Teutopolis Falls Short Of Trip To State Boys Basketball Tournament

BY DUSTIN WHITE

CARBONDALE -- Every great ride has to end somewhere, and for the Teutopolis High School boys basketball team, the last stop was a win short of the program’s eighth trip to the state tournament.
The Wooden Shoes gave the top-ranked team in the state everything it wanted in Monday’s Class 2A SIU-Carbondale Super-Sectional, but in the end it was Belleville Althoff finding another gear in the fourth quarter to turn a tie game into a 48-37 victory and punch its ticket to the final four.

The Crusaders (30-5) outscored T-town 19-8 in that final period, forcing close to half of the Shoes’ 16 turnovers while connecting on some key shots and knocking down eight of nine free throws to secure their spot in a Thursday afternoon semifinal at State Farm Center against Christ the King out of Chicago.

T-town (24-11) led 6-4 after one quarter at the Banterra Center but watched Althoff jump ahead by as many as seven during the second frame and settle for a 20-15 halftime edge. The Shoes put together a marvelous third period to knot the score with eight minutes left to play, but the Crusaders never fell behind down the stretch and at one point scored 13 consecutive fourth-quarter points.
Alex Kremer had his best offensive performance of the postseason for Teutopolis; the senior led his club with 19 points and his proficiency prompted a key Althoff defensive change in the second half to make him the focus of Althoff star Dierre Hill, Jr.’s attention.

Unfortunately nobody else in the navy and old gold was able to find a way to pick up the scoring slack down the stretch on a night when the Shoes executed well enough to get some pretty solid looks that just didn’t go down frequently enough.

Hill led Althoff with 21 points. A stud athlete committed to the University of Oregon football team as a running back, Hill was a lethal combination of athleticism and technical skill on both ends of the floor.

Mick Niebrugge and Kremer led the Shoes with seven rebounds apiece; Niebrugge chipped in four points along with Drew Hoene, while Gavin Addis scored five. That included a three-pointer in the early stages of the fourth quarter to tie the game at 32, which ended up being the last time T-town found itself on even footing.

While the end of the season almost always comes a little sooner than a team might hope, this installment of Wooden Shoes basketball will have stories to tell.

Absorbing the loss of senior big man Jake Bushur before the season was a week old, the Shoes ultimately found the right gear at the right time to win nine of 10 games heading into the super-sectional; they strung together three straight nail-biting postseason triumphs beginning with the one-point regional title win over host Fairfield before dispatching both Monticello and Warrensburg-Latham in overtime at the sectional on heroic shots Addis and Kremer will remember the rest of their days.

This was T-town’s fourth consecutive super-sectional appearance and its fifth of head coach Chet Reeder’s seven-season tenure. Overall, this Wooden Shoes club won the program’s 15th consecutive regional title and 38th in total while securing its 17th sectional plaque. Also of note, Teutopolis put together its 16th straight 20-win season, its 43rd straight winning season and celebrated the program’s 2,000th victory Feb. 8 at Robinson.

Bushur, Kremer, Niebrugge, Henry Thompson, Drew Hoene and Brody Thoele graduate from the program along with managers Liam Collins and Owen Heuerman (and, presumably, Heuerman’s “Wooden Shoes” blazer).

Class 2A Carbondale Super-Sectional

At the Banterra Center, Southern Illinois University

ALTHOFF (48)

Gryzmala 2-2 -- 6, Smith 1-2 -- 4, Hill, Jr. 7-5 -- 21, Winkeler 3-2 -- 10, Leib 0-1 -- 1, Browns 1-2 -- 4, Conway 0-0 -- 0, Johnson 1-0 -- 2, Flanders 0-0 -- 0, Kantner 0-0 -- 0. TOTALS 15-41 FG, 14-18 FT.

TEUTOPOLIS (37)

Kremer 7-4 -- 19, Thompson 0-0 -- 0, Niebrugge 1-2 -- 4, Addis 2-0 -- 5, Hoene 2-0 -- 4, B. Thoele 0-0 -- 0, L. Thoele 0-2 -- 2, Kreke 0-0 -- 0, McWhorter 0-0 -- 0, Probst 0-0 -- 0, L. Buening 1-0 -- 3, G. Burning 0-0 -- 0, Worman 0-0 -- 0, Mette 0-0 -- 0. TOTALS 13-34 FG, 8-10 FT.

Althoff 4 16   9 19 — 48

Teutopolis 6   9 14   8 — 37

3-Point FG -- Althoff 4-18 (Hill, Jr. 2, Winkeler 2), Teutopolis 3-14 (Kremer, Addis, L. Buening). Rebounds -- Althoff 25 (Winkelaar 8, Hills, Jr. 5) Teutopolis 26 (Kremer 7, Niebrugge 7). Turnovers -- Althoff 8, Teutopolis 16. Fouled Out -- None.