01-19-15
BY JACK BULLOCK
NASHVILLE - In a contest between the top two teams in the most recent ABV 2A Rankings (1 and 3 in the state-wide poll) the Nashville Hornets and the Teutopolis Wooden Shoes didn't exactly put on a show on opening night of the 33rd annual Nashville Invitational Tournament.

In a performance that was more “Keystone Cops” than it was “Citizen Kane”, when the final curtain was drawn it was the Shoes that walked out of the basketball theater with the win, to improve to 1-0 in the round-robin tournament on Monday.

Coach Andy Fehrenbacher's T-town club made the shots in the final act and came away with the victory to move to 16-2 on the season in their quest for their second NIT title in three seasons at the event.

“This was just a gutty performance from our guys. This is what our team is about. It wasn't super pretty but it took us a while but we got up-tempo because we felt we could get them a little tired,” said Coach Fehrenbacher. “I think they had some tired guys out there late in the game and that allowed us to get a victory.”

When it came down to the end of this mistake-filled contest, the Wooden Shoes were the ones that hit the big shots and made the big plays to hold off Coach Brad Weathers' top-ranked Hornets.

Mitch Hardiek and Brett Mette led the scoring attack with modest figures, 12-points each.

Hardiek, who hit a game winning shot early in the season to beat Mt. Carmel to win the Lawrence County Capital Classic, stepped forward in the final quarter to help propel his team to a key win, their fifth in a row.

His trey from the left corner with 1:25 left gave Teutopolis back the lead at 42-40.

Following a rebound basket by Nashville senior Troy Pedtke that evened the score moments later, Mette added a pair of free throws after being fouled at the :22.9 mark to put the visitors up for good.

After Nashville committed their 24th turnover of the game on its next possession with T-Town's Jordan Thoele picking up a steal, Teutopolis' Michael Drees, a 5-foot-9 junior point guard, hit two free throws to ice the win at :06.2.

The Wooden Shoes, who haven't lost a game since dropping the title game of their own holiday tournament to Mt. Vernon back on December 27, did just enough on both ends of the floor to pick up a key win.

The Hornets fell to 17-2 on the season, with their only other loss coming on December 6 in the finale of the Lebanon-Wesclin Tournament to Columbia in 2OT.

The loss snapped a 14-game winning streak for the Hornets.

Nashville was led by senior Hunter Cooper with 12-points and 10-points from senior Dylan Mueller.

Mueller hit a pair of 3-point shots and Cooper was 5-of-6 from the field.

Those two were the brightest spots in a dull performance by the Hornets, who finished just 15-of-37 from the floor to go with those 24-miscues.

“We anticipated that (defensive effort from Teutopolis) we knew they were going to play hard-nosed man-to-man defense on us, get up on you and physical defense and it made it difficult for us to get in our offense and run it,” said Coach Weathers. “And we knew that and they (Teutopolis) have done that for years. I thought a positive tonight was that we worked hard, we got down and actually came back and took the lead. But a couple of poor decisions and we lost that lead pretty quickly. Give them credit, they hit a couple of big shots. They are a good ball-club and if you don't play well against good ball-clubs you get beat.”

The 'Shoes didn't exactly set the world ablaze on this night, either.

Teutopolis finished 16-of-46 overall and they added to the circus with 18-turnovers of their own.

As basketball at the high school level can sometimes occur, both teams' defenses controlled the offenses.

With neither team shooting the ball well, it came down to defensive stops and the Wooden Shoes had the better of the two squads on this night.

Nashville plodded their way to an early lead, getting a couple of early scores by Cooper in the lane.

His second bucket on a pass from teammate Royce Newman was followed by Newman scoring in the lane for a 10-3 advantage, which was the largest lead by Nashville on this night.

Newman, a 6-foot-7 junior center who is one of the leading scorers for the Hornets, was held to just six-points on the night by Teutopolis.

“He (Newman) is an excellent player and he is someone that is going to get a lot of attention when teams guard him,” said Coach Fehrenbacher. “The way we guarded him we chose to get out on their guards and make it tough to make easy passes to him. Then front him with backside help. Jordan Thoele and Kyle Smith get the credit as those two guys did the bulk of guarding him. Those guys did a heck of a job defending.”

Following the first of four 3-point bombs by Hardiek, 6-foot-5 forward Tyler Gebben got involved.

He scored seven points in the game for T-Town, including back-to-back scores late in the first quarter.

His second drive to the basket closed the first period scoring at 13-10 Nashville.

The real tally in the opening quarter was 7-7. The total of turnovers by both teams.

The Wooden Shoes made its best run of the night to begin the second frame.

Coach Fehrenbacher's team jumped out to an 11-0 run, with a pair of conventional three-point plays highlighting the sprint.

Both Mette and Drees made good on their drives to the basket for six points total.

When the lefty Drees took the ball to the rim while being fouled by Newman with 4:04 left before halftime, his made charity made it 21-13 Wooden Shoes.

Pedtke got Nashville's next points, also converting on an “And-One” after being fouled by Gebben.

A score by senior guard Daniel Thorson cut into the T-Town advantage at 21-18.

