Weekend: Steamer win tourney, start season 4-0
Nov. 30—ORION, Ill. — The Fulton boys basketball team is off to a hot start, winning four straight to sweep games in the Orion Thanksgiving tournament last week.
The Steamers ended their hot start with a victory over the home team on Saturday night, beating the chargers 49-38.
Baylen Damhoff finished with a team-high 20 points in that contest. Damhoff, a sophomore, led the scoring in all four games throughout the holiday week.
"Baylen had a monster week and a great start to his Steamer career," head coach RJ Coffey said. "He was a difference maker everywhere — whether it was scoring, cleaning up the glass, making big plays on the defensive end. The best part about it is he is just getting started. He is so young and is learning everything we are throwing at him getting better everyday."
Jacob Jones also had 15 points in the game against Orion.
The Steamers have a speedy lineup and a defensive mentality, which paid off in the Thanksgiving tournament. They didn't allow a single team to score more than 42 points on them in the first four games.
"I knew we have the ability to be good defensively," Coffey said. "But this past week at times we showed that this group can defense at a high level. We have so many guys that can get after it on the defensive end and when they lock in and work together it's really fun to watch."
The Steamers beat Sherrard 49-30 to open their season, and followed it up with a 59-42 win over Erie-Prophetstown. They beat Monmouth-Roseville 54-41 to advance to the championship game.
The Steamers open up regular season games on Tuesday after their successful opening. As with any season, there are plenty of things Coffey wants to see his group work on as they kick things off. Especially starting in the Northwest Upstate Illini Conference for the first year.
"As always at the beginning of the season there are several things that we need to work on and clean up," Coffey said. "Offensively we are still learning how to play as a group. We are also trying to find that happy medium between playing fast and not getting out of control. We want to push the pace at both ends and at times this past week we pkayed so fast that we made mistakes. That happens when you play a relentless style of basketball but I am confident tthis group will figure it out, it just might take a few weeks."
But 4-0 is definitely not a bad place to be with the start of regular games.
"Very happy with our first week," Coffey said. "We got a late start after a really successful football season, an for our guys to come out with limited reps and a last minute schedule change I couldn't be more proud of what our guys accomplished this week."
DeWitt bowling sweeps weekend play
BETTENDORF — The Central DeWitt bowling teams opened their season with a sweep of Bettendorf on Saturday at High 5 Bowling Alley.
"We need to improve on some things for the future, like making our spares," coach William Perdieu said. "Our bowlers grinded through the evening and came up with the wins."
The Saber boys won 2751-2740 and the girls won 2282-2196.
The girls were led by A 329 individual performance by Jena Edwards. Edwards shot a 157 and a 172. Adri Kerr finished with a 312 on the ay and Kaylie Cargill had a 286.
The Sabers solidified their win in the Baker rounds where they outbowled the Bulldogs by 104 pins.
The boys, on the other hand, actually lost the Baker rounds. The Sabers had individual performances that helped give them their eventual 11-pin win.
They were led by Will Vanderilt, who bowled a 207 and 223 for a 430 performance on the day. Eli Haack finished with a 370 and Rylan Edwards bowled a 369.
