The Shoes grabbed the lead for good in the second period, but never could put the pesky Newton team away until Wermert and Brendan Niebrugge made six straight free throws in the final 50 seconds to secure the win.

“We couldn’t figure out a way to string together stops on defense,” Reeder noted. “They present some match-up problems. They spread you out, they have some good shooters and some guys that take you off the bounce. I thought they played real well.”

It was a competitive game from start to finish.

There were seven lead changes in the first quarter alone, which ended in a 16-16 tie.

Two minutes into the second period, Caleb Siemer hit a short jumper and Brendan Niebrugge drilled a three from the corner to give the Shoes a 23-21 lead. They never trailed again.

Evan Addis added another from behind the arc and Wermert added a bucket after grabbing an offensive rebound to give the Shoes a 29-23 edge at intermission.

Matthew Deters scored twice to open the third period and gave T-Town its largest lead of the game, 33-25. But Aaron Einhorn kept the Eagles close. He connected on a shot from long range and scored seven points in the quarter. Heading into the final eight minutes, the THS lead had been whittled down to 39-36.

Jordan Hardiek drained a three to give Teutopolis a 46-41 advantage three minutes into the final period, but Newton’s Ben Meinhart responded with a three of his own to narrow the gap back to two points. But in the final 2:47, the Shoes outscored their guests 8-2 to wrap up the victory – and Wermert accounted for six of those points.

After Brendan Niebrugge hit a pair of free throws to make it 50-44 with 50 seconds to play, Wermert knocked down two more just 15 seconds later and then secured the win with another pair with 25 seconds to go.

“Evan makes other players better just by being on the floor,” Reeder said. “That’s why he’s so well-liked by his teammates. He’s a special kid.

“But there’s a great connection with this entire group,” Reeder added. “They really bought into what I wanted to do when I first got here. Our seniors -- Jordan Hardiek, Evan Addis, Matthew Deters, Jack Poelker and Evan Wermert -- are great kids. I will really miss them.”

Wermert finished with a game-high 20 points, while Deters scored 10 points and grabbed a game-high seven rebounds. The Shoes shot 49 percent overall, connecting on 18-of-37 attempts. They were 5-for-17 from behind the arc and 13-of-16 from the foul line.

Wermert entered the season needing a little more than 300 points to reach the 1,000-point level. He finished his career with 1,019 points.

“It’s a true testament to how hard he worked to get there in 19 games,” Reeder said.\

“He’s a team-first guy,” Reeder added. “Last night (Friday), he was at 21 points to start the fourth quarter and needed just six more to reach one thousand. And he had four assists in the quarter. He wants nothing more than for the team to be successful. He’s been a hard worker ever since he became our fifth starter his sophomore year. And that says a lot. Being a sophomore starter in this program doesn’t happen often.”

The Shoes finished their season with a 15-4 overall record. And Reeder wasn’t happy they won’t have the opportunity to play in a postseason.

“I really believe this team could have made some noise in the postseason,” he said. “It’s a shame they won’t have that opportunity. It’s flat out wrong what they did to these kids this year.

“But nobody had a blueprint for this type of season,” Reeder added. “Nobody has ever been through this. The postseason has never been cancelled before. But I loved every second of it. These guys made it fun to come to work every single day.”