Hardiek, who proved to be the best long-range shooter on the night for either team, got open against the Nashville zone just before the second quarter ended.

Taking a pass from Drees in the left corner, Hardiek nailed his second 3-pointer with :12 left, sending the clubs to the break at 25-19 'Shoes.

Nashville had committed six more turnovers to contribute to the six-point deficit at halftime.

By scoring the first points of the second half, the Wooden Shoes had its largest margin at 27-19 when Devin Smith, a 6-foot-4 junior guard, scored on a lay in at 6:06 of the third.

Mueller stepped up and canned a pair of 3-point shots in the stanza, and Thorson also hit from the outside.

When Mueller hit his second bomb, from the left wing with 2:14 left, Nashville had cut the lead to 32-30.

Gebbon and Cooper traded baskets on the next two offensive trips with Gebben scoring on a nice reverse lay in and then Cooper converting a conventional three-point play.

But as he did to end the first half, Hardiek hit another 20-footer from the left corner.

His third trey, with :04 left, gave Wooden Shoes a 37-33 lead heading to the fourth.

While Nashville improved its shooting in the third quarter (4-of-8) they added five more turnovers to the totals as they trailed by four.

With a 7-2 run to begin the fourth quarter, Nashville got the lead back briefly.

Baskets by Newman and Mueller, each on assists by Thorson, and then two free throws by Thorson with 2:57 to go made it 40-39 Hornets.

Nashville had chances to add to this lead late in the game but the Hornets committed seven of their turnovers in the final eight minutes.

Hardiek and Company put the game away in the final 1:25 to pick up the victory.

“He's a sophomore (Hardiek) who has 'ice in his veins' and we have confidence in him taking big shots,” said Coach Fehrenbacher. “He's not afraid to pull the trigger.”

Nashville held a 30-23 rebounding edge but their 40 percent shooting, to got with “one score plus four” in the turnover column doomed the Hornets.

“There were a lot of turnovers and a lot of that had to do with the physical nature of the game,” added Coach Weathers. “We weren't able to get the ball inside as easily and I think we forced it at times.”

Teutopolis hit just 34.7 percent from the field but this turned out to be good enough on this night.

Neither team has time to rest as both head back to action on Tuesday night.

T-Town will tackle ABV fourth ranked Breese Mater Dei at 6:30 pm while Nashville will tangle with 3A Mascoutah at 8:00 pm.

“The competition here is tremendous and it is going to be a long week of good basketball against good basketball teams,” said Coach Weathers. “We came back and took the lead and had an opportunity to win the ball game and then didn't. We will comeback tomorrow night and have to be ready to play. If you mope around it will be a long week.”

Teutopolis (46) – Drees 3 0 3-3 9, D. Smith 1 0 0-0 2, Br. Mette 0 0 0-0 0, Thoele 2 0 0-1 4, Bl. Mette 0 0 0-0 0, K. Smith 0 0 0-0 0, Gebben 3 0 1-2 7, Hardiek 0 4 0-0 12, Deters 0 0 0-0 0, Brett Mette 1 2 4-5 12.
2FG-10, 3FG-6, FT-8-11, PF-19.
Nashville (42) – Heggemeier 0 0 0-0 0, Bultman 0 1 0-0 3, Thorson 1 1 3-4 8, Pedtke 2 0 1-1 5, Mueller 2 2 0-1 10, Cooper 4 0 2-4 10, Newman 2 0 2-3 6.
2FG-11, 3FG-4, FT-8-13, PF-16.
Fouled Out – None.
Technical Fouls – None.

BREESE CENTRAL 61, MASCOUTAH 48
The Cougars, who have won this tournament more than any other participant in the 32 previous seasons with seven titles, took a step toward defending their crown from last January and adding an eighth championship with a win over the Indians in the tournament opener.

Head coach Jeremy Shubert saw his Cougars rally from brief first quarter disadvantage with a 32-17 spread in the middle two quarters to move to 1-0 in the event and 14-3 overall.

Breese Central was led by Logan Kohrmann with 18-points while Jack Strielker added 11.

The Cougars also got 10-points from Chase Schneider as BC hit 22-of-45 overall from the floor in the win.

Mascoutah got 15-points from Tim Parks in the loss as hey were just 17-of-42 from the field in the defeat.

Mascoutah (48) – C. Simmons 4 0 5-7 13, Parks 3 3 0-0 15, Trumbull 4 1 0-0 11, Mayberry 0 0 0-0 0, Pettiford 2 0 3-4 7, Bell 0 0 2-2 2, Dauber 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-13, 3FG-4, FT-10-13, PF-12.
Breese Central (61) – Truong 1 2 0-0 8, Schulte 2 0 0-0 4, Harmon 2 0 0-0 4, Kohrmann 2 4 2-4 18, Strieker 2 1 4-4 11, Rule 2 0 0-0 4, Schneider 1 2 2-2 10, Joest 1 0 0-0 2.
2FG-13, 3FG-9, FT-8-10, PF-13.
Fouled Out – None.
Technical Fouls – None.