December 26, 2001 11:39 PM
Rocks, Pioneers, Tigers move on
By Steve Tappa, Staff sports writer BLOOMINGTON -- Right on, Thom Sigel said Wednesday.
Sigel's Rock Island boys' basketball squad did just what any team tries to do opening a
holiday hoops tournament the day after Christmas.
``You just want to move to the right,'' Sigel explained, pointing to the winning
direction on a tourney bracket sheet.
Locally speaking, the Rocks were not alone in getting on the right track in the opening
round of boys' play at the State Farm Holiday Classic in the Bloomington-Normal area.
In Class A action, Alleman and Sherrard joined the Class AA Rocks in winning tight
games.
All three local teams rallied to advance to night games in today's winners' bracket.
Rock Island overcame Rockton Hononegah (60-55), Alleman slipped past Chillicothe IVC
(49-43) and Sherrard shrugged off Argenta-Oreana (53-45).
Kewanee and Galesburg were losers, though. Quincy Notre Dame used a big first half to
KO Kewanee in Class A play, 59-44. State-ranked and Class AA second-seed Rockford Boylan
bashed Galesburg, 72-51.
Alleman (vs. Tolono Unity, 7:30) and Sherrard (vs. Rock Falls, 4:30) are in action
tonight at Illinois' Wesleyan's Shirk Center. Rock Island meets Boylan at 6 p.m. at
Bloomington High School.
Also today, Kewanee plays Olympia (noon at Shirk) and Galesburg meets Hononegah (noon
at Bloomington).
RI 60, Hononegah 55: ``Cortez Hunter and Howard Davis gave us huge lifts off the
bench,'' Sigel said, singling out a pair that combined for 21 points and five assists.
The Rocks (7-3) trailed by seven points late in the first quarter, yet managed to pull
out a game featuring five ties and nine lead changes.
Sparking the offense in the second quarter was Davis (nine of his team-best 12 points)
and Hunter (three of his four assists).
Both also made big plays down the stretch, with Hunter scoring seven of his nine points
in an 11-0 fourth-quarter run that finally gave Rocky control. Davis also drained a jumper
in that three-minute spurt, and had a steal and assist leading to a Hunter layup.
The biggest play, Sigel said, was an old-fashioned three-point play turned by Hunter
with 4:05 remaining. That snapped a tie at 46.
``He took charge,'' Sigel said, ``and we took charge.''
Jared Eischeid had game-highs in points (17) and rebounds (8) for Hononegah (4-6). Ray
Muskeyvalley (10 points, 3 assists) and David Wilson (9 points, 6 rebounds) also had solid
games for the Rocks.
Alleman 49, IVC 43: Ryan Trimble did it again. For the second straight game, the
senior came up big in the clutch. And, for the second straight game, the Pioneers were
winners.
``A two-game winning streak may not sound like much, but it's huge for us,'' Alleman
coach Larry Schulte said about his 5-6 Pioneers, who rallied from an early 9-2 deficit.
``Every game we get under our belts only makes this young bunch feel a little more
confident about itself.
``We're so inexperienced, we're still searching for a team identity and the roles that
come along with it. But, we're rounding into form. Ryan Trimble is emerging as our go-to
guy in pressure situations, and Ryan McCracken is proving to be more-and-more consistent
with the ball when the game is on the line.''
A basket by Trimble, a senior better-known for his exploits on the gridiron, gave
fifth-seeded Alleman its lone lead of the last quarter. Trimble's old-fashioned
three-point-play with 3:36 remaining allowed Alleman a 42-41 edge.
After that, IVC committed turnovers on three of its next four possessions and the
Pioneers were nearly perfect from the free-throw line, hitting seven of their next eight
charity tosses. McCracken was 3-of-4 in the final 23 seconds when the Grey Ghosts (4-6)
were forced to foul.
Joel Secil had a game-high 16 points for IVC. McCracken (13) was the only Pioneer in
double figures, though Trimble (nine points, team-best five rebounds) and Jeff Jacobs
(eight points, four rebounds) had strong games for Alleman. Schulte also praised Lance
Logan's work off the bench.
Sherrard 53, Argenta-Oreana 45: ``About midway through the third quarter, I was
thinking we were going to forget about staying at a hotel and just get a bus and go
home,'' Sherrard coach Brian Hutton said. However, senior point guard Brock Luxmore
rallied the Tigers from a 10-point, third-quarter deficit.
Luxmore had 14 of his game-high 16 points in the second half, including eight in the
fourth quarter when Sherrard outscored the Bombers, 21-5.
Luxmore also had nine rebounds to go with three assists. Nate Sim (15) and Evan Farwell
(13 points, 11 rebounds) also scored in double figures for the Tigers (6-3). Bryce Taylor
(14 points, 6 assists) paced the Bombers (5-4).
``You have to be happy with a win at any point, I guess. But, this was just one of
those wins you don't feel very comfortable about,'' Hutton said, warily eyeing today's
matchup with third-seeded Rock Falls, this event's defending Class A champ.
``It looked like a day-after-Christmas, 10:30 (a.m.) ballgame. It was a sloppy game.
The first half, we made 11 turnovers, and a lot of those were unforced. The fourth
quarter, we started taking care of the ball better and taking better shots and the game
swung our way.''
With 3:45 remaining, Farwell converted a three-point-play to snap a tie at 43. After
the Bombers' Seth Brozio answered to pull Argenta-Oreana within one with 1:45 left,
Sherrard hit 5-of-6 free throws down the stretch. Luxmore hit four of those charity
tosses.
Quincy Notre Dame 59, Kewanee 44: D.J. Venvertoith (13 points), Kyle Schutte
(13) and Joe Terwelp (12) led a three-pronged attack Kewanee could not stop.
The Boilermakers (1-7) got team-highs in points (9) and assists (3) from Mike Miler.
Notre Dame (8-4) roared out to a 37-23 halftime lead.
Boylan 72, Galesburg 51: Jason Winkler's game-high 19 points paced a trio of
Titans into double figures. Ranked 10th in the AP's preseason poll, Boylan (9-0) also got
double-figure scoring from Matt Weber (14) and Matt Risely (12).
Albert Greene (14) and Southern Illinois-bound Ryan Walker (14) led Galesburg, which is
now 0-7 for the first time in school history.
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