01-30-10
BY JACK BULLOCK
ALTAMONT - Sometimes it just takes a quick spark to ignite a fire in a basketball game; something to turn things around for a struggling group.

Teutopolis on Saturday night needed a spark and got one from a key reserve player late in the third quarter of their title game against long-standing rival Effingham St. Anthony in the championship contest of the 75th Annual National Trail Conference Tournament.

Six-foot-two sophomore guard Mark Niebrugge provided that flash of offense that the Wooden Shoes needed.

Stepping off the T-Town bench Niebrugge nailed his first shot attempt from the left corner for a 3-pointer that closed the ‘Shoes deficit to just 30-29 heading into the fourth quarter.

But he wasn’t done as he drilled home his second shot from the left wing for another trifecta and a 32-30 advantage.

Coach Andy Fehrenbacher’s club woke up offensively and outscored the Bulldogs 17-9 in the fourth quarter to pull out a 46-39 title game triumph.

This coach had been part of T-Town titles in the past as an assistant to head coach Ken Crawford but claimed his first title on Saturday night as the man in charge.

“All the credit goes to the kids, they played awfully hard tonight and played with a lot of heart, especially in the second half,” said Coach Fehrenbacher. “We stuck with the gameplan and eventually we busted through and got the game going the way we wanted to play. We played the way they (St. Anthony) wanted to play in the first half but we played the way we wanted to play in the second half.”

Niebrugge’s six points on the night might get lost in the boxscore but his two shots couldn’t have come at a better time for the struggling club that had fallen behind 18-13 at halftime and were down nine and in trouble in the third quarter before the rally.

Only one player from either team – T-Town’s Nick Schumacher – scored in double-figures in the defensive slugfest that is A-typical for a scrum between these two respectful, yet heated rivals.

St. Anthony watched in dismay as the Wooden Shoes changed the momentum around with big defensive fourth quarter effort forced the Bulldogs into four untimely turnovers.

“We couldn’t execute on the offensive end and it seemed like we always had one kid out of place and fatigue will bring about mental mistakes,” said St. Anthony head coach Matt Britton. “We got tired and they (T-Town) continued to pressure us and we turned it over too many times late.”

Following Niebrugge’s lead – Schumacher added a pair of 3-pointers in the fourth quarter run before teammates Jeremy Niebrugge, Derek Thompson and Brock Sandschafer closed out the win by hitting 5-of-6 free throws in the final :42.5.

Neither team got going offensively in the first two quarters but Coach Britton’s Bulldogs did just enough to hold a five-point lead at intermission.

James Jansen – a 5-foot-9 junior point man and the hero of last season’s St. Anthony title game victory over Teutopolis – scored five straight points in the early part of the second quarter on a 3-pointer off of a set inbounds play followed by a mid-ranged bucket to push the Bulldogs to a 14-10 lead.

Teutopolis hit just 4-of-22 shots in the first half and ended up 14-of-45 overall for the game (31 percent).

Shooting like that won’t win many games in this tournament.

However the Wooden Shoes forced 15 turnovers from St. Anthony while committing just three of their own.

St. Anthony held the largest lead of either team following an Alex Lustig short bank shot in the paint with 4:13 left pushed the Bulldogs to a 28-19 spread.

Teutopolis gathered themselves for a run to finish the quarter with Thompson, Jeremy Niebrugge and Bo Blievernicht all scoring get back close before the younger Niebrugge got the final run going.

“Our kids were determined to leave it all on the floor tonight and they did,” added Coach Britton. “They were going to play until the tank hit “E” and unfortunately that hit with about two minutes left in the third quarter. They (T-Town) got open looks late in the game because we were tired and couldn’t cover them like we did for two-and-a-half quarters.”

St. Anthony finished a solid 17-of-32 from the floor (53 percent) for the game and the two teams were even at 18 rebounds apiece.

But the mental errors (turnovers) were too much to overcome as four late miscues by St. A coupled with the late T-Town run that gave the ‘Shoes their 31st NTC Tourney crown.

“We want to make their guards have to handle the ball for 84 feet instead of just being able to walk it up,” Coach Fehrenbacher added. “Our offense feeds from what we do defensively. This was a quality win over a great opponent.”

St. Anthony’s Kit Koerner paced the Dawgs with eight points while Myles Baker and Jansen added seven points each.

Thompson followed Schumacher’s 11 with eight points while a trio of Shoes – Blievernicht, Jordan Michels and Mark Niebrugge added six points each.

“They have so many good spot-up shooters that if you don’t cover them, they are going to make some shots,” Coach Britton explained. “They hit the shots tonight and they deserved to win the game.”

