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Lady Miners take tough loss to Staunton

Published

13 years ago

December 31, 2011

BenGil Staff

Loni Nicole Manalia pressures the ball on defense.

After beating Carlinville and losing to Litchfield, the Lady Miners found theirselves playing for the third place plaque at the 31st annual Carlinville Holiday Tournament against Staunton. As it was the first time both teams have played against each other this season, it is safe to say neither team had the edge on Thursday’s afternoon game.

Gillespie came out on a soft foot as they only scored just three field goals to tally 6 points after the first quarter. Staunton, on the other hand, came out with a run and gun attitude and scored 15 points in the first quarter to give the Miners an early 9 point deficit. The ladies responded in the second quarter as they outscored the Bulldogs by one point, but they still trailed by 8 points at halftime.

Fouls were heavy and abundant in the second half, but it did not seem to phase the Lady Miners as they outscored the Bulldogs again in the third quarter by just a single point. Egos and attitudes got ahead of a couple Staunton players in the fourth quarter and as the ref accompanied them to rest on the bench for the rest of the game, the Miners continued to battle back and share a few laughs.

The game came down to the last 10 seconds and the ladies fell short as McEnery from Staunton cashed in her free throws to seal the game for the Bulldogs. The Miners had 3.4 seconds to rush downcourt, but Ellen Gray’s long range three pointer fell just short of the rim and the Miners took fourth place in the holiday tournament with a score of 40-38.

The Miners continued to work on a few offensive plays in the first quarter, but they did not seem to be worth while against Staunton’s 2-3 zone. Ellen Gray led the team in the first quarter as she scored four of the six points, but it was not near enough to compete with the Bulldogs from Staunton. Lacking an offensive structure, the run and gun style of playing seem to work in Staunton’s favor in the first quarter as Fairman scored 7 of the teams 15.

Scoring majority of their points, Fairman did record a few assists as the four other starters from Staunton all recorded a single field goal to tally the other 8 points. With a nine point lead, it looked as if it was going to be a long game for the Lady Miners as their pursuit of the third place plaque still remained in the back of their minds.

Alexis Burns fights around the defender for the rebound.

Trailing by nine points, the Miners decided to step it up a notch. Ellen Gray, pointguard, pushed the offense and even got herself an open layup one trip down the court. The other scoring in the quarter came from senior guard Loni Nicole Manalia and junior forward Alexis Burns who each had 4 points and 2 points respectively. Totaling nine points on the offensive end, the ladies worked twice as hard on defense.

Going back with the full court press, the ladies forced the Bulldogs to turn the ball over nearly 7 times in the second quarter. The few times they did get past half court without calling a timeout to save them from a 10 second whistle, the team did find the bottom of the net. Of course none of the points were from three point land, but the team did manage to total 4 field goals to add 8 more points onto the guest side of the scoreboard. After being outscored by one point, the Bulldogs still led the Miners at halftime by a score of 23-15.

Down by eight points now, the Miners had 16 minutes to take control of the game. The ladies repeated the second quarter and scored 9 points again as Molly Gray led the team with her three pointer. Shelby Jarman, Ellen Gray, and Kayli Morris each put forth an additional two points while Staunton could only score just another 8 points. Trimming the deficit by one point again, led to a seven point Bulldog lead after the third quarter: 24-31.

All the action boiled down to the fourth quarter as tempers continued to flair from the Staunton side of the court. It did not attest the Miners as the team continued to hold their head high and score basket after basket. The Miners went on a 5-0 scoring run at one point late in the fourth quarter. Most of the scoring came from junior Shelby Jarman, but Ellen Gray and Tyler Ross each put forth 4 points a piece.

Haylie Kirkwood fights for the jump ball while Ellen Gray looks on.

As Staunton spent much of the entire fourth quarter in bonus, nearly all of their points came from the free throw line since they could not manage to make a shot with a hand in their face. McEnery and Yakos scored two points each for the Bulldogs as the team scored just 9 points in the quarter. As the game neared the end, the score was tied with 32 seconds left.

But after the Miners failed to execute on offense, they were slapped with a negotiable call which sent Staunton 2 points ahead: 40-36. The Miners had 3.4 seconds left to travel the length of the court to score, but a long range three pointer fell short and the Miners took home a 38-40 loss along with the fourth place plaque.

One bad quarter is all it took to put the girls behind as they outscored the Bulldogs the remaining three quarters. The ladies did up their free throw percentage as they shot 83% Thursday afternoon, but the two missed free throws could have tied the game. Coming out of the tournament 1-2, the ladies will not play again until January 5 when will take on North Mac at their place.

Leading scorer for Thursday’s game was Ellen Gray as she recorded 13 points. Shelby Jarman followed up with 8 points while Loni Nicole Manalia and Tyler Ross each had 4. Molly Gray ended with her single three pointer and Alexis Burns, Chelsea Gill, and Kayli Morris each put forth 2 points.

