03-04-14
BY JACK BULLOCK
VANDALIA – The Teutopolis Wooden Shoes used its normal brand of basketball to take another step toward their ultimate goal of getting to Peoria.

Behind 24-points from 6-foot-5 sophomore forward Brett Mette and a defensive effort that produced a poor shooting night from Breese Central and a rebounding advantage of 31-12, the Wooden Shoes moved into the Friday night sectional title game at Vandalia with a convincing 63-40 win over the Cougars.

In the three previous contests between these two programs, the games were close.

Tuesday night’s game wasn’t.

Forcing Central into a 16-of-47 night from the field and nailing 14-of-15 free throws, Teutopolis took one additional step to reaching their fourth consecutive supersectional with the win in front of a large crowd at Vandalia.

Head coach Andy Fehrenbacher saw his sophomore forward take the Cougars to task all night.

Mette not only scored at will against Breese Central, he also ruled the glass, nearly out rebounding the Cougars himself with 11-boards.

“That was definitely part of the game plan keeping them (Central) off of the boards. We didn’t want to give them second opportunities,” said Coach Fehrenbacher. “Offensively, as the game wore on, the guys knew they could beat their man off the dribble. I am proud of the fact that we kept talking to them about ‘play to win’ and I think we did that until the end. Closing out on their shooters and keeping Timmermann in front of us were keys for us.”

The Wooden Shoes improved to 20-9 overall while the Cougars ended their season at 22-9 under first year head coach Jeremy Shubert.

Six-foot-one senior guard Jacob Timmermann saw his prep basketball career come to a close after scoring 16-points for the Cougars.

Timmermann was part of the state championship team in 2012 as a sophomore and was a four-year starter for Central.

While Central struggled offensively against the stingy Wooden Shoes’ defense, Teutopolis shot the ball well.

Coach Fehrenbacher’s club hit on 23-of-41 attempts overall in the victory.

Behind Mette’s 24-points, the Shoes got 14-points from senior guard Cody Will and 11-points from senior Reed Hardiek.

While Mette was getting help on the offensive end of the floor, Timmermann carried most of the load for BC.

No other Cougar player reached double-digits in points in the season ending defeat.

“T-Town was very good tonight. When you rebound like they did tonight and shoot ‘light’s out’ like they did, you are going to win basketball games in March and they did that tonight,” said Coach Shubert. “Obviously that is not the way I wanted to end our season with a 20-point loss. We never got into a flow and I think the physicality of them (T-Town) on our younger kids really showed tonight. They were stronger and better than us tonight.”

As a matter of fact, Timmermann basically was a one-man gang in the first half, scoring 12-points to help keep his Cougars in the contest.

Central hit some shots from long range in the early going but couldn’t sustain the first quarter scoring buzz.

Three-pointers from Austin Shidle and Chase Schneider in the first quarter got the game tied at 14-all with under a minute left.

But on this night, crashing the boards paid dividends for T-Town.

Grabbing a missed 3-pointer from Will, Hardiek in one fluid motion, launched a shot from about 10-feet to the right side of the basket for a score at the buzzer for a 16-14 lead for Teutopolis after one.

The Wooden Shoes made their first big move and took a double-digit advantage in the second quarter.

After Central sophomore guard Logan Kohrmann scored on a drive to the basket to tie the game at 18, Teutopolis scored the next 12-points for a 30-18 lead.

Back-to-back made 3-pointers by Bobby Wenthe and Will were followed by six consecutive points from Mette.

The sophomore forward hit a pair of foul shots and followed that up with a pair of buckets for give T-Town its biggest first half lead.

“We had a feeling going into tonight that he (Mette) was going to be a problem for them and we challenged him to step up tonight and he did. I’m proud of the way the guys found him and got him the ball,” added Coach Fehrenbacher. “He finished with authority.”

The Wooden Shoes lost their focus for the last 1:48 of the half and Timmermann made them pay.

Three consecutive steals by the senior guard resulted in baskets.

Long a defensive catalyst for the Cougars, Timmermann stole a cross-court pass and raced to the goal for a lay in just before the second quarter horn to cut the Central deficit to 30-24 at intermission.

Timmermann scored the first points of the second half in the opening seconds of the third quarter and the Cougars seemed poised to make a run at the Wooden Shoes.

