Effingham St. Anthony vs. Tuscola - 1A Red Hill Sectional Championship Game

1A Red Hill Sectional Championship

Effingham St. Anthony

Tuscola

Effingham St. Anthony (56) - Gonzalez 0 0 0-0 0, Waldhoff 0 0 0-0 0, Griffith 1 0 1-2 3, Gannaway 0 0 0-0 0, W. Fearday 2 2 2-2 12, Link 1 0 1-2 3, Bierman 0 0 0-0 0, Schmidt 4 2 4-5 18, Wiedman 0 0 0-0 0, Jansen 0 0 0-0 0, B. Fearday 6 1 5-6 20.
2FG-14/3FG-5/FT-13-17/PF-13.

Tuscola (40) - Sweetnam 2 1 2-3 9, Kurtz 2 3 1-1 14, James 0 2 0-0 6, Woodard 2 0 1-2 5, Russo 0 1 2-2 5, Musgrave 0 0 0-0 0, Devlin 0 0 0-0 0, Rennels 0 0 0-0 0, Spillman 0 0 0-0 0, Chenoweth 0 0 1-2 1, Wilcox 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-6/3FG-7/FT-7-10/PF-12.

Fouled Out – None.
Technical Fouls – None.

Bulldogs "bite" Tuscola
St. Anthony big second half sends Warriors home

03/07/2025
BY JACK BULLOCK
BRIDGEPORT – On Friday night Coach Cody Rincker and his Effingham St. Anthony Bulldogs were in trouble when the teams went to halftime.

They weren't producing their normal defensive effort as Tuscola was able to get open looks and offensive rebounds that produced second chance opportunities.

It wasn't exactly what Coach Rincker was wanting to see.

But the second half was a different chapter in what turned out to be a sectional championship story.

The Bulldogs came out and defensively made a stand.

They forced 13-turnovers as they allowed the Warriors' just 12-points in the final 16 minutes.

St. Anthony took home its seventh boy's basketball sectional title on Friday night, rallying from a seven-point halftime deficit to soundly defeat Tuscola, 56-40 to advance to Monday's 1A Charleston Super-sectional.

“We felt like being down only seven with the terrible rebounding performance, that we had a sub-par offensive performance that we had in the first half was actually kind of a blessing,” said Coach Rincker. “Honestly, down seven at halftime with your season on the line there is only one thing to do. The guys did a great job of coming out and applying the pressure that we do, rotate really well, team rebounding. We wanted to make it tougher for them (Tuscola) to get second chance opportunities, which made it to where we could get some easy scores on run outs.”

Coach Justin Bozarth could do little more than watch as the Bulldogs took control in the second half, turning defense into offense and sending the Warriors home at 27-9.

“You're going to have turnovers in high school games but the turnovers that lead to uncontested lay ups, those are the back-breakers. It turned out to be the difference in the game,” said Coach Bozarth. “In the first half I thought we played really well. We didn't handle it very well when they ran pressure at us in the second half.”

The 1-2 punch of St. Anthony took care of a lot of the heavy lifting on Friday night, as they have for most of 2024-25.

Six-three senior Brock Fearday scored 20-points, including nine-points in the final 7:05 of the game.

Fearday helped close the book on the Tuscola season by nailing down 5-of-6 free throws as the Bulldogs will look for their fourth super-sectional title and their first since winning the state championship back in 2016-17.

Ryan Schmidt, also a 6-3 senior, added 18 to the slate, eight in the final frame.

Schmidt canned a pair of fourth quarter 3-pointers as St. Anthony turned a 37-35 end of the third quarter deficit into a 49-39 lead with 3:45 left.

“They (Schmidt, Fearday) did what two senior all-staters should do. Their season was on the line and they stepped up and made big play after big play,” said Coach Rincker. “They made the plays for us offensively and defensively and we were able to take it home (victory).”

Senior Will Fearday added 12-points for Coach Rincker's club as they improved to an impressive 31-4 on the season.

Tuscola played well in the first half and were clinging to a two-point lead heading to the fourth quarter when the damn broke and the points piled up for St. Anthony.

