Rincker said he was expecting this type of game.

“Anytime you face a Tom Brannan coached team, you know what you’re going to get,” the SAHS coach explained. “His teams will always play good, hard, physical man-to-man defense. They’re going to come at you. This is a good Casey-Westfield team and they are well-coached.

“I think the scouting report on us is to be physical with us,” Rincker added. “We’ve had several games like that recently. They want to try to knock us off our cuts and take us out of our rhythm. I thought our kids did a good job tonight responding to that.”

When Hayden Parcel converted a St. Anthony turnover into a basket, it trimmed the margin to six points, 28-22, early in the third period. But once again, it was a basket by Westendorf that sparked another run.

The senior guard hit a jumper and then made a pair of foul shots to make it a 10-point gap. Nick Ruholl then got a basket and knocked down a three and Schmidt hit two shots from long range. With 2:04 left in the period, the Bulldogs had finished an 18-6 surge and increased their lead to 46-28.

“At halftime, we talked about being willing to have longer possessions on offense,” Rincker said. “When you play good teams like Casey, you have to trust your offense. That helped get us back in rhythm and our shots were falling. I thought we played very well, especially in that third quarter.”

It was 49-34 heading into the final eight minutes. Fearday and Schmidt both hit shots from behind the arc and Brady Hatton hit a short jumper. With 5:41 to play, the Bulldogs owned a 21-point advantage, 57-36. They were a little sloppy and turned the ball over a few times down the stretch, but still posted the 15-point victory.,

“They (Casey-Westfield) picked up their defense a little and we didn’t handle the ball very well in that fourth quarter,” Rincker noted. “We did the same thing Saturday night against Dieterich. We need to continue working on that. We have to find ways not to let that happen.”

The Bulldogs had three players in double figures. Schmidt, who set an NTC championship game record with 36 points Saturday night, scored a game-high 22. Westendorf had 13 and Fearday added 12. And once again, St. Anthony shot well. They were 18-for-33 overall, a 55 percent clip. They connected on 8-of-10 from three-point range and were 17-of-22 from the foul line.

The Bulldogs, the top-ranked team in Class 1A, improved to 23-4 on the season. They will return home Friday night for the Cross Creek rivalry game against Teutopolis.

“I imagine there will be a few people there Friday night,” Rincker said. “T-Town always travels well and I know we’ve got a target on our back. I’m looking forward to the competition. It should be a great game.”