Eighth-ranked Teutopolis takes down No. 1-ranked Central

During an 80-mile drive from Teutopolis to Breese on Friday, the Wooden Shoes had plenty of time to think about the extra motivation of playing the No. 1-ranked Class 2A team in the state.

Eighth-ranked Teutopolis rode a solid second-half performance and tight defense to knock off top-ranked Central 42-38 as Mitch Hardiek led the way with 13 points.

“I’ve coached long enough that it’s fun to coach in big games, but it’s really the kids,” Teutopolis coach Jason Hanson said. “They see that (ranking) and it gives them more motivation than anything. They wanted to come down here and prove they were pretty good, too.

“Fortunately we were able to do that.”

Key sequence

After being held scoreless in the first half, T-town star Brett Mette erupted for all 10 of his points during a third quarter as the Wooden Shoes (4-1) erased a 19-17 halftime deficit. Teutopolis took a 31-28 lead into the fourth quarter and stretched the lead to six points as the cold-shooting Cougars (4-1) were unable to ignite a comeback.

“When you shoot 15-of-40 (37.5 percent), you’re not going to win many games against a high-caliber team like that,” said Central coach Jeremy Shubert, although his team’s good defense held T-town to a 14-for-40 shooting night. “They had many more weapons to score than any team we’d seen so far this year. We got off to a good start there and then I think we took our breaks on offense , we were tired.”

Both teams played extremely physical, but the Wooden Shoes’ defense and physical pressure seemed to wear on the Cougars.

T-town’s Devin Smith spent most of the night hounding Central leading scorer Logan Kohrmann into a 3-for-16 shooting night. Averaging 15.5 points through four games, Kohrmann didn’t score until the 2:23 mark in the third quarter and missed his first eight shots.

He finished with seven points.

“Devin Smith came in and played really good defense and really made him work,” Hanson said. “I think that was the key to our success.”

Shubert agreed, but only to a point as Kohrmann’s streak of nearly 50 games in a row in double figures came to an end.

“They were on him ... they were forearming him or holding him on every screen when he tried to set his man up,” Shubert said. “I think once that first two or three didn’t go in he kind of faded away; h e was pressing a little bit. We’ve got to have him better.”

Key performers

Central senior Chase Schneider scored 16 of his team’s 38 points and dropped in four of the Cougars’ five 3-pointers. The 6-foot-4 Schneider’s extra work in the weight room during the offseason showed as he neutralized the 6-5, 232-pound Mette inside much of the night.

Chris Ungrund hit two big 3-pointers in the fourth quarter for the Wooden Shoes, including one with 2:09 remaining that pushed the lead to 39-33. Ungrund finished with nine points.

A Kohrmann 3-pointer cut the T-town lead to 39-36 and when Mette missed a free throw with 50.8 seconds remaining, the Cougars had a chance to tie it.

Michael Drees took that chance away when he swiped an inbounds pass and then hit a free throw with 30.8 seconds remaining to clinch the win.

“We had the play drawn up for the other option, to get the three, and the three was open,” Shubert said of a play designed to get Carter Truong a 3-pointer. “We just made a bad decision there. Logan was pretty well covered.”

Central jumped out to an early 8-0 lead, riding airtight defense and two quick 3-pointers by Schneider. The lead was 19-12 late in the first half before T-town cut it to 19-17 at halftime.

This story was originally published December 4, 2015 at 9:55 PM with the headline "Eighth-ranked Teutopolis takes down No. 1-ranked Central."