Carbondale Terrier boys crush Marion; tripped up by Whitfield
Let's take the "bad news" first: The Terriers dropped a Saturday afternoon game 63-62 to powerhouse Whitfield High of Creve Coeur, Mo., at the Highland Illinois Shootout. It was a hard-fought loss in overtime to last year's 3A Missouri state champ.
Yet Carbondale, the high school with a Globetrotter-like 10-away-game schedule (of 17 total games), played that champ head-to-head for 40 minutes until losing in the last few seconds. The day before that close loss, the Terriers beat 2017 Carbondale Holiday Tournament champion Marion.
In that win, the Terriers jumped on the Wildcats early and often. CCHS burst out to a 15-point first quarter lead (19-4) as the Cats greatly disappointed a huge home crowd. The Terriers maintained their lead (32-14) throughout the second quarter with sophomores leading the way.
Clayton Greer was the star of the first 16 minutes of play, stinging the Cats with 18 points. Another sophomore, Davaris Macklin, added seven points.
"Our sophomores are getting more and more confidence each and every game," Carbondale head coach Jim Miller said. "Marion was trying to lock down Darius Beane by doubling him. We made Marion stop by our young guys scoring like they did."
It wasn't that Beane, an SIU signer, is now inoperable as a contributor. He had 19 points against Marion and 19 against Whitfield the next day. But with the absence of injured star guard Kani Acree, Beane is the bullseye on most opponent's scouting charts.
However, with the emergence of Greer (30 points in the last two games), other teams have other things to worry about. Also, with Acree (19 points per game) gone, Miller has concentrated on emphasizing other aspects of the game that are under the control of his players.
"Our energy level was high the whole game," Miller said. "The kids were focused on playing lock-down defense, and we showed team character on the boards by out-rebounding a taller team by 10 (30-20). We actually wore Marion down physically with our defense."
Miller also liked the effort from his other senior, Zee Johnson.
"Zee (aka, Zanidrelle Johnson) had a great game," Miller said. Johnson contributed 10 points and helped lock down Marion's usually potent offense.
In the loss to Whitfield, it was the differential between the two teams at the charity stripe that made the difference. Whitfield attempted 11 more free throws (seven for Carbondale, and 18 for Whitfield) and made nine more (12 Whitfield, three for the Terriers).
The game was back and forth all afternoon, with neither team holding more than a four-point lead in the first half (13-9 Whitfield at the end of the first quarter). Greer led the way again in the first half with eight points. But it was Beane who almost came to the rescue in the second half of play.
In those last two quarters (and one overtime period), Beane scored 15 of his 19 points for the game. Beane was short on a game-winning shot against Whitfield with four seconds left in the four minute OT (overtime), but if it weren't for him, there probably wouldn't have been overtime.
"Beane did what we expected him to do," Miller said. "We just came up a little short today (Saturday afternoon)."
Now it's on the road again. The Terrier travel to Belleville to battle the Althoff Crusaders at 7:30 p.m. this coming Friday. You can listen to the game, as per usual, on 91.1 WDBX.