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SaTurday,
SaTurday,
JanuaryJanuary
10, 201510, 2015
SECTIONB1
B
COME BaCK
TOMOrrOW
InSIdE TOday
Sports
Area girls’ basketball leaders
Henry Domercant
awaiting a new
opportunity
B3
Lost teeth are Green Wave’s gain against Trojans Spoonhour: ‘As big of a
BRIAN NIELSEN
JG-TC Sports Editor
MATTOON – Lose your
two front teeth, score a
season-high against the
rival – Davis Johnson left no
doubt that he considered this
a good week.
“This is what you work
for,” the Mattoon sophomore
guard said. “This is why
you put in the time during
the summer.”
Smiling even if he couldn’t
show the teeth, Johnson
scored 18 points to help support another big night by
junior post player Braden
Smith who had 21 points and
10 rebounds in the Green
Wave’s 57-43 Apollo Conference boys’ basketball win over
Charleston Friday night at the
MHS Gym.
“Holy cow,” Mattoon coach
Josh Forsythe said of his usually basketball-distributing
point guard Johnson scoring 14 points more than his
season average. “He lost two
teeth in practice. I told him
if I knew this would happen I
would have had them knocked
out sooner.”
Johnson’s explanation for
the scoring outburst topping
his previous high of 11 points:
“I just knew my team needed
me tonight. That’s what
teammates do.”
Raising its record to 7-8
overall and 2-2 in the Apollo,
the Green Wave did not need
a big comeback as was the
case to edge Charleston 43-42
a couple of weeks earlier in
the Effingham/Teutopolis
Christmas Classic’s seventhplace game.
“We just played better
defense,” said junior Sawyer
Scott, whose 11 rebounds led
Mattoon to a 36-26 advantage
on the boards. “We just had to
get out on their shooters.”
Charleston, now 3-12
and 0-4, had nine 3-pointers in the earlier game
between Coles County teams
but on Friday managed
just two through the first
three quarters.
“We were more aggressive,”
Johnson said. “Some people
said it was because we were
tired playing our fourth game
in two days but we just had to
get more aggressive.”
Forsythe saw the progress.
“We were back to playing
the zone more aggressively
and getting tips and deflections,” the Wave coach said.
Plus, the Wave had 22
points to double that of the
Trojans in the first quarter.
“We let them get behind
our press and they got some
easy baskets,” Charleston
coach Jim Wood said. “It
looked to me like our effort
tailed off when they had that
run and we didn’t get it back
until too late.”
WAVE/B2
game since I’ve been here’
BRIAN NIELSEN
JG-TC Sports Editor
Mike Estell, for the JG-TC
Charleston High School’s Mitchell
Huddleston goes up for a shot against
his Mattoon defenders Friday night at
Mattoon.
CHARLESTON – While
Belmont coach Rick Byrd
can become the seventh
NCAA Division I active
men’s basketball coach to
reach 700 wins Saturday,
this game may be even bigger for Eastern Illinois.
Having this six-game
winning streak including the
first 3-0 Ohio Valley Conference start in its 19 years
in the league, the challenges
just increase for EIU.
So far the Panthers’ OVC
wins have come against
three teams with a combined
1-7 league record taking the
bottom three places of the
East Division.
Now before getting into its
own West Division, EIU is
to play the top three teams
of the East starting with
one of the OVC’s marquee
teams in Belmont, which
brings a 10-5 overall record
and 2-0 conference mark to
face the 9-6 Panthers in a
game scheduled for 3:15 p.m.
following a 1 p.m. women’s
game at Lantz Arena.
“This is the start of a hard
part,” EIU coach Jay Spoonhour said. “It is going to be a
really hard stretch. It’s going
to be a big game, probably
as big of a game in our gym
since I’ve been here.”
Spoonhour is in his third
season at EIU and after 11-21
and 11-19 seasons shaping his program, he has the
Panthers in position for just
their second winning season
since going to the NCAA
tournament in 2001.
BELMONT/B2
Mattoon defeats Charleston to
start Apollo wrestling duels
KYLE DAUBS
for the JG-TC
CHARLESTON—Remington
Morrison didn’t even know.
With the score 34-30 in
Mattoon’s favor, Morrison
could clinch the dual win
with a win in his 126-pound
weight class.
Morrison was too busy
wrestling his way to an 11-5
lead when a blood timeout
stopped the time and coach
Brett Porter whispered some
key news.
“I didn’t even know,” said
Morrison. “Coach Porter told
me during the blood timeout.
He said if I win the match, we
win the dual.”
Morrison’s 16-6 win over
Kevin Beard clinched it as
Mattoon defeated Charleston
41-30 in Apollo Conference
Duals at Baker Gym as the
Green Wave started the conference season 1-0.
“It’s exciting to finally be
wrestling in conference,” said
Mattoon coach Brett Porter. “I
know some kids wanted some
of their matches to go the
other way, but I thought we
wrestled okay.”
Kevin Reddish had the
match of the night for
Charleston.
After nearly getting pinned
by Ashton Paul in the 145pound weight class matchup,
Reddish barely escaped and
notched two points to trail 5-2
Kevin Kilhoffer, Journal Gazette/ Times-Courier
Former coach Lew Hankenson, center, waves while being recognized before the wrestling meet at Charleston High School in
Charleston on Friday.
