Steeleville boys cruise past Lebanon

Posted January 09, 2016 10:00 pm

By Pete Spitler Staff Writer

On a night when they honored one of their standouts, the Steeleville Warriors had little trouble with Lebanon on Friday.

Nic Hagel scored 25 points, R.J. Smith added 11 and Steeleville beat the Greyhounds, 67-47.

Hagel was honored before the contest with a 1,000-point ball after reaching the milestone on Dec. 29 against Century in the Sesser-Valier Holiday Tournament.

Hagel now joins the big board of 1,000-point scorers in Steeleville history.

"It means a lot," Hagel said of reaching the milestone. "It's really a dream from when I was about 8 years old. I used to come up here, used to watch Warrior games, used to have role models.

"I always dreamed to get on that board. All the hard work pays off and it feels really good."

Hagel and Smith combined to give Steeleville a 9-0 lead early and the Warriors took an 18-7 advantage into the second quarter.

"He's getting a lot of varsity experience this year," Steeleville coach Bryce Bainter said of Smith. "He's only a junior and a very intelligent kid.

"Getting all the experience he can can only help him."

Steeleville (9-4, 3-0 Cahokia Conference) led 34-19 at halftime and opened up a 44-21 advantage with 5:57 left in the third quarter on back-to-back 3-pointers from Dusty Sutton and Hagel.

"We kinda go how he goes," Bainter said of Hagel. "He's playing really well right now and when he's on the court, I can play different guys at different times because

Steeleville took a 55-32 advantage into the fourth quarter. David Krumsieg led Lebanon with 17 points, while Noah Reinneck added 13.

"Like I told the kids, 'We can't look ahead,'" Bainter said. "We got to take it one day at a time and each day at practice, try to get better."

Nine players scored for Steeleville, which travels to face Red Bud on Tuesday before returning home to play Valmeyer on Friday starting with the JV contest at 6:15 p.m.

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