03/06/2023
BY JACK BULLOCK
CARBONDALE - One would have to look back to March of 2007 to find the last time that the Teutopolis Wooden Shoes made it to a Final Four in boy's basketball.

It was the final season of the two-class basketball and the tenure of Hall of Fame head coach Ken Crawford and his winning run at the program.

Teutopolis took home third place in Coach Crawford's final game.

Since that time, Teutopolis has racked up a ton of victories but a trip back to the state finals hadn't happened.

Heading into Monday night's game with Pinckneyville the Wooden Shoes had dropped seven straight super-sectional contests.

Number eight, as it turned out, was the charm.

The Wooden Shoes were held to just two points in the fourth quarter as Pinckneyville rallied to force overtime.

But the Teutopolis defensive execution, along with offensive output by seniors Brendan and James Niebrugge (19 points and 12 points), proved to be the difference in the Wooden Shoes 42-40 overtime victory Monday night at Carbondale.

The triumph propelled T-Town to a Thursday afternoon match up with DePaul College Prep, who defeated Chicago Perspectives/Leadership 50-46 to win the Joliet Central Super-Sectional.

“I'm just so blessed to get to do what I love and I'm so happy for this community and these kids. They deserve it. It's been some bad times on this floor (SIU) and they deserve something special tonight,” said Coach Reeder to the Effingham Daily News. “When they (Teutopolis players) walked off this floor last year they had this marked. They wanted to get back here. They worked so hard in the off season and they deserve every second of this.”

The other main cog for the win was also named Niebrugge as junior Joey added six points.

Brendan nailed 4-of-4 3-point shots and James converted a three-point play with just under two minutes left in overtime to give the Wooden Shoes the lead back for good.

James then closed the book on the win in the final seconds with a steal of a Pinckneyville inbounds pass as the horn sounded on the super-sectional win.

Coach Bob Waggoner and his Pinckneyville club ended their season with a 28-7 mark as they can point to a bad shooting night from the floor (12-of-39) overall and free throw line (12-of-20) for the loss.

The Panthers had just one player, 6-6 junior Karsen Konkel (10 points) in double-figs in the defeat as Teutopolis held the two other Pinckneyville scoring standouts (Pearson Launius and Reid Harriss) to a combined 1-13 from the floor and six total points with 3-of-4 free throws together.

Pinckneyville's defense was also pretty good but the offensive issues kept Coach Waggoner's squad from advancing to the state finals.

“Free throws were the difference. If we make a few free throws in the fourth quarter we could have pushed the lead up to three or four and in this type of game that was a huge lead,” said Coach Waggoner. “It was a great effort and I'm happy for the kids but I'm disappointed that they didn't take that next step. But that's part of it. There are a lot of teams that would have liked to have been in our place.”

Offensively the Wooden Shoes weren't anything to brag about on Monday night (14-of-41 overall) but they converted the easy opportunities when they needed to.

They scored 11 points in transition, including a couple of big scores in the third quarter as they broke free from the Panthers to lead 32-23 heading to the fourth quarter.

From the end of the third quarter to 1:46 left in regulation, the Wooden Shoes failed to score.

Pinckneyville rallied to tie the game with an 11-0 run.

Junior guard Hunter Smith, who scored nine-points in the game, netted five fourth quarter points on a pair of drives to the basket with one turning into a conventional three-point play.

Senior reserve Kellen Scott also scored inside and Konkel scored the final two points of regulation with a pair of foul shots with 1:16 left that sent the game to overtime.

The Panthers missed five free throws in a row in that run that could have separated themselves from the Shoes and sent them to Champaign.

Sophomore guard A.J. Keith scored eight points for Pinckneyville, including two huge 3-point shots.

His final one with :08.6 remaining in OT cut the Wooden Shoes lead to just 41-40.

Garrett Gaddis of Teutopolis hit 1-of-2 free throws which set up Pinckneyville for a final shot at a tie or a win.

But an inbound pass from the sideline after a Panthers' time out from near mid-court was intercepted by James Niebrugge as the horn sounded on the Wooden Shoes' win and the Pinckneyville postseason run.

“There are six (seniors) of them and they've done a great job, each of them have different roles that are important,” said Coach Waggoner. “I feel like they left a definite impact on our program and a great example for our younger kids. We made a hell of a run when you look at the teams we played it wasn't an easy path. Tonight we had another tough test.”

Pinckneyville (40) – Launius 0 0 2-2 2, Smith 2 1 2-3 9, Keith 0 2 2-2 8, Harriss 0 1 1-2 4, Konkel 3 0 4-7 10, Scott 3 0 1-4 7, Jausel 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-8, 3FG-4, FT-12-20, PF-18.
Teutopolis (42) – B. Niebrugge 2 4 3-4 19, Bloemer 0 0 0-0 0, Jo. Niebrugge 2 0 2-2 6, Ja. Niebrugge 5 0 2-3 12, Siemer 1 0 1-2 3, Gaddis 0 0 1-2 1, Roepke 0 0 0-0 0, Pruemer 0 0 0-0 0, Pruemer 0 0 0-0 0, Koester 0 0 1-3 1.
2FG-10, 3FG-9, FT-10-16, PF-12.
Fouled Out – Harriss - Pinckneyville.
Technical Fouls – None.