Wooden Shoes narrowly edge Bulldogs 53-50
Mar. 5—In a game that came down to the wire, the Teutopolis Wooden Shoes came away with a win over the St. Anthony Bulldogs Thursday evening, 53-50 at Teutopolis High School.
"That's what this game is about," said Teutopolis head coach Chet Reeder. "Cody [Rincker's] team played awesome tonight. They kept mixing up defenses on us and got us out of rhythm.
"We had some key moments where we stepped up and made plays and hit some free throws at the end."
"We've played some competitive ballgames with these guys, especially in my tenure here," said St. Anthony head coach Cody Rincker. "We played them last year here at the Christmas Classic. It was close but ended up being 12 or 13.
"In some regards I'm extremely proud we competed that well and didn't quit. We fought right back and did what we had to do and made enough plays to give us a chance. We come into this gym, against this team and this program, that's all you're asking for in the fourth quarter."
The game was close throughout. The Bulldogs got on the board first with a layup from Seth Hotze, but was quickly countered with a layup from Matthew Deters.
The score was knotted again at four, again at seven, and again at 10 all in the first quarter. Evan Wermert got a putback to go, followed by a layup from Caleb Siemer to go up four with a minute left in the first quarter to go up 14-10, but St. Anthony's Craig Croy drilled a three-pointer with 34 seconds left to make it a one-point game.
The initial Teutopolis jumper was off left with the seconds winding down, but Wermert got a putback to go right before the buzzer to take a three-point lead at the end of one.
With the score 19-17, Teutopolis' Evan Addis got a jumper to fall, followed by a layup from Wermert to go up 23-16.
But St. Anthony mounted a run of its own, with Kennan Walsh connecting on a jumper, followed by a 3-pointer from Antrim and a steal that Croy took coast-to-coast for a layup that put the Bulldogs up one.
Just like the first quarter, Wermert connected on a three late in the quarter to help put his team back on top 26-24 at the half.
It was back-and-forth to start the third quarter until it looked like the Wooden Shoes might start to pull away after a three from Max Niebrugge and floater from Wermert to go up 36-28. But the Bulldogs responded with a 7-0 run, starting with layups from Hotze and Antrim, followed by a 3-pointer from Croy to make it a one-point game going into the fourth quarter.
Teutopolis got a pair of layups to fall to start the fourth quarter to go up by five, but a layup from Antrim and a big block that Hotze took the length of the floor for a layup make it a one-point game.
Hotze was able to get another layup to fall, but Addis responded with one of his own to go back up 44-41. Hotze scored the next four points for the Bulldogs and even game them a one-point lead with 1 minute 56 seconds left.
"Those plays were absolutely huge," Rincker said. "It got everybody else re-motivated. It definitely gave us the spark we needed to bring it back."
In what might've been the biggest play of the game, Hardiek connected on a deep 3-pointer to put the Wooden Shoes back in front by two.
"It was a ball-screen action trying to get Evan off a ball screen and a double screen away for Jordan," Reeder said. "It was a designed play we called in the timeout before. It wasn't exactly the spot where we drew it up, but it was a designed set for us."
St. Anthony got a steal out of its 1-2-2 trap near the half-court line and was fouled in a one-and-one situation. However, the Bulldogs couldn't capitalize, missing the free throw.
From that point on, it was all about free throws for the Wooden Shoes. Max Niebrugge knocked down a pair with 30 seconds left to make it 49-45.
Grant Nuxoll connected on a turnaround bank shot with 19.6 remaining to cut it back to two, but Max Niebrugge drained both free throws to go back up by four.
Kennan Walsh hit a 3-pointer with 1.9 seconds remaining to make it 51-50. One of the referees blew for a timeout for St. Anthony, but St. Anthony was out of timeouts. After talking it over with the other officials, it was determined that it was an inadvertent whistle and no technical foul would be assessed.
Wermert made both free throws with .8 seconds remaining to help seal the win for the Wooden Shoes.
Wermert led all scorers with 18 points, while Max Niebrugge scored 12. Hardiek scored eight, while Deters added six. Addis scored four, while Brendan Niebrugge scored three and Caleb Siemer two.
For the Bulldogs, Hotze led with 16, 10 coming in the second half. Antrim and Croy each scored 10, Walsh had eight while Nuxoll scored six.
