02-08-11
BY JACK BULLOCK
TEUTOPOLIS - In a battle between long time rivals Teutopolis and Effingham St. Anthony the play of the frontcourt for the Wooden Shoes offensively and defensively was the major difference in the 76-58 win by the hosts.

Teutopolis' Brett Deters led the way with 25-points with most of those points coming in the paint.

Defensively Coach Andy Fehrenbacher's club out rebounded the Bulldogs 36-23 and held St. Anthony to just 24-of-58 shooting overall in the National Trail Conference triumph.

With the win Teutopolis all but wrapped up the NTC regular season crown in front of a packed house at home.

“The first time we played them (St. Anthony) they got 12 offensive rebounds and we said before the game that rebounding was huge factor in this game,” said T-Town head coach Andy Fehrenbacher. “We knew that we needed to control the boards and I thought we did a pretty good job of that.”

After spotting the Bulldogs an early lead – T-Town went on a 13-0 first quarter run to get the lead they never relinquished as the Wooden Shoes improved to 20-2 overall and 6-0 in the National Trail.

St. Anthony saw its record slip to 18-5 (5-1 NTC) despite 19-points from guard James Jansen.

“The first three or four minutes of the game we got out 11-5 but we gave up a couple of big possessions at the end of the first quarter,” said St. Anthony head coach Mark Tovey. “What started out well for us steamrolled in the other direction.”

Teutopolis put four players in double-figures with Nick Schumacher tossing in 18-points while teammates' Trey Braun and Derek Thompson adding 13 and 10.

The Wooden Shoes were very good shooting from the field on this night – pounding the ball inside to hit 28-of-46 shots from inside the 3-point arc.

“We have a lot of guys that can finish around the basket and we have some pretty good size,” said Coach Fehrenbacher. “I know that they have Schmitt but I felt like our guys could take it right at him and tonight we did. They (St. Anthony) are a little thin on the bench in the post so we felt like if we were aggressive and got the ball in there that would be a key for us.”

In the 13-0 run in the final minutes of the first quarter – T-Town got the ball inside to Deters who scored seven points in the run.

In back-to-back trips into the offensive end – Deters hit shots in the paint that gave Teutopolis a 16-11 lead.

Schumacher grabbed a rebound and hit a buzzer beating shot while being fouled by St. Anthony's Kit Koerner. His made free throw closed the quarter at 18-14.

Baskets by Deters, Schumacher and Thompson to open the second quarter pushed the Wooden Shoes lead to double-digits at 27-15 with 6:12 left before halftime.

“Our guards did a super job tonight. Mark Niebrugge, Derek Thompson and Trey Braun handled the ball well tonight,” Fehrenbacher added. “Our bigs ran the floor well tonight. Another key was it seemed like every time that they would score, we would inbound the ball and push it up the floor and get points. Especially in the second half.”

One of the things that the Bulldogs did pretty well on the night was hit shots from behind the 3-point arc.

St. Anthony hit six trey's on the night and Reed Willenborg hit his only three to cut the T-Town lead to just 27-20 with 5:06 remaining.

But Teutopolis continued to get the ball in the lane to Deters as he scored six more points to close out the half.

Schumacher added a score in the lane with :31 left to give the Wooden Shoes a 37-26 halftime advantage.

St. Anthony made a brief run to begin the second half and got to within 39-31 with a score by 6-foot-7 senior center Ryan Schmitt.

Schmitt finished with 13-points for St. A but fouled out in the fourth quarter as he had trouble defending Deters as did the rest of the Bulldogs.

Defensively St. Anthony failed to get back on defense on several second half occasions.

Trading baskets with Teutopolis wasn't a good formula on the night as St. Anthony trailed by double-figures the final 11:50 of the game.

Teutopolis scored four fast break buckets in the third quarter and led 53-40 at the end of three quarters.

“We played poor defense – both in the post and standing behind players,” added Coach Tovey. “We work on it all the time in practice but a good team will tear you apart inside and outside. We allowed penetration and we allowed everything that we shouldn't if you are going to win a game. We probably played the poorest defensive game that we played all season here tonight. We just didn't play. We seemed to get a little bit tired at the end. We were a little bit short on the bench tonight but we have to play the players that we feel give us the best chance to win. It just wasn't going to happen tonight.”

Scoring three more times in transition in the fourth quarter – Teutopolis pulled away for the easy win.

St. Anthony finished the contest by missing 20-shots from the floor from two-point range and managed to just get to the foul line six times (4-of-6) while Teutopolis hit 17-of-26 free throws.

The Bulldogs couldn't get much going on the offensive boards as they grabbed just five offensive rebounds.

Following Jansen and Schmitt – Koerner finished with nine points with Willenborg adding seven.

Both Koerner and Schmitt fouled out in the fourth quarter.

“I thought that they (St. Anthony) came out with a lot of fire and intensity and I knew that they would,” added Coach Fehrenbacher. “They hit some shots early and got us down. But we kept our composure and once we got the lead we held it for good.”

St. Anthony (58) – Koerner 3 1 0-0 9, Deters 1 0 0-0 2, Ragland 1 1 0-0 5, Jansen 4 3 2-2 19, Grunloh 0 0 0-0 0, Willenborg 2 1 0-0 7, Dust 1 0 1-2 3, Koester 0 0 0-0 0, Schmitt 6 0 1-2 13.
2FG-18, 3FG-6, FT-4-6, PF-20.
Teutopolis (76) – Niebrugge 1 0 6-8 8, Waldhoff 0 0 0-0 0, L. Deters 0 0 0-0 0, Thompson 4 0 2-2 10, Braun 6 0 1-6 13, Schumacher 7 0 4-6 18, B. Deters 9 1 4-4 25, Mette 1 0 0-0 2, Blievernicht 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-28, 3FG-1, FT-17-26, PF-10.
Fouled Out – Koerner, Schmitt - St. Anthony.
Technical Fouls – None.