Kevin Kilhoffer, Journal Gazette/ Times-Courier
Charleston’s Kevin Reddish, top, and Mattoon’s Ashton Pahl wrestle as the referee watches at
Charleston High School in Charleston on Friday.
at the end of the first period.
It was Reddish that took
down Paul early in the second
period and eventually pinned
the senior to come back with
a victory.
“I haven’t been pinned in
a while, so I just didn’t want
that to be in my mind all season long,” said Reddish. “It
was a scramble, and I saw the
headlock and went after it.”
Mitchell Hayden had a big
showing in the following
match for Mattoon. Trailing
7-5 in points, Hayden spun
around to pin Isaiah Hughes in
the 153-pound class. Ben Craig
followed with a win at 160
for Mattoon.
Mattoon’s J.R. Smith came
around to pin Carson Hyland
in the second period, while
Wyatt Reed and Kenny Smallhorn picked up forfeit wins for
Charleston.
Once Garrett Branson and
Trevor Edwards picked up
wins by pins, Shakespeare
Cowger picked up points by
forfeit for Mattoon, and Reece
Hutton received his forfeit
win for Charleston, Mattoon led just 34-30 with two
matches left.
“When we give up four of
the 14 weight classes every
dual, we have to come from
behind to win,” said Porter.
“We gave up 24 points. I know
they had some forfeits too,
but we always expect to be the
underdogs this year.”
Morrison actually trailed
Beard 3-1 early on, but
wrestled his way to a comfortable lead to seal the conference win.
“After that, it was just play
defense and don’t get greedy
with takedowns,” said Morrison. “One takedown was okay,
but no more than that.”
Javin Quinn eventually
confirmed the Mattoon win
with his close 5-3 victory over
Quintin Carver in a marquee
matchup between sophomores. Charleston fell to 0-1
in the conference despite its
close performance.
“It was close,” said Charleston coach Tyler Hanner. “One
pin goes our way and we
win. It was not just the last
two matches though. We had
another one that could have
gone our way. He was winning
the whole match and just got
stuck at the end. We win that,
it’s a big swing. It was exciting
to get down to the wire, especially with a good crowd, but
I am happy with their effort.
They worked hard in practice
and were pretty amped for this
match. I am very pleased.”
After the meet, many fans
gathered for the gym dedication ceremony in honor of Lew
Hankenson, a longtime supporter and wrestling coach.
106: Trevor Edwards (M) pin
Kaleb Williams © 1:04
113: Double forfeit
120: Reece Hutton (C) win by forfeit
126: Remington Morrison (M)
def. Kevin Beard 16-6
132: Javin Quinn (M) def. Quintin Carver 5-3
138: Jacob Atkinson (M) def.
Brandon Wells 15-4
145: Kevin Reddish (C) pin Ashton Paul 1:13
153: Mitchell Hayden (M) pin
Isaiah Hughes 0:19
160: Ben Craig (M) pin Chase Hayward 1:13
170: J.R. Smith (C) pin Carson Hyland (M) 0:37
182: Wyatt Reed (C) win by forfeit
195: Kenny Smallhorn (C) win by forfeit
220: Garrett Branson (M) pin
Steven Grubaugh 1:38
285: Shakespeare Cowger (M) win by forfeit
Hiring coach tops priority list for new Bears GM Pace
LAKE FOREST, Ill. (AP) —
New Chicago Bears general
manager Ryan Pace recalled
driving from Eastern Illinois
to New Orleans in a beat up
car for a job interview all those
years ago.
From working in game-day
operations with the Saints for
a year to rising through their
front office and landing Chicago’s general manager job, it
has been quite a climb.
Pace was introduced Friday
as the Bears’ GM, charged with
turning around a franchise with
just one playoff appearance in
the past eight years.
“I’m really proud of the
path that I took. It just makes
me smile,” said Pace, who at
37 is the league’s youngest
general manager.
Pace comes to Chicago after
14 years with the Saints — 13 in
their personnel department.
He has a big task rebuilding a team that went 5-11 and
fired GM Phil Emery and coach
Marc Trestman after one of the
most disappointing seasons in
recent memory.
Pace, a defensive end at Eastern Illinois in the late 1990s,
helped build a championship
team with the Saints. He also
was the interim GM during the
“Bountygate” sanctions.
“I was in a good situation
in New Orleans,” he said. “I
worked with great people there
in a good environment. I wasn’t
one of those guys looking to
jump to the next job. This was
a very thorough and calculated
decision by me and my family.
And that’s because this is a historic franchise that desperately
wants to win and they’re willing
to do whatever it takes for that
to happen. And I want to be
leading that charge.”
Topping Pace’s to-do list is
hiring a coach.
As for Cutler, who signed a
seven-year, $126 million deal
after the 2013 season, Pace is
not ready to draw any conclusions. The contract makes him
tough to trade. Cutting Cutler
could be an option if the Bears
decide not to keep him.
“I want to get to know Jay,” he
said. “I want to get to know him
further before I come to these
conclusions.”
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But he will have final say on
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Associated Press
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