Eight of the second half turnovers came in the fourth quarter for the Warriors as they tasted defeat for the third time in four seasons in the sectional, twice in title games.

Three senior starters closed out their prep basketball careers on Friday night.

Kam Sweetnam, a multi-season starter at guard for Tuscola, ended up with nine-points for the Warriors and senior Parker James ended his night with six.

Senior Sawyer Woodard and junior Calden Russo finished with five-points apiece.

Junior guard Logan Kurtz scored 14-points to lead the club, including a trio of 3-pointers, all in the first half as Tuscola took a 28-21 halftime advantage to the locker room.

The Warriors canned six treys in the first two quarters as they found open looks s they knocked down 6-of-10 from long range.

But the success in the first half evaporated in the final two quarters.

St. Anthony was much better and more intense in the second half as they outscored the Warriors 35-12 to flip the switch to advance to the Elite Eight.

(CONTINUED)

Tuscola started strong with Sweetnam, Kurtz and James all finding the range from 20-feet.

St. Anthony got three consecutive made free throws by Schmidt to go with both Fearday's finding the range from long range as the quarter ended at 9-9.

Something that normally doesn't happen to Coach Rincker's club happened in the first half on Friday.

The Bulldogs gave up eight first half offensive rebounds to Tuscola and the Warriors got extra shots that turned into points.

Sweetnam converted a conventional three-point play and both James and Kurtz hit 3-pointers.

Kurtz second trifecta in the 8-2 half closing run came off of an assist from Sweetnam as the Warriors went to the break up feeling pretty good.

St. Anthony got back into the game in the third quarter with points coming from Will Fearday on a steal and fast break score and a 3-pointer from the top of the circle after a kind bounce.

A 6-0 run by the Bulldogs gave them a brief lead with two of the scores coming in transition off of two of the Warriors' five third quarter turnovers.

A drive to the basket by Kurtz turned into a three-point play with :49.5 left to send the game to the fourth quarter at 37-35 Tuscola.

That score was the final highlight for the Warriors as the final eight minutes belonged to St. A.

Eight turnovers by Tuscola fueled a miserable fourth period.

Nine-consecutive points, four by Brock Fearday and five by Schmidt, forced Coach Bozarth to burn a timeout at 44-37 St. Anthony with 5:08 left.

Woodard scored inside for Tuscola at the 4:54 mark.

It was the only field goal made by the Warriors in the final frame.

Schmidt hit his second 3-pointer in succession and Will Fearday followed a pair of made free throws with a score off a Schmidt assist as the Bulldogs were in command at 51-39 with just 1:40 remaining.

The foul line is where St. Anthony spent the final moments of the sectional victory.

Brock Fearday canned five-consecutive charity tosses before the benches were emptied in the final minute.

“We didn't get the quality shots in the second half. St. Anthony sped us up and didn't allow us to get to the paint,” said Coach Bozarth. “The second half wasn't what we're used to playing. We normally play at a higher level.”

St. Anthony shot the ball well, connecting on 19-of-35 overall, 5-of-14 from distance.

They also took care of the rock, with just six-turnovers, three in each half.

Tuscola held a big 30-16 rebounding edge but the other categories doomed the Warrior on Friday night.

They ended up 13-of-42 from the field, 7-of-19 from the arc and coughed up 16-turnovers with most of them coming in a disaster of a second half.

“The last one (loss) is always the most difficult one,” said Coach Bozarth. “We just had that conversation in the locker room. Hopefully when they reflect back they will realize that they left this thing (program) better than they found it. Hopefully when the sting goes away that they can reflect back and know what they accomplished.”

St. Anthony will face Mounds Meridian, who won their third consecutive sectional championship on Friday with a come-from-behind 69-63 win over Goreville at the 1A Cobden Sectional.

“I'm excited for me as a coach to get the opportunity to coach in another super-sectional,” said Coach Rincker, who won a state title back in 2016-17. “We've had some really good teams that have had a chance that have gotten close but didn't make it. I'm excited for the boys to have the opportunity. Tuscola beat us in the sectional two years ago and Arcola beat us last year in the regional. We went through that path this year and beat both of them to get to this point. We're just excited for our fans who have followed us all year and we look forward to another chance.”