Neoga, South Central, St. Anthony First Night Winners at NTC Tournament

Neoga, South Central and St. Anthony were first night winners at the 78th Annual National Trail Conference Basketball Tournament Monday night.

Neoga defeated Beecher City 49-41, South Central upset Brownstown 60-47, and St. Anthony downed Windsor 69-44.  The entire tournament is being broadcast on 979XFM and www.979xfm.com.  Every game of this week's tournament is being broadcast via live audio and video streaming.

Neoga 49, Beecher City 41

Neoga controlled the ballgame for most of the first half, leading 12-7 after one quarter and then posting the same margin in the second quarter to lead 24-14 at halftime.

Beecher City saw an opening in the third quarter, though, and came charging back, outscoring Neoga 20-9 in the quarter to lead by one, 34-33, heading into the fourth quarter.  Neoga outscored Beecher City 16-7 in the final stanza to post the win.

Neoga hit on 45% of its shots, 18 of 40, while Beecher City could muster just 31% from the field, 16 of 52.  Neoga was eight of nine from the foul line while Beecher City was just five of 11.  Neoga committed 18 turnovers to 15 for Beecher City, but Neoga outrebounded Beecher City 29-28.  Each team made four three-pointers.

Jake Baker had a big night for Neoga, scoring 26 points.  Donnie Riley scored 17 and Doug Krueger 15 in a losing cause for Beecher City.

Neoga won its fifth straight after a struggling start to improve to 8-12 on the season, while Beecher City dropped to 6-11.

South Central 60, Brownstown 47

This was a close game throughout, with Brownstown holding a 15-13 lead after the first quarter, but trailing 26-25 at halftime.  South Central was up 40-37 after three quarters and put Brownstown away by outscoring the Bombers 20-10 in the final quarter.

South Central, in its first season in the National Trail Conference, is the 10th seed in the tournament and upset the seventh-seeded Bombers.

South Central made 21 of 46 shots from the field and added 17 of 28 from the line while turning the ball over just eight times and grabbing 25 rebounds along with one of eight on three-point tries.

Brownstown hit just 16 of 48 shots from the field and made 11 of 15 from the line while turning the ball over 15 times and pulling down 26 rebounds.  Brownstown made four of 19 three-point shots.

Rudy Hablewitz led South Central to the win, scoring 26 points.  Fischer Tharp added 12 points and Austin Schwarm scored 10 points.

Austin Hunter scored 17 points to pace Brownstown while Jacob Behrends added 10 points.

South Central improved to 5-13 on the season while Brownstown slipped to 8-10.

St. Anthony 69, Windsor 44

The Bulldogs put the game away early, leading 22-5 after the first quarter.  After an even-steven second quarter that left St. Anthony ahead 40-23 at halftime, the Bulldogs outscored Windsor 21-11 in the third period to extend their lead to 61-34.

St. Anthony's transition game was sizzling in the first quarter and the third quarter and made 56% of their shots for the game, 32 of 57.  St. Anthony made five of eight foul shots, turned the ball over 15 times, pulled down 28 rebounds and missed four three-pointers.

Windsor made just 14 of 43 shots for 33%, made 10 of 16 from the line, turned the ball over 20 times and pulled down only 14 rebounds while making six of 18 shots from three-point territory.

St. Anthony's Jacob Schuette led all scorers with 26 points.  Also in double digits for the Bulldogs: Neil Williams with 12 and Alex Hoelscher with 10.

Freshman Tristan Warner led Windsor with 19 points.

St. Anthony improved to 5-13 on the season with a second straight win, while Windsor slipped to 4-15.

Tuesday matchups:

Neoga won its fifth straight game Monday and moves into action in Tuesday night's opener against top-seed Dieterich at 6:15pm.  That will be followed by a battle between the #4 and #5 seeds as the Cowden-Herrick Hornets will take on the St. Elmo Eagles.

Hear both games on 979XFM and hear or see the games on www.979xfm.com.  

NTC Tournament

Game One

NEOGA (49)

Maroon 1-0 -- 2, Atwell 1-0 -- 2, Krikie 4-0 -- 9, Moore 1-0 -- 2, J. Baker 8-6 -- 26, M. Baker 2-2 -- 6, Walk 1-0 -- 2. TOTALS 18 FG, 8 FT.

BEECHER CITY (41)

Gardner 0-0 -- 0, McKay 1-0 -- 2, Doty 0-0 -- 0, Bales 0-0 -- 0, Riley 6-2 -- 17, Krueger 6-2 -- 15, Barnes 3-1 -- 7. TOTALS 16 FG, 5 FT.

Neoga                     12    12      9    16    --    49

Beecher City            7      7    20      7    --    41

3-point FG -- Neoga 5 (J. Baker 4, Krikie 1), Beecher City 4 (Riley 3,Krueger 1)

Game Two

BROWNSTOWN (47)

Matthews 0-0 -- 0, Sefton 1-2 -- 5, Hunter 6-4 -- 17, Behrends 4-2 -- 12, Lawson 0-0 -- 0, Frialey 4-1 -- 9, Oberlink 1-2 -- 4. TOTALS 16 FG, 11  FT.

SOUTH CENTRAL (60)

Harmeier 0-2 -- 2, Hablewitz 10-6 -- 26, Tharp 5-2 -- 12, Ratermann 2-0 -- 5, Rose 1-3 -- 5, Schwarm 3-4 -- 10, Powless 0-0 -- 0. TOTALS 21 FG, 17 FT.

Brownstown           15    10    12    10    --    47

South Central         13    13    14    20    --    60

3--point FG -- Brownstown 4 (Behrends 2, Hunter 1, Sefton 1), South Central 1 (Ratermann 1).

Game Three

EFFINGHAM ST. ANTHONY (69)

Williams 6-0 -- 12, Z. Gardewine 1-0 -- 2,  Schuette 13-0 -- 26, Gibson 0-0 -- 0, Schultz 2-3 -- 7, Martelli 2-0 -- 4, A.  Gardewine 2-0 -- 4, Hoelscher 4-2 -- 10, Vogel 2-0 -- 4. TOTALS 32 FG, 5 FT.

WINDSOR (44)

C. Smith 1-0 -- 2, Allen 1-1 -- 3, Haddock 1-0 -- 3, Cole 2-5 -- 9, Warner 7-1 -- 19, Peadro 0-0 -- 0, Leasher 1-3 -- 6, J. Smith 1-0 -- 2, White 0-0 -- 0. TOTALS 14 FG, 10 FT.

St. Anthony          22    18    21      8    --    69

Windsor                  5    18    11    10    --    44

3-point FG -- St. Anthony 0, Windsor 6 (Warner 4, Haddock 1, Leasher 1)