Sunday, March 4, 2007 10:43 PM CST
Happy ending, bright future for Trojans
BY BRIAN NIELSEN Sports Editor
bnielsen@jg-tc.com
In the final seconds with Matt Miller’s career ending with his fifth foul, Charleston basketball coach Trevor Doughty capitalized.
Charleston fans’ voice boxes had not yet gotten out of their top-volume hey-we-have-a-chance-for-a-huge-victory mode even though the state’s 11th-ranked Alton had finally pulled away to this victory as Miller walked off the court to a rousing ovation.
So Doughty also replaced his other two seniors on the court, Ross Hutchinson and Zack Buxton, so they could hear one last roar in the Trojans’ 57-40 loss in Friday’s IHSA Class AA Charleston Regional
Just barely removed from trailing only 44-40 with 4 ½ minutes remaining in a surprisingly close thriller, Charleston fans even in defeat were in a celebratory mood.
Doughty realized this as he made one of his many classy moves to let his seniors walk off the floor to cheers for a good ending to what had been an at-times rocky season that finished 17-12.
“We had a lot of adversity, I thought, this season,” Doughty said. “We had a couple of losing streaks and injuries at the end and our kids kept working at it. That’s the biggest lesson to learn in school is to continue to work to achieve. I’m very proud of them.”
Yes, when Charleston was losing to a 51-33 Salem Invitational Tournament first-round game to a Centralia team that brought a 3-10 record into the game, you could have hardly foreseen the Trojans leading the state’s 11th-ranked Class AA team at halftime in a regional championship game.
Or when the Trojans lost 66-50 at Effingham and fell to 10-10, who would have known they would have taken a 17-11 record into a regional finale?
Or knew even Friday afternoon that that evening’s game was going to be more than just a second senior night for Charleston and a sectional tune-up for an Alton team that looked so overwhelming three nights earlier when beating Taylorville 76-38 in the regional semifinals?
Well, maybe the people who mattered did.
“We knew we were athletic and could play with them,” Hutchinson said.
The Trojans thrilled their fans enough that they were roaring for Jamel Johnson once he fouled out in a game in which he also had a third-quarter dunk and then for the departing seniors able to play. Senior guard Nathan Zuniga, a starting guard for much of the season, had to miss the regional with a broken hand while Buxton played with an injured knee.
Maybe exciting Charleston fans as much as this momentary ending is the future.
The 6-foot-5 Johnson and 6-6 junior Trey Ryan both showed plenty of potential this winter and can look to next school year when they catch football passes and then make plenty of plays on the basketball court.
Ready to throw them the football in the fall and basketball in the winter is Eric Gentry, who once he became a starter this basketball season, helped the Trojans win seven of their last nine games.
Now he is to return for a senior season as is another football pass catcher Clayton Murphy, whose reserve role this basketball season grew with the injuries to the point he played a key part in Charleston’s upset-in-the-making threat against Alton.
Several others moving up from the junior varsity could move up to brighten next season.
“We played with them the whole game,” Gentry said after Friday’s regional final. “It should give us some confidence for next year.”
Those loud cheers at the end of Friday’s game might just be a warm-up.
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