01-24-09
BY JACK BULLOCK
NASHVILLE - Thirty-two minutes seemed like an eternity for Breese Central and head coach Stan Eagleson on Saturday night in the title game of the Nashville Invitational Tournament.

Had the game gone on for another five minutes – the outcome might have been different.

Holding on for dear life in a basketball sense – the Cougars survived a 22-turnover night and a fury of Mater Dei fourth quarter 3-pointers to upend the Knights, 64-59, to win the NIT.

MD was MIA in the first half offensively and trailed 39-17 midway into the third quarter when the scoring floodgates opened.

The Knights were just 6-of-29 from behind the 3-point arc with all six of the made treys coming in the last eight minutes.

However Central survived by hitting 4-of-6 free throws in the final :34.2 to improve to 17-2 overall in winning its third NIT championship.

“This is a great tournament and we have been here three times (title game wins) and you have to love every one of them,” said Breese Central head coach Stan Eagleson. “We’re certainly not going to give the trophy back because we struggled a bit in the second half.”

Central was led by David Wiegmann – a 6-foot-6 junior center – with 19-points while 6-foot-5 junior Garrett Gaffner added 14-points and a game-best 10 rebounds.

But despite their efforts – Central nearly handed the game to their cross-town rivals.

The Cougars turned the ball over eight times in the final eight minutes and saw Mater Dei (13-8) go on an 18-3 run.

The Knights hit three 3-pointers in succession during the sprint and a conventional three-point play on a steal and fast break by Nick Boeckmann closed the gap to 53-49 with 3:05 remaining in the fourth quarter.

MD’s Tyler Detmer canned a both of his 3-pointers in the final frame and when his second one found the mark – the Knights trailed just 61-59 with :25.5 left.

However the good teams always managed to make enough shots at the end to close out games and even though the stats say it wasn’t pretty – Central left the floor at the Assembly Hall with another championship trophy.

Central’s Gaffner, Wiegmann, Brandon Book, Cody Imming and Patrick Thole combined for six free throw points to finish off Mater Dei.

“You have to give them (Mater Dei) a lot of credit they didn’t quit and they kept playing. We missed some lay ups, some free throws and threw the ball away,” said Central head coach Stan Eagleson. “We just have to be more mentally strong in a game when it starts tightening up. We have to fight through adversity a little better.”

After digging themselves a scoring crater in the first two and a half quarters – Mater Dei didn’t have enough time to finish off the spectacular rally.

“Our kids have a lot of pride and I knew sometime in the second half we would battle back a little bit. I didn’t know how far we could come back. We felt we would make a run at them (Central),” said Mater Dei head coach Brian Perkes. “You can’t get behind a good basketball team like Central and expect to win games.”

Three of the Knights were in double-figures with Blake Ofstedal in the lead with 18-points. Justin VonderHaar was held in check early in the game but finished with 17-points while teammate Boeckmann added 15.

“Mater Dei is a good team and they play a very good schedule. Hopefully winning this tournament will give us some momentum but we are going to have to play better,” Coach Eagleson added. “We talked about it before the game of putting a complete game together and I feel like we haven’t done that in a long time.”

When the games opening few minutes unfolded in front of a large crowd at Nashville – it was Breese Central who played the part of champion in this drama.

After Mater Dei opened the game’s scoring with Boeckmann connecting on a drive in the paint – Central outscored MD 18-0.

Gaffner scored on a three-point play on a rebound while being fouled by Detmer with 4:46 remaining.

Wiegmann (7) and Gaffner (7) combined for 14 of those 18 in the run.

A 3-pointer by Thole that beat the buzzer from the left wing closed the quarter at 18-2.

Central finished the second quarter the same way they did the opener with a scoring run.

Wiegmann, Gaffner and Book all hit shots in the last two minutes.

Gaffner drilled home a spinning baseline jumper from the right side to close the half at 30-12.

However Coach Eagleson walked off the court with an uncomfortable feeling heading into the second half.

“We were never comfortable even when we were up at halftime,” Eagleson explained. “Unfortunately this has been a trend with us this year of getting a big lead and then letting the team back in it. We threw too many soft passes against the pressure.”

Breese Central was all but ready to celebrate the championship with a commanding lead in the third quarter.

Back-to-back baskets by Wiegmann pushed the lead to 41-19 with 3:50 to go.

At that point MD woke up from its scoring nap and made a near title game triumphant run.

VonderHaar scored ten points in the third quarter including six points in succession to close the Knights’ third quarter barrage.

His bank shot found the mark with :10 left to carve the Central margin down to 46-29 heading into the final stanza.

VonderHaar added six more points in the early stages of the fourth quarter.

When he cashed in on a pair of free throws at the 5:21 mark – Central’s lead was just 50-38.

Central out rebounded Mater Dei in the contest 35-30.

However in the second half the Knights made its comeback with offensive rebounds to help get second chances.

Mater Dei had just three offensive rebounds in the first half but snagged 13 offensive boards in the final 16 minutes.

“That is why we haven’t played zone much in the past – I’m not really a fan of zone defense,” added Coach Eagleson – talking about his team giving up a lot of long offensive rebounds. “But with this kind of team we have to play it. We talked about it the first time we played them (at the Mater Dei Tournament) they out rebounded us 32-19 but sometimes the ball bounces out so far that it is easier to get them from outside than it is underneath.”

That afore mentioned 18-3 run – in which Detmer and Boeckmann connected from behind the arc – just wasn’t quite large enough of a run to bring the Knights’ their seventh NIT championship.

“It (the run) takes so much out of you and you just have to play flawless basketball and hope for the best,” added Coach Perkes. “We got some shots to go down and we got right the there at the end and who knows? Maybe if we have a couple of more minutes with might have gotten it done.”

