GIBSON CITY – At this early stage of the 2025-26 season, the Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley varsity boys basketball team may be surpassing even its own expectations.
The Falcons improved to 3-0 in the season-opening GCMS Thanksgiving Tournament with a 56-53 win Friday over Prairie Central.
“It was a very good game,” GCMS junior Graydon Leonard said. “I didn’t know we had it in us, but at the end, we came out with it. Everyone played really well, and it was a good team win.”
The Falcons took a 51-49 lead on a driving layup by Leonard with less than two minutes remaining. After Prairie Central’s Easton Friedman made a free throw, Leonard made a foul shot of his own to make it 52-50 with 48.4 seconds left in the contest.
After Prairie Central’s Bryson Gadberry missed a layup, Leonard made another shot from the charity stripe to make it 53-50 with 33.1 seconds remaining.
Leonard then stole the ball before making two more free throws to extend GCMS’s lead to two possessions at 55-50 with 25.9 seconds left in the game.
“Graydon played great. He made some big plays,” Tompkins said. “They were really physical with him, but he likes that. He’s able to get in the post and knock down some shots. He hit a 3-pointer. He got to the free-throw line. He showed how diverse of a player he is offensively.”
The Hawks’ Griffin Tredennick converted a three-point play to make it 55-53 before Leonard made another foul shot with 14.6 seconds remaining.
Dane Wheeler missed a potential game-tying 3-pointer as time expired.
“What a play (PC head coach Trevin McCulloh) drew up for the pick and pop,” GCMS head coach Ryan Tompkins said. “(Wheeler) had a really clean look at it, but fortunately for us, it didn’t go in.”
Falcon sophomore Christian Brown converted a three-point play with 3:57 left in the game to give GCMS a 47-46 lead before another basket by Brown extended the lead to 49-46 with 3:17 remaining.
“I was a little bit nervous, but my team got a couple of and-1s,” Brown said. “Graydon hit some free throws and put us in a good spot.”
Tredennick drained a game-tying 3-pointer with less than three minutes left in the contest.
“They’re going to hit some,” Tompkins said.
From there, GCMS held Prairie Central to four points for the rest of the game.
“We were all kind of scrambling, but we all got a man. It didn’t matter who it was. We all just wanted to fly to the ball, and everyone was flying around and getting rebounds,” Leonard said. “We played really well on defense.”
“I like what we did on the glass and what we did defensively,” Tompkins added. “We were limiting second-shot possessions, and that honestly was the difference. We were able to rebound the ball consistently.”
Offensively, Leonard and Brown each scored 17 points.
“Christian played a very good game,” Leonard said. “It was nice to have him in the game because you know whenever he’s in there, he’s going to drive it to the hole and that opens up shots for others.”
Brown said he is embracing coming off the bench in his first year on the varsity squad.
“I love it. I really do,” Brown said. “I feel like we pass the ball more. I got to the rim. I could have got a couple more rebounds, but everybody came in to get some rebounds. Everybody did their part.”
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The Falcons went into halftime trailing 29-28 after Reed Tompkins rebounded the ball and scored on a buzzer-beating putback.
After Gadberry drained a 3-pointer, Logan Ward scored two points while drawing a foul. After Lane Beyers rebounded Ward’s ensuing missed free throw attempt, Ward tallied two more points to tie the game at 32-32 before Leonard tallied two more points to give GCMS a 34-32 lead.
Like Leonard and Brown, Ward also finished the game in double figures with 10 points.
“He played great,” Tompkins said. “He logged a lot of minutes. He did a good job.”
Gadberry drained a go-ahead 3-pointer before Doman, who finished the game with eight points, scored on a putback to give GCMS a 36-35 lead. After Leonard made a jump shot, Doman scored two more points to extend the Falcons’ lead to 40-35.
“Mason Doman did a good job,” Tompkins said. “He rebounded and got some stops. He had a good presence. He took care of the ball. He got to the basket and got us some second chances. He had his best game of the tournament.”
Brown then made a basket to extend the lead to 42-35 before a bucket by Wheeler and a three-point play by Friedman cut Prairie Central’s deficit to 42-40 as the third quarter came to an end.
Spencer Ray drained a 3-pointer to give the Hawks a 43-42 lead before Reed Tompkins made a go-ahead basket for GCMS. Ray drained another 3-pointer with 5 ½ minutes remaining to give Prairie Central a 46-44 lead.
“What a dogfight,” Ryan Tompkins said. “Both teams played really hard and had great energy on both ends of the floor.”
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Doman started the game’s scoring with two free throws before a 3-pointer by Friedman gave Prairie Central a 3-2 lead. Ward made a go-ahead bucket before a trey by Tredennick and two free throws by Wheeler gave the Hawks an 8-4 lead.
Doman made another basket before a 3-pointer by Leonard gave GCMS a 9-8 lead. A 3-pointer and a driving layup by Wheeler then gave Prairie Central a 13-9 lead before a bucket by Ward made it 13-11.
Two free throws by Ashton Sheldrake extended the Hawks’ lead to 15-11 as the first quarter came to an end before a jump shot by Wheeler made it 17-11.
Brown then came off the bench to convert a three-point play with 6:02 left in the second quarter before Gadberry and Leonard exchanged 3-pointers to make it 20-17. Tredennick and Brown exchanged two-point buckets before Wheeler drained a 3-pointer to make it 25-19.
Brown made a trey before two free throws by Ward and a bucket by Brown gave GCMS a 26-25 lead.
“Christian Brown was a huge boost off the bench,” Tompkins said. “He showed his diversity offensively. It was a good effort.”
Gadberry drained a go-ahead shot and Ray made a two-point bucket to give the Hawks a 29-26 lead.
Reed Tompkins finished with four points for the Falcons, including his buzzer-beater to end the second quarter.
“I’m very happy with how our guys played with poise,” Ryan Tompkins said. “I thought we did a good job of attacking the basket. Prairie Central’s really aggressive defensively, and they’re going to get some turnovers and get you into tough spots, but our guys were resilient. Our guys made the extra pass and got to the rim and got to the free-throw line.”
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The Falcons are scheduled to face Lexington in the tournament championship game at 2:30 p.m. Saturday.
It will be a rematch of last year’s tournament championship contest, which ended in a victory for Lexington.
“It’ll be a good rematch,” Leonard said. “Both teams are different year, so we’ll see what happens.”
This year’s championship contest was originally scheduled to start at around 5:30 p.m., but the time was moved up due to a forecasted snowstorm.
“Hopefully, the weather subsides, and we can go from there,” Tompkins said.
GCMS 56, Prairie Central 53
PC 15 14 11 13 – 53
GCMS 11 17 14 14 – 56
Prairie Central (2-1)
Bryson Gadberry 4-0-11, Spencer Ray 3-0-8, Mason Fehr 0-0-0, Easton Friedman 2-2-7, Dane Wheeler 5-2-14, Griffin Tredennick 4-1-11, Ashton Sheldrake 0-2-2, Acer Kratochvil 0-0-0, Avery Dunn 0-0-0. Totals 18-7-53.
GCMS (3-0)
Lane Beyers 0-0-0, Graydon Leonard 5-5-17, Mason Doman 3-2-8, Tristan Wooton 0-0-0, Christian Brown 7-2-17, Reed Tompkins 2-0-4, Zeb Greer 0-0-0, Logan Ward 4-2-10. Totals 21-11-56
3-pointers – Prairie Central 10 (Gadberry 3, Ray 2, Wheeler 2, Tredennick 2, Friedman). GCMS 3 (Leonard 2, Brown).