02-23-07
BY JACK BULLOCK
TEUTOPOLIS - The Ken Crawford Farewell Tour has just added another date.

Tuesday, February 27 at 7:30 pm at the Olney East Richland Class A Regional with a matchup against Vandalia.

Tickets are on sale now. Well soon at least.

With his Teutopolis Wooden Shoes on the ropes in the final moments of its regional title game against Newton on Friday night – Coach Crawford's weary troops dug deep down for a comeback effort.

Surviving a 29-point performance from Newton's Levi Richards - which included a back breaking three-point play following a key steal late in the fourth quarter (See ABV Clips) - Teutopolis outscored the stunned Eagles 8-3 in the final two minutes of the contest to pull out a 59-57 win.

In victory Teutopolis picked up the school's 23rd regional championship and earned Coach Crawford his 12th regional crown.

In front of an overflowing crowd the host Wooden Shoes put together a complete game using just five players who logged all 32 minutes.

Jason Runde – an ABV Charleston Supersectional Area First Team pick – came up with perhaps the biggest play of his stellar T-Town career with :26.5 seconds remaining.

Trailing Newton 57-56 – Runde had picked up his dribble under pressure in the front court and was looking for a teammate to pass to.

With the referee's closely guarded count nearing 'five' Runde – who had run out of passing options - pivoted around and launched a shot from near the foul line.

His spinning 12-footer found the mark as Newton's Richard was caught reaching in for a steal.

The result was a basket and subsequent made free throw that put the Wooden Shoes ahead 59-57.

Newton had a pair of chances to tie or take back the lead but both Caleb Knepper and Eric Schackmann missed on long shots in the final seconds.

In Schackmann's case – Richards had grabbed a rebound of a potential game-winning free throw chance by T-Town's Wade Koester with :06.3 and headed up the floor looking to get to the basket as the clock ticked toward zero.

However Richards lost control of the ball and was forced to pass it back to Schackmann – who was standing near the top of the arc.

Schackmann's shot had the look of a game winner but was a bit too strong – bouncing off of the back iron and down to Teutopolis' senior center Rich Borries just as the buzzer sounded.

“Levi did what he had to do on that last play. He took it hard to the basket but he gave it up and that shows how unselfish a player he is,” said Newton mentor Doug Mammoser who came back to lead the Eagles after a few years away from the game. “He (Schackmann) got a good look at the basket and a lot of times he is going to knock that down.”

Coach Crawford – set to retire from basketball coaching at the end of this season – will now prepare for his 11th sectional as his Wooden Shoes will take on Vandalia Tuesday night at Olney.

Over shadowing the Richards scoring performance were four T-Town players who hit for double figures.

Following Runde's team-high 17 points – Wade Koester and Borries chipped in 14 each while Craig Westendorf tossed in 13.

Newton's Clay Britton joined Richards in double-digits on the scoreboard with 13 points.

Once both teams got past the first quarter jitters – the game became the slug fest that would be expected from two programs that had produced 47 wins in 2006-07.

“We lived by the sword tonight. Our gameplan was very simple – we had to go out and take the 3-pointers away,” said Coach Crawford who notched win number 605 at Teutopolis and 655 overall. “People need to realize this isn't just putting chess pieces out on a board. When you take away something you have to give up something. We took away the '3' and we gave up the drive.”

The drive that Crawford referred to was mainly the drives of Richards who was a sparkling 14-of-15 from the field – all two-point field goals – in a contest where they needed every points from there 6-foot jumping jack.

In an almost painful to watch first quarter both of the teams played like champions in the final 24 minutes.

The opening frame saw the two combatants combine for nine turnovers and 18 missed shots.

Richards scored his first bucket of the night in that opening stanza and his drive to the basket with 3:27 remaining cut the T-Town lead to 7-4.

This drive was an omen of things to come when his shot began to fall like a monsoon rain when beating his defender time after time.

T-Town caught the first break of the contest to close the first quarter as Borries corralled an air ball from teammate Wade Koester on a 3-point attempt and his stick back beat the horn for an 11-6 Wooden Shoes' advantage after the first one was in the books.

Trading some haymakers the Shoes and Eagles quickly turned the contest into a classic in the second quarter.

Richards put on a show in that second stanza with 12 points on six different drives to the basket.

