02-10-04
TEUTOPOLIS @ EFFINGHAM ST. ANTHONY
BY JACK BULLOCK
EFFINGHAM - One of the top Class A boy's basketball rivalries in the state was renewed on Tuesday night as Teutopolis and St. Anthony squared off in the new state of the art Enloh Center.

Although it was a different road venue, the Wooden Shoes took care of business on this night just like they have so many times in the past.

They took command of the boards and they shut down the other team defensively.

T-Town scored 16-points on offensive rebounds and limited St. Anthony's shooting to 13-of-42 from the field in a relatively easy 49-34 win in front of a near capacity crowd.

On this night, the T-Town got a great performance from one of its top role players. Greg Gillespie, a 6-4 junior, stepped up and helped the Wooden Shoes with a perfect 6-for-6 on the night from the field.

With Effingham St. Anthony using a box-and-one early in the game to try and harness guard Chris Zerrusen, Gillespie ended up getting some good looks at the basket.

He responded with a sharp shooting night, as he made the Bulldogs pay for concentrating on Zerrusen.
"I thought Coach Niebrugge (St. Anthony) had a great plan tonight to defend us and that is as well as anyone has defended us this season," said Crawford. "He took away a lot of things tonight that we wanted to do. But Greg (Gillespie) recognized that he had some open shots and he knocked them down."

Using offensive rebounds as its weapon of choice, Teutopolis crashed the boards pulling down 10 such rebounds and converted eight of them into immediate points.

Sam Deters, T-Town's 6-7 center, got the first rebound bucket off of his own miss with 5:48 left in the opening quarter to give the Shoes a 6-2 lead.

Mike Wines, St. Anthony's top gun at 16 p.p.g., scored just moments after that Deters basket to cut the margin to 6-4.

However late in the quarter, Wines picked up a blocking foul as Zerrusen drove to the basket.

In arguing the call, Wines was assessed a technical foul. With that being his second personal foul, Wines went to the bench for the remainder of the half.

Teutopolis took advantage of Wines' absence by scoring the games next four points on Zerrusen's technical charities and a Deters basket on a left baseline move to make it 12-7 T-Town with 1:12 to go.

But late in the frame, Brian Semple scored on his second driving lay in of the game (and his fifth point of the quarter) to cut the T-Town advantage to 12-9 at quarters end.

Despite not having Wines on the floor for the entire second quarter, St. Anthony did manage a run to briefly take the lead.

A pair of free throws to open the quarter by Jake Niebrugge followed by two baskets by Doug Wohltman and Jeff Ungrund.

Ungrund's bucket on a post up move from the right block gave the Bulldogs' their only lead of the game at 15-14 with 4:35 left before intermission.

However Teutopolis finished off the second quarter with a strong final 1:21.

Deters scored on his second rebound basket of the first half while teammate Luke Niebrugge and Gillespie hit 3-of-4 free throws in the final seconds. This made it 21-16 Wooden Shoes.

T-Town went to the break with 11 rebounds, of which three resulted in points.

"That (offensive rebounding) was one of the things that we put a lot of emphasis on," added Crawford. "We did not play well early in the season in that aspect and we have improved on both ends of the floor."

In the third quarter, Teutopolis began to pull away from its rivals, thanks to Gillespie, who canned three shots in the frame.

Despite five points in the quarter from Wohltman, St. A fell behind.

Gillespie's first bucket from short range gave the 'Shoes a 25-19 lead.

Niebrugge scored twice more for T-Town in the run to open the second half, which was followed by Gillespie's second shot of the quarter from right at the free throw line to push the lead to 31-21.
Jake Niebrugge scored on a lay in from a pass from Wines to get St. A back to with in 31-23.

But the 'Shoes once again finished a quarter strong with a 6-0 run.
Gillespie's third basket from the right baseline; another offensive rebound, this time by Adam Weber; and finally a Zerrusen jumper in the paint just before the third quarter horn gave Teutopolis a 37-23.

The 'Shoes finished off St. Anthony by scoring six of the first seven fourth quarter points.

Deters scored all six of the Wooden Shoes' points in the run. His ' exclamation point' steal and lay in pushed the score to 43-24 with 6:01 left.

Wines scored his second basket of the game on the next Bulldog possession. However it was clear that the Teutopolis defense had done a job on Wines, with Adam Weber doing most of the defensive work.

"Adam Weber did a tremendous job tonight on Wines," said Crawford. "Adam takes so much pride in his defense. Everyone contributed in this win."

St. Anthony could get no closer than 15-points the remainder of the game.

Gillespie scored two more baskets in the final minutes for T-Town giving him 13-points on the night while Deters led the 'Shoes with 16.

Coach Ken Crawford's under-appreciated Wooden Shoes have yet to crack the AP Class A poll. But at 20-5 and on an eight-game winning streak, T-Town should start to get some recognition.

St. Anthony (17-8) who hit for its lowest point total of the season did not place a player in double-figures and was led by Semple and Wohltman with nine points each.