Following a reverse lay in on a baseline drive by T-Town’s Brock Mette, Central came back with a lob pass to Kenton Roeckenhaus to make it 32-28 Teutopolis at the 5:52 mark.

Unfortunately for Central, that would be the end of the scoring for the Cougars the rest of the quarter as Teutopolis pulled away.

Mette scored twice in a 12-0 run and teammates Will, Hardiek and senior guard Justin Kenter all hit free throws (6-of-6).

When Kenter hit his charities with :01.8 left, T-Town was in command at 44-28.

After hitting two shots early in the third quarter, Central finished the frame just 2-of-12 and committed three turnovers as they fell behind.

“We didn’t hit the offensive boards at all tonight and that (loss) is going to happen when you don’t do that,” said Coach Shubert. “We couldn’t get into our offense and we didn’t shoot the ball well. You have to be able to rebound better and shoot better to win games like this.”

Central made one brief two-possession run to open the final stanza with Schneider and freshman guard Jack Strieker hitting 3-point bombs to breath a bit of life into a potential Cougars’ comeback.

However this was a short lived run as Teutopolis powered home the win with 13-3 move to end the suspense.

Spreading the floor in the halfcourt, the Wooden Shoes got open looks driving to the basket.

Mette, Hardiek and Will scored “at will” in the final quarter and when sophomore guard Michael Drees drove the middle of the lane for a left handed lay in, Teutopolis ballooned the lead to 52-37 which forced a Central timeout with 4:05 remaining.

Mette and Will added buckets less than a minute later and when Mette grabbed an offensive rebound on the Wooden Shoes only missed free throw of the night for a put back with 1:30 remaining, Teutopolis could begin thinking about Friday night’s sectional final.

Central’s shooting woes continued in the fourth quarter (3-of-13) as their season came to a halt.

Timmermann hit a pair of free throw with just over two minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, which were the final points of his prep career.

“Jacob Timmermann is a winner. And he left it all out there tonight,” said Coach Shubert. “He tried to do everything he could tonight to lead these young kids. He just works hard. He led us all year and he was the best player in practice and in the games. I hope our younger kids can feed off of that.”

The Wooden Shoes survived a few mistakes on the night, 13-turnovers being the most glaring, to advance to their fifth consecutive sectional final.

Teutopolis will face either Greenville or Carlinville, the Wednesday night match up at Vandalia, in the finale on Friday.

“We have ran into some stronger teams this year but not someone who could guard us like that,” said Coach Shubert. “If they can play like they did tonight, T-Town will be a tough out.”

Should the Shoes win, it will mark four consecutive supersectional appearances for this coach and program.

If Teutopolis wins both Friday and Tuesday night at SIU Arena, it will also mark the fifth consecutive time that the team that lost in the Deep South 2A Super the previous year advanced to Peoria the following March.

Breese Central turned the trick twice (2010, 2012), while Murphysboro (2011) and Harrisburg (2013) accomplished the feat in this run.

Teutopolis lost to Harrisburg last March at SIU Arena and also fell in two straight trips to the Springfield 2A Supersectional in 2011 and 2012.

Perhaps the fourth time will be the charm for this hard-working program.

“We have been in so many close, tight ballgames this year. Our guys keep their composure and they know what we are trying to do offensively,” added Coach Fehrenbacher. “It is a testament to our schedule.”

Breese Central (40) – Truong 0 0 0-0 0, Timmermann 7 0 2-4 16, Voss 0 0 0-0 0, Harmon 1 0 1-2 3, Kohrmann 1 0 0-0 2, Strieker 0 2 0-0 6, Rule 0 0 0-0 0, Schneider 0 2 0-0 6, Roeckenhaus 2 0 0-0 4, Shidle 0 1 0-0 3. 2FG-11, 3FG-5, FT-3-6, PF-13.
Teutopolis (63) – Drees 1 0 0-0 2, Ungrund 0 0 0-0 0, Brock Mette 2 0 0-0 4, Will 3 1 5-5 14, Borries 0 0 0-0 0, Wenthe 1 1 1-2 6, Gebben 0 0 0-0 0, Kenter 0 0 2-2 2, Hardiek 2 1 4-4 11, Thoele 0 0 0-0 0, Jansen 0 0 0-0 0, Brett Mette 11 0 2-2 24, Probst 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-20, 3FG-3, FT-14-15, PF-8.
Fouled Out – None.
Technical Fouls – None.