BOYS BASKETBALL: CM narrowly slides past Jersey 57-54
BETHALTO - In a fan-fueled rivalry of the ages, the Jersey Community High School Panthers basketball team brought their most passionate fans toCivic Memorial High School for their matchup against the Eagles.
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Unfortunately for the Panthers, the Eagles took them down in a narrow victory of 57-54 after four periods on Friday, Dec. 11.
“We’ll take the win any day of the week,” CM Head Coach Doug Carey said after the game. “We’ve just got to get better at finishing ball games. We had 17 turnovers and that just can’t happen.”
To start out, the Eagles showed their dominance on their home court. David Lane and Adam Hill both landed back-to-back three-pointers to kick off the game with six on the board. Jersey’s Drake Kanallakan rebuttled, making a two point shot for the Panthers. Hill landed a two-point shot himself to extend the Eagles’ lead. Jersey’s Jacob Witt converted a single free throw and CM’s own Justin Williams scored, then two more were added on byBrandon Hampton. Zac Ridenhour of the Panthers landed three back-to-back two point shots to close out the first with the Eagles ahead of the Panthers 12-9.
In the second, the Eagles’ offense remained strong. Both williams and his teammate Geoff Withers landed a total of five points each after both landing one three-pointer and a standard shot at the hoop. Brett Lane, along with Hampton, then both brought in two for the Eagles.
On the other side of the court, Jersey worked diligently to get some points on the scoreboard. Zac Ridenhour did a great job this period, bringing in five points for his squad by landing three free-throw shots and one standard shot. Blake Wittman scored a successful basket and lone free throw. His teammates Lucas Ross and Jake Ridenhour both landed two points each from standard basket shots. In a free throw opportunity, Kanallakan missed one and scored the other.
At half, the Panthers still trailed the Eagles by four points with a score of 26-22.
In the third period, the Eagles pushed to extend their lead. Brett Lane scored a whomping eight points for his team in this period. Hampton landed a basket and two points from free throws himself. David Lane and Jaquan Adams both brought in three-point shots and single baskets themselves and Hill made a successful shot at the hoop to bring in two.
Jersey pushed in a total of 15 points before the end of the third. AJ Shaw scored a whomping seven points himself from a three-pointer and two standard shots at the hoop. Zac Ridenhour successfully contributed four points. Jake Ridenhour and Wittman landed two points each.
At the end of the third, the Eagles continued to lead the Panthers 46-37.
When the fourth period of this very intense game finally came around, it seemed like the Eagles could only score by way of free throws. In fact, 9 of 11 points earned in the period by the Eagles were earned by the bonus point opportunities. Adams was the only player on the team that brought in two points from landing a basket.
On the other hand, Jersey wasn’t going down without a fight. In an effort to close the gap and gain the lead, the team made a 17-point push. Jake Ridenhour brought in 10 points for the Panthers. Witt and Zac Ridenhour scored three points each. Shaw and Wittman also scored two each to close out the Panthers within three points (57-54).
At the final buzzer, Jake Ridenhour attempted and missed a three-point shot that would have tied the game and forced an overtime situation, but that wasn’t the case and the Eagles defeated the Panthers 57-54.
“You can give me the blame for this one,” Jersey Head Coach Stote Reeder said after his team’s loss. “I thought our game plan against the pressure was really good. I probably had our kids thinking too much. I put a lot of things in the work this week that I thought would have worked against CM and it turned out that we could have just stayed basic.”
Brett Lane had 11 points and Drake Hampton 10 points for CM. Zac Ridenhour had 18 points to lead Jersey; his brother Jake Ridenhour had 11 and Drake Kanallakan had 10 points.
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