Matt Williamson, third-quarter run propel Streator past Coal City in ICE showdown

COAL CITY – An unexpectedly ugly first half on both sides followed by back-to-back 3-pointers by Coal City’s Dane Noffsinger and Zander Meents had the Coalers within three points of visiting Illinois Central Eight Conference leader Streator.

Led by senior guard Matt Williamson, however, the Bulldogs put a sudden, thudding end to Coal City’s hopes of finishing Tuesday night tied with Streator atop the ICE standings.

Williamson’s eight third-quarter points on his way to a game-high 18 were part of a game-deciding 13-0 run for the Bulldogs, culminating in a 55-30 win that puts Streator (18-4, 10-0 ICE) two games up on Coal City (16-6, 8-2) in the ICE title race with four games to go.

Williamson said a defensive switch by head coach Beau Doty and some offensive words of wisdom from assistant Micah Mattingly were just what he and his teammates needed to get going.

“Coach Mattingly told me when I came back in the second quarter I had to start attacking the rim, just to get some rhythm, get something flowing,” said Williamson, who scored eight points in both of the game’s middle periods. “That made sense, you know, and when he told me to be assertive, get to the rim, that’s what I did.

“Then I just tried to create some rhythm off of that.”

Noffsinger’s 3 to open the second half followed by Meents' barely a minute later sliced the Coalers' deficit to 23-20. A timeout called by Doty to reset his defensive matchups proved to break that momentum and return it to the Bulldogs, who led 30-20 on a designed Williamson inbounds bucket midway through the third. Streator stretched its lead it to 36-20 before the stunned hosts finally scored again with 1:43 remaining in the third.

“We had a little mini-run there, [Streator] called a timeout,” Coalers coach Joe Micetich said, “and whatever they talked about, they definitely made an adjustment defensively, and we just stopped scoring. And we knew, eventually, some of their shots were going to go.

“They started on that run, and then we had to call basically that exact same timeout they’d just called three minutes before.”

For the game, Coal City – led by nine points from Meents, seven from Noffsinger and an eight-rebound, two-block game from Gabe McHugh – shot an icy 18.8% (9 of 48) from the field.

“I’d like to say [the poor shooting night] didn’t have anything to do with them, but it seems like every time we have that bad, below 20 or 25% shooting, it’s always against Streator,” Micetich said.

“Hopefully we can use this game to sharpen up for the rest of our conference schedule and the postseason.”

Williamson not only led Streator in scoring, but also in assists with four.

“Matt really turned it on,” Doty said. “I didn’t think he was with it the first [quarter] for whatever reason, but he really responds. The thing about Matt is, he’s been so good all year in so many ways. The few times the coaching staff’s had to kind of turn up the volume a little bit, he’s responded every time.

“That’s exactly what happened tonight, and he just became unguardable there for a stretch in the third quarter.”

Double-double machine Nolan Lukach contributed another with 12 points and 11 rebounds. Isaiah Weibel (eight points, three steals) and Tristan Finley (six points, five rebounds, three assists) also contributed to the win for the Bulldogs, whose hot second half lifted them to a respectable 41.2% (21 of 51) shooting night.

Streator is back home Saturday for a 3 p.m. matinee against Washington.

Coal City is at home Friday for a late-starting 7:45 p.m. varsity tip against Pontiac.