CHARGERS SWEEP BLACK HAWK IN ARROWHEAD PLAY


GALESBURG ------It was a big night Tuesday at the John Lewis Gym as both Carl Sandburg college basketball teams came up with victory's.  The Sandburg women got the evening going with a 62-53 win over Black Hawk (11-10/2-4) to run their record to 2 and 3 in the Arrowhead Conference and 5 and 15 on the season.  In the nightcap, the CSC men put away the Braves (5-15/0-6) 74-62 for their first conference win while upping their seasons mark to 6-16.
In the opener Coach Mike Bailey saw his women's team finally finish a game. "We've been close a lot this season,"said Bailey, "but haven't been able to finish off an opponent.  Tonight we did."
It didn't look good early on for the Chargers as the Braves got out of the gate quickly to lead 10 to 1.  Despite their slow start and some poor free throw shooting, the Chargers were able to claw their way into a 25-23 lead at intermission.  At the start of the second half, Black Hawk  was held to just one field goal for the first five minutes. CSC managed to extend its lead to seven and then to eight with eight minutes gone when sophomore Courtney McKown (North Fulton HS) nailed back to back treys for a 38-30 advantage.
Black Hawk wouldn't go away, even after the Chargers had built a 15 point lead. The Braves cut the margin to six with a 9-0 run inside of three minutes but the Chargers finished big time hitting nine of ten charity shots in the final two plus minutes to seal the victory.
A former Silver Streak playing for Black Hawk took game scoring honors.  Freshman Jamie Johnson finished with 16 points including a pair of three's in the Braves final rush.  The only other Black Hawk player in double figures was sophomore Christa Oldham from Davenport Central who chipped in with 12.
The Chargers had a balanced attack with eight of the ten players who got into the action getting in the scorebook.  They were lead by Freshman Makenzie Frank (Knoxville HS) who lead the way with  13.  She hit a pair of three's and was 7 of 8 from the free throw line.  Diamond Burt (Rich East HS) added 12 and freshman Kate Morrissey (Stark County HS) chipped in with 10.
In the men's game, the Chargers broke from the gate quickly lead by Galesburg freshman Chad Thompson who scored seven of the first nine points for a 9-4 advantage..  He finished the night 18 which included five treys.  He shared scoring honors with freshman Spencer Pratt (Olympia HS).  Pratt, at 6-3, was a demon on the boards.  With the Chargers at a big size disadvantage, Pratt and the rest of the Chargers went hard to the glass.  Said Chargers Coach Ryan Twaddle, "I've never seen a player work as hard as he (Pratt) does.  He always seems to be around the ball."
The Chargers gradually pulled  away late in the first half to lead by twelve, 37-25 at the break.  In the first five minutes of the second half, Sandburg built a 15 point lead lead by Pratt and Thompson.  It was still a 15 point lead with five minutes to play when the Braves rallied. They managed to cut the lead in half, but the Chargers scored some easy baskets against the Braves pressure to hold them off.
Coach Twaddle was beaming after the game. "We played hard and shared the ball  incredibly well on offense. We were making the right decisions at the right time which lead to good shots. "  He went on to say, "We challenged them to play hard for a full 40 minutes and they did."
The Chargers finished with ten treys in the game.  "The three's were the direct result of making those right decisions with the ball." said Twaddle.
The leading scorer for the Braves was a 6-8 freshman from Davenport West, Cody Cooley, who netted 16.