01-29-15
BY JACK BULLOCK
ALTAMONT - The undefeated and ABV top-ranked 1A squad from Dieterich might as well get used to being everyone's target.

Heading into Thursday night's semifinal game of the 80th annual National Trail Conference Tournament, all signs pointed to another relatively easy victory over NTC rival St. Elmo-Brownstown.

After all, the fifth-seeded Eagles were under .500 heading into the matchup and had to upset their way into the winner's side of the bracket on Tuesday night.

However the contest turned out to be anything but a “walk in the sun” for Coach Jeff Staser's club as they needed a strong defensive effort late in the game to prevail, 51-47 to advance to the title game on Saturday.

Dieterich now stands at 22-0 but number #22 was just moments from falling by the wayside.

St. Elmo-Brownstown found itself within 3:23 of a state-wide upset, leading 43-37 after a pair of baskets by Kyle Hardimon.

With Dieterich not shooting the ball well and playing a bit shorthanded without one of their key starters, the Maroons were in trouble deep.

Six-foot-six senior Travis Niemerg sat out of the contest nursing a ankle sprain and his teammates battled on without him.

As it turned out the Maroons were able to step forward, turn up the defensive pressure and take the victory in front of a big crowd at Altamont Gym.

“If there is a knock on this team is that we coast a little too much but we were down six late and the kids kicked it in gear and we were able to win,” said Coach Staser. “We did what we needed to do to win.”

Coach Staser's team took advantage of its free throw edge in the game, getting to the line many more times than the Eagles (27 attempts to five) while making 18.

Dieterich, extending its defense, forced nine of the Eagles' 24-turnovers in the final eight minutes and flipped that deficit with a 9-0 run to take back the lead.

“If you turn the ball over 24-times you are going to lose 9-times-out-of-10 but our defense held us in the ballgame tonight,” said St. Elmo-Brownstown head coach Greeg Feezel. “But part of the reason we turned the ball over so much late is that they only had four fouls there late so they (Dieterich) just pinned their ears back and came after us. They didn't have anything to lose.”

Senior guard Alex Bohnhoff stepped up and scored 22-points, including nine points in the fourth quarter.

His 3-pointer, his third of the night, helped trigger the game-changing run to produce the victory at the 2:24 mark.

Despite back-to-back scores by the Eagles' Malichi Maxey that briefly gave SE-B back the lead, Bohnhoff and Co. held the Eagles without a score in the final 1:10.

Bohnhoff stepped to the foul line and put in two-consecutive free throws to give back the lead to the Maroons and the top-seed in the event finished the contest off with a free throw by junior Lance Niemerg and one final steal, this time by Bohnhoff who turned it into a fast break lay in to finish off the comeback in the final seconds.

The frantic finish by both clubs made for some exciting moments in an otherwise poorly played game statistically.

The Maroons didn't shoot the ball well and were out-rebounded by the Eagles' 32-19.

Dieterich was just 14-of-41 overall (34.1 percent) and just 5-of-19 from beyond the arc.

The Eagles, besides their 24-turnovers, were just 20-of-45 overall from the floor and just 3-of-15 from the 3-point line (20 percent).

Dieterich spent most of the night trying to figure out a way to break away from their opposition.

An entertaining contest in its closeness, the game featured 20-lead changes and four ties.

The Maroons, on several occasions in the first half, looked as if they were ready to make a run to polish off the Eagles, but they never sustained the long scoring runs they needed to separate themselves from SE-B.

Dieterich, trailing 11-9 in the early going, scored eight-straight points with back-to-back 3-pointers by Lance Niemerg and junior guard Nick Feldhake and a score by 6-foot-6 senior Devin Aherin.

St. Elmo-Brownstown cut the deficit to just 17-13 at the first horn, with a bucket by junior Brock Oberlink to close the scoring.

Maxey, a 5-foot-9 junior guard, led St. Elmo-Brownstown with 19-points.

He was a catalyst for the Eagles, scoring 13 of his points in the first half.

Trailing 19-13 after a Bohnhoff basket, St. Elmo-Brownstown went on a 9-2 run with Maxey scoring six of the points on a pair of drives to the goal and mid-range shot for a 22-21 lead with 3:47 left in the second.

Cole Smithson hit a 3-pointer and sophomore forward Landon Feezel added a rebound basket for the Eagles.

A pair of free throws by Feldhake sent the teams to the break at 30-29 Dieterich.

“It was a little bit different tonight playing without Travis (Niemerg) and I think everyone was trying to make up the difference, to make that special play and we really didn't have to do that and we talked about that at halftime,” said Coach Staser. “We also talked at halftime about that we needed to stop Maxey; he went coast-to-coast on us a couple of times in the first half.”

As if the first half wasn't poorly played enough, the third quarter set basketball back a couple of decades at least.

The two teams combined for just five points on a 3-pointer by Bohnhoff and a rebound basket by Feezel.

Everything else that happened in the quarter statistically was bad for both teams.

St. Elmo-Brownstown hit just 1-of-11 shots in the frame, missing all six of their 3-point attempts.

Not to be outdone, Dieterich was just only 1-of-7, missing five tries from beyond the arc in the stanza.

The Eagles padded their turnover totals with six more miscues but the good news was that they trailed just 33-31 heading to the final frame.

Coach Greg Feezel's team took it at the Maroons in the early part of the fourth quarter and the smell of an upset loomed large in the atmosphere.

A bucket by Landon Feezel and three consecutive scores by Hardimon excited the Eagles' faithful in anticipation of David slaying Goliath.

That run was an 8-1 move that got the contest to the point where the Sleeping Giant awoke.

A drive by Bohnhoff and a free throw by Aherin got the score to 43-40 SE-B.

Dieterich's defense stepped up to cause the Eagles issues.

A 10-second backcourt violation gave the ball back to the Maroons and Bohnhoff quickly nailed a 3-pointer to tie the score at 43-all with 2:24 left.

The Maroons overcame all of the adversity on this night and remained undefeated.

With one more win, Coach Staser's club will have won three tournament titles this season (Cumberland Thanksgiving, Dieterich Holiday) if they can top either Effingham St. Anthony or South Central.

Those two teams will battle Friday night in the second semifinal contest.

Behind Bohnhoff's 22-points, the Maroons got 12-points from Aherin, nine-points from Feldhake and eight-points from Niemerg.

Those were the only four players to score for Dieterich.

Feezel's 10-points were second to Maxey's 19, the only two Eagles to hit double-digits.

St. Elmo-Brownstown fell to 8-13 overall and into Saturday's third place game.

“They (Dieterich) knew they were in a battle and that is what we wanted to do,” said Coach Feezel. “This doesn't surprise me about my team. A shot here or two and we are right there. It's disappointing because we played that hard and didn't get the win. But we will move on. I think we are one of the better teams around when we play well.”

Dieterich, the only undefeated team in ABV-Land, is now 22-0.

“I'm sure St. Anthony and South Central probably watched this game and they think 'we can beat that team' the way we played tonight,” added Coach Staser. “But we should have Travis back by Saturday. This (tournament) is one of the things we look at, we want to win the conference championship and also this conference tournament. And that is what we want to do every year.”

After trailing early in the game, C-H turned the tide with a 21-13 second quarter to take a 30-23 halftime edge.

Burris, a 6-foot-2 senior, eclipsed the 1,000-point total for his career during the win for head coach Marc Bain's team that is now 12-8 on the season and are in the consolation title game to be held on Saturday afternoon.

Beecher City fell to 2-15 with the loss.

Six-foot-four junior Austin Rexroad finished with 11-points for the Eagles.