03-05-15
BY JACK BULLOCK
BENTON - Sometimes, even at the highest level of play in high school basketball, teams will throw in a “clunker” of a performance.

On Thursday night in a makeup game from a postponement due to weather issues at the Benton 2A Sectional, both teams (regional champions) had “off nights.”

Combining for 63 missed field goal attempts, 24 missed free throws and 33 turnovers, neither Teutopolis nor Lawrenceville “brought the house down” at Rich Herrin Gymnasium offensively.

However in a contest in which someone had to advance, the Wooden Shoes and head coach Andy Fehrenbacher did just enough right things on a night when nearly everything else went wrong.

Defensively they forced Lawrenceville into some significant mistakes in the fourth quarter and senior forward Tyler Gebben stepped up with some key points (7-of-8 from the foul line in the final minutes) as Teutopolis survived to advance to Friday night's sectional title game showdown with Carterville with a 64-52 victory over the upstart Indians.

Gebben, a 6-foot-5 senior forward, led the way with 16-points.

Forward Brett Mette netted 10-points as did guard Devin Smith (both juniors) and reserve guard, 5-foot-11 junior Austin Johnson, hit a pair of big 3-point shots and came up with a couple of key steals as the Wooden Shoes endured to play another day.

Point guard Michael Drees struggled with foul problems early in the game but came up with three important scores in the final quarter to get Teutopolis to its sixth consecutive sectional title game appearance.

After losing to eventual state champ Robinson in 2010, the Wooden Shoes have won four-straight sectional championships and look to add a fifth on Friday night.

The victory helped Coach Fehrenbacher reach a career milestone as this mentor collected his 200th win on Thursday night as his club, offensively challenged as they were on this evening, stepped up on the defensive end in the late going to improve to 26-4 on the season.

For Lawrenceville and head coach Randy Bishop, the young Indians missed way too many shots and never got enough offense going in the second half to get a lead, although they made things interesting in the final period.

“I thought our press bothered them and we had opportunities to score but we didn't shoot the ball well enough and we didn't rebound as well as we needed to,” said Coach Bishop. “That (rebounding) is always their (T-Town) strong point. We had opportunities to win but we just didn't get the job done.”

The Indians, champions of the Little Illini Conference, saw their season end at 22-6 on a night in which they shot poorly but still were in contention up until the final two minutes.

Junior guard Harry Loeb led Lawrenceville with 16-points while classmate Jordan Shick tossed in 13.

Brandt Cochran, a 5-foot-11 junior guard who was averaging 18.1 points a game entering the sectional, was held to just eight points by the stingy 'Shoes.

Lawrenceville had issues shooting the ball on Thursday night, as they hit for just 16-of-53 from the field (30.1 percent) and missed all 10 of their 3-point field goal attempts.

This performance came from a squad that was connecting on 38 percent from beyond the arc as a team for the season.

“We didn't shoot the ball well tonight and we missed seven lay ups. And we were 20-of-34 from the free throw line and you have to make those shots to beat the better teams that we play. We forced them into turnovers on the press but we just missed too many shots,” said Coach Bishop. “I thought they (T-Town) did a pretty good job on Cochran and the Mette kid got a couple of offensive rebounds late that hurt us.”

The reasoning was that Teutopolis, although they struggled offensively, still played good enough defense to prevail on this night.

“I think probably the biggest key to tonight's game was for a team that relies on the perimeter shot like Lawrenceville does, we didn't give up a 3-pointer tonight and a lot of that had to do with our length, defensive pressure and being in position defensively,” said Coach Fehrenbacher, who is now 200-43 in his eighth year as the head coach at Teutopolis. “That was a huge positive for us.”

In what was a omen of things to come, the Wooden Shoes played a offensively troubled first quarter in which they had six of their 17-turnovers, yet they managed to lead 16-12.

Smith scored six of his ten points in the first quarter including a conventional three-point play to make it 14-7 with 2:46 to go.

Loeb stepped up for Lawrenceville, despite being just 5-foot-11, got inside with the taller Teutopolis players and got a couple of rebound baskets.

His three-point play on a rebound put back and later another offensive rebound for a score cut the Wooden Shoes' lead to just four points at the end of the first.

