Eagles soar past Johnston City

The Eldorado train is rolling down the track, and with the postseason right around the corner, the Eagles steamrolled another victim Friday night.

Placing three players in double figures and nine in the scoring column, Eldorado never trailed in routing Johnston City 70-35.

The win was Eldorado's 26th of the season, and tied the school record for most wins in a season.

"When you win 26 games and start being compared to some of those teams in the seventies that is quite an honor," said winning coach Josh Bradley.

Eldorado can break the record with a win tonight at home against Massac County, or in the regional tournament.

Jumping out to a 17-4 first-quarter lead, Eldorado used a tenacious, 1-2-2, three-quarter court press to force Johnston City into eight turnovers. causing Indians head coach Scott Burzynski to use three timeouts in the first quarter.

Johnston City did not get on the scoreboard until 10 seconds showed on the clock in the first quarter when Chase Selby scored.

"Eldorado has won 26 games for a reason," Burzynski said. "They like to apply pressure, and pound the ball inside and they did that tonight. I thought, overall, we competed though, and never quit."

Ray May led the scoring barrage for Eldorado with 20 points followed by 14 for Braden Attebury and 10 for Lydayyea Shewmaker off the bench.

"We got good balance tonight and just want to close out the season strong," Bradley said. "We got a little complacent in the second quarter, but I thought we really came out strong in the third quarter."

Eldorado's size and quickness wore Johnston City down, forcing the Tribe into 19 turnovers and the Indians managed only to make 4-of-10 free-throw attempts.

Starting guard Houston Hall went down in the second quarter with a rolled ankle and was forced to sit out the remainder of the game. Burzynski said he thought Hall would be ready for the next game.

The Eagles showed great poise on the night cashing in on 8-of-10 shots from the charity stripe and turning the ball over only eight times.

Eldorado 70, Johnston City 35

Eldorado 17 16 18 19 -70

Johnston City 04 08 11 12 -35

Eldorado: May 20, Attebury 14, Shewmaker 10, Meredith 7, Traxler 6, Oglesby 4, Mayberry 4, Watt 3, Whitlock 2.

Johnston City: Selby 14, Campbell 9, Mayti 3, Steinmetz 3, Fischer 2, Johnson 2, McPheron 2.