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Miners will battle for last place in holiday tournament

Published

13 years ago

December 29, 2011

BenGil Staff

Michael Bussmann takes it over the top of 2 defenders for a field goal.

The boys basketball team spent the sixth week of their season at the Carlinville Holiday Tournament. Marking the 40th year the tournament has been hosted, the Miners were in hopes of competing for the first place trophy since the boys have not finished better than 5th place for three years now.

The tournament was a pool play style and Gillespie was pooled with Litchfield, Staunton, and Mt. Olive. Three games stood in between the championship game and the last place game. Their first match-up in the tournament was Litchfield.

After losing to Litchfield by almost 20 points in the Metro East Lutheran Tournament, the Miners had 5 weeks of games and practices to improve after that beating. After Litchfield won the opening tip off and scored within 5 seconds, the Miners were off to a slow start. It would not take long before the Miner bench was seeing some rotation after a handful of turnovers. About midway through the first quarter, the boys livened up and with the help of seniors: Michael Bussmann and Cort Hellmann, the boys only trailed by a single point after the first quarter as Litchfield hit a late field goal to take the lead.

After Bussmann and Hellmann put up 4 points each in the first quarter, the Miners got some help from a few other players in the second quarter. Jessie Smith and Chris Halpin added 4 points and 2 points respectively as the team fine tuned their act on defense as well. The Miners opened with a full court pressure defense, but fell back into a half court style pressure late in the second quarter. The defense seemed to cause some trouble for the Litchfield Panthers as just two players found the bottom of the net in the second quarter to tally 7 points. The Miners went on to score 10, with no help from the free throw line, and lead the game at halftime: 22-20.

Coming out from halftime Monday night, the Miners croaked. The team could only combine for 8 points while the scoring lied in the hands of Cort Hellmann and Chris Halpin as the pair had 4 points each. Luckily, Litchfield faced the same dilemma and could only put up 11 points. Eleven points did it though, and Litchfield took the lead, 31-30, after the third quarter. With just 8 minutes left, the Miners had their best quarter of the game in the last quarter.

Michael Bussmann and Cort Hellmann did all the scoring for the Miners as they scored 6 points and 3 points respectively. Blake Peterson and Chris Halpin recorded most of the steals on defense. Steals turned into assists which later turned into points for the Miners. The Panthers could only manage to score 6 points in the quarter while Valentine took care of all the scoring. After being outscored in the third quarter and outscoring them in the fourth quarter, the Miners took the first game of the tournament by a minimal margin: 39-37.

Chris Halpin leaps well over the defender for an easy 2 points.

With one win under their belt, the Miners returned Tuesday night to face off against Staunton. Scoring 14 points in the first quarter and just 9 in the second quarter, the Miners found theirselves 13 points behind at halftime. The Miners struggled against Staunton Bulldog defense and coughed the ball up nearly 11 times in the first half. When the boys did not turn the ball over, they managed to score about 50% of the time as they failed to execute many, many times in the first half.

Trailing 36-23 at the start of the third quarter, the table turned at halftime and the Miners starting trimming the deficit early in the third quarter. Led by senior Michael Bussman, who had 21 points on the night, both the defense and the offense improved during the second half. The Miners were able to force the Bulldogs to turn the ball over almost 14 times in the second half and nearly 8 times in the third quarter as they outscored them 17-13, but still trailed by nine: 49-40.

The Miners were able to outscore Staunton for the second time of the night in the fourth quarter, but it was not enough to take the lead as they only outscored them by just a couple points. Bussmann and Ricky Mock did most of the scoring for the Miners in the second half, but Gerdes and Hollaway from Staunton put up a combined 18 points as a few of their shots went uncontested. As the clock neared zero, the Miners took their first loss in the tournament: 59-52. Now after 2 games, the Miners were 1-1 in the tournament.

For the third straight night, the Miners returned to Carlinville High School to play their last pool play game of the tournament. The boys would wear the away jerseys as they took on the Wildcats from Mt. Olive. Mt. Olive came out strong in the first quarter as they went on an early 6-0 scoring run, but the Miners prevailed and came back late in the first quarter. It was not enough to take the lead as the scoreboard read 15-13, but it was enough to put them in good position for the second quarter.

Cameron Tucker attempts to lay it in for two points.

The defense stepped up in the second quarter as the Miners returned to a full court pressure defense that caught the Wildcats off guard. Turning the ball over 6 times in the quarter, the Miners were able to score 17 points as Bussmann and Jessie Smith led on the offensive end. In turn, the Wildcats scored 17 points too as they made a late quarter scoring run that put them back in control of the game at halftime: 32-30.

The second half was a wild ride as the Miners came out strong in the third quarter and outscored the Wildcats 18-12. Led by sophomore Chris Halpin and senior Jessie Smith, the Miners were in control of the game after the third quarter: 48-44. Halpin and Smith both put up 6 points in the quarter as they scored majority of the points. But, the Wildcats answered back in the fourth quarter and the Miners failed to make open opportunity shots.

After having the worst quarter of the night in the fourth quarter, Mt. Olive had their best quarter. The Wildcats were able to put up 20 points compared to Gillespie’s 11. Although, just 10 points came from field goals and the other 10 came from the free throw line. The Miners were in foul trouble nearly all of the second half and they paid the price as the 16 fouls cost them the game. After shooting over 75% from the free throw line, the Wildcats took the last pool play game from the Miners by a score of: 64-59.

Even after winning one game, the Miners will still duke it out in the last place game because of their low free throw percentage. There was a head to head tie after the pool play match-up and the team’s free throw percentage is what deciphered the tie. The Miners will now take the floor again Thursday, December 29, at 1:30pm when they face off against the winless Lincolnwood Lancers.

All 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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