Boys Basketball | Carterville puts on shooting clinic against Trico
CAMPBELL HILL — How hot were the Carterville Lions when shooting the basketball Wednesday night?
White hot. That’s how hot. At least for one quarter that is.
Carterville connected on all eight shots it took in the opening stanza, including six 3-ponters to take a commanding 23-2 lead into the second quarter. Drew Barrington was 3-of-3 from long distance. Josh Waller, Lawrence Greer and Kaden Wilson hit one triple each.
The Lions would go on from there to secure a 56-25 win over the Trico Pioneers in the second round of the Trico Invitational Tournament.
Carterville (2-0) will play Red Bud (2-0) at 6 p.m. Friday night in the championship game. Red Bud defeated Steeleville, 57-37, in the early game Wednesday.
“We moved the ball. We were good in transition and we hit some threes,” said Lions coach Shane Hawkins when assessing his team's early-game performance. “We were pretty good the first half. When you get up like that, it’s kind of contagious. It seems like everybody makes shots.”
Hawkins said he was equally pleased with the team’s defense.
“I thought we did a really good job in the first half defensively, especially on Wilson (6-foot-7 senior post player Kanon), because he’s a load in there. I thought Wakey and Xan (Guthrie) did a really good job of making things tough on him, and I thought our guards did a really good job of getting out and doubling, making him always aware that someone was coming.
“The carryover from yesterday’s film to today was tremendous,” Hawkins continued. “That’s what we’re after. We wanted to be better tonight than we were Monday night and I think we were.”
First-year Trico head coach Kyle Luke was frustrated with his team’s performance.
“I thought we played a good 10 minutes of basketball tonight,” he said. “And then we started losing our minds a little bit and didn’t score for about 10 more minutes.”
Luke said it’s important that his team learns from the loss and looks ahead to Friday’s game with Steeleville.
“We need to bounce back and start taking some steps in the right direction,” he said. “I thought Wilson was more aggressive the first night, but could have been more aggressive tonight. We did move the ball better. I just want to see us come out and play hard and put on a good show Friday.”
Barrington scored 11 of his game-high 15 points in the first quarter for the boys from west Williamson County. He was the only Lion in double digits, although senior guards Waller and Brandon Skelcher each knocked down nine points. Wilson came off the bench to deposit seven points to the cause.
Braden Wakey and Colton Hawkins notched four points each. Lawrence Greer flipped in a triple for three points. Maddox Gulley and Johnny Miller netted two and Alex Kimbrough added a free toss.
The Pioneers (0-2) were paced by Wilson’s 10 points. Zach Compton contributed six. Brady Heins followed with five. Cody Chapman accounted for two as did Brock Heins.
Carterville led 33-13 at the half and 50-19 after three periods. There was a running clock in the fourth period.
From the field, the Lions converted 19-of-37 shots, including 8-of-15 from beyond the three-point arc. They were also 11-of-14 from the free-throw line.
Trico made good on 10-of-31 field goals, including 1-of-9 triples and were a frosty 4-of-14 from the charity stripe.
The Lions pushed out to a 21-0 lead in the first quarter before Chapman scored at the 1:19 mark.
In the early game, Red Bud rolled past Steeleville to improve to 2-0 in tournament play, while the Warriors fall to 0-2.
Junior guard Trent Sternberg was top gun for the Musketeers with 18 points. He was joined in double figures by Sam Easter (13) and Owen Liefer with 12.
Canon Ruby paced the Steeleville offense with 10 points.
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