For the second year in a row, the Wooden Shoes, who are now 24-10, earned a berth in the super sectional. They will now face a 31-3 Benton squad at 7 p.m. Monday at the Banterra Center, located on the Southern Illinois University campus in Carbondale.
“My hat’s off to St. Joe,” THS coach Chet Reeder said. “This was an unbelievable game. Both teams made plays. We were just fortunate to get some key ones at the end.”
The four-minute overtime was full of them.
It started just 31 seconds into the OT when Mitch Koester launched a three from the top of the key. The ball hit the front of the rim – and them visited pretty much every other part of the rim – before falling through the net to put the Shoes on top.
But that was just the start.
Two free throws by St. Joe’s Tanner Seims cut it to one, a driving five-foot bank shot by Zac Niebrugge made it a three-point margin and a three-pointer from the Spartans’ Tanner Jacob knotted the score at 55-55 with 1:36 to play.
The Shoes then held the ball for a little over 60 seconds.
“I knew time was running down and we were trying to get a good shot,” Zac said. “Mitch had told me to be ready to shoot.”
Koester saw a driving lane and made a move to the basket.
“But guys sagged on me, so I was able to get the ball to Zac,” Mitch explained. “He doesn’t get many open looks like that, but when he does, we need him to take them.”
Which is exactly what he did.
“It felt good out of my hand,” Zac added. “I really felt it was going in.”
And when it did, the T-Town side of the gym erupted. But there were still 38 seconds to play.
Jacob attempted to tie the game with another three, but was off the mark this time. Joey Niebrugge grabbed the rebound and was fouled immediately. He made one of two foul shots to make it a four-point spread with 20 seconds still remaining.
The Spartans missed another shot from long range, Joey Niebrugge grabbed yet another rebound and was fouled again with 11 ticks still showing. This time, he made both free throws to pretty much secure the victory.
And after those final 11 seconds were gone, the celebration was underway.
“On paper, it looks like this team overachieved this year,” Reeder said. “But this group has done this their entire career. People have always doubted them, but they just keep making plays. There are no super stars on this team, but they really care about each other. I’m thrilled for them.”
On a night when leading scorer Garrett Gaddis was the focus of the St. Joe defense and held in check, there were others that stepped up for the Shoes. Friday night it was Zac Niebrugge, Tyler Pruemer and Mitch Koester. That trio combined to score 38 points. They were 13-for-25 overall, 7-for-11 from three-point range and 3-for-3 at the foul line.
“I remind them all the time we have good ballplayers on this team,” Reeder noted. “If a team wants to take away one of our guys, we have other guys that can step up and make plays. They keep shining brighter and brighter and brighter every time they step on the floor.
“If something doesn’t go right, it doesn’t bother them,” Reeder added. “They just keep making plays. It’s who they are.”
The game was extremely close the entire way. There were six ties and seven lead changes. The largest leads were six points by Teutopolis and just three by St. Joe.
Threes from Zac Niebrugge and Koester helped the Shoes take a 16-13 lead after the opening eight minutes. Three baskets by Pruemer gave T-Town a six-point advantage, 22-16, at the 3:38 mark of the second quarter. But a shot from behind the arc by Cory Taylor helped get the Spartans get within 25-21 at halftime.
“For us, it was all about rotation on defense,” Reeder said. “Logan Smith is a great player and is the one that makes them so good, and Luke Landrus is a tremendous athlete that likes to get to the rim. Our game plan was to shut them down in the paint and make them kick the ball out. And we stuck to that the whole game.
“I was a little surprised by our lack of rebounding early in the game,” the THS coach added. “We just weren’t going and getting the ball. We were a little timid and I didn’t expect that at all.”
A short jumper by Seims and another three from Taylor put St. Joe ahead, 31-30, midway through the third period. But Koester responded with a three, Joey Niebrugge hit a foul shot and Austin Bloemer hit a short jumper to cap the 6-0 run and regain the lead for THS at 36-31.
Zac Niebrugge had another three and Pruemer turned in a three-point play, but Smith and Taylor connected from long range and Smith hit a short jumper right before the buzzer to get the Spartans with two points, 42-40, heading into the final period.
Jacob converted a T-Town turnover into a layup and followed that with a long three-pointer to give St. Joe the lead at 45-42 and the momentum just 75 seconds into the fourth quarter. But the Shoes battled back to tie the game at 48-48.
A jumper by Pruemer with 59 seconds to go in regulation gave THS a two-point lead, but Landrus tied the score with a basket 32 seconds later.
The Shoes worked for a final, potential game-winning basket, but a jumper by Gaddis missed. St. Joe grabbed the rebound and the game headed to overtime, setting the stage for the exciting finish.
The game was tight in every phase. Both teams shot 42 percent from the floor. Both teams were 7-for-17 from three-point range. Teutopolis held a slim 25-23 rebounding edge (Joey Niebrugge had a game-high 11 boards). St. Joe turned the ball over 10 times; T-Town 9. The Shoes made two more shots inside the arc and two more foul shots. That’s how slim the difference was.
Four players were in double figures for the Spartans. Landrus led the way with 13 points, while Seims had 12 and both Taylor and Smith added 11.
Koester led all scorers with 14 points, while Pruemer had 13 and Zac Niebrugge added 11.
“My main goal is to be a distributor,” Koester said. “But I worked hard this summer on my shooting. When teams are going to sag off, I have to hit those shots. When I saw the first one go in tonight, it felt good.”
“Zac and Mitch both hit some big shots tonight,” Reeder added. “Zac had no hesitation with that shot in overtime. He stepped into it and knocked it down. Mitch has worked so hard. I just had a feeling they were both going to have good games.”
Pruemer has also stepped up in a big way, especially in the postseason.
“Senior Night was the turning point for me,” the senior forward explained. “I realized I needed to start taking my shots. My confidence grew and so has my scoring. I know I’m not on any team’s scouting report, but I can capitalize on that. Basketball is all about confidence.”
Now it’s on to the Carbondale Super Sectional. The Shoes will face a Benton squad that won its 17th straight game Friday night, posting a 34-32 victory over Breese Central to win the Benton Sectional.
A year ago, the Shoes defeated Pinckneyville, 42-40, on this same Banterra Center court to advance to the state tournament, where they finished in third place.
But expectations weren’t nearly as high for this year’s group.
“Everybody has doubted us. We know that,” Pruemer said. “We know last year’s team was a very talented group and that people thought this would be a rebuilding year. We just wanted to prove everybody wrong. We knew we could do this if we played together as a group.”
“Our whole lives, we’ve been overlooked a little because of that group ahead of us,” Koester added. “But we believe in ourselves and we’ve got a heckuva fan section that really fuels us. I don’t think people are overlooking us now.”
“Why not us? Why can’t we go back and do it again?” Zac Niebrugge asked. “We just tuned all that other stuff out and set a goal. We believed we could do this.”