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Featured

Gillespie man injured in DUI accident

Published

9 years ago

October 16, 2015

BenGil Staff

Genisio's Ford Mustang in the City of Gillespie's impound lot Tuesday morning.

A Gillespie man was taken to a local hospital after suffering injuries following a single-vehicle accident that occurred Sunday morning, October 11, after he drove off the roadway and into a deep ditch near the intersection of Route 16 and Charles Street in Gillespie.

Gillespie Police Chief Jared DePoppe reported that the police department was dispatched to the scene of the accident shortly before 3 a.m. Officers arrived to find Jonathan Genisio, 29, of Gillespie as the driver and only occupant inside the Ford Mustang vehicle.

Genisio was arrested, but give a notice to appear in court so he could seek medical treatment. He was charged with six different counts in addition to having his vehicle impounded. His charges include driving under the influence of alcohol, no insurance, improper lane usage, failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident, failure to notify SOS of an address change and failure to wear a seat belt.

At the time of publication on Thursday evening, the vehicle was recovered from impound and Genisio was discharged from the hospital. The extent of his injuries was unable to be released by medical personnel.

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Community News

Gillespie council discusses budget and meeting process

Published

9 years ago

August 1, 2015

BenGil Staff

Treasurer Dan Fisher (right) addresses the council.

The treasurer for the City of Gillespie had a lot to say about how city officials handle their subcommittees and how city funds are spent during the city’s committee meeting held Monday evening, July 27.

Dan Fisher, the elected treasurer for Gillespie, spoke to the council for over 30 minutes about how bills are paid and more importantly, how purchases are appropriated for and planned. During the city’s board meeting held earlier this month, Fisher suggested the council move their meeting dates to coincide with how the bills are paid.

He explained that many council members bring up issues or have questions about certain bills during the council meetings, but the questions are left to be answered by the city clerk who isn’t present at the board meetings. In addition to dragging out the meetings, Fisher said the questions should be taken care of before the meeting is held.

“We need to have a standardized process on how we buy things,” Fisher told the council Monday evening. “We need to spend more time on appropriating.”

We need to have a standardized process on how we buy things

Fisher distributed a “Budget Basics” packet to board members during the committee meeting held Monday and said the council should consider implementing a purchase order system to account for all purchases. “That way when the bills come in, we can match the form up with it and everyone knows what the purchase was for and what account it comes out of,” he clarified.

Council members agreed with what Fisher had to say to them. “We need to spend a lot of time when do our appropriation and it’s going to take a lot of time from everyone, including myself,” he continued. “We need to find a way to be collective in how we do things.”

Fisher closed by adding that the council also takes too long at their regular city council meetings, which are held on the second Monday of each month. Speaking of the city’s July meeting that lasted nearly 3 hours, Fisher said the council needs to be much more “business-like”.

“We take too long at our meetings,” he closed. “It’s been proven that people lose focus after 90 minutes and there is no reason why we shouldn’t be able to get a meeting done in 1 hour and 15 minutes.”

City clerk Frances Smith spoke up after Fisher referred to the council’s last meeting. She prefaced her statement by saying she didn’t intend to saying anything, but continued by saying that the council’s July 13^th meeting took her three days to transcribe. “It makes the clerk’s job hard – whoever it is,” she said. “There is a lot of side conversations and it’s very hard to hear on the tape.”

Ash Street Project

Alderman Steve Kluthe informed the board that he received the bid specifications back for the Ash Street Project which allows the council to advertise the specs to get an idea how much drainage project will cost.

Kluthe said the bid specifications cover everything including equal opportunity employer and prevailing wage information, but said the project could probably be handled by a local contractor. The project includes installing a culvert that will transfer the water to Cherry Street.

The council hopes the completed project will then alleviate the water that currently gets backed up north of Ash Street. “They are going to put a culvert underneath Ash Street to the north and grade the ground on the north side so the water flows to the culvert and down to the south end where there is a storm drain,” Kluthe explained.

TIF District

We should stretch the money out and begin to reinvest the money into community development

Fisher informed the council that the tax bills for the TIF district went out and the city can expect to receive close to $60,000. He reminded the council that even though the city made a big payment to United Community Bank last year in excess of $90,000, there will still be a payment made to UCB for their portion paid into the TIF until the TIF expires, which Fisher said is 12-14 more years.

After the city pays UCB, Fisher said the council can expect to still have somewhere north of $40,000 remaining each year. “I would like us to start to look at other projects that meet the TIF criteria that we could spend $20-$30,000 per year,” Fisher explained. “Long-range projects – projects that could last 10-12 years. We should stretch the money out and begin to reinvest the money into community development.”

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