12-05-09
BY JACK BULLOCK
CAMPBELL HILL - The Red Bud Musketeers had control of their own destiny Saturday night in the championship game of the Pioneer Invitational Tournament.

Coach Dave Gillingham’s club were hitting the open looks and getting the key rebounds for most of the contest against Trico and led 41-38 heading into the final quarter.

A Red Bud win would have given the Musketeers a second-consecutive PIT championship.

But the Musketeers went cold in the final eight minutes – connecting on just two of their first 12 shots from the floor and only 3-of-7 free throws in the final stanza.

In the interim – Logan Thies and his Trico teammates got hot at the right time.

Finishing the game strong – Trico hit 13-of-15 from the charity stripe in the fourth quarter to ice a 60-54 win with Thies nailing 11-of-13 of those free ones.

Thies finished with a career-best 33 points while teammate Jesse Smith added 10 in the important win.

The victory knocked Red Bud (3-2) from the championship down to a three-way tiebreaker for second.

The tiebreaker – however - was free throw percentage and Red Bud’s problem in the fourth quarter not only cost them the title but also dropped them down to a fourth place finish in the event.

Coach Shane Hawkins’ Trico squad starts the season in running the gauntlet for a 5-0 start and the championship by defending its turf.

“They (Red Bud) are so good and what makes them dangerous is that they shoot so many 3’s and shoot them so well,” said Trico head coach Shane Hawkins – whose team was a preseason ABV Top Ten club in the 1A Deep South. “The difference between tonight and last night (a two-point win over Steeleville) is that tonight we didn’t turn it over late in the game and we hit our free throws. I think it is a learning process from last night to tonight.”

Red Bud entered Saturday primed to defend its title but fell twice to Egyptian and Trico.

While the Musketeers struggled in the final quarter – Trico hit the key shots in a stretch in which Red Bud committed four turnovers to add to their troubles.

Red Bud placed three players in double-figures with Kory Liefer topping the Musketeers with 19 points followed by Jake Hoffman with 14 and Adam Kunkel with 10.

All three of those players had a hand in Red Bud starting strong in the first quarter – which ended with the Musketeers in charge 20-17.

But unlike the 2008 PIT title game where Red Bud dominated Trico – the Pioneers wouldn’t go away.

Trico matched Red Bud from long range with Tyler Coleman hitting a pair of 3-pointers in the frame.

His second one with 3:11 left gave the Pioneers their first lead at 11-10.

Red Bud hit three shots from behind the arc with Hoffman canning last one just before the first quarter ended to give his club a three-point margin.

Trico opened the second frame with a 7-0 sprint with Thies, Coleman and Smith all scoring.

Smith drove the lane for a score while being fouled by Red Bud’s Tyler Magruder.

He missed the foul shot but his club still led 24-20 with 6:03 to go before intermission.

Liefer scored five points in the second quarter on back-to-back possessions with his 3-pointer from the left corner breaking the final tie of the first half to give Red Bud a 27-24 lead.

Smith gave his Trico squad the halftime edge with a five-point run of his own in the final minute.

He took a pass from Coleman and scored while being fouled by Rhett Ringering. His three-point play cut the Red Bud lead to 28-27.

Smith scored again on a drive to the basket with :26 left to send the teams to the break at 29-28 Pioneers.

Red Bud was 11-of-27 in the first half but managed four offensive rebounds with three of those possessions ended up in points.

Trico got better in the second half in keeping the Musketeers off of the glass.

“They shoot a lot of 3’s so there are going to be a lot of long rebounds and sometimes you just have to check your man and go chase it,” Hawkins said. “I thought we rebounded better tonight than we did earlier in the week.”

Red Bud opened the third quarter with a pair of made 3-pointers from Stefan Gregson and Kunkel.

Gregson’s shot from the right corner put Red Bud up 34-29 with 5:18 remaining.

Hoffman nailed another 3-pointer on an assist from Liefer and the lead was Red Bud’s largest at 39-33 with just over two minutes left in the quarter.

But with every Red Bud run on this night – Trico responded.

Thies – as it turned out – was just getting warmed up as he scored six points in the quarter on a pair of drives to the basket and two free throws.

Trico – who struggled early against Red Bud’s zone defense – finally got into a grove.

“When you play against something that is a little bit different (1-2-2) than what you are used to going against – it takes a while to get going. It takes a while to get a feel for it,” Hawkins added. “Once we figured out that we could have some success against it – our cuts were harder, our passes were sharper and we were able to get to the basket.”

Liefer closed the quarter with a score on a back door cut and the two clubs sat at 41-38 heading to the final countdown.

Thies took over the fourth quarter and led his club to the championship as this 6-foot-1 junior scored twice in the paint in the first two minutes of the stanza.

Following another Coleman 3-pointer from the right corner that evened the score at 45-all – Thies struck again scoring on an inbound play with 4:24 remaining.

Red Bud wouldn’t get the lead again.

The Musketeers had opportunities but missed too many shots from the field and the foul line in the final 4:10. They also committed those four damaging turnovers late in the game.

Thies scored on a conventional three-point play while being fouled by Kunkel with 1:16 left.

This began a foul line parade in which Thies cashed in by hitting 7-of-9 from the stripe.

Kunkel hit a 3-pointer and Gregson scored on a rebound with :11.9 left to cut the lead back to 55-54.

However Thies finished off the game from the line after Red Bud turned the ball over twice in the final seconds.

"I thought it was a good early season game. It went back and forth and I thought they made a few more big plays in the fourth quarter than we did," said Red Bud head coach Dave Gillingham. "Theis just killed us in the paint and then he hurt us at the free throw line in the last minute or two. We played our best game of the tournament and although it was our second loss of the day, I feel like we can build on this
one. We are a long way from being a good team but at least in this game there were some good signs"

“He (Thies) can step outside and play on the perimeter and he is really good when he takes it to the basket,” said Hawkins. “When he is under control going to the basket he is very good.”

Trico was 19-of-46 from the field overall but hit half of its attempts from long range (5-of-10) in the win.

Red Bud was 20-of-53 overall (9-of-23 from behind the arc) in defeat.

Trico held a slight 33-31 rebounding edge and the turnover battle was close with Trico committing 14 compared to Red Bud’s 15.

“We are really young. We have one senior on the roster and we have been starting two sophomores so this is a learning process,” finalized Hawkins. “But the biggest difference tonight was that we learned from last night and it carried over into tonight. I think we took some steps toward becoming a good team."

The Trico Pioneer Invitational All-Tournament Team consisted of Theis, Smith and Chase Heins from Trico; Kunkel, Liefer and Hoffman from Red Bud; Matt Petermichel from Egyptian; Coire Reel and Colin Smith from Steeleville; and Tyler Davis of Shawnee.

Red Bud (54) – Kunkel 1 2 2-5 10, Kory Liefer 5 3 0-0 19, Hoffman 2 3 1-2 14, Gregson 1 1 1-2 6, Ringering 2 0 0-1 4, Buch 0 0 1-2 1, Maguarder 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-11, 3FG-9, FT-5-12, PF-23.
Trico (60) – Froemling 0 0 0-0 0, Witthoft 0 1 0-0 3, Thies 9 1 12-15 33, Smith 3 0 4-7 10, Coleman 1 2 0-0 8, Young 0 1 0-2 3, Heins 1 0 1-2 4.
2FG-14, 3FG-5, FT-17-26, PF-18.
Fouled Out – Gregson, Red Bud.
Technical Fouls – None.