Remarkable Win by Bulldogs Over Oblong; Wooden Shoes Down Breese Central

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Published on March 4 2014 11:20 pm
Last Updated on March 5 2014 8:01 am
Written by Greg Sapp

Every area basketball fan thought it would be tough to match the excitement of St. Anthony's regional championship win over Altamont Friday night.

It might've happened Tuesday night in the semifinals of the Red Hill 1A Sectional.

In a game heard on 979XFM and www.979xfm.com, the Bulldogs held off the Oblong Panthers 72-69 despite a 37-point performance by Koert Mehler.

Oblong held a 15-10 lead after one quarter, but the Bulldogs went to work, outscoring the Panthers 19-11 in the second quarter to lead 29-26 at halftime and 16-12 in the third quarter to lead 45-38 after three periods.  

St. Anthony pushed the lead to nine, but Oblong came roaring back under the leadership of the 6' 4" Mehler, who made his last game for the Panthers memorable.  

Oblong pulled within four, but the Bulldogs extended the lead back to nine points, but Oblong had plenty of fight left.  When Oblong ran out of timeouts, they had to foul in an attempt to get the ball back.  St. Anthony finished 16 of 20 from the line in the final stanza, but Oblong would then come down and hit three-point shots to gain ground.  Mehler was even fouled once on a made three-pointer, and then also made the foul shot.

The lead dwindled to two with only seconds remaining.  Oblong's Kyler Fear missed the first foul shot, but then made the second one.  Rather than missing and having a chance to grab the rebound, Fear making the second shot gave St. Anthony the ball out of bounds.  The Bulldogs inbounded the ball to Neil Williams, but he was immediately fouled.  Williams made both foul shots to push the lead back to three points with 1.7 seconds left.  Oblong inbounded the ball to Mehler and he let a shot go from the opposite free throw line and hit inside the rim on the other end but then bounced out to give the Bulldogs the win.

St. Anthony Coach Cody Rincker agreed that he would not have been surprised had Mehler's last second shot gone in and praised the senior's performance.  However, he also had plenty of praise for his players.

Neil Williams had five points and two fouls in the first half, but Rincker said he told him the game had a long way to go, he only had two fouls, and there was plenty of opportunities out there to take advantage of.  Williams responded with 17 points in the second half to finish with 22 points.

John Goeckner pounded the ball inside time and again to finish with 16 points, along with 10 rebounds, Andrew Gardewine stepped up to score 11 points over the final three quarters, Alex Hoelscher scored 11 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, Frank Jansen eight points, and Connor Greene and Kyle Hartke two points apiece.

Mehler's 37 points for Oblong is even more remarkable in that he didn't score in the third quarter.

St. Anthony shot 51% on 23 of 45 shooting, and made 27 of 37 foul shots, turned the ball over just 11 times and grabbed 29 rebounds.  Oblong made 47% of its shots, hit 14 of 22 foul shots, turned the ball over 11 times and pulled down 20 rebounds.

St. Anthony improved to 22-10 with the victory and will play Friday night at 7:00 for the sectional championship against the winner of Wednesday night's game between Dieterich and Patoka.  We'll have the game on KJ Country 102.3 and www.kjcountry.com.  

Class 1A Red Hill Sectional

ST. ANTHONY (72)

Williams 6-8 -- 22, Hoelscher 3-5 -- 11, Goeckner 4-8 -- 16, A. Gardewine 4-3 -- 11, Jansen 4-0 -- 8, Greene 0-2 -- 2, GIbson 0-0 -- 0, Z. Gardewine 0-0 -- 0, Hartke 1-0 -- 2. TOTALS 22 FG, 26 FT.

OBLONG (69)

Mahler 13-7 -- 37, Maus 5-0 -- 13, Mayhew 3-1 -- 7, Spaeth 2-2 -- 6, Jacobs 1-0 -- 3, Brown 0-2 -- 2, Fear 0-1 -- 1, Laino 0-0 -- 0. TOTALS 24 FG, 13 FT.

St. Anthony           10    19    16    27    --    72

Oblong                   15    11    12    31    --    69

3-point FG -- St. Anthony 2 (Williams 2), Oblong 8 (Mehler 4, Maus 3, Jacobs 1)

   --

Also Tuesday, at the Vandalia 2A Sectional, the Teutopolis Wooden Shoes defeated the Breese Central Cougars 63-40 in a game heard on KJ Country 102.3 and www.kjcountry.com.  

T-town edged out to a 16-14 opening quarter lead and continued to push the lead higher to lead 30-24 at halftime.  The Shoes then broke the game open with a 14-4 third quarter run.

Brett Mette led T-town with 24 points connecting on 11 field goals and two free throws. He also pulled down 12 rebounds. Cody Will tallied 14 and Reed Hardiek chipped in with 11. Bobby Wenthe had seven rebounds and Will had six.

The Wooden Shoes posted their 20th win and will play Wednesday's Greenville-Carlinville winner on Friday night at 7:00 for the sectional championship.

Class 2A Vandalia Sectional

BREESE CENTRAL (40)

Roeckenhaus 2-0 -- 4, Rule 0-0 -- 0, Kohrmann 1-0 -- 2, Harmon 1-0 -- 3, Timmerman 7-2 -- 16, Schiedel 1-0 -- 3, Schneider 2-0 -- 6, Strieker 2-0 -- 6, Voss 0-0 -- 0. TOTALS 16 FG, 3 FT.

TEUTOPOLIS (63)

Drees 1-0 -- 2, Bro. Mette 2-0 -- 4, Will 4-5 -- 14, Wenthe 2-1 -- 6, Gebben 0-0 -- 0, Kenter 0-2 -- 2, Hardiek 3-4 -- 11, Bre. Mette 11-2 -- 24, Probst 0-0 -- 0. TOTALS 23 FG, 14 FT.

Breese Central           14    10      4    12    --    40

Teutopolis                   16    14    14    19    --    63

3-point FG -- Breese Central 5 (Schneider 2, Strieker 2, Schiedel 1), Teutopolis 3 (Will 1, Hardiek 1, Wenthe 1)

   --

At the Salem 3A Regional, Centralia defeated Mascoutah 64-25. Centralia will play the winner of Wednesday's game between Effingham and Olney.  That game will be heard on 979XFM and www.979xfm.com.