01-14-2020
BY JACK BULLOCK
RED BUD - The Steeleville Warriors, so far in 2019-20, have dominated the Cahokia Conference Kaskaskia Division.

Coach Aaron Fiene's club improved to 5-0 in the league with a 50-34 win Tuesday night on the road at Red Bud.

Other than a 55-51 win over Marissa-Coulterville back on December 13, the other four wins have been by a total of 116 points.

In its road conquest, Steeleville placed three players in double figures as they improved the overall record to 9-7.

Six-foot junior guard Austin Hagel led the balanced attack with 15 points.

Sophomore Zac Mevert and freshman Carter Wasson added 13 points each.

The Warriors were so good early that they took the drama out of the game midway through the second half as they finished off the contest strong, which sent Red Bud to another loss.

“We had a pretty decent night tonight. We guarded well and when you do that you usually have a chance to win the game and we did tonight,” said Coach Fiene. “We have been working on spreading the floor a little more. Defenses are going to have to pick and choose what they want to try and stop the way we can shoot from outside and the way we can get to the basket.”

Head coach CJ Cruser has seen marked improvement this season but Tuesday night's contest showed there is still work to do in the Red Bud camp.

The Musketeers, who are now 6-10 overall and 2-3 in the Kaskaskia Division, got a game best 17 points from senior guard Alex Kueker.

He scored exactly half of his club's total points on the night and his 3-pointer to open the game's scoring produced Red Bud's only lead.

Steeleville answered the Kueker trey with a 13-0 run.

Hagel scored six of his points in the first quarter while Wasson and Mevert each scored.

In fact the Warriors combined to hit all six of their first quarter field goal attempts and when senior Jacob Sutton scored on a drive in the lane, Steeleville led 17-9 at the end of the first quarter.

The Musketeers got two more buckets by Kueker in the second and a score from senior forward Carter Wiegard that closed the gap to just 22-15 at the 5:16 mark.

Steeleville got six points from Wasson in the quarter and Hagel added four late points on another drive to the basket and a pair of free throws for a 28-15 lead at halftime.

Coach Fiene's club didn't do a lot of wrong things on the night, but they did manage to commit some unsightly turnovers, especially in the first few moments of the third quarter.

Three straight sloppy unforced errors in the first three second half possessions by Steeleville left the door slightly open for a Musketeers' rally.

But Coach Cruser's team could muster just a single basket by 6-foot-5 junior Bryce Amann in the paint.

The Warriors went on a 10-0 run, after that Red Bud basket, to expand the lead to 38-17 with 2:31 left.

Mevert scored twice from the floor in the third quarter on drives to the basket.

His second move in the paint produced a score that closed the book the the third with Steeleville up 43-21.

Kueker finished his scoring with two baskets as part of a 6-0 Red Bud beginning of the fourth quarter, which got Red Bud to within 43-27.

However Steeleville ended the contest with Mevert and Hagel each producing late baskets before the benches were emptied in the final minutes.

The Warriors numbers were pretty impressive.

Steeleville ended up 19-of-32 from the floor overall (59.3 percent) and 3-of-6 from the 3-point line.

Wasson, Hagel and sophomore guard Lane Lazenby all hit from beyond the arc.

The Warriors also held a 23-13 rebounding edge with the only real problem for the team on the night was 13 turnovers.

Red Bud was just 16-of-41 overall, 1-of-9 from the 3-point line.

Coach Cruser saw his club turn it over 10 times.

Red Bud will play on the road Friday night at Lebanon and then they are involved in the Sparta Mid-Winter Classic next week.

Steeleville's next action will also be at the Sparta tournament.

“We have emphasized in the past few weeks about rebounding and getting to the rim and tonight we did both of those things well,” said Coach Fiene. “The kids got rewarded tonight for the work that they have been doing. Defense, as everyone knows, is going to win you games.”