BY JACK BULLOCK
VANDALIA – It's doubtful that the Effingham St. Anthony Bulldogs could have played a better game than they did Thursday night in the championship game of the Vandalia Holiday Tournament.

In a rematch from a game earlier in the week in Pool A, a contest in which the Bulldogs held off a stubborn Pana team 60-58, Round Two was no contest.

Doctors who perform surgeries would be envious of the way Coach Cody Rincker's club dissected the Panthers' defense.

St. Anthony did pretty much anything that they wanted to do and made it look easy in its 75-48 scorching of Pana to win the 45th annual Vandalia Holiday Tournament championship, finishing the week at 5-0 to improve to 14-1 on the year.

The numbers stand out like a neon vest on a large construction worker.

The Bulldogs got hot early and stayed cherry red the whole game.

Effingham St. Anthony hit a blistering 75 percent of their shots from inside the arc (27-of-36) and half of their 3-point attempts (4-of-8).

They didn't need to shoot many long range shots because of the success they had getting to the basket.

They way they ran the “pick-and-roll” in the halfcourt was reminiscent of old-time basketball that would have made Red Auerbach salute.

“We played very well tonight. We did a lot of good things,” said Coach Rincker. “It kind of matched the performance we had a week ago against Robinson (a 63-46 win on December 20) I hope it wasn't a perfect performance for us, because we have a lot of season left and there are still some things in the first half where we didn't finish the half very well. But overall we did a good job of taking care of the ball.”

Five players for St. A hit for double-figures in the domination.

The tournament's Most Valuable Player senior Drew Gibson netted 16-points for the Bulldogs as he canned 7-of-8 field goals and added a couple of free throws.

Six-foot-two junior Alex Deters tossed in 14-points as he canned 4-of-5 shots from the floor, and hit both of his 3-point attempts.

Alex Beesley, a 6-foot-4 junior forward, added 13-points. Beesley was absolutely perfect in his shots on the night.

He canned 4-of-4 from inside the arc, 2-of-2 from beyond the 3-point line and for good measure he hit both of his free throws for 13-points.

Adam Levitt and Jack Nuxoll, both 6-foot-2 juniors, added 11 and 10-points respectively in the thumping of the Panthers.

Those two combined to hit 9-of-13 from the floor, all inside the arc.

As you would hear on a late night TV infomercial, “Wait, there's more.”

Some teams when they would get a big lead heading into the fourth quarter would let off of the gas but St. Anthony never stopped executing.

They went the entire fourth quarter without missing a shot, until :28 left.

The Bulldogs made nine-straight shots to close the casket.

Pana was no match on this night as they didn't come close to equaling the offensive output by St. A

Head coach Alex Metzger saw his club run full-speed into a buzz-saw of an offense and defensively there wasn't much that could have been done.

The Panthers had brief signs of life during the game but they weren't allowed to run up and down the floor in fast break fashion like they wanted to.

In a big win over Patoka the previous night (79-47) the Panthers attacked at will and turned it into a track meet.

Effingham St. Anthony would have none of that in the title tilt.

“They (St. Anthony) got back on defense tonight and kept us from getting out in transition as much as we wanted. They would slide over and take charges,” said Coach Metzger. “They did a good job of taking that away.”

The Bulldogs set the tempo and forced Pana into a frustration mode.

After playing a close first quarter, which ended at 14-12 Bulldogs, St. Anthony began to pull away.

They opened the second frame with a 6-0 run with Gibson scoring twice while Deters added a steal and fast break finish.

The next run, which began with St. Anthony on top 22-16, gave the Bulldogs its first double-digit lead.

Nuxoll grabbed a rebound on one of the few missed shots for a score and then back-to-back 3-point bombs by Deters and junior guard Cade Walsh made it 30-16, forcing a Pana timeout with 1:47 to go before the half.

“They (Pana) out worked us the last game, they were more physical for most of the game and we were fortunate to win. So tonight for us to be able to get off to that great start and run the stuff that we wanted to run,” said Coach Rincker. “We stayed disciplined and stuck to the game plan.”

Pana was led in scoring by 6-foot-2 senior Adam Miller with 19-points.

Miller hit a trey from the right wing and then added a baseline drive for a basket to close the second quarter with the Panthers still within reach at 30-21.

Coach Metzger's team committed 10 first half turnovers with seven coming in the second quarter which allowed the Bulldogs to increase the lead.

If the first half was bad for Pana, the second half was much worse.

St. Anthony hit 10-of-13 shots in the third quarter, and opened the second half with an 8-2 run.

Gibson began and ended the sprint with scores and Deters took a nice back door pass from Walsh for a lay in.

Pana's Kyle Lynch, a 6-foot-3 senior forward, was second on the team in points with 12 and he stopped the St. A run with a pair of free throws.

Deters, Beesley and Nuxoll all scored in the next wave of Bulldog points.

By the time that 6-foot-5 junior forward Wyatt Lawrence got in on the fun with a drive down the baseline and Nuxoll took a pass from Deters for a fast break lay in, St. Anthony's lead had expanded to 53-33 at the end of the third quarter.

Six-consecutive points to begin the final countdown put the icing on the championship cake.

Levitt, Gibson and Deters all delivered points.

Levitt took an inside pass from Gibson for a bucket and a 59-33 lead with 6:30 remaining.

The Panthers managed to hit three of their five 3-pointers in the fourth quarter but they couldn't dent the St. A Armour.

An 9-2 run, closed by a 3-pointer from Nuxoll, emptied the benches for both teams at 71-45.

“They were hitting everything tonight. Bank shots, reverse lay ups, 3's, everything and it was bad for us,” said Coach Metzger. “We did a pretty good job defensively the other night against them but they hit the shots tonight. I thought our kids battled but you have to just tip your hat to them.”

St. Anthony finished with a slight rebounding edge (24-21) but that was the only stat that was close.

The Bulldogs did commit 15-turnovers but three of those were late in the game when the shouting was over.

Pana ended up 17-of-51 overall (33 percent) and just 5-of-15 from the circle.

“They are capable of putting together big runs and they hit some 3's in the fourth quarter tonight,” said Coach Rincker. “Watching them play Patoka last night, they can get on a roll and knock down shots. And you can't give a team like that a chance to come back.”

VANDALIA 55, SHELBYVILLE 44

FATHER MCGIVNEY 47, RAMSEY 33
The Griffins picked up their first win of the season, and their first as a varsity team, in the win over the Rams.

Five-foot-eight junior guard Dan Jones netted 15-points in the win while 6-foot-5 junior Logan Shumate added 14-points in the win.

Junior Alxe Loeffler, a 6-foot-5 forward added 12-points and 16-rebounds as Father McGivney jumped out to an 18-2 first quarter lead and coasted home to improve to 1-12 in their first season in varsity competition.

Ramsey (2-13) was topped by senior guard Brady Black with 14-points as the Rams were just 13-of-50 from the field and were outrebounded 39-26.

The All-Tournament team consisted of MVP Drew Gibson and Alex Deters of Effingham St. Anthony; Adam Miller and Kyle Lynch of Pana; Jered Cain and Garrett Belcher of Patoka; Trevin Smith and Jeff Gaither of Flora; Nathan Casey and Richie Well of Vandalia; and Malcolm Miller of Shelbyville.