Best start for Arcola boys in 57 years comes to an end at the hands of Class 2A Lawrenceville
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AHS’s Braden Phillips goes over 1,000 career point mark
By Mike Monahan
SULLIVAN – After a non-conference 53-29 victory over Neoga Friday at Nancy Stiff Gymnasium the Arcola boys basketball team had done something that had not been done since the 1967-68 season. That something is win the first eight games of the season.
However, the streak was stopped by Class 2A Lawrenceville, a team that improved to 10-4. The Indians beat the Purple Riders 42-31 Saturday in the inaugural Sullivan Shootout.
The 1967-68 team, coached by Dean Sanders, beat ABL (60-52), Effingham St. Anthony (96-71), Arthur (68-54), Cerro Gordo (76-59), Tolono Unity (93-52), Casey (83-32), Monticello (71-56) and in the Olney Tournament beat Carmi (80-55) before losing to Olney (76-72).
“It has been a great three weeks,” said Arcola coach Greg Gisinger. “This is going to be a great game for us. We told the kids after the game that a lot of teams would not have taken this game because we were riding high and it is Saturday 11:30 a.m game and the fourth game in a week. I think this will make us a lot better and help us coaches see things we have to fix going into the Dieterich Holiday Tournament (Dec. 26-28) We obviously don’t want to lose, but it was good for us. I thought we battled after the first quarter pretty well.”
In the fourth quarter with 6:19 left Arcola senior Braden Philips etched his name in Arcola boys’ basketball lore by reaching the 1,000 point mark in his career. Phillips was fouled on the play and made his free throw when Sullivan athletics director Cole Huber made the announcement.
“ At practice Wednesday he (Gisinger) called me over and said, ‘hey you are close do you want me to tell you.’ I responded “I don’t think I want to know the exact number.” He told everyone else, except me . So, I didn’t know. It was kind of a surprise. Obviously a good milestone, not many people get to score 1,000 points. Always a goal at varsity basketball.”
Arcola picked up its first Lincoln Prairie Conference win in its opener, beating Cerro Gordo/Bement 59-38 on Dec. 17 at Arcola.
Lawrenceville 42, Arcola 31
Arcola struggled shooting against Lawrenceville’s 2-3 zone as they were 0-11, including 0-for-6 from beyond the three-point line in the first quarter. Meanwhile the Indians sank 7-of-10 field goals and led 15-0 after the first eight minutes.
The Purple Riders trailed 17-6 at the half and in the third quarter made it a six-point game on a basket by Braden Phillips with 2:16 left. However, the Indians scored six straight points, including four by Parker Hardiman, who led Lawrencville, a member of the Little Illini Conference, with 13 points.
Arcola made one last run as they were down by 12, 35-23, when Brody Philips and Tanner Thomas hit back-to-back three-pointers to cut the lead in half with still 2:20 left. The Purple Riders had a chance to get closer, but a turnover gave the ball back to the Indians and Jayden Goff’s basket made it a three possession lead with just over a minute left.
‘I think that their length and their athleticism in that 2-3 is something we have not seen this year. We had a lot of live ball turnovers in the first quarter. We didn’t really come out and guard like we are capable of, I thought early in the first quarter. A little bit of 11:30 a.m. legs.They are a 2A school and they are a good team and they beat Teutopolis earlier in the year. We were not quite ready for that length and speed. We have not seen it before this year. It was good for us.”
Arcola held the Indians to 1-for-11 .091 in a span of 8;30, but Arcola could not take too much advantage as they were 2-of-7 during that time frame.
The Indians lost on a last-second shot on Friday to Marshall in a LIC game.
“We came out with a little intensity,” said Lawrenceville coach Tad Shick. “ I was worried. We lost on a last-second bucket Friday night to Marshall, 61-60, a conference opponent and then driving up here two hours I thought we would be flat. We had scouted Arcola and knew if you run above the three-point line and kind of stay in front of Braden Phillips and be aggressive with active hands we would have a chance. Our defense was pretty good in the first quarter, but I think they missed some shots.
Arcola really stepped up the pressure in the second quarter. They put pressure on our guards and kind of extended their defense out a little bit and it really bothered us. We didn’t spread them out as well as we did in the first quarter. That is what we talked about to the boys at halftime was our spacing was getting a little tight in the second quarter. We worked on spacing at halftime-spread them out. They were playing over aggressive and we could kind of get some back doors and easy buckets and that kind of worked to our favor.”
Gisinger said, “We were not good in the first quarter, but I thought after that we got the ball in spots we wanted to offensively and we just couldn’t quite finish.”
As for Braden Phillips’ milestone Gisinger said, “It means a lot to me seeing the kid grow as a person and as a player. He is the one of the favorites I have ever coached. He is a great leader. He is strong in his faith in God. He does everything in the school and leads everything. Busiest kid I have ever seen and he is just 17 years old. This is something he does not probably want a lot of notoriety for, but he is one of the best players I have ever coached in my 20 plus years. He is definitely, if not the best, one of the best persons I have ever had. I am proud of him.”
Arcola 53, Neoga 29
Arcola led just 13-9 against Neoga, a member of the National Trail Conference. The Purple Riders defense, one that allowed an average of 31.8 points per game prior to the Lawrenceville game, held the Indians to just three points (all on free throws), while scoring 22 to take a 35-12 advantage.
Braden Phillips had nine points in the second quarter and 15 of his game-high 23 in the first half, while Thomas had eight of his 18 in the second period.
