Mt. Vernon Wins Over Teutopolis for Christmas Classic Title, Effingham Wins Third Place Contest

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Published on December 27 2014 7:19 pm
Last Updated on December 29 2014 3:13 am
Written by Greg Sapp

The Mt. Vernon Rams defeated both the Effingham Hearts and the Teutopolis Wooden Shoes Saturday to win the championship of the 2nd Annual Effingham/Teutopolis Christmas Classic.

The Rams defeated Effingham Saturday afternoon, 51-36, and then defeated Teutopolis in the championship game, 57-47, to claim the championship. Mt. Vernon did it the hard way after having lost their first game of the tournament. Chicago Brooks edged Mt. Vernon 50-48 Friday afternoon, but the Rams rebounded to defeat Mattoon Friday night, 76-53. The win over the Hearts Saturday afternoon gave Mt. Vernon the edge in point differential that propelled them into the title game.

In the other games in the final session of the two-day tourney, Effingham won the third place game, 75-56, over Chicago Al Raby; Chicago Brooks won the fifth place game, 45-38, over Chicago Oak Lawn; and Mattoon got two last second foul shots to edge Charleston, 43-42, to win the seventh place game.

In other Saturday action, Teutopolis defeated Al Raby, 87-60, Oak Lawn downed Charleston, 55-47, and Chicago Brooks beat Mattoon, 56-48.

The members of the All-Tournament Team are Devin Smith, Tyler Gebben and Brett Mette of Teutopolis; Grant Wolfe and Braydon Bone of Effingham; Shauntez Taylor and Braden Fitzjerrells of Mt. Vernon; Curtis Echols of Al Raby; and Adonnis Benson and Quentin Shields of Chicago Brooks.

Effingham won the Cheer Squad Award.

MT. VERNON 51, EFFINGHAM 36

Effingham led 4-0 to start the game, but Mt. Vernon soon took the lead and didn't give it back. The Rams were up 12-8 after one quarter, 31-24 at halftime, and 41-30 after three quarters before outpointing the Hearts 10-6 in the final period. Mt. Vernon at one point led by 19 points.

Mt. Vernon made 51% of its shots, hitting 20 of 39, while Effingham made 15 of 35 for 43%. Mt. Vernon hit three of 12 threes, while the Hearts made just one of eight. Mt. Vernon turned the ball over just three times, even better than the eight turnovers for Effingham. Each team grabbed 21 rebounds.

Braden Fitzjerrells with 13 points, Shauntez Taylor with 12 and Gilwan Nelson with 11 led Mt. Vernon, while Grant Wolfe led Effingham with nine points, while Braydon Bone and Michael Carie scored eight points each.

TEUTOPOLIS 87, CHICAGO AL RABY 60

The Shoes scored early and often in this one to lead 20-13 after one quarter. T-Town was up 41-27 at halftime, and 59-44 after three quarters before pouring 28 points in the fourth quarter.

Teutopolis made 27 of 49 shots, 55%, while Al Raby made 26 of 61 shots for 43%. The big difference was at the line where Teutopolis outscored Al Raby, 31-3. The Shoes hit 31 of 38 foul shots. Teutopolis also turned the ball over just nine times to 17 for Al Raby and the Shoes held their own on the boards, 25-24. Al Raby made five threes to two for T-Town.

Brett Mette scored 27 points to lead Teutopolis, while Devin Smith added 19 points and Tyler Gebben 13 points.

Curtis Echols with 17 points and Isreal Dosie with 16 paced Al Raby.

EFFINGHAM 75, AL RABY 56

The Hearts salted this one away in the first half, leading 21-12 after one period and up 44-22 at halftime. It was 61-38 after three periods.

Effingham made 57% of its shots, hitting 30 of 53, while Al Raby only mustered 20 of 61 for 33%. Effingham hit 11 of 19 foul shots to nine of 15 for Al Raby, Al Raby had 13 turnovers to 14 for Effingham, and Effingham outboarded Al Raby, 29-24. Al Raby made five of 16 threes, while Effingham hit three of six attempts.

Sophomore Grant Wolfe led Effingham with 29 points, while Michael Carie scored 17 points and Sean Zerrusen 10 points.

Curtis Echols led Al Raby with 26 points, while Isreal Dosie added 12 points.

MT. VERNON 57, TEUTOPOLIS 47

While the game was close until late, Mt. Vernon led almost the entire contrest. The Rams were up 20-17 after one quarter, 32-29 at halftime, and 44-39 after three quarters before outscoring the Shoes, 13-8, in the final period.

Mt. Vernon made 20 of 33 shots for 61% while the Shoes made 17 of 39 shots for 44%. Mt. Vernon made just 11 of 20 foul shots while the Shoes hit eight of nine attempts. The Shoes turned the ball over 14 times to nine for Mt. Vernon, and Teutopolis outrebounded Mt. Vernon, 18-16. Each team made six threes, Teutopolis in 14 tries, Mt. Vernon in 11 attempts. 

Braden Fitzjerrells scored 26 points for Mt. Vernon to lead all scorers, while Shauntez Taylor scored 16 points and Gilwan Nelson 12 points.

Brett Mette scored 25 points to lead the Wooden Shoes, the only double figure scorer for T-Town.