02-06-07
BY JACK BULLOCK
TEUTOPOLIS - The St. Anthony Bulldogs have played against one of the toughest Class A schedules in the state this season and all of those battles have paid off in a late season run.

On Tuesday night Coach Mike Wilson saw his team respond with a huge effort against its biggest rival.

On the road in a game that usually decides the National Trail Conference regular season title each year the Bulldogs finished off Teutopolis 63-58 in a rematch of the NTC tournament championship game played January 27th.

St. A blew an 18-point lead in dropping that title tilt ten days ago but the collapse that happened at Altamont didn't repeat itself.

Using the clutch scoring of Chris Bohnoff, six fourth quarter points by Anthony Hecht and a 'dagger in the heart' 3-pointer from Taylor Hook with under a minute to play, St. Anthony improved to 19-6 on the season with an upset of previously unbeaten Teutopolis (23-1) in front of a packed house at THS.

With the game even at 56-all – Hook took a pass from a driving Bohnoff and drilled home a 3-pointer from the right corner with :41 left.

T-Town had a chance to tie the game but Craig Westendorf missed a 3-pointer and Hook grabbed the rebound.

Hook and Bohnoff made two free throws each in the final :15.6 to give the Bulldogs the win.

With the victory St. Anthony can now close out the National Trail Conference season undefeated with wins over Brownstown at home Friday night and Altamont on the road next Tuesday.

“Winning my first regional my first year coaching at St. Anthony was a big win. But if that was '1' this win tonight would be '1A',” said Coach Wilson, who watched his team hold on for a victory against Teutopolis. “The kids just started seeing things tonight, getting back door cuts and I thought they really stepped up and played well.”

T-Town's retiring mentor Ken Crawford has had a lot of battles over the years with St. Anthony and has won more of his fair share.

However unless each of these two schools - separated by a mere four miles - win their respective regional titles and advance to the sectional title game at Olney East Richland on March 2nd, the final game for Crawford in this long running series will be a loss.

As for this contest Teutopolis – the second ranked team in Class A heading into the game – can point to an 8-of-17 showing from the foul line and six momentous first half turnovers as part of the team's demise on this cold night in Central Illinois.

“We played hard physically but mentally we didn't play well tonight,” said Coach Crawford. “I can't take anything away from St. Anthony. They had a good gameplan and took some things away from us. Our passing wasn't very good in the first half and we gave up too many offensive rebounds.”

Contributing to the Shoes' problems was the hot shooting of the Bulldogs (26-of-49) that included hitting 3-of-7 'trifectas' in the second half.

Scoring on back-cuts to the basket the Bulldogs made T-Town's normally staunch defense look less than imposing.

On the other end of the floor St. Anthony abandoned its normal 1-2-2 ball press that was ineffective early in the game and turned in a solid man-to-man performance in the second half.

Teutopolis started out the game strong – obviously remembering what had happened when they last played the Bulldogs.

Wade Koester had the hot hand early as he hit a pair of 3-pointers. His second such offering – from the left corner - gave the Wooden Shoes a 10-4 lead with 4:37 to go.

But St. Anthony shook off some early turnover problems to get much of those points back.

Bohnoff and Hook each hit shots in a run that cut the T-Town advantage to just 12-11.

T-Town's Jason Runde scored six first quarter points – including two baskets to close out the opening frame.

He followed up a missed shot by teammate Rich Borries just before the buzzer to make it 16-11 after one.

Runde came off of a screen and canned a 3-pointer from the top of the arc with under a minute gone in the second quarter.

Westendorf scored on an inbounds pass from Koester and Teutopolis appeared totally in charge at 21-14 with 5:56 to go before the half.

However with St. Anthony already headed to foul difficulty – T-Town hit just 2-of-6 charities in the quarter where they could have gotten a double-digit lead.

Bohnoff scored seven points in the second quarter and teammate John Steepe scored his only two points of the game on an offensive rebound and drive to the basket that tied the game at 25-apiece with :53 left.

After missing a pair of free throws – Runde got a pass from teammate Borries and scored in the lane to give T-Town back the lead.

Then just before the halftime horn – Borries tipped in a missed shot by Runde.

Despite the problems that had befallen his club, Coach Crawford walked off to the locker room with a 29-25 lead.

Starting the second half St. Anthony took the lead with a 13-4 run.

Jesse Mumm scored twice in the scoring spurt – his second bucket on a fast break gave the Bulldogs a 33-31 lead at the 6:18 mark which forced a T-Town timeout.

A 3-pointer from Bohnoff and a Hecht score on post feed from Steepe made it 38-33.

T-Town again had problems from the foul line.

Borries forced Mumm to the bench with his third foul but the 6-foot-6 senior missed both free throw attempts.

The quarter ended at 45-41 with St. Anthony's Mike Meers and Borries trading buckets.

Hecht scored his six fourth quarter points as Teutopolis overplayed the passing lanes - resulting in all three of his baskets.

His lay in high off of the glass with 2:44 remaining gave the Bulldogs a 56-52 advantage.

Teutopolis tied the game twice in the final quarter but could never get back the lead.

Two free throws by Koester and a rebound basket by Borries evened things for the final time at 56-all with 1:15 left.

But Hook and Bohnoff closed the game and the St. Anthony upset in the final moments.

“Taylor got a good look at the basket and he is a good shooter,” added Coach Wilson. “I can't fault him for taking that shot. He stuck it and then hit two big free throws for us.”

Bohnoff led all scorers with 19 points while teammates Zac Bochtler and Mumm added 12 each.

Runde and Koester paced the Wooden Shoes with 16 and 15 respectively.

Teutopolis wasted a 32-23 rebounding edge while shooting 23-of-51 from the field.

“I told the kids after the game that if we are truly a great team then we'll bounce back,” added Coach Crawford. “We didn't concentrate tonight and we got to get back to that level of concentration that we had before. Great teams build from adversity.”

T-Town travels to Cowden-Herrick on Friday night and then they will face Nashville at the Riverton Shootout on Saturday.

	1	2	3	4	-	F
Effingham St. Anthony	11	14	20	18	-	63
Teutopolis	16	13	12	19	-	58

St. Anthony (63) – Huey 0 0 0-1 0, Hook 0 2 2-2 8, Bohnoff 4 3 2-2 19, Koerner 0 0 0-0 0, Bochtler 6 0 0-1 12, Hecht 4 0 0-0 8, Meers 1 0 0-0 2, Steepe 1 0 0-0 2, Mumm 5 0 2-4 12.
2FG-21, 3FG-5, FT-6-10, PF-14.
Teutopolis (58) – Runde 6 1 1-4 16, Koester 3 2 3-4 15, Westendorf 5 0 0-0 10, Borries 4 0 3-6 11, Tipton 1 1 1-3 6, Zerrusen 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-19, 3FG-4, FT-8-17, PF-12.
Fouled Out – None.
Technical Fouls – None.