Wooden Shoes Advance to Elite Eight w/Come from Behind Win

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Published on March 1 2019 11:15 pm
Last Updated on March 4 2019 4:23 pm
Written by Greg Sapp

The Teutopolis Wooden Shoes advanced to the Class 2A Super-Sectional at Carbondale with a come-from-behind 55-47 win over the Fairfield Mules. The game was heard on KJ Country 102.3 and www.kjcountry.com

It looked pretty bleak early in the championship game of the Vandalia Sectional Friday. The Wooden Shoes were throwing the ball away seemingly every other trip and Fairfield was steadily pulling away. 

At the end of the first quarter, the Shoes trailed 16-6 following a quarter-ending dunk by Fairfield's Brian Estes.

The second quarter, though, was a different story. The Shoes stopped turning the ball over and started scoring some points and the whole complexion of the game changed. Teutopolis outscored the Mules 14-6 in the period and were back within 22-20 at halftime.

Teutopolis finally took its first lead of the game on a Clint Weber bucket with 6:15 remaining in the third quarter to make it 25-24. The Shoes then went on a 16-11 run to end up leading 41-35 heading for the final period.

Fairfield, on a 16-game win streak, tried to mount a comeback and pulled within 43-39 with 4:28 remaining, but the Shoes outscored Fairfield 12-8 the rest of the way to win by eight points.

Teutopolis shot 56% from the field, making 20 of 36 shots, including 2 of 7 threes. The Shoes won despite making just 13 of 24 foul shots and committed 17 turnovers, although nine of those came in the first quarter. Teutopolis grabbed 21 rebounds.

Fairfield, carrying a 32-2 record into the game including a win over the Wooden Shoes at Thanksgiving, shot 17 of 43 from the field, just under 40%, including 3 of 16 threes, but made 10 of 12 foul shots, committed 17 turnovers and grabbed 16 boards.

Weber led Teutopolis and all scorers with 20 points on 8-of-11 shooting. Dawson Smith scored 18 points on 6-of-10 shooting with nine rebounds. Also for the Shoes: Evan Wermert six, Mitch Hardiek and Lucas Drees four each, and Luke Ungrund three.

Wyatt Gilbert led Fairfield with 15 points and Jayzale O'Neal added 12 points.

Fairfield sees a tremendous season end with a 32-3 record.

Teutopolis improved to 29-5 and will play Nashville just after 7:30pm Tuesday at SIU Arena in Carbondale. We will have the game on 979XFM and www.979xfm.com. Nashville defeated Alton Marquette 37-22 to win the DuQuoin Sectional. It's worth noting the Teutopolis girls defeated the Nashville girls at the Super-Sectional two weeks ago to advance to the Final Four and eventually the state championship game.

Here's ticket information for Wooden Shoes:

Tickets for Tuesday night's game will be sold on Monday at Teutopolis High School. Here's the schedule:

8am--tournament players, managers and cheerleaders

9am--non-tournament boys basketball players

9:15am--girls basketball players

9:30am--Pomerettes

Lunch Hour--students

1-3pm--qualified staff

4-5pm--gold seat holders and current Sportsbackers committee members and then the general public

There will be no admittance to Teutopolis High School until 3:50pm. 

All tickets are $10 each and are valid for both the 1A super-sectional game and the Teutopolis game. The 1A game will start at 6pm, with the Shoes/Nashville game to follow.

In the Country Financial three-point shooting contest just before last night's game, Alex Brandenburger of St. Anthony made eight threes, but that was not enough to advance to State.

Class 2A Vandalia Sectional

Championship

TEUTOPOLIS (55)

Smith 6-10 6-10 18, Weber 8-11 4-9 20, Ungrund 1-4 0-0 3, Wermert 2-6 1-2 6, M. Hardiek 1-2 2-3 4, J. Hardiek 0-1 0-0 0, Drees 2-2 0-0 4. TOTALS 20-36 FG, 13-24 FT.

FAIRFIELD (47)

O'Neal 2-9 6-8 12, Gilbert 5-8 4-4 15, Hixenbaugh 0-3 0-0 0, Estes 4-6 0-0 8, Lee 0-4 0-0 0, Dagg 3-4 0-0 6, Zurliene 2-8 0-0 4, Contrell 1-1 0-0 2. TOTALS 17-43 FG, 10-12 FT.

Teutopolis                6    14    21    14    --    55

Fairfield                  16      6    13    12    --    47

3-point FG -- Teutopolis 2-7 (Smith 0-1, Ungrund 1-1, Wermert 1-4, J. Hardiek 0-1), Fairfield 3-16 (O'Neal 2-8, Gilbert 1-2, Hixenbaugh 0-1, Lee 0-1, Zurliene 0-4). Rebounds -- Teutopolis 21 (Smith 9, Weber 6, Wermert 6), Fairfield 16 (Estes 4, Hixenbaugh 3). Turnovers -- Teutopolis 17, Fairfield 17.

Clint Weber went over 1,000 points for his career.