His back-to-back scores which was finished by a drive in a wide-open lane with 2:09 to go cut the T-Town lead to just 24-20.

But Richards wasn't the only one heating up in the sweltering heat of the T-Town Gym.

Koester got going from behind the arc with three 3-pointers in the stanza.

He canned a couple of those shots late in the quarter – ripping the nets the last time to give the Shoes a 30-23 advantage.

When Richards wasn't getting to the basket – he was helping teammates get open shots.

An assist to Schackmann closed the Newton first half output with 1:22 left.

T-Town – as they have for most of the 25-2 season – got key baskets from Craig Westendorf.

Mostly known for his inside play – Westendorf on occasion provides some offense from long range.

His 'excuse me' 3-pointer when left wide open at the top of the key ended the point production in a 33-25 half.

The stark contrast of the first and second quarters were more than just night and day.

It showed signs that this regional title game was about to get very interesting.

Richards showed everyone in the house his athletic ability in the third quarter when he made a steal on the T-Town end of the floor and then sprinted to the other end for a two-handed slam dunk to cut the Eagles deficit to 35-29.

The dunk was part of a 10-4 offensive start to the second half for Newton which forced a Teutopolis timeout midway through the quarter.

Runde – who like Richards wore number '24' – raced off on his own run by scoring seven of Teutopolis' next nine points highlighted by a conventional three-point play followed up by a midrange jumper with 2:39 to stake his club to its first double-digit advantage at 46-36.

But at this point in the proceedings – Newton came alive and Richards got some scoring help.

Leary of drives to the basket – Coach Crawford's club allowed Britton to get open on a pair of 3-point attempts late in the quarter.

Britton drilled home both of the shots – cutting the T-Town margin to 46-42 heading to the final eight minutes.

Newton finally got the lead back – its first such advantage since the first minute of play – when Richards scored seven points during what seemed like a game-changing 12-3 sprint.

His steal and drive to the basket while being fouled by Koester sent Newton's crowd into a frenzy.

And his made charity pushed Newton ahead 53-51.

Britton had also picked up a three-point play when he connected on a fade away shot from the right side while being fouled by Runde.

Toss in a pair of free throws by Knepper and the Eagles were in command 55-51.

But that only added to the dramatic ending – and the continuing adventures of Coach Crawford and his Shoes as they search for yet another 'Elite Eight' appearance. (See ABV Clips)

“He (Richards) is a great player and had a great career for them,” said Crawford about Richards – who is headed to play football at Harvard next fall. “But by and large our goal was to take away the 3-pointer tonight and they only got three of them.”

Both teams recovered from the train wreck first quarter to shoot the ball well.

Newton hit exactly half of their attempts – 24-of-48 from the floor and 3-of-9 from behind the arc.

T-Town was 24-of-55 with a 'not so pretty' 5-of-17 from deep.

The Shoes were their usual monsters on the glass – holding a 30-18 advantage and limiting Newton to just four offensive boards.

After nine opening stanza turnovers – the two clubs ended up with just nine miscues each.

Following the Richards 29 – Coach Doug Mammoser got 13 from Clay Britton and five points apiece from Knepper, Schackmann and Ben Colwell in defeat.

In a cleanly played game only 21 fouls were whistled and just 19 total foul shots were attempted with each team hitting six.

“A lot of times Schack (Schackmann) is going to knock that down but that is sometimes the difference between losing or moving on,” added Mammoser. “Our kids played very hard and very well in the second half. T-Town is going to take advantage of what they have and they did that tonight.”

	1	2	3	4	-	F
Newton	6	19	17	15	-	57
Teutopolis	11	22	13	13	-	59

Newton (57) – S. Mammoser 0 0 0-0 0, Bierman 0 0 0-1 0, N. Mammoser 0 0 0-0 0, Richards 14 0 1-1 29, Knepper 0 1 2-2 5, Schackmann 2 0 1-2 5, Colwell 2 0 1-3 5.
2FG-21, 3FG-3, FT-6-10, PF-11.
Teutopolis (58) – Runde 7 0 3-4 17, Koester 1 4 0-1 14, Westendorf 4 1 2-2 13, Borries 7 0 0-0 14, Tipton 0 0 1-2 1.
Fouled Out – None.
Technical Fouls – None.