01-28-17
BY JACK BULLOCK
ALTAMONT - The Effingham St. Anthony Bulldogs are the champions of the National Trail Conference Tournament for the 21st time after dispatching the host Altamont Indians on Saturday night.

Using a big third quarter the Bulldogs got a commanding lead and looked the part of the champion.

But there were a lot of anxious moments before the title photos were snapped.

Fourth year head coach Cody Rincker saw his club nearly waste away a 19-point second half advantage.

A furious Indians' rally in the final eight minutes caused some gray hairs among the St. Anthony backers and some nervous minutes for the mentor.

However just as things looked like they would come unglued in the final frame, the Bulldogs did enough at the end to hold on to a 74-69 win and the tournament title.

It was Rincker's first league tournament title in his fourth try.

The ABV top ranked 1A squad got another choice performance from senior forward Drew Gibson in the title tilt.

The 6-foot-3 left-hander dropped in a top shelf 24-points in the game for the Bulldogs as the state-ranked club improved to 21-1 on the season.

Gibson led all scorers for St. Anthony and he got scoring help from 6-foot-2 junior Jack Nuxoll who ended up with 18.

Junior forward Adam Levitt, despite dealing with foul trouble, added 13-points for the Dawgs before fouling out in the fourth quarter.

That trio powered the offense on a night were their defense faltered in the final stanza, surrendering 35-points to the Indians in that eight minute stretch.

“He (Gibson) is a man on a mission, I have said it all year. I can't say enough about what he means to our team. Tonight he probably could have forced more shots than he did. He knows when he gets the double-team he can find Jack (Nuxoll) and Beasley for chances to score,” said Coach Rincker. “Luke (Levitt) gave us a spark off of the bench with our foul trouble tonight. He was ready and he had a good week of practice. I thought our boys were geared up and ready to go tonight.”

Coach John Niebrugge, who was also in search of his first NTC tournament title, got balanced scoring as well but they dug themselves way too big of a deficit to rally for the victory.

Despite picking up his third foul in the first half and having to spend time on the bench, 5-foot-10 senior guard Ryan Armstrong scored 19-points for the Indians in defeat.

Junior guard Mitchell Stevenson matched Armstrong with 19 and 5-foot-8 sophomore reserve Alek Biggs came up “large” for the Tribe with 12 fourth quarter points.

The Indians can point to some factors for their eventual demise but the first one is that they surrendered a 10-0 run to begin the second half after trailing 25-19 at the break.

Committing eight first half turnovers, Altamont was fortunate to be only down six heading into the third quarter.

But the Bulldogs bit the hosts with ten-consecutive points to give them their first double-digit advantage.

Behind full-court pressure, St. Anthony got the tempo the way they wanted it and it sparked a game-changing scoring burst.

Spurred on by three more Altamont miscues, St. Anthony got six-straight points from Gibson, who hit a pair of free throws, a fast break score and a mid-range bucket.

The fast break was from a long rebound in which the slender senior drove nearly the length of the court for a lay in.

A score from 6-foot-4 Alex Beasley and a steal and transition bucket by Levitt closed the run and forced an Altamont timeout at 35-19 with 6:05 to go.

“We talked about it at the half and also at the end of the game. There are possessions where everything seems to be going fast, you have to slow down and value the ball. When they (St. Anthony) dialed up the pressure, we sped up with them. We had three or four possessions where it went from an eight point lead to 15,” said Coach Niebrugge. “I like our fight at the end but we buried ourselves early. That is the thing, if we can ever play for 32-minutes with the same intensity as that fourth quarter was we could be top-notch.”

Another run, this time 11-3 was started and ended by Gibson scores.

Nuxoll assisted on two of the baskets and scored on a shot of his own after taking an assist from junior guard Cade Walsh.

Walsh then converted a three-point play after being fouled going to the basket on a fast break following yet another turnover, a steal by Walsh near mid-court.

Gibson's closing bucket from near the basket pushed the lead to its peak, at 48-29 with 1:22 to go in the third.

The Indians got the ball inside to seniors Sam Childerson and Evan Cornett for baskets before the quarter ended at 50-34.

“We talked about it at halftime, withstanding their run. We have a target on our back being the one-seed and some other honors we've gotten so far this year,” said Coach Rincker. “We knew that they (Altamont) would play well early. I thought the third quarter was huge for us to come out with a run. We needed that because it got real close at the end.”

Biggs became a big spark for Coach Niebrugge and his team in the final frame, netting all 12 of his points.

Three of his buckets came from long range as Altamont pushed the Bulldogs to the brink.

St. Anthony committed five of their 10-turnovers in the fourth quarter stretch in which Altamont closed the spread.

The hosts got back into contention but they couldn't get over they hump because of some free throw shooting issues.

Biggs was just 1-of-6 from the foul line and the team ended up just 11-of-19 for the game.

During the same quarter, St. Anthony hit just 11-of-17 but they converted six-straight to keep Altamont down double-digits.

A three-point play by Nuxoll with 1:10 left made it 70-59.

St. Anthony finally sealed the deal with a pair of charity tosses by Beasley with :27 left.

Altamont got a pair of 3-pointers by Armstrong and Stevenson to make the final score look more presentable as the Bulldogs celebrated the tournament title game triumph.

Of Nuxoll's 18-points, 16 were in the second half while Gibson netted 12 of his 24 in the third quarter sprint.

Walsh ended up with nine-points while Beasley and Ludwig added five-points apiece.

St. Anthony finished the contest going 28-of-54 (51.8 percent) from the floor while hitting just 2-of-11 from the 3-point line.

The Indians ended up at 54.1 percent (26-of-48 overall) and 6-of-11 from the arc.

Altamont hurt their chances with 15-turnovers, with six coming in the opening quarter.

St. Anthony finished with a 26-22 rebounding edge.

Coach Rincker became the first grandson of a coach, who had won the tournament previously, to capture the championship.

His grandfather Lawrence Carie won six championships while coaching Teutopolis from 1958-59 through 1980-81.

“When you play this team in this gym anything can happen. John (Niebrugge) does a great job of getting them tough minded, physical and playing hard. But I felt like we did a great job of weathering the storm,” said Coach Rincker. “I would have liked to have seen us close it out a little more pretty than that but we'll take a win in this gym in this game.”