Tidbits from the Switz City sectional
First of all, congratulations to the Linton-Stockton Miners on winning their third consecutive sectional championship for the third time in school history. The Miners had previously won three sectional titles in a row from 1945-47 and 1974-76.
I missed it - I was in attendance at Class A Sectional 57 in Switz City.
I hadn't been to a Switz City sectional since 1985, when Jeff Oliphant and Tony Patterson played for L&M. But as I told Roger Weaver last Tuesday, there's nothing quite like sectional basketball at the Switz City Gym.
Compliments to the Clay City fans who turned out in force to support their Eels. Purple shirts filled more than half of the Switz City Gym's 3,000-seat capacity. Yes, everyone likes a winner and it's easy to support a team that's in pursuit of its fourth consecutive sectional championship. Still it was nice to see a big crowd at Switz City. It wouldn't seem like sectional basketball without it.
Tuesday night, the Bloomfield Cardinals nearly thwarted the Eels' bid for a fourth straight, falling by a single point in a 41-40 thriller that went down to the wire.
Clay City jumped out to a 30-15 halftime lead applying full-court pressure and aided by 11 Bloomfield turnovers in the first half.
The Cardinals began to inch back in the second half, abandoning their traditional zone defense in favor of a man-to-man.
When Bloomfield's Eli Combs nailed a 3-pointer from the right wing to trim the deficit to two, freelance sports writer and former Linton Daily Citizen sports editor Steve Fields joked that he'd have to rewrite his headline and throw a Three Dog Night reference in there - "Eli's Coming."
But it was not to be for the Cardinals as two shots to win it refused to fall.
I witnessed a pair of outstanding individual performances last week.
Friday it was Clay City's Easton Booe, getting the Eels off to a fast start against Shakamak scoring 13 points hitting all six shots he took. Booe missed over half the season with an injury but eventually worked his way back into the starting line-up for coach Vance Edmonson's Eels.
In Saturday's championship game, teammate Noah Denker one-upped that with 25 first-half points on perfect 9 of 9 firing.
I don't believe I've ever seen that before - although Eastern Greene's Cam Creager nearly duplicated the feat against Linton-Stockton, scoring 22 points in the first half on 7 of 8 from the floor.
Of course Bill Walton famously hit 21 of 22 shots for 44 points in UCLA's 87-66 win over Memphis State in the 1973 NCAA championship. Most of those were on alley-oop passes from Greg Lee that Walton laid in over the rim. No dunks, as players weren't allowed to dunk then, due to the Alcindor Rule (and if you have to ask who Lew Alcindor is, you're too young).
Even though his White River Valley team lost, it was good to see Jon Koenig going out on a good note with a well-played game to close out his career in a Wolverine uniform. Koenig hit 7 of 8 shots from the floor and 3 of 4 from the line for 17 points to go with eight rebounds.
Congratulations on a fine season, Jon!
Speaking of "too young to remember" - before Saturday night's championship game the Clay City pep band played the theme from "The Magnificent Seven."
The Magnificent Seven was a 1960 Western film starring Yul Brynner, Eli Wallach and Steve McQueen. The cast included Charles Bronson and James Coburn, among others.
I hadn't heard that song since they had cigarette commercials on television. Yes sports fans, they had cigarette commercials on TV until the Federal Communications Commission banned cigarette commercials from television in 1971.
The theme from the Magnificent Seven was featured in Marlboro commercials. Usually there was a cowboy smoking a Marlboro and riding a horse over rugged terrain while the theme played in the background. Near the end, the voice-over intoned, "Come to where the flavor is. Come to Marlboro Country."
I digress.
Hard to believe it had been 30 years since I'd been to a sectional at Switz City.
Good luck to the Miners this Saturday at the Southridge Regional at the historic Huntingburg Memorial Gymnasium.
Terry Schwinghammer is a sports writer for the Greene County Daily World. He can be reached by telephone at (812) 847-4487, ext. 27. He can also be reached via email at tschwing32@yahoo.com.
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