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Miners will play for 5th place at County

Published

13 years ago

January 21, 2012

BenGil Staff

Cort Hellmann drains a three pointer.

Reaching the midpoint in their season, the boys basketball team entered the 94th annual Macoupin County Tournament along with six other local teams. Gillespie was ranked last, number seven, out of North Mac, Carlinville, Bunker Hill, Staunton, Southwestern, and Mt. Olive. With a record that fared from perfection, that boys were overlooked and seeded below the rest. “It isn’t necessarily a bad thing, we want to be overlooked,” Coach Allan told us, “Then we can play our own game.”

The Miners opened up the tournament on Saturday, January 14th against Staunton. After trailing by only three points entering the fourth quarter, the Bulldogs prevailed in the end and won the game 46-34. After losing the first game, the Miners took on Mt. Olive in the second round of pool play.

Gillespie attempted to upgrade on its 3-15 season record while the Wildcats entered the bout with a 6-13 record after their 58-56 loss to Southwestern Saturday evening. The Wildcats had the advantage over the Miners after they defeated them previously in the season and got to play them again in front of their home crowd.

The Miners were no strangers in the Mt. Olive gym and made it their home by the end of the game, but it was a roller coaster to get to that point. The Miners came out strong in the first quarter as Cameron Tucker led the team with five points. Hellmann, Mock and Smith combined to score the other seven points in the quarter and the Miners jumped out early with a 12-11 lead.

With only a one point lead, the boys had countless mistakes in the second quarter. Blake Peterson and Cort Hellmann tallied 6 turnovers combined while numerous shots were missed within the paint area. Bussmann and Smith were able to drain two field goals a piece to give the Miners an additional 8 points before halftime, but the Wildcats combined for 13.

After being fouled nearly 13 times in the first half, the Wildcats were in bonus for much of the second quarter and they made the Miners pay. Seven of their 24 points in the first half came from the free throw line as they shot a near 75% from the foul line. Likewise, the Wildcats overtook the one point lead held by the Miners and had a four point lead at halftime: 20-24.

The Miners turned it around at halftime and attempted to slow their efforts down on the offensive end and tried to stop forcing as many shots. The efforts worked and the Miners combined for 18 points in the third quarter. Tucker led with 7 while Smith pitched in four points to give the Miners a five point lead after the third quarter as they were able to hold the Wildcats to just nine points in the third.

With a five point lead, the Miners are notorious for blowing the lead in the final quarter. It was opposite fashion tonight as the Miners were on the bonus line throughout the fourth quarter and even late in the third quarter. The Wildcats fouled the Miners over 15 times in the second half and the Miners were able to score twelve of their twenty-six points from the line. The boys were outscored 10-8 in the fourth quarter, but were still able to hold onto the lead and win the game 46-43 while their record stood at 1-1 now in the tournament.

Jessie Smith dribbles around the defender and takes the ball to the basket.

Leading scorers for Mt. Olive’s game were: Smith (13), Tucker (12), Bussmann (7), Mock (5), B. Peterson (5), Halpin (2), Tiburzi (1), and Hellmann (1).

With one win and one loss to their name, the Miners took on Southwestern Wednesday night in the tournament. After sliding past Mt. Olive 58-56 in their first game of the tournament, the Piasa Birds were 1-0 when they were matched up with the Miners for their second game in the tournament. Ranked number three in the tournament, the Birds were playing against the last seeded team.

The Miners set the tone in the first half as they scored nine points in both quarters. Cameron Tucker scored seven of the nine points in the first quarter, but did not score again until late in the game. The other two points in the first quarter came from Bussmann who scored on a jumpshot by the free throw line. Combining for nine points, the Miners took an early lead as the Birds could only score just 4 points in the first quarter. With a 5 point lead, more Miners got involved in the second quarter.

The scoring was spread out between four different players: Bussmann, Hellmann, Mock and Smith. The seniors combined for another nine points, but were outscored by Piasa in the second quarter as they scored ten points. Even scoring ten, the Miners were still able to hold onto the lead and they were in control of the game 18-14 at halftime. With only a four point lead entering the third quarter, the Miners still had to outplay Southwestern in the remaining 16 minutes.

Cam Tucker lays it in for an easy two points.

The Birds came out stronger in the second half and outscored the Miners 12-10 in the third quarter. The seniors from Gillespie could only put up ten points in the quarter while Tucker and Hellmann smashed a three pointer and Bussmann and Mock got the other four points as they both scored off a jumpshot field goal. Even after being outscored by two points, the Miners still led entering the fourth quarter: 28-26.

The game fell apart from there as Southwestern was well in control of the game by the end of the quarter. The quarter started out well for the boys, but they sputtered in the last two minutes. The boys were able to match the Birds for almost the entire fourth quarter as they scored 18 points, but they gave up after Piasa went on a 7-0 scoring run with 1:45 minutes left. Sosa from Southwestern was able to score 16 points in the quarter while Goeben added 7. Three other players in the green jerseys added a field goal and the Birds combined for 29 points while the Miners were taking off balanced three pointers and shooting the ball near the volleyball line. Needless to say, the Miners took the loss in the game with a score of 55-46.

Leading scorers for Wednesday’s game were: Tucker (13), Hellmann(13), Bussmann (12), Mock (4), and Smith (4).

Carlinville will be the next match-up for Gillespie if they lose to the number one seeded North Mac Friday. If the lose, the Miners will face off with the Cavaliers Wednesday, January 25 at 5:00 in the evening. The Cavaliers lost their first game to Bunker Hill by a score of 55-53.

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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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