ZEIGLER — The friendly highway 148 rivalry resumed between the Christopher Bearcats and the Zeigler-Royalton Tornadoes on Tuesday night. There were few surprises in the game however, as Christopher cruised to a 69-22 victory over their conference rival, and improved their record to 15-2 (6-0) in what amounted to a high offense tune-up game for the scorching hot Bearcats.
With this loss the Tornadoes fall to 3-15 (0-4).The Christopher Bearcats, coached by Eric Stallman, came into Tuesday night's game having won their last two games against Cobden and Goreville, and have now stretched their latest winning streak out to three straight. The Tornadoes, coached by Matt Morgan, came into the game looking to avoid a blowout and create some problems for the Bearcats.
"It's one of those games where you're just a few miles down the road, so it's always a rivalry. You never know what can happen, so we're just gonna play hard see what happens." said coach Stallman as his boys warmed up.
"We're just gonna try to mix it up a little bit." said coach Morgan before the game. "Obviously they're very, very good in transition; very talented and skilled and athletic in every position. We're just gonna try to slow it down a little bit, and mix it up here and there defensively, and see if we can cause them some problems; obviously they cause us match-up problems in every position.”
Morgan was realistic about his team’s chances going in, but still insisted his boys would play hard and seek to improve themselves.
“ I want the team to go out and play hard for four quarters and compete for 32 minutes and take steps forward as a team tonight to get better." The Tornadoes to their credit, did their best to make it a game until the final buzzer.
The Bearcats jumped out to a dominant start in the first quarter. They opened up with a 10-0 run with their first two baskets being from behind the arch. The Bearcats had six total three pointers in the game, with half of them courtesy of Kaeleb Pedigo. Christopher ended the quarter with a 26-4 lead, with Zeigler-Royalton's only points coming off a lone three pointer by Clay Humerickhouse, and one free throw bucket. The domination continued into the second quarter as the Bearcats continued to slam in the offense and held the Tornadoes to a mere 11 baskets, as they went into the half with a commanding 47-11 lead.
In the lone bright spot of the game for Zeigler-Royalton, the third quarter was a dead even affair with the Tornadoes coming to life and matching the Bearcats shot for shot. Both teams scored nine points in the third, pushing the score to 56-20. Christopher got back on it in the fourth though, with Bradley Young coming into the game to provide a late spark and push the Bearcats to the final 69-22 victory.
Offensively, the Bearcats have relied heavily on Hunter Wheeler, who along with Young has proven to be a very effective offensive weapon this season. In the Bearcats’ last game against Goreville, it was Wheeler's buzzer-beating half court heave which gave them a 87-84 victory over the Blackcats. That said neither Wheeler or Bradley factored much into this game’s outcome with Wheeler only contributing six points to the cause, and Young, who took a night off from the starting line-up, adding five points.
The Bearcats had three players in double digits at the end of a game that saw a lot of good ball movement offensively. The leading scorer for Christopher was Gabe Schimpf with 17 points, followed by Pedigo with 15 and then Isaac McPhail who scored 10 points. Christopher put up 22 total field goals and went 7-of-10 from the free throw line. The Tornadoes’ top scorer was Brenden Whiting, who scored 10 points consisting of three buckets from downtown and one free throw shot. In a rare state, the Tornadoes put the same amount of field goals as they did three pointers with four apiece, and went 2-for-6 at the free throw line.
After the game Coach Stallman said, ""Tonight was a nice opportunity to get everybody in, and get everybody some minutes. We started well, and we were able to get everybody in tonight, so that was good."
Up next for the red-hot Bearcats is another Black Diamond conference game against Chester on Friday.
“Chester’s a very, very good ball club, and the only team left in the conference we haven’t played,” Stallman said. With this win, the Bearcats gain even more momentum as they move into the final stretch of the season before the playoffs.