Breese Mater Dei finished 21-of-64 (33 percent) from the field but committed just nine turnovers.

Central was a scorching 26-of-41 from the floor but those 22 turnovers nearly gave the contest to the Knights.

“We have got to do a better job of taking care of the basketball. I’m not going to use age as an excuse because a lot of the guys turning it over have played for two or three years for us,” Eagleson explained. “They have just got to do a better job. At this time of the year you don’t have any inexperience excuses.”

The two schools – just a few minutes apart – will play again on February 13th at Central.

“Our kids are playing hard and we are getting some good play out of some kids right now,” added Perkes. “I told the kids this was a good week for us. Not a great week. A great week would have been winning this tournament. I thought we played two and a half solid basketball games. We just didn’t get going the first half tonight.”

Breese Central (64) – Richter 1 0 0-1 2, Imming 2 0 2-5 6, Wiegmann 4 1 8-10 19, Thole 0 1 5-6 8, Scheer 1 0 3-3 5, Book 2 1 3-6 10, Gaffner 6 0 2-3 14, Grapperhaus 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-16, 3FG-3, FT-23-34, PF-18.
Breese Mater Dei (59) – Detmer 0 2 0-0 6, Beckmann 1 0 0-0 2, Fuehne 0 0 1-2 1, Boeckmann 3 2 3-6 15, Ofstedal 6 1 3-4 18, VanderHaar 5 1 4-5 17, Deiters 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-15, 3FG-6, FT-11-17, PF-22.
Fouled Out – Detmer - Mater Dei.
Technical Fouls – Mater Dei Bench, Fuehne - Mater Dei.

NASHVILLE 53, MASCOUTAH 39
The Hornets – after suffering its first loss of the season on Friday night to Mater Dei – came back with a solid win in the third place contest.

Head coach Darin Lee saw his club hit 18-of-33 shots from the floor to post the win and improve to 20-1 overall.

David Conner paced the Hornets with 14 points as nine Nashville players scored in the contest.

Mascoutah was led by Tycen Wager with 15-points.

Mascoutah (39) – Banks 1 1 2-4 7, Schmittling 0 1 0-0 3, Von Der Linden 0 0 0-0 0, Mayberry 0 0 1-2 1, Milton 2 0 1-2 5, Pollmann 0 1 0-0 3, Lider 0 0 0-0 0, Snyder 0 0 0-0 0, L. Wager 2 0 1-2 5, T. Wager 2 1 8-13 15.
2FG-7, 3FG-4, FT-13-23, PF-18.
Nashville (78) – Meyer 1 0 5-6 7, Maschhoff 0 1 0-0 3, Wilson 2 1 0-0 7, Pedtke 0 0 0-0 0, Pries 0 1 0-0 3, Brown 0 1 0-1 3, Conner 4 2 0-0 14, Wreath 1 0 5-6 7, Mier 2 0 0-0 4, Ryterski 2 0 1-2 5.
2FG-12, 3FG-6, FT-11-15, PF-19.
Fouled Out – Meyer, Nashville; Wager, Mascoutah.
Technical Fouls – None.

WATERLOO GIBAULT 41, WESCLIN 40
The Hawks nabbed the consolation title in a battle of two of the best centers in the tournament unfolded.

Michael Hoffman – Gibault’s 6-foot-9 senior center – scored 18-points, grabbed six rebounds and blocked nine shots in the game for head coach Dennis Rueter.

Wesclin was led by Phil Kunz – a 6-foot-6 sophomore – with 14-points, eight rebounds and three blocks.

Nathan Kremmel added 14-points to the Gibault while the Warriors received 12-points and 10-rebounds from Chad Klein.

Wesclin (40) – West 0 0 0-0 0, Kirkland 0 0 2-2 2, Wilken 2 1 0-0 7, Klein 1 3 1-2 12, Isenhower 0 0 0-0 0, Kunz 4 1 3-4 14, Haselhorst 2 0 1-2 5, Emig 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-9, 3FG-5, FT-7-10 PF-14.
Gibault (41) – Kremmel 3 2 2-3 14, Rueter 0 1 0-1 3, Hogrefe 0 0 0-0 0, McFarland 0 0 0-0 0, Prader 2 0 0-0 4, Briesacher 1 0 0-0 2, Hoffman 8 0 2-3 18, Cooper 0 0 0-0 0, Meyer 0 0 0-0 0, Kovarik 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-14, 3FG-3, FT-4-7, PF-12.
Fouled Out – Kunz, Wesclin.
Technical Fouls – None.

MADISON 64, FREEBURG 43
Xavier Williams and Eric Mason scored 19 and 16-points respectively in the Trojans’ seventh place win over the Midgets.

Kendall Echols added 10 points for Madison.

Jake Scuito topped Freeburg with 12-points.

Madison (64) – Echols 2 2 0-0 10, X. Williams 9 0 1-2 19, Mosby 1 1 0-0 5, La. Gregory 1 0 0-0 2, Hardin 1 0 2-2 4, Farrar 2 0 0-0 4, Le. Gregory 0 0 0-0 0, Cromer 1 0 0-0 2, Mason 7 0 2-2 16, D. Williams 0 0 0-0 0, Madgett 1 0 0-0 2.
2FG-25, 3FG-3, FT-5-6, PF-14.
Freeburg (43) – Lehmann 0 0 1-2 1, Koeller 1 0 0-0 2, Ferguson 1 0 0-0 2, Halloran 3 1 0-0 9, Scuito 5 0 2-3 12, Hendrick 3 0 1-2 7, Brown 2 0 1-3 5, Kramper 1 0 1-3 3, Kimball 1 0 0-0 2.
2FG-17, 3FG-1, FT-6-13, PF-4.
Fouled Out – None.
Technical Fouls – None.