{"id":28277,"date":"2026-01-21T10:36:39","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T16:36:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/?p=28277"},"modified":"2026-01-21T10:37:04","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T16:37:04","slug":"90th-annual-ntc-tournament-preview-2-st-anthony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/sports\/basketball\/28277-90th-annual-ntc-tournament-preview-2-st-anthony\/","title":{"rendered":"90th Annual NTC Tournament Preview &#8211; #2 St. Anthony"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"pdfprnt-buttons pdfprnt-buttons-post pdfprnt-top-right\"><a href=\"javascript: window.print()\" class=\"pdfprnt-button pdfprnt-button-print\" target=\"_self\" ><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/plugins\/pdf-print\/images\/print.png\" alt=\"image_print\" title=\"Print Content\" \/><span class=\"pdfprnt-button-title pdfprnt-button-print-title\">Print<\/span><\/a><\/div><p><strong>#2 ST. ANTHONY BULLDOGS<br \/>\nCoach: Cody Rincker<br \/>\nRecord at Seeding: 12-7, 5-0 NTC<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>by DUSTIN WHITE<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>If you were the incurious sort, you might point to St. Anthony\u2019s 12-7 overall record and the plethora of varsity experience the Bulldogs graduated from last year\u2019s state tournament qualifier and say: \u201cSee? I told you they\u2019d be a little down this year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nobody\u2019s here to compare this year\u2019s St. Anthony club to last season\u2019s special group just yet, but make no mistake: just like a year ago \u2013 and pretty much every year in recent history \u2013 Coach Cody Rincker\u2019s squad has everything it takes to walk out of Altamont High School and the 90th Annual National Trail Conference boys basketball tournament with championship hardware in tow.<\/p>\n<p>St. Anthony secured the No. 2 seed in the tournament and will be looking for a third consecutive title, seventh in nine seasons and 26th overall.<\/p>\n<p>True \u2026 the Bulldogs did get off to an 0-4 start, dropping games at its own Thanksgiving tournament to Edwardsville, Chicago Leo, and Effingham before falling to Salem by two points on Dec. 2. The counterpoint is: those first two are 3A schools having great years while the second two have proven themselves difficult teams to play in their own right.<\/p>\n<p>And since then, the Northsiders finished fifth in the always challenging Effingham\/Teutopolis Christmas Classic with back-to-back nail-biting victories over Oregon and Lutheran North (the former involving a frenzied double-digit comeback in the final few minutes, the latter involving two overtimes) and their only non-tournament losses have been on a buzzer-beater against Bloomington Central Catholic and more recently on the road at Nashville against one of the best 2A teams in the state.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re a young team that has shown a lot of growth and potential this season,\u201d said Rincker, now St. Anthony\u2019s longest-tenured boys basketball coach in his 13th year on the job.<\/p>\n<p>Intense defense has always been a hallmark of Rincker\u2019s teams, but that aspect of this year\u2019s Bulldogs team is even more vital. Rincker has plenty of athletes, but only a couple seniors and precious few varsity minutes from anyone not named Keenan Griffith. His youngsters are getting on-the-job training and many times defense can develop faster than offense.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOverall, their strength is in their versatility on the defensive side of the ball,\u201d said Rincker of his players. \u201cWe have demonstrated the ability to guard teams in a variety of ways and adapt to what the game calls for and turn defense into offense.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOffensively our strength has been in our ability to share the ball; we have several good passers and when we are able to move the ball, keep it simple, and attack the hoop, good things have happened.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Griffith scores 11.6 points per game for St. Anthony and continues to run point after doing so all the way to Assembly Hall as a junior. His scoring has ticked up \u2013 it simply wasn\u2019t his job to put up a ton of shots last year \u2013 but that doesn\u2019t even begin to explain what he means to the team as he turns it over fewer than once per game despite doing the vast majority of St. Anthony\u2019s ballhandling.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHis leadership skills have shown in some very crucial moments for this young Bulldog team,\u201d said Rincker, adding that Griffith averages three assists and a couple steals per game.<\/p>\n<p>Griffith\u2019s only classmate on the St. Anthony roster is Aiden Lauritzen, who sat out a year ago with some lingering baseball injuries and has been a tone-setter for the kind of intensity it takes to excel on a Cody Rincker team.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAiden is our physical leader on the team,\u201d says Rincker. \u201cHe plays extremely hard and is always willing to sacrifice his body by taking charges, diving on the floor and guarding the other team&#8217;s best player.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Essentially 10 points per game don\u2019t hurt from Lauritzen either, while junior Miles Waldhoff has taken perhaps the largest step forward in the St. Anthony program to go from key reserve minutes as a sophomore to being Rincker\u2019s leading scorer at nearly 14 points per outing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMiles does a great job of being a spark offensively with runouts, three-point shooting, and being aggressive towards the hoop,\u201d said Rincker. \u201cJonny Gannaway and Freddie Jansen help solidify the paint. Both players have good size and length and have good anticipation skills on the defensive end.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey are still learning how and where their scoring will come from but have each had multiple games in double figures this season.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Gannaway and Jansen are both sophomores who have emerged as young starters for St. Anthony over the course of the season. Gannaway missed some of those earliest games recovering from a finger injury and likely would\u2019ve started from Day One had he been available. Additional depth comes from freshman Blake Verdeyen playing with a confidence beyond his years along with juniors Will Bierman and Gabe Looman; Bierman can run the point and Looman, at 6-foot-7, doesn\u2019t have many peers in the conference when it comes to frame.<\/p>\n<p>St. Anthony\u2019s biggest NTC test so far came in another double-OT game, a 67-60 win at third-seeded Dieterich on Dec. 19 after already securing a home win against fellow contender North Clay on Dec. 5. The composure shown in those triumphs, along with subsequent tough victories, is what Rincker says he\u2019ll need to see from his boys if they want to pull off an NTC tournament three-peat.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ll need to be disciplined both offensively and defensively,\u201d said Rincker. \u201cWe will need to execute effectively on defense to help our offense, and then execute offensively to create more easy baskets than we give up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>#2 ST. ANTHONY BULLDOGS Coach: Cody Rincker Record at Seeding: 12-7, 5-0 NTC by DUSTIN WHITE If you were the incurious sort, you might point to St. Anthony\u2019s 12-7 overall [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-basketball"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>90th Annual NTC Tournament Preview - #2 St. Anthony - Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/sports\/basketball\/28277-90th-annual-ntc-tournament-preview-2-st-anthony\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"90th Annual NTC Tournament Preview - #2 St. Anthony - Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/sports\/basketball\/28277-90th-annual-ntc-tournament-preview-2-st-anthony\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-01-21T16:36:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-01-21T16:37:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dustin White\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dustin White\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/sports\\\/basketball\\\/28277-90th-annual-ntc-tournament-preview-2-st-anthony\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/sports\\\/basketball\\\/28277-90th-annual-ntc-tournament-preview-2-st-anthony\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Dustin White\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/84d6bcbb44fc2a58f28a9ae6aacd570e\"},\"headline\":\"90th Annual NTC Tournament Preview &#8211; 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