CM posts upset over Waterloo Gibault

Eagles hand Hawks only their second loss of season

December 21, 2011 10:26 PM

With permission from the telegraph

By GREG SHASHACK

The Telegraph

BETHALTO — Waterloo Gibault coach Dennis Reuter feared a fall. The fear became reality Wednesday night with a 40-31 loss to the Civic Memorial Eagles.

"I kind of saw it coming," Reuter said. "I kind of thought, this whole night doesn’t look good to me. … I just had a bad feeling coming in."

The victory ended a five-game losing streak for CM, which takes a 3-5 record into a first-round date at 3 p.m. Tuesday with No. 3 seed Sandoval at the Columbia Tournament. Gibault, the No. 2 seed at Columbia, falls to 8-2.

"That’s a big win," CM coach Ty Laux said. "Our guys really played well. We executed our game plan, we were patient on offense and defensively, we played very well. … That was nice to see."

CM was coming off a pair of three-point Mississippi Valley Conference losses to Jersey and Mascoutah. But after building a 20-14 halftime lead that reached double digits late in the third quarter, the Eagles refused to relent.

Junior Kyle Yates scored nine of his game-high 14 points in the second half for CM, which scored 40 points in a game for the first time since a 42-37 season-opening win over Taylorville.

"Kyle Yates played a great game," Laux said. "He really got us in our spots, he rebounded the basketball, just has a superb all-around game."

CM, which committed 12 turnovers to 13 for Gibault, shot 48 percent from the field while repeatedly beating the Hawks for layups on cuts to the hoop.

"Patience, patience out of flex, patience out of all our offense to get good shots," Yates said of the key to his team’s victory. "We’ve been relying too much on jump shots."

That’s the sermon Laux has been preaching. And the choir responded.

"We shot the ball better tonight," Laux said. "Obviously, we were shooting some pretty high-percentage shots. We’ve struggled making baskets. Tonight, we were more patient on offense and that’s what we wanted to do, make them guard us for 30-35 seconds and try to break them down a little bit and get to the basket."

Gibault’s only other defeat was a 33-30 loss to Pinckneyville. The Class 1A Hawks were certainly favored against CM, but Reuter was not sure they should have been given a schedule that gift-wrapped a hot start.

"We’re not the best team Civic’s played," Reuter said. "They’re not afraid to play us. They’ve played better teams than us. … I thought they played real well. They played hard and executed well – and we just didn’t."

Drew Emerick, a 6-4 senior, added 12 points for CM, which made 7 of 10 foul shots in the final three minutes to stave off a Gibault rally that cut an 11-point deficit to 36-31 with 1:38 left in the fourth quarter.

Shane Fencel hit 3 of 4 foul shots in the final minute for CM, which also got help off the bench from 6-5 freshman Jakob Lowrance (four points) and 6-0 sophomore LaRandy Warren (three points) and solid floor games from starters Brad Moore and Brad Seketa.

"It was a good team win," Yates said.

Gibault labored against CM’s 2-3 zone, shooting 27 percent (11 of 41) from the field including 3 of 17 from 3-point range.

"I felt like that was the least of our problems," Reuter said of the Hawks’ shooting. "I think that stems from a poor effort early. (CM’s) struggling to score this year and they got 12 points early with four layups. When you come out and don’t guard or play with a lot of focus, sometimes the shooting follows right along with that."

 

CM 40, WATERLOO GIBAULT 31

Gibault 7 7 7 10 — 31

CM 8 12 11 9 — 40

Gibault (8-2) – Pratl 6, Row 9, Schreder 2, McFarland 2, Konkel 8, Degener 4. FG-11 3FG-3 FT-6.

CM (3-5) – Emerick 12, Yates 14, Seketa 2, Fencel 5, Warren 3, Lowrance 4. FG-15 3FG-0 FT-10.

gshashack@thetelegraph.com