Teutopolis shored up some of the defensive issues they had in the first quarter.

After giving up five offensive rebounds in the opening stanza, the Shoes allowed just one in the second frame.

In the meantime, Teutopolis used a big run at the end of the quarter to grab a 29-17 lead at intermission.

Leading just 22-17 with 2:20 left, Teutopolis scored the final seven points of the half with their reserves playing key roles in the run.

A pair of free throws Kyle Smith, a 3-point bomb by the lefty guard Johnson and a reverse lay in on a drive down the baseline by senior guard Jordan Thoele gave Teutopolis a 12-point lead at the break.

Two important factors in the beginning of the second half helped Lawrenceville creep back into contentions.

Brett Mette picked up his third personal foul on a charge in the first minute and Shick hit a pair of big shots, cutting the lead to just 29-22.

Cochran scored six of his eight points in the third quarter and his fast break score while being fouled by Johnson turned into a three-point play and just a 31-25 deficit.

Guard Brock Mette scored four of his six points in the third quarter and back-to-back scores by he and Gebben pushed the lead back to ten at 35-25.

Another score by Cochran and 3-of-4 free throws by senior John Barnes cut the T-Town lead to just 37-32 heading into the final eight minutes.

Lawrenceville nearly got the game tied in the final frame but they fell just short of the victory.

On 3-of-4 free throws by Shick and a score in the lane by Loeb, the Indians narrowed the lead to just 47-45.

But Teutopolis answered as Coach Fehrenbacher's club showed no panic as they ran their offense and got a pair of scores from Drees.

The 5-foot-9 junior scored on a drive down the middle of the lane on an assist from Brett Mette and then he scored on a steal and transition score just seconds later.

Then Gebben went to work from the foul line, hitting his first two of his game closing foul line parade as Lawrenceville never got closer than seven the remainder of the contest.

Brett Mette scored again on a drive to the basket and Drees picked up another steal and his fast break lay in broke the game open at 60-48 with 1:04 left.

It was one of the Indians six turnovers in the fourth quarter as their season came to a close.

“Those two big turnovers late, we are down four and we have two unforced errors and they score on both of them,” said Coach Bishop. “That was really the difference at the end. I'm proud of my kids. They were 22-6 and they worked hard. But T-Town is T-Town. You better be pretty good if you are going to beat them.”

Teutopolis did just enough offensively (21-of-49, 42.8 percent) to get to yet another Round of 16 matchup.

Drees finished with nine points while Johnson checked in with eight.

The rebounding battle went to the Shoes, 37-29, and they shored up some of the issues they had in the first half as they allowed just eight offensive rebounds in the final three quarters, with six coming late in the fourth quarter after the outcome was decided.

Teutopolis committed 17-turnovers but didn't allow any big runs as they head back to a sectional title tilt.

“You have to give credit to Lawrenceville and Coach Bishop because they are always competitive and they play hard. There were some times when they sped us up and I would have liked to have seen us take care of the ball a little bit better. But all in all, we got the job done at the end of the game,” said Coach Fehrenbacher. “It wasn't real pretty but that doesn't matter at this time of the year. You just survive and advance. We are looking forward to playing tomorrow night.”

Lawrenceville (52) – Winningham 0 0 3-4 3, D. volkman 2 0 5-8 9, Loeb 7 0 2-3 16, Barnes 1 0 1-3 3, Benson 0 0 0-1 0, Sholders 0 0 0-0 0, J. Shick 3 0 7-12 13, Cochran 3 0 2-3 8.
2FG-16, 3FG-0, FT-20-34, PF-22.
Teutopolis (64) - Drees 3 1 0-0 9, D. Smith 3 0 4-5 10, Johnson 1 2 0-1 8, Brock Mette 2 0 2-4 6, Blake Mette 0 0 0-0 0, K. Smith 0 0 2-2 2, Gebben 4 0 8-12 16, Hardiek 0 0 0-0 0, Brett Mette 4 0 2-3 10.
2FG-18, 3FG-3, FT-19-29, PF-22.
Fouled Out – J. Shick - Lawrenceville.
Technical Fouls – None.