year.
Also worth noting is that the Braves have won at least 18 games in three of the past five seasons (including this season), an impressive accomplishment in the Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference era of North and South athletics.
n That 1995-96 sure was a dandy season around here. You probably noticed North and South posting outstanding marks then, but West Vigo also went 19-3 (18-2).
n Northview went 21-3 (20-2) in each of the 2001-02 and 2002-03 seasons.
n Staying in Clay County, Clay City went 18-5 (17-4) in 2002-03.
n Back to 1995-96 again, Turkey Run finished 18-3 (18-2).
n Sullivan ended up 24-3 (20-2) in 2000-01 and 22-3 (18-2) in 1998-99.
n A former small-school power, Union went 24-4 (18-3) in 1999-2000, 21-4 (18-3) in 1996-97 and 20-4 (18-3) in 1997-98.
n A more recent memory is Rockville going 23-4 (19-3) in 2007-08.
n Also last season, Shakamak finished 19-6 (16-5).
n North Central ended up 18-6 (16-5) in 2006-07.
n Riverton Parke concluded 1997-98 at 14-5 (14-4). Incidentally, not every Valley team enjoyed an outstanding ’95-96. That season, the Panthers went winless in 21 games.
You’re starting to get the point by now: Wrapping up a season with one or zero losses is next to impossible.
As for Illinois schools in our area, ihsa.org goes back farther than the Indiana site, but it also skips a few seasons at some schools, probably because records were unavailable. Also, ihsa.org does not provide a game-by-game listing of scores for any seasons, so determining regular-season records is more difficult.
With that in mind, here are some of the best Illinois records from the past 40 years (with no regular-season records in parentheses):
n Before now, Marshall’s best seasons were 26-3 in 1972-73, 25-3 in 2007-08 and 23-4 in 1993-94.
n Also in Clark County, Martinsville posted impressive marks of 28-1 under coach Steve Bennett in 1980-81, 25-1 under Randy Bishop in 1986-87 and 18-9 in 1993-94.
n Casey went 25-3 in 1998-99 and 24-3 in 1996-97.
n Paris finished 30-1 under Bret Brown in 1970-71 and 24-6 in 2002-03.
n In 2001-02, Robinson ended up 29-3.
n Formerly in the Tribune-Star’s coverage area, Chrisman compiled records of 26-1 under Roger Beals in 1991-92, 27-4 in 1994-95 and 23-5 in 2006-07.
n Finally, Palestine went 19-9 in 1984-85. But what really grabbed my attention was a 0-23 campaign for the Pioneers in 1995-96.
All these numbers are fun for sports reporters to write about and fun for fans to talk about, but they’re not what Marshall coach Tom Brannan is focused on this week.
“To be honest, I haven’t really thought too much about it,” he said Thursday. “I have to say, we really are just taking it one game at a time.”
Still, it looks like 30 — Paris’ number of triumphs in ’70-71 — is a reasonable goal for the 2008-09 Lions.
“I’ve got a great feeling,” Brannan admitted. “I hope we’ve got a few more [wins] to put on there.”
But first things first. Marshall vs. Teutopolis is slated for 7:30 CST tonight. The winner will advance to the Robinson Sectional next week.
Back in November, Marshall defeated Teutopolis 63-45 in the championship game of the Capital Classic at Lawrenceville. A victory would give the Lions their first regional title since 1994.

David Hughes can be reached by phone at 1-800-783-8742, Option 4, or at (812) 231-4224; by e-mail at david.hughes@tribstar.com; or by fax at (812) 231-4321.