02-23-2021
BY JACK BULLOCK
FARINA - It the 70-plus seasons of boy's high school basketball at Effingham St. Anthony the program has produced nearly 1,500 wins.

Logic would suggest that they have won some 'less than pretty' contests in that long history.

However it is unlikely that any of the victories were as 'ugly' as Tuesday night's 44-38 decision over host Farina South Central in National Trail Conference play.

Head coach Cody Rincker saw first hand as his club got hot in the second quarter to build a 20 point first half advantage and an 18 point spread at the break.

Much to his chagrin he also saw his squad score exactly two points in nearly 12 minutes from the end of the second quarter and into the fourth.

Fortunately for the visitors, beauty and style points don't matter; it's the scoreboard that tells the final tale.

St. Anthony improved to 3-0 in the NTC and 5-2 overall with the victory as they look to add another regular season championship to the trophy case.

“I really don't know how to explain it. Our second quarter, to us, is exactly how you draw it up to play. We attacked their zone, we got rebounds, we hit some 3's. He got drives to the basket for kick outs and got buckets near the hoop,” said Coach Rincker. “And we gave them some fits tonight defensively but they made some adjustments at halftime. We didn't attach as well in the second half and we settled for too many 3's. We threw it to the “white team” instead of the “red team” too many times in the second half.”

The Cougars saw their mark dip to 2-1 in the conference and 3-1 overall.

Head coach Blake Doehring got 20 points from 6-foot-3 junior forward Keenin Willshire in defeat.

South Central senior guard Collin Miller scored 12 points, all in the second half, to help spark a rally in the final 16 minutes.

The Bulldogs were led by a trio of players who each scored 10 points.

Senior guard Logan Antrim, senior guard Kennan Walsh and junior forward Craig Croy netted the combined 30 while senior center Seth Hotze put in eight points in the triumph.

South Central and St. Anthony slugged through a first quarter that saw ten combined turnovers and 14 missed shots.

Willshire was a bright spot, hitting three field goals in the frame.

The Cougars scored the final five points of the quarter with Willshire adding his third bucket as they led 9-7 at the first stop.

Effingham St. Anthony took complete command in the second quarter.

A 13-2 run in just over four minutes had a little bit of everything for the Bulldogs.

Antrim nailed down a 3-pointer and added a fast break lay in during this scoring blitz.

Croy stuck in an offensive rebound for a score and Walsh added another long range 3-pointer in transition for the Bulldogs.

A conventional three-point play by Walsh pushed the lead to 20-11 with 3:26 left before intermission.

Willshire added four more made free throws, two each on two different trips to the line that were three minutes apart.

In those 180 seconds of play in between the free throws, St. Anthony ran off 13-unanswered points.

Three more 3-pointers with Walsh sandwiching two of them around a Croy bomb from the right corner.

Antrim added a fast break lay up for the largest lead of the game for the Bulldogs at 33-13 with just under a minute left in the second quarter.

Unfortunately for St. Anthony, it would be quite a while before they would score another field goal.

South Central went 0-of-4 from the floor in the second quarter and committed eight turnovers as they were outscored 26-6 by St. A in that eight minute span.

Coach Doehring's club began to close the gap in the third quarter as they took advantage of the suddenly mistake prone guests.

The Bulldogs didn't accomplish much in the third quarter.

Two free throws by Hotze represented the only offense by Coach Rincker's club.

They went 0-of-7 from the floor and committed five turnovers as they opened the door for a South Central rally.

Dodson started the quarter by scoring his only field goal while Miller hit a 3-pointer from the left corner and added another basket on a rebound of his own missed shot.

Although the Cougars only scored seven points in the quarter, they managed to inch their way closer as both teams headed into the fourth quarter at 35-22 Bulldogs.

“We're going to compete. It's something I preach to them everyday and tonight they competed,” said Coach Doehring. “We haven't been able to play these guys (St. Anthony) tough in the past two years but tonight we did. I'm really proud of them but we have to move on and learn from it.”

Miller added another offensive rebound put back to begin the fourth quarter.

Hotze finally broke the ice for St. Anthony with a score in the lane with 4:31 remaining.

It was the first made field goal attempt for St. A since :59 left in the second quarter.

The Bulldogs did enough the rest of the way to pick up the win.

Hotze added to his numbers as he took a nice lob pass from Antrim for a basket in close.

Then Antrim fed Walsh for a fast break lay in off of a South Central turnover.

After Miller and Willshire added two points each, St. Anthony put the game out of reach with an Antrim 3-pointer for a 44-30 advantage with :49 remaining.

The Cougars made the final score look close as they ended the game with their best run for the night at 8-0.

Miller nailed a 3-pointer and Willshire scored on a fast break lay in.

The Bulldogs final turnover in the game (10th of the quarter) turned into a Willshire basket in the lane while being fouled by Antrim with just :02.2 left.

Willshire completed the scoring with his 20th point on the converted free throw.

“We outscored them 23-11 in the second half but they had 16 points in the first half on turnovers alone,” said Coach Doehring. “I'm really proud of our kids. After winning the first quarter and then a horrible second quarter, the kids could have easily gave up. But we battled back. I'm not into moral victories but I think we proved that we could play with the best of the best in our conference. Now we just can't have a let down tomorrow night and Friday.”

Effingham St. Anthony ended up 17-of-36 from the floor (47.2 percent) while hitting 7-of-19 from the 3-point line.

Two main factors kept the Bulldogs from tasting defeat.

Defensively they held South Central to just 13-of-37 shooting from the field (35.1 percent) and they dominated the boards.

Coach Rincker's team won the glass battle 26-13 and helped force the Cougars into 17 turnovers of their own.

South Central will get right back into action on Wednesday night as they travel to Waltonville for a non-conference game and then they will be at Dieterich on Friday night and will host Sandoval on Saturday.

St. Anthony will host Windsor-Stewardson-Strasburg on Friday night before traveling to Flora on Saturday.

“But ultimately, at this point, a win is a win. We just have to get better and learn from this. This is a short season, like a sprint, and we can't practice as much now since we are now playing nearly every day,” said Coach Rincker. “It's a win.”