It was a fairly typical first game of the season for both the Coal City and Gardner-South Wilmington boys basketball teams in the opening round of the Coal City/Manteno Thanksgiving Tournament.

In the end, the Coalers had Carter Nicholson on their side, and that was the difference in a 44-39 win over the Panthers. Nicholson scored a game-high 17 points, including a 3-pointer to start the fourth quarter that put his team up 10 at 38-28, which was the biggest lead by either team all night.

“For a first game, it went pretty well,” Nicholson said. “We were able to move the ball around on offense. I wasn’t really looking to score, but I took the shots when they came to me.

“We communicated well on the court. A lot of us have been playing together since we were in fifth grade, so we know what everyone can do. I am excited for the rest of the season.”

After GSW scored the next six points to pull within 38-34, Nicholson stopped the run with a short jumper. The Panthers then got a free throw by Leondre Kemp, who had a game-high 11 rebounds to go with his team-leading 11 points, and a putback by Reed Millette to bring the score to 40-37 with 45.9 seconds left to play. Coal City got a basket by Gavin Berger and single free throws by Braden Walker and Julian Micetich (10 points, 9 rebounds) before Kemp scored on a putback to provide the final margin.

Micetich scored the first five points of the game before GSW outscored the Coalers 13-5 the rest of the way to take a 13-10 lead at the end of the first quarter. Cooper Biros had five of his seven points in the period for the Panthers, who also got eight points from Stanley Buchanan and seven from Gray.

Coal City put the clamps down defensively in the second quarter, limiting GSW to only three points, while scoring 11 of its own to take a 21-16 lead into halftime. Nicholson scored seven points in the third quarter to help build the Coalers’ lead to 35-28 entering the fourth.

“We had some first-game rust or jitters,” Coal City coach Joe Micetich said. “We have a good mix of experienced players and new faces, and they played well together. Our defense did a good job. Defense is about effort, and our kids gave a great effort. We have more length than we did last year, so that should help our defense.

“Carter Nicholson had 17 points, but they were almost a quiet 17 because he was just taking shots in the flow of the offense. He didn’t force anything. Julian Micetich did a good job underneath, both scoring and rebounding.”

GSW coach Allan Wills was happy to see the balance in his team’s offensive attack.

“We knew we would have some turnovers with this being our first game,” Wills said. “The thing that hurt us was that we weren’t making many outside shots. Once those shots start falling with the way Leondre plays underneath, we’ll be tough to guard.

“I liked the balance we had. We don’t really have one big scorer, but we feel good about putting 8-10 different guys on the floor and know they can score. We have a lot of good players, and I am looking forward to this season.”

In the first game of the night, Morris had its full roster together for the first time due to the football team’s semifinal run and hanged close with Richton Park Southland Prep before dropping a 54-34 decision. Morris, though, was within five points at 34-29 early in the fourth quarter.

Both teams had trouble getting out of the gate, and Morris’ RJ Kennedy scored the game’s first point with a free throw at the 4:52 mark of the first quarter. Southland scored the next six points before Morris freshman Baylen Lee (8 points) made a pair of free throws. Southland led 11-6 at the end of the first quarter.

Morris got a basket by Kennedy and a 3-pointer by Brycen Johnson in the second quarter, but that was all as Southland took a 25-11 lead into halftime.

The Eagles’ lead reached 31-14 in the third before before Morris scored the next 11 points. Hayden McDonald had six of his team-high 10 points in the spurt, while Lee had five. Morris trailed 34-27 at the end of the third quarter before a basket by Landon Norris cut it to 34-29 with 7:44 remaining.

“Even if we had our whole team together for a full two weeks, we wouldn’t have been able to replicate Southland’s quickness,” Morris coach Joe Blumberg said. “We did some good things and had a good run in the third, but they were able to score 6-8 quick points and get the lead back up.

“We knew we would have some mistakes, but I saw some good things. We played hard on defense, Hayden McDonald attacked the basket really well, Baylen Lee came in and gave us a spark, Cade Laudeman and RJ Kennedy both played well underneath. This early in the season, I don’t use the score as a barometer. I was very happy to see that our guys played hard, they communicated well, they were willing to try anything and they didn’t get down on themselves. We still have a lot of work to do, but tonight was encouraging.”