Featured

Miners fall to Piasa in Regionals

Published

13 years ago

February 23, 2012

BenGil Staff

The season comes to an end

Cort Hellmann fights over the ball near center court. (By Halpin Photography)

The Miners traveled to East Alton Wood River Monday evening, February 20, to play their first Regional game against Southwestern. Being the fifth seed, the boys had to play against the fourth seed in the class 2A regional quarterfinal game. After losing Cameron Tucker on senior night due to a broken wrist, the Miners were one senior short Monday night. With one senior down, Jessie Smith rolled his ankle in the first 30 seconds of play and was out the rest of the game.

Despite being two players short, the Miners gave it their all and traded basket for basket with the Piasa Birds until the end of the game. The Miners jumped out early and went on a 6-0 scoring run after Southwestern took the first points and carried it through the first quarter to gain a five point edge, 14-9. With a small lead, the boys kept up the pressure defense and forced Piasa to turn the ball over five times in the second quarter. The Miners were able to take advantage of the five turnovers and score two easy layups while they added eleven more points in the second quarter to give them a three point lead at halftime, 25-22.

With Piasa trimming the deficit every possession, they finally gained the lead late in the third quarter and put the Miners down by three points entering the final quarter of play. Trailing 31-34 with eight minutes left, the Miners fought with all the energy and talent they had left as senior forward Ricky Mock carried the team on his shoulders in the fourth quarter.

Mock led the team with 15 points.

Mock, who had 15 points in the game, had 14 of those points in the fourth quarter while Blake Peterson had two. As the Miners combined for 16 points, Piasa was able to score 18 and add 2 points to their already three point lead to end the season for the Gillespie Miners with a score of 52-47.

The first quarter started out well for the Miners as the team trailed 2-0 early, but then made a 6-0 scoring run that ended with a Piasa timeout. Piasa came out of the huddle to just get the ball stolen again and Michael Bussmann knocked down a field goal to give the Miners a 8-2 lead. That was the largest lead of the quarter as Piasa began to fight back and trim the deficit. The Miner defense began to give way as open shots were taken from the three point line abroad, but the Miners were three passes away from the offensive end as Bussmann or Mock gathered the rebound. The Miners scored 5 points off of fast-breaks and the scoreboard reflected it.

It was game on for the team after Cort Hellmann knocked down the Miners’ first points with his three pointer. The scoring was left in the hands of Cort Hellmann and Michael Bussmann as the pair scored seven points and six points respectively in quarter one. As the two seniors took care of the offensive end, sophomores Blake Peterson and Chris Halpin took care of the defensive end while senior Ricky Mock took care of the rebounds. Peterson and Halpin tallied 3 steals together while Mock grabbed 4 rebounds in the first eight minutes. The performance shed light to the five point lead as the boys led 14-9 after the first quarter.

With just a five point lead, the Miners had to build it up to have an easy second half. Unable to add to their lead, the boys let two points go by the end of the quarter as the Birds outscored the Miners 13-11 in the second quarter. The scoring was abroad in the second quarter of play as four different boys in orange uniforms combined for eleven points. Hellmann knocked down his second three pointer of the game while Brenden Engelke and Blake Peterson scored on a field goal. Michael Bussmann took care of the remaining four points with two made free throws and a field goal.

The defense gave way though and the Miners gave up more points than they scored in the second quarter. Nonetheless, it was only two points as the defense struggled. Open pathways to the basket was a repeated sight and the Birds took full advantage of them. The turnovers on the offensive end did not help though as the team turned the ball over nearly five times in the quarter. As the quarter neared end, the Miners had the ball for the remaining 25 seconds but could not get a shot off to add to their three point lead so the Miners entered the locker room at halftime leading 25-22.

Losing to Southwestern once this season already, the Miners wanted to beat them when it counted most despite being two seniors down. Cort Hellmann scored the first basket of the second half as he opened the quarter with his third three pointer of the evening. With his basket coming in the first 45 seconds of the half, those three points were half of the teams points for the quarter. Combining for only six points in the quarter while Hellmann scored five of them, the Miners were trailing by three entering the fourth quarter after Ricky Mock knocked down one of his two free throws to cut the deficit.

Trailing 31-34 with eight minutes left, Ricky Mock found his groove. The senior forward knocked down seven field goals in the eight minute period as some deemed him “unstoppable.” It was basket after basket after basket for the 6’3″ starter and it was any spot on the court inside the three point arc. Sophomore Blake Peterson had the other two points off of free throws as him and Mock teamed up for 16 points in the quarter. As the two scored sixteen, Piasa scored 18 as four different players had at least two points in the quarter. After being outscored by two and previously trailing by three, the Miner basketball season came to an end in East Alton Wood River 47-52.

Ricky Mock and Cort Hellmann led the team with 15 points each while the remaining senior Michael Bussmann pitched in 11 points. Sophomore Blake Peterson added 4 points while junior Brenden Engelke ended with 2 points.

The Southwestern Piasa Birds will go and face Alton Marquette Thursday evening at 6:00pm. The game was originally scheduled for Wednesday, but was pushed back due to Ash Wednesday. Marquette Catholic will enter the semi-final regional game after a first round bye and a record of 25-2 as the team is ranked 92 in the State while Southwestern stands on a 12-18 record.

Pictures featured in the articles and more are available for purchase through Halpin Photography, click here to buy yours today for an ultimate keepsake!

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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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