Featured

Miners take 8th loss on the season

Published

13 years ago

December 13, 2011

BenGil Staff

Chris Halpin and Michael Henderson attempt to deflect the shot.

After playing just 9 games to this date, the Miners are 1-8 on the season after losing to Calhoun Friday night. The Miners entered the game with a 4 game losing streak with hopes of grabbing their second victory on the season. Without ever playing Calhoun in the past, both teams were equally favored as the Miners took home court advantage.

The Miners took an early deficit, but fought back and took control of the lead with three minutes left in the first quarter. Three minutes seemed like ten minutes as Calhoun forced 5 turnovers and accounted for 6 points in the three minute margin.

With a 3 point deficit after the first quarter, the Miners were outscored 20-10 in the second quarter to give themselves a great deal of ground to make up in the second half. But after the Miners crumbled in the third quarter and scored just 4 points to Calhoun’s 22, their prayers for a second victory went unanswered and the Miners took their 8th loss on the season: 67-42.

Cameron Tucker led the Miners in the first quarter as he scored 6 of their 12 points. Cort Hellmann pitched in with his 3 pointer, but it was not enough to take control of the lead as the defensive end struggled. Grabbing 5 fouls in the first quarter, the Miners had trouble stopping dribble penetration and resorted to slapping and hip checking.

Calhoun had no trouble with the Miners zone defense and managed to find their big man open 75% of the time as Eberlin gathered 7 of their first 15 points. The Miners came back late in the first quarter to take the lead, but only to give it right back as the Miners scrambled to get the ball past half court during Calhoun’s full court pressure defense.

Trailing by just 3 points, 15-12, at the beginning of the second quarter, the Miners were in control of the possession. After Michael Bussmann’s field goal was good, the boys were down just a single point as Calhoun took the ball for the first time. One point was as close as they got as Calhoun scored 2 points to every point scored by the Miners.

Ricky Mock tries the swim move as he eyes the rebound.

Led by Nelson, starting pointguard for Calhoun, the Warriors outscored the Miners 20-10 in the second quarter. The Miners faced another quarter of full court pressure defense and the points on the offensive end reflected it. Nailing just 2 of 7 free throws and led by leading scorer Michael Bussmann as he scored just 4 points in the quarter, the Miners trailed 22-35 at halftime.

With 16 minutes of play remaining, the Miners has plenty of time to make up the 13 point deficit and regain control of the lead. Easier said than done as the Miners knocked down just 1 field goal in the entire 8 minute period with the exception of Ricky Mock’s 2 made free throws. After playing their worst quarter on the offensive end, the defense decided to stop playing as well.

The offense transpired to the defense as the Miners let Calhoun have their best quarter in the third period after they knocked down 6 field goals, 2 three pointers, and 4 free throws. Totaling 22 points from Calhoun, it was safe to say the Miners were light years away from a victory as they trailed 26-57 after three quarters.

Heading into the final quarter of play with a 31 point deficit, majority of the underclassmen were rotated into the game. Led by Chase Peterson with 5 points and Cameron Tucker with 4 points, the Miners had their best quarter of the game as 6 different players combined for 16 points.

The defense held strong too as the Miners went with the man-to-man defense again. Calhoun could only manage to score just 10 points in the quarter as their two top scorers played the bench for half of the fourth quarter. Nonetheless, the Warriors still managed to score 10 points on the Miner defense and the Miners lost 67-42 after they could only make up 6 points out of the 31 point deficit.

Ball handling and missed opportunities were the reasons for the loss Friday evening as the Miners faced much trouble against the full court press applied by Calhoun. Missed shots in the paint area did not help either as the Miners made just 11 field goals on the night.

Cameron Tucker dribbles in for a lay-up.

The Miners increased their percentage on the free throw line though as Friday night marked the first night in 3 games that the boys shot 50% or greater. The Miners made 8 of the 16 attempted from the charity line. However, it is safe to say the game was not lost on the free throw line as the Miners move their record to 1-8 on the season.

Leading scorer for the Miners was Cameron Tucker as he had 11 points. Michael Bussmann and Cort Hellmann followed with 6 points each; Chase Peterson with 5 points; and Brenden Engelke, Jessie Smith, and Michael Henderson with 3. Ricky Mock and Derrick Tiburzi both ended with 2 points a piece while Blake Peterson added 1 point.

The Miners will take on North Mac tonight in Gillespie for a Prairie State Conference match-up. The Panthers will enter the bout with a just a 1-1 record as this will be their first conference game on the season. JV action is set to begin at 6:00pm while varsity 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

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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