The purple Riders led 53-21 after three quarters meaning the fourth quarter was a running clock with the lead of 30 or more points.
Arcola 59, Cerro Gordo/Bement 38
Cerro Gordo/Bement led for the last time, 13-12, after a three-pointer by Will Fuson with 3:05 left in the half. Arcola took control of the game with the final 16 points of the half and the first two points (free throws) of the second half for a 30-13 advantage. During the run the Arcola defense held the Broncos to 0-for-5 shooting. Arcola took the lead for good on a three-pointer by Thomas with 2:32 left in the half.
The two teams were tied at six after the opening quarter as Arcola was just 2-of-10 from the field.
“I think we executed the game plan great through the first quarter,” said Cerro Gordo/Bement coach Brandon Willard, whose team ran some of the clock off in the first quarter. “We thought they didn’t put a ton of pressure on the guy up toward the free throw line and we wanted to make them uncomfortable on defense. We don’t think we are going to score with Arcola to win the game. It is up and down, Arcola is pretty much going to win. So you have to strategize a little bit and our plan was to let them get uncomfortable, spread them out and try and attack from there. Against Arcola if you take a minute off the clock and score that is win-win. Ultimately, once we got behind we had to throw that out the window.”
The Purple Riders made 7-of-10 field goals in the third quarter and increased the lead to 46-29.
“We got a little lax on some of our shots and Arcola is so good that if those are not going in then all of the sudden those are going the other way,” said Willard, whose team fell to 2-9. “ We have four underclassmen on the floor at all times and some of those were underclassmen shots. I think that Arcola is obviously one of the best. They are a very well coached team. We know all of the players because they have been playing for so long. They are the most physical team I have ever seen. We have freshmen and sophomores that are not used to that yet. I think we grew up today. I think this will only help us moving forward. “
Saturday: Inaugural Sullivan Shoot-out vs. Lawrenceville
Lawrenceville 15 2 11 14–42
Arcola 0 6 12 13–31
ARCOLA: Brody Phillips 1-2-5, Braden Phillips 8-4-20, Tanner Thomas 2-0-6, Canton Wesch, Brevyn Whisman, DJ Stevens, Aiden Myers 0-0-0, Totals 11-6-31
3-point goals: Arcola 3-16 .188 (Thomas 2, Brody Phillips 1), Lawrenceville 1-7 .143 (Parker Hardiman). Field goals: Arcola 11-43 .256. Lawrenceville 16-39 .410. Free throws: Arcola 6-7 .857, Lawrenceville 7-14 .500. Rebounds: Arcola 24 (Braden Phillips 11), Lawrenceville 30 Emery Ivers 7). Turnovers: Arcola 13, Lawrenceville 11
Friday Neoga
Neoga 9 3 9 8–29
Arcola 13 22 18 4–53
ARCOLA: Wesch 1-0-3, Whisman 1-0-2, Braden Phillips 11-1-23, Thomas 7-1-18, Brody Phillips 2-2-6, Evan Rardin 0-2-2, DJ Stevens 1-0-3, Myers, Eddy Garcia, Sawyer Maxwell 0-0-0, Totals 23-6-57
3–point goals: Arcola 5 (Thomas 3, Wesch 1, Stevens 1)
Dec. 17 Cerro Gordo/Bement
CG/Bement 6 7 11 14–38
Arcola 6 22 18 13–59
ARCOLA: Wesch 1-0-3, Whisman 2-1-5, Braden Phillips 7-6-20, Thomas 5-1-15, Brody Phillips 5-3-15, Rardin 0-1-1, Stevens, Myers,Garcia, Haris Mayhall, Sawyer Maxwell, Carson Jewell 0-0-0, Totals 20-12-59
3-point goals: Arcola 7-19 .368 (Wesch 1, Thomas 4, Brody Phillips 2), Cerro Gordo/Bement 6-17 (.353) (Trevor Cogdill 1, Will Fuson 2, Lucas Fuson 2, Eli Corpus 1). Field goals: Arcola 20-43 (.465), Cerro Gordo/Bement 13-37 (.351). Free throws: Arcola 12-17 (.706), Cerro Gordo/Bement 5-10 (.500). Rebounds: Arcola 32 (Braden Phillips 12), Cerro Gordo/Bement 21 (Cooper Benson 4). Turnovers: Arcola 9, Cerro Gordo/Bement 12
JV Friday Neoga
Neoga 9 7 5 8–29
Arcola 4 8 6 10–28
ARCOLA: Garcia 1-0-2, Rardin 2-4-9, Maxwell 1-0-2, AJ Stevens 3-1-7, Jewell 1-0-2, Mayhal 2-0-6, Totals 10-5-28
3-point goals: Arcola 3 (Rardin 1, Mayhal 2)
Dec. 17 Cerro Gordo/Bement
CG/Bement 5 9 12 8–34
Arcola 7 9 15 5–36
ARCOLA: Garcia 3-1-7, Rardin 3-4-10,Mayhall 2-1-7, Jewell 1-0-2, Stevens 3-3-10, Totals 12-8-36
3-point goals: Arcola 4 (Rardin 1, Mayhall 2, Sevens 1)
Freshmen-sophomore
CG/Bement 3 14 10 10–37
Arcola 10 8 15 19–52
ARCOLA: Ronnie Vega 2, Liaison Barron 4, Cesar Rivera 2, Kaden Hohlbauch 35, Louis Cruz Gutierrez 2, Blake Pilkington 4, Emmitt Langley 3
Three-point goals: Arcola 1 (Langley 1)