St. Anthony (39) – M. Jansen 1 0 0-1 2, Koerner 2 1 1-2 8, J. Jansen 2 1 0-2 7, Rohlting 0 0 0-0 0, Worman 3 0 1-2 7, Baker 3 0 1-1 7, Sudkamp 0 0 0-0 0, Lustig 2 0 0-0 4, Schmitt 2 0 0-0 4.
2FG-15, 3FG-2, FT-3-8, PF-16.
Teutopolis (46) – Bushur 0 0 0-0 0, J. Niebrugge 1 0 2-4 4, M. Niebrugge 0 2 0-0 6, Thoele 0 0 0-0 0, Thompson 0 1 5-8 8, Braun 0 0 0-0 0, Schumacher 1 3 0-0 11, Deters 0 0 0-0 0, Mchels 1 1 1-2 6, Sandschafer 0 1 2-2 5, Blievericht 3 0 0-0 6.
2FG-6, 3FG-8, FT-10-16, PF-13.
Fouled Out – None.
Technical Fouls – None.

NEOGA 64, ALTAMONT 56
Neoga rallied past Altamont for the third place trophy behind 21-points from Dalton Robinson.

Head coach Jason Hansen saw his team overcome a nine-point deficit in the first half to roar back for the win.

Running their offense with precision – Neoga got a lot of easy shots in the second half in scorching the other set of Indians with a 12-0 run in the early stages of the third quarter by pounding the ball inside against Altamont’s man-to-man defense.

Robinson scored seven points in a row on a conventional 3-point play while being fouled by Ryan Heiden and a pair of scores from right underneath the basket.

Bryn Price – who added 17-points to the Neoga output – scored finshed the run with yet another conventional three-point play and suddenly the Tribe was up 40-32.

Altamont got a game-best 26-points from Brian Suckow but didn’t have another player in double-figures as they fell to fourth place and 12-7 overall for the season.

Neoga (13-9) was 21-of-44 from the field in the game including 4-of-9 from long-range.

Coach Hansen’s team forced 17 Altamont turnovers – including 12 in the second half in the victory.

Coach Doug Hill saw his Altamont club climb to within 59-55 with :41.2 remaining on two free throws from Suckow.

But Neoga hit 5-of-6 charities the rest of the way to finish the week 2-1.

Altamont finished just 19-of-47 overall and 2-of-9 from the 3-point arc.

After roaring out to a big lead – Altamont succumbed to Neoga – allowing the other Indians to outgun them 18-7 in the third quarter and 38-26 in the second half.

“We were hoping that they (Altamont) would play man-to-man defense against us and that is certainly something that we are comfortable with,” said Coach Hansen. “I thought our kids did a great job executing what we wanted to do.”

Neoga (64) – Snively 0 2 3-4 9, Blair 0 0 0-0 0, Cornell 3 0 0-1 6, Price 3 1 8-9 17, Roy 1 1 0-2 5, Robinson 7 0 7-12 21, Probst 0 0 0-0 0, McClellen 3 0 0-0 6.
2FG-17, 3FG-4, FT-18-28, PF-19.
Altamont (56) – Duckwitz 3 0 1-2 7, Suckow 6 2 8-10 26, Heiden 2 0 3-4 7, Schlief 1 0 1-2 3, Spence 0 0 0-0 0, Jahraus 0 0 0-0 0, McGinnis 3 0 3-4 9, Winters 2 0 0-0 2.
2FG-17, 3FG-2, FT-16-22, PF-22.
Fouled Out – Price - Neoga.
Technical Fouls – None.

DIETERICH 71, STEWARDSON-STRASBURG 64
In their first ever NTC Tournament – the Movin’ Maroons took care of business and brought home the consolation title.

“We talked to the kids before the game and told them that we were playing for three things today,” said Coach Vanscyoc. “One was that we were playing for the consolation championship; two we were playing for pure pride for being in the league for the first year and the third thing was a regional seeding. They (Stew-Stras) our in our regional and there are four or five teams over there that could win that so I think this will help us out.”

Stewardson-Strasburg (64) – Farris 3 1 4-7 13, Thomas 0 0 1-2 1, Rincker 0 4 5-6 17, Helton 0 0 0-0 0, Helmuth 0 0 0-0 0, Koontz 8 0 0-3 16, Hoene 7 0 1-2 15, Tabert 1 0 0-0 2. 2FG-19, 3FG-5, FT-11-20, PF-17.
Dieterich (71) – Hinterscher 0 3 2-2 11, Bohnhoff 0 2 0-0 6, Thoele 1 3 0-0 11, Kuhl 3 4 7-7 25, Niemerg 2 0 0-1 2, Ohnesorge 5 0 2-8 12, Probst 2 0 0-1 4.
2FG-12, 3FG-12, FT-11-19, PF-19.
Fouled Out – Probst - Dieterich.
Technical Fouls – None