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Carterville catches Eldorado in overtime

What the Eldorado basketball team needed was a distraction.

So, they played a basketball game, which ended up being a distraction.

Late last weekend, three EHS students, including two basketball players were involved in a serious car wreck, where one student is still recovering in the hospital, the other two, Nolan Milligan and Hunter Sizemore, a pair of basketball players, are recovering at home.

It's been an emotional week, not only in Eldorado, but in the greater Saline County area where other schools have held prayer vigils for the three boys and their recovery. EHS head coach Josh Bradley said that emotion poured over onto the court in the Eagles' 67-65 overtime loss to Carterville Saturday night at the West Frankfort Mid-Winter Tournament.

An Eli Downen jumper in the lane with 1.3 to play lifted the Lions to the OT win, where Bradley confirmed the Eagles' heads and hearts were on the court and at home.

"It's been a week but it's still on all of our minds," Bradley said. "In the end, the only thing the staff and the kids care about are making sure that Hunter, Joey, and Nolan are healthy, okay, and recover fully. You'd be crazy to think that you couldn't get that off of your mind. Jace (Jenkins') grandpa is in the hospital about to die so we have that on our mind too. It's been a tough week for these young guys. The effort and the fight that they came out with really impressed me as a coach. As a kid, it would have been easy to have so much going on and play real sloppy and not play well. Even though we lost, I thought we played sharp and played pretty well for the most part."

Joey Etienne, one of the three severely injured in last Saturday's car accident is still in an Evansville hospital, but has been taken off sedation and is looking to make a full recovery in time. His mother gave a prognosis on Facebook stating that he has been moving his arms and hands a lot more, despite some complications on the left side of his body and with feedings.

The Eldorado basketball team wore #EldoradoStrong T-shirts during warmups Saturday night. In the middle of the shirt was Etienne's football jersey number, No. 54 and underneath was his name.

Bradley, a coach at multiple levels and for various programs, hasn't had to coach under these circumstances before, but said he, along with his staff and players are getting through this experience together.

"You're just sitting there crying with your kids the night that it happened," he said. "All you can do is hug them, tell them you love them, and tell them that you're there for them. The power of prayer is huge and all you can do is go to bed every night and pray that the good Lord has a plan and that these kids will come out of it. You don't understand why and you ask questions but nobody knows. You just know that you support them and go forward."

Saturday night, some of that didn't seem to matter. Eldorado and Carterville went blow-to-blow with each other, trading leads and playing through a handful of ties.

The two teams played to a 13-13 tie after one quarter and Eldorado took a 3-point 31-28 lead into the locker room on a last second heave by Joe Mayberry.

Ladayyea Shewmaker gave the Eagles a 46-45 lead at the end of the third quarter and his last second shot.

In the final eight minutes, Downen and Austin Garbe had nine of Carterville's 12 points as they outscored EHS 12-11 to tie the game at 45 and in the OT period, Garbe had six of the Lions' 10 points, while Downen made the jumper in the lane to give Carterville the win.

Garbe had a game-high 24 points, while Downen chipped in with 19 points.

Dylan Moore and Bryce Anderson each netted nine for CHS, while Luke Stritzel, Tyler Bittle and Carson Pearson all had two points.

Mayberry led Eldorado with 18 points, while Aiden Whitlock added 16 points and Bryant Byrd finished with 14 points to also finish in double figures.

Jenkins finished with five points and Shewmaker tossed in four points.

Coming into the game, Bradley knew the matchup would be a dog fight and in the end, that's what his team got.

" They're really physical and we knew they were going to push us around a little bit," Bradley said. "We're missing( Milligan) who has been playing really well for us and can handle some physicality in the paint. Not having him really kind of hurt us a little bit tonight. And Hunter to help bring the ball down the floor with Bryant. Townsend (Barton) came in and played really well as a freshmen and for the most part, the way they played us has been a weakness of ours and we're getting better with it. Even though we didn't win, we're getting better at some of the things with our young guys."

Spyder Dann covers prep and college sports for the Southern Illinois Local Media News Group. Follow him on Twitter: @spydieshooter.