Game 75: Charleston vs. Effingham (Boy's Basketball)

Game 75
Charleston vs. Effingham (Boy's Basketball)
Charleston Holiday Tournament (5th place game)
(12/29/10)

It occurred to me as lunch time approached, that I hadn't eaten any fast food in my three days on the road in Charleston. There was a string of three fast food stops in my trips to Sterling, DeKalb, and Crystal Lake last week. That is just three fast food stops in the last two-plus weeks. Not bad, however I wouldn't exactly call my meals healthy while in Charleston, which includes a heaping and never-ending plate of Ultimate Nachos from Buffalo Wild Wings, an order of Asian Zing wings on a previous BWW trip, and the Cody's Pretzel Burger at Cody's.



In the final game before the break, the host Charleston Trojans faced the Effingham Flaming Hearts. Charleston has a couple of nice players in T.J. Bell (6'7" Jr.) and Joey Miller (6'3" Sr.). The latter is the son of Eastern Illinois men's basketball coach Mike Miller.

The Trojans jumped out to a 15-8 lead after one quarter, and led by four points at halftime, 22-18. Charleston opened it up in the second half, outscoring Effingham 19-12 in the 3rd quarter, and 13-6 in the 4th quarter to win 54-36.

Joey Miller scored 19 points for the Trojans, with T.J. Bell adding 11 points. Jeremy Wohltman led Effingham with 15 points. Charleston finished with just 11 turnovers, while Effingham committed just 9 turnovers.

After the game, I packed up my equipment and headed back to the hotel. I checked out, and headed back to the gym during the break and set up the radio equipment for the night's games. WGIL broadcasters Jim Wyman and Brad Bennewitz had checked out of their rooms in the morning, and just hung out at the gym all day. We were about the only ones at Lantz Arena during the break, outside of the tournament workers. The Eastern Illinois women's basketball team held a practice between sessions, so there was something to keep us occupied.

Jimmie wasn't ready to check out. His text message read: "Not till 4:30. Watching football game and sleeping." He sent me a text at 3:30 and said he was ready to get out.

I picked Jimmie up at the hotel, and the Galesburg boy's basketball team had returned from a workout at the gym at EIU. I talked with coach Mike Reynolds, and he said they were going to stay in the rooms until 6:00, and were just getting charged $10/room extra. I mentioned that they didn't charge us, so maybe they would waive that fee.

Game 75 Miles: 4