Boys basketball: Coal City executes its way past Streator in ICE matchup

STREATOR – The Coal City boys basketball team came to Streator on Tuesday night with a game plan.

The Coalers executed that strategy almost flawlessly.

Coal City jumped on the Bulldogs early and often, built a 19-point lead midway into the third quarter and held off the hosts’ late rally for a 65-57 Illinois Central Eight Conference triumph at Pops Dale Gymnasium

The loss drops Streator to 13-11 overall and 8-3 in league play, a half-game behind league leader Reed-Custer (8-2 ICE). Coal City, which shot 60% (24 of 40) from the field and held a 42-20 rebounding advantage, improved to 10-15 and 6-5.

“The first game against Streator [on Dec. 16], we had a real battle with them and ended up losing by one point,” Coal City assistant coach Seth Schoonover said. “We watched the tape and took the positive things we did that night and incorporated that into a few of our sets tonight.

“The kids executed everything we worked on and talked about outstandingly.”

Senior 6-foot-7 center Carter Garrelts posted five assists, 11 rebounds and 20 points – 12 in the opening quarter to help the visitors to an 18-11 lead. Cason Headley added 17 points and seven rebounds, Dillon Harrington scored 14 points, and point guard Carson Shepard had 12 points, five assists and three steals.

“We came in wanting to run our offense through Carter Garrelts right from the opening tip,” Schoonover said. “We used a lot of pick-and-rolls with him, and our guards found him, and he finished. He’s a tough guard, so we wanted to use him to our advantage, and we did that in the first quarter. Then when Streator went to the zone, we did an excellent job of staying patient and working for a good shot.

“Headley, Shepherd and Harrington all played awfully well for us too.”

The Coalers led 31-20 at halftime, then used an 8-0 run, starting with consecutive hoops by Garrelts, to hold a 39-20 cushion with five minutes remaining in the third.

Streator opened the fourth down 47-31, but used nine points from Logan Aukland, eight points by Christian Benning, four from Cade Peterson and a 3-pointer by Adam Williamson to help cut the margin to five on one occasion and seven on three more.

However, Coal City made good on 10 of 12 free throws down the stretch to keep the Bulldogs at arm’s length in the final couple of minutes.

Benning scored a game-high 25 points and added four steals for Streator, which shot only 32% (17 of 54). Aukland had nine points, and Nolan Lukach, Peterson and Williamson six each.

“It was unacceptable how we competed tonight for the first three quarters on our home floor,” Streator coach Beau Doty said. “The blame starts from the top on down. We tried to throw the loss at L-P last week in the trash, where we just got outplayed and were looking to start an upward trend, but tonight we just got outeverythinged.

“Give Coal City credit for making shots, but we also gave them anything they wanted, especially early. Our defense was porous, and evidently our game plan wasn’t as sound as it needed to be. They executed very well, but we did little to get in the way of that.

“I didn’t say a word in between the third and fourth quarters, and we came out and played like our lives depended on it. That’s how you have to play the entire 32 minutes anytime. ... This is a competitive game.

“Maybe I should have not said a word the entire night.”

Both teams next host conference games Friday – Streator against Mantneo, and Coal City welcoming Herscher.