03-09-12
BY JACK BULLOCK
PEORIA

Coach Stan Eagleson's defensive minded crew forced a very athletic Seton Academy team into a woeful shooting game and the Cougars confidence grew with each minute that passed in its semifinal matchup.

Behind all-state shoe-in Brandon Book, the Cougars are now on the verge of winning a boy's state basketball championship after dispatching the Sting, 57-47, on Friday night.

Book, a 6-foot-6 senior forward and four-year starter, scored 24-points and grabbed 14-rebounds in the win.

His defensive effort around the basket, which included five blocked shots, helped improve his team's mark to a school-record 33-1 heading into the title game against Normal University High, who bested Rockford Lutheran 55-52 in the other semifinal.

Senior guard Nick Grapperhaus also came up big for Central, with 15-points while Austin Rickhoff added six points.

“Once we got up by six points (in the fourth quarter) I felt pretty good. Our defense was strong all night long. We did an excellent job on the defensive end,” said Central head coach Stan Eagleson. “They (Seton) made some tough, tough shots but we competed on every possession. I really think it was a good defensive job.”

Central trailed early against Seton as the Sting went on an 8-0 run to close the first quarter.

Sylvester Tolliver scored four of those points as Seton Academy took a 12-6 lead at the first horn.

In previous trips to Peoria, Coach Eagleson's team's struggled with private schools but on this night something was different.

Central rallied in the second quarter and took momentum into the second half.

Down 25-19 with just over a minute remaining, Breese Central got five points from Book.

He hit a nice fall away shot from the right baseline and then took an assist from Grapperhaus to nail a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from the top of the arc to send his team to intermission with new hope down just 25-24.

“We struggled with their pressure in the first half, I think we had ten turnovers at halftime but we made that little run there at the end of the half. I think when Brandon hit the three, when Nick (Grapperhaus) found him, that was a huge momentum builder going into halftime,” said Central head coach Stan Eagleson. “We came out and won the third quarter and got some transition buckets and really attacked their pressure at times and were able to score along with the free throws.”

Hitting the offensive glass with confidence, Central took the lead for good in the third quarter.

Grapperhaus nailed a 3-pointer from the top of the arc to give the Cougars a 28-25 advantage.

Grapperhaus added a fast break score and Book delivered yet another long range shot from the right wing and a drive to the basket down the baseline for a 37-31 lead.

Seton Academy was led in a scoring by 5-foot-11 senior Jordan Foster with 13-points.

He scored seven of those points in the third quarter and his drive to the basket in the final minute of the stanza cut the Cougars lead to just 38-37 heading into the fourth quarter.

Following a Kyler Scheer free throw, Seton tied the game with Foster again getting to the rim on a drive as the game was even at 39-apiece.

However Central closed the deal by scoring nine of the game's next ten points.

Scheer scored twice on drives to the basket to lead the charge.

His baseline move through three Sting defenders resulted in a short bank shot and a 48-40 lead with 3:59 remaining.

Book had to go to the bench at the 5:18 mark after picking up his fourth foul.

But in the two minutes in which he wasn't in the game, Seton Academy didn't score and Scheer shined.

“Kyler Scheer coming off the bench gave us some more size,” added Coach Eagleson. “He is 6-7 with long arms. He is a good defensive player and he played well. My intentions was to put Book back in the game after the media timeout but Kyler played well so we were able to leave him in there. Kyler was a big part of the win.”

Seton failed to rally and fell into the third place game with a 28-5 mark.

The Cougars closed out the contest with Book scoring his final two points on a tip-in of a Grapperhaus miss and then Grapperhaus nailed the door shut with a fast break lay in for a 56-44 spread.

Breese Central hit 5-of-6 free throws in the last two minutes to move into the championship game on Saturday night.

Following Book and Grapperhaus in scoring was Austin Rickhoff with six points and five points each from Justin Becker and Scheer.

Central's Jacob Timmermann, a 6-foot sophomore guard, didn't score a point in the game but he dished out five assists and was a huge part of the Central defensive effort.

Central's defense forced the high-scoring Sting into a 16-of-60 shooting performance, which included 3-of-14 from behind the arc.

Behind Tolliver and Foster, no other Seton Academy player reached double-figures.

The Sting didn't use its rebounding advantage (44-39) to win the contest, shooting a poor percentage that created many of their offensive rebounds (25).

Central, after committing seven turnovers in the first quarter, had only nine more miscues the rest of the way against the Seton quick defense.

The Cougars didn't set the world on fire offensively (18-of-44 overall from the field) but did enough to secure a spot in the state title tilt.

“Down the stretch they (Central) just made more plays than we did,” added Coach Thomas. “They made their foul shots down the stretch and we didn't. We had some easy shots close to the basket that we weren't able to finish.”