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Lincolnwood slides by Miners to end holiday tournament

Published

13 years ago

December 30, 2011

BenGil Staff

Blake Peterson lays it in for two.

Heading into their final game of the tournament, the Miners stood with 1-2 record in the tournament with their win over Litchfield and their losses to Mt. Olive and Staunton. The boys took on the Lincolnwood Lancers who went winless in the pool play part of the 40th Annual Carlinville Holiday Tournament.

The boys found theirselves playing in the last place game because of their overall free throw percentage. It was a head to head tie and it was broke by the teams free throw percentage. Lincolnwood came in the game without a win all season as they only carried just 3 juniors and the rest sophomores and freshmen.

It was a tight game through all four quarters and it merely came down to which team had more possessions. After the first quarter, the game was tied at 13 as Cort Hellmann scored 7 of the points. It was the same story in the second quarter as the Miners worked in a little trap defense to throw them off. Snyder from Lincolnwood scored 13 of the teams 15 points in the second quarter while the Miners combined for 14. Trailing by just 1 point at halftime, it was going to be close the rest of the game.

The Miners stayed with the trap defense and worked the ball around more on the offensive end in the third quarter. Entering the third quarter trailing by one point, the Miners ended the quarter leading by 2 points as they outscored the Lancers 18-15 with the help of senior Cort Hellmann and sophomore Blake Peterson who had 8 points and 4 respectively.

With a two point lead and eight minutes left on the clock, it was going to be a long quarter as Lincolnwood was shooting double bonus with 7 minutes remaining in the game. The fouls were 11-1 for most of the quarter until Gillespie reached the bonus with 2 minutes remaining. Lincolnwood was able to score 12 points from the free throw line as they scored 25 points in the quarter while the Miners on the otherhand struggled to get any fouls called on them and scored just 20 points in the quarter with just 3 points coming from the charity line. Being outscored 25-20, the Miners took last place in the tournament with a score of 68-65.

It was neck and neck in the first quarter as both teams were fighting for the lead. Gillespie carried the lead for about 2 minutes at the most when they went on a 4-0 scoring run with the help of Ricky Mock and Blake Peterson, but it would not last long as the Lancers marched right back to tie the game back up. All the scoring was left to Cort Hellmann, Blake Peterson, and the big man Ricky Mock as Jessie Smith and Chris Halpin contributed with their assists.

Krager from Lincolnwood did most of the scoring for the Lancers as he scored 6 of their 13 points. The Miners started off with a half court man to man defense and it seemed to be successful as they forced 4 turnovers in just the first quarter alone. Even with the turnovers, Lincolnwood was able to match the Miners basket for basket and the game was tied at 13 after the first quarter.

Ricky Mock attempts to block a shot.

Tied up at the start of the second quarter, the Miners relied on a few others to do most of their scoring before they broke for halftime. Sophomores Derrick Tiburzi, Michael Henderson, and Chris Halpin combined to score 10 points for the Miners as Cort Hellmann and Blake Peterson put forth the additional 4 points. The five still continued to pressure the ball on defense as they still worked off the half court style defense.

The group did have trouble containing Snyder inside the paint though as the trap defense did not stop him as planned. Snyder, a junior, carried the Lancers on his back throughout the second quarter as he scored 3 field goals, 1 three pointer, and 4 free throws to total 13 points in the eight minute period. The Lancers as a whole only scored 15 points in the quarter, but it was one additional point the Miners did not score as the Lancers led 28-27 at halftime.

Down by just a single point, the Miners had 16 minutes left in the game to take back the lead and hold it for the rest of the game. Coming out of the locker room strong, the Miners spent most of the third quarter on offense. The scoring was divided up among 4 different players wearing the orange Gillespie jersey, but Cort Hellmann contributed the most as he was left unguarded numerous times throughout the quarter. Hellmann scored 8 while Peterson and Jessie Smith added 4 points each. Chris Halpin added a field goal to go along with the other 16 points to total 18 points for the Miners in the third quarter.

The Miners worked in some full court pressure in the third quarter, but still fell back into their man to man defense. The boys were able to force 5 turnovers in the third quarter and that is partially the reason they outscored them 18-15. The Lancers were led by Snyder and Krager as they both put up 4 points in the quarter. The rest of the Lincolnwood team combined for 7 more points, but it was not enough to tie the game as the Miners now led 45-43 after the third quarter.

Leading by a field goal with 8 minutes set on the clock, the Miners had 10 fouls and Lincolnwood had 1. With the fouls uneven, the Lancers spent much of the final quarter of play at the free throw line. 12 of their 25 points came from the free throw line while the Miners could only gather 3 points from the line. The Miners did go on to have their best quarter of the night though as they teamed up for 20 points as Blake Peterson led the team with 7 in the fourth quarter.

Cort Hellmann attempts to land a three pointer.

Twenty points was not enough though as the Lancers had their best quarter too. With the help of 6 points from both Sale and Krager, Lincolnwood went on to score 25 points in the quarter which was enough to tie the game and then take back the lead which they held until the end of the game. As the clock expired, Ricky Mock swished a buzzer beater to trim the deficit down to three points as the Miners went on to lose 68-65.

The Miners had a great tournament even though they were slapped with the last place title. All of their three games were lost by a 5 point margin that could have easily been in their favor if the could have made a free throw or not turn the ball over as much as they did. Their only victory in the tournament was over Litchfield and Litchfield played in the championship game Thursday evening. So the potential is there, it is just “fine tuning from here on out,” according to Coach Allan.

The Miners have another short break for New Years and will return January 3 when they travel to Staunton. JV action is set to start at 6 o’clock while the varsity action will follow at 7:15pm.

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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

10 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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