Featured

Lady Miners win regional

Published

13 years ago

February 13, 2012

BenGil Staff

Play in Beardstown Monday for Sectionals

(By Tracie Kirkwood)

It has been a remarkable year for the Lady Miners this season. As their record stands at 14-16, it is an improvement from last year and other years before then. 14 victories in one season is just the beginning of what is in the works for the girls basketball program. The team, consisting of just one senior and the rest underclassmen, have put in nearly fifteen hours of practices and game film a week. It has turned into a job for them and it is beginning to seem like it all is worth while.

Molly Gray knocks down a field goal early in the championship game.

The ladies entered the class 2A regional on February 6. The regional was played in Southwestern this year and the girls were seeded in the third position. The opening game was against East Alton Wood River. After beating them just two days earlier, they had to do it once more if they wanted a shot at the regional plaque. It seemed to be an easy task as the Miner team jumped out on top and were well in control of the game by the end of the first quarter, 18-2. After tacking on 10 points in the second and third quarter, the Miners posted 12 in the final quarter and won the regional quarterfinal game 50-31 over East Alton Wood River.

Leading scorers for the first game were: Shelby Jarman (16), Haylie Kirkwood (12), Loni Nicole Manalia (8), Alexis Burns (6), Ellen Gray (2), and Kayli Morris (2).

After the first victory, the Miners had to return the following night to face off against Staunton. Staunton got a first round bye since they were ranked second, so February 7’s game was their first one in the regional. Facing Staunton just once in the regular season, the Miners fell by just a field goal, 38-40, in the Carlinville Holiday Tournament. Potentially the last game of their season, the Lady Miners made sure to defeat them when it counted most.

Tied at 10 points after the first quarter against Staunton, the ladies were trailing at halftime by four points: 23-19. With two quarters left to play, the game came down to the last minute. The Miners were able to outscore the Bulldogs in the third quarter and cut the deficit within two points to head into the fourth quarter with 25 points compared to their 27. It was back and forth the last quarter as the Bulldogs were in double bonus. Being in double bonus, the Miners continued to play hard defense and pressure the ball while forcing turnovers and making lay-ups.

Ellen Gray and Loni Nicole Manalia played at the point of the press as the pair tallied 3 steals and 4 steals respectively. With 1:15 minutes left, the Miners were trailing 39-40 until the Miners were able to steal the ball and take it to the other end to score. After Alexis Burns hit the field goal, the Miners led by one point: 41-40. The Bulldogs took it back down to the home half of the court, but just to get it stolen again. The Miners were quickly fouled to be put on the bonus line and they made the free throws pay. Alexis Burns knocked down two more free throws to put the Miners three points ahead and Loni Manalia knocked down one on the next trip down to seal the game 44-40. With the win, the Miners were in the regional championship.

The ladies returned to Southwestern High School Thursday evening to face off against Southwestern. With the home court advantage and the first place seed, the Piasa Birds were in hopes of continuing their regional championship streak to seven. The Lady Miners had other plans as the Miner flag waved above the visiting bench and fans dressed in orange and black held up numerous posters supporting the team.

As both crowds were outrageously loud, the Lady Miners seemed to have trouble playing with the noise level. Alexis Burns was the only scorer for the team in the first quarter as they could only gather just four points in the first quarter. With only four points to the guest side of the scoreboard, the team was able to hold Southwestern to 6. The Miner team started the game with their full court press and caused 6 turnovers in the first quarter, none of which they were able to capitalize off of.

Shelby Jarman takes it up for two points. She later went to the line and made the free throw for a three point play.

Trailing by just two points, the team quickly made them up in the second quarter as they went on an early 4-0 scoring run. Southwestern responded with a three pointer to try and prevent the Miners from running away with it, but the team didn’t have enough time outs to call to stop that from happening. As the crowd was on their feet nearly the entire quarter, the Miners scored 13 points. Shelby Jarman scored 5 as Molly Gray added 4 while Ellen Gray and Chelsea Gill each had a two point field goal.

Even though both teams were in the bonus by 4 minutes in the second quarter, the Miners kept up the pressure defense and were able steal the ball nearly 6 times in the quarter. As the Birds got no open shots in the quarter, the team could only score just the three pointer and then a free throw later in the quarter to combine for four points in the quarter. After the big second quarter, the Miners were in control of the game at halftime: 17-10.

Greeted with a standing ovation as the team came out of the locker room at halftime, the girls had to hold the lead for just 16 more minutes and they were regional champions. The third quarter and fourth quarter swung in the direction of Southwestern, but the ladies were still able to pull it out even after being outscored both quarters. Shelby Jarman led the team in the third quarter as she scored 6 of the 8 points as Wild for Southwestern scored 8 points herself. As she scored eight, just one other girl was able to knock down a free throw so they only trimmed the deficit by just a point: 25-19.

Leading by 6 points, it seemed the fourth quarter lasted forever. The Miner crowd was standing nearly the entire quarter as the team posted 12 points in the quarter. Alexis Burns scored half of the points while Tyler Ross added 3, Haylie Kirkwood added 2 and Shelby Jarman added 1. Southwestern got into a panic as the Miners still led with two minutes left in the quarter and resorted to a full court press. The ladies struggled against the pressure and turned the ball over 4 times within the last two minutes. Even though the team struggled on offense, they made up for it on the defense end as they stole the ball 6 times in the fourth quarter and 20 times in the game.

With less than a minute left, the Miners were in control of the game by just one point 35-34 and Southwestern had possession of the ball. The ladies were able to force the Birds to throw the ball out of bounds due to the pressure defense and headed down to the offensive end one last time. The Miners were able to capitalize and score two more points to seal the game. As the clocked rolled out, the Miner fans stormed the court to celebrate with the team as they were the new regional champs after they won 37-34.

Leading scorers for the regional championship game were: Shelby Jarman (12), Alexis Burns (10), Haylie Kirkwood (4), Molly Gray (4), Chelsea Gill (2), and Ellen Gray (2).

The Miners will now head to Beardstown to play against Williamsville Monday night with the game scheduled to start at 6pm.

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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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