12-13-03
BY JACK BULLOCK
TEUTOPOLIS - Coach Ken Crawford said that this would be a physical game.

However he had no idea coming in to the contest that he would have to play a lot of the first half without his three top players saddled with two early fouls each.

Despite the early foul difficulty and a cold shooting second quarter, his club wore-down visiting DuQuoin on Saturday night.

Sam Deters, the Wooden Shoes' 6-7 senior center, scored all of his 14-points in the second half while Chris Zerrusen notched a game-high 23 in the Teutopolis 64-48 non-conference win at home.

T-Town improved to 7-0 with the victory while the Indians saw their record slip to 4-3 with 'back-to-back' losses to Nashville and Teutopolis on the road this weekend.

"I think what I was most pleased with on the night was that we played through some adversity," said Crawford after the contest. "DuQuoin has a really nice ball club. I can understand why they are playing well against people."

Playing only 1:19 in the first quarter before picking up his second personal foul, Deters sat and watched his teammates (namely Zerrusen) pick up the slack.

The Shoes led 22-13 at the end of the first quarter behind 12 points from Zerrusen and some missed free throw opportunities by DuQuoin.

Zerrusen gave T-Town the lead by connecting on his first 3-point attempt of the night coming off of a pick. His bucket made it 5-2 at the 6:21 mark.

However DuQuoin would hang tough in the first quarter, riding the strong inside play of Jordan Campanella.

The 6-3 senior scored in the paint early in the quarter while being fouled by T-Town's Ryan Spencer. His made charity knotted the game at 9-9.

But T-Town scored the next six points of the contest; four of the points came from 6-6 junior Paul Niebrugge.

A Campanella 'put-back' basket and a Chad Wilson free throw cut the Tribe's deficit to 17-13.

However T-Town executed its last second offensive play to perfection as Weber found Zerrusen in the right corner.

His 3-point bomb was on target just as the horn sounded to give the Shoes a 20-13 lead.

As the two teams were leaving the court, DuQuoin's head coach Wendell Wheeler was given a technical foul.

Zerrusen hit both free throws to finish the quarter at 22-13.

After T-Town's Luke Niebrugge hit the second of a two-shot foul opportunity make it 23-13, DQ went on its best run of the night.

Reserve guard Brandon Hirsch came off the bench and canned a 3-pointer from the right corner with 7:24 remaining to cut the lead down to seven.

Then on the next trip for DuQuoin, Zerrusen fouled DQ's Cory Clark and he made 1-of-2 from the foul line.

More importantly, Zerrusen joined Deters on the Wooden Shoes' pine with his second personal.

This allowed DQ the chance to get back into the game and they took advantage of T-Town's short handed minutes.

Reid Bastien, a 6-3 senior guard and football quarterback for the Indians, led his team on a scoring drive of sorts for the remainder of the half.

He hit for four points on the run, his second shot on an inside feed from Campanella tied the game once again at 23-all and prompted Coach Crawford to want to have a 30-second chat with his players at 3:18.

His talk got the Shoes back on course as they finished out the quarter strong.

Two offensive rebound baskets by Weber and Paul Niebrugge pushed the score to 27-25 at the break.

"At one time we had four JV starters on the floor in the second quarter and we were up by nine and managed to get to the half still in the lead." added Crawford.

The two teams battled evenly in the third quarter, which started with DQ's Justin Yeager and Deters exchanging baskets.

Bastien canned a 3-pointer to give DQ its first lead since the opening moments of the game at 30-29.

But on the play, Jaymon Alvis was whistled for his for his fourth foul and the 6-3 senior center headed to the bench with 6:18 left.

"Alvis' foul trouble really hurts us," said Coach Wheeler. "When Jaymon picked up his fourth foul, I had to take him out and without him in the lineup, we are going to struggle some."

The next four minutes of the game produced six lead changes.

Campanella scored in the paint on a nice spin move to give DuQuoin its final lead at 37-35 with 3:30 left.

But Teutopolis scored six straight points, with Luke Niebrugge and Adam Weber each hitting baseline jump shots followed by a Deters score in transition for a 41-37 lead.

Bastien scored DQ's final four points of the frame. His two free throws after coaxing Weber's third foul with :01 left brought the two teams to the fourth quarter at 43-41 T-Town.

As it did in the early season meeting of these two teams last December at DQ, Teutopolis showed in the fourth quarter that they are ahead of the Indians when it comes to basketball conditioning.

T-Town sprinted out on a 10-0 run to begin the final stanza.

Deters, who had rested the most part of the first half, obviously had the freshest legs on the court and it showed in this scoring spree.

He scored on a rebound basket in the opening moments and then put back his own missed shot in the lane. Zerrusen contributed four points in that streak with a basket and two free throws.

Deters completed the Teutopolis run with a 17-foot baseline jumper that had the Indians reeling at 53-41 with 5:17 left.

"One of the things that played into the game late tonight was that they have some big bodies out there and they all play hard. So I think conditioning was a factor in the fourth quarter." added Crawford. "When you look at their program, Wendell (Coach Wheeler) does a great job. Every year they are in the football playoffs so it makes it tough getting them ready with so few practices."

DuQuoin made one last move with Campanella putting in a pair of made free throws and Alvis coming back off the bench to score in the lane on a pass from Campanella.

But Zerrusen ended things by stepping back and firing up a 3-pointer that was right on target from the right corner, which made it 58-46.

Alvis scored again in the lane with 2:13 remaining to cut the T-Town advantage to 60-48.

However the Shoes put the Indians down for the count with another Deters basket and a Weber rebound bucket.

When Teutopolis got the ball back after a DQ turnover, Coach Wheeler told his troops not to foul and the Wooden Shoes ran out the last :53 of the game.

"In a lot of ways, we are still learning. This is a new group that played a season and a half of football and has only had five full basketball practices," said Wheeler, whose team played five games last week in its own tournament but has had little in the way of instructional time with this team.
"This is a very good (Teutopolis) program and they are well coached. I am very pleased with our effort and we came up here and played right with them. I am very proud of this team."

Crawford talked about his teams' defensive performance, especially the play of Adam Weber.

"Adam did a really good job tonight on Bastien and he (Bastien) is a real player," explained Crawford. "I was impressed with Campanella, too. He is a ton in the paint."

After Zerrusen and Deters, Weber and Luke Niebrugge added eight and seven points.

Bastien led DuQuoin with 15 points. Campanella and Alvis each had 10 points.

The Indians were a woeful 7-of-18 in the first half from the foul stripe but finished 16-of-28.

Teutopolis has a tough game coming up at Effingham on Tuesday night while DuQuoin heads back into SIRR Mississippi Division action next Friday at Anna-Jonesboro.

DuQuoin (48) - Hirsch 5, Clark 1, Wilson 2, Bastien 15, Yeager 2, Campanella 10, Jones 3, Alvis 10.
2FG-13, 3FG-2, FT-16-28, PF-14.
Technical Foul -DQ Bench.
Teutopolis (64) - A. Weber 8, Deters 14, Zerrusen 23, L. Niebrugge 7, Gillespie 6, B. Schumacher 2, P. Niebrugge 2, Spencer 2.
2FG-22, 3FG-3, FT-11-15, PF-20.