Central rides strong start to tourney title; Althoff tops first BND large-school poll

With back-to-back championships and five tournament titles in eight years, the Central Cougars don’t mind making trips to the Effingham St. Anthony Thanksgiving Tournament to start the season.

Central wrapped up its second straight tourney championship Saturday by drilling Effingham 63-38 to complete a 4-0 run at the annual event.

While senior all-tournament selection Logan Kohrmann topped the offensive output for the Cougars, it was Central’s defense that left its opponents struggling for breathing room all week.

“Our defense and our length is going to bother people,” said Central coach Jeremy Shubert, whose team received the No. 1 spot in the first Belleville News-Democrat Small-School (Class 1A-2A) Basketball Rankings. “Our post defense was pretty good.”

The defense was solid just about everywhere else, too.

In the championship game, Effingham’s Grant Wolfe was coming off a tourney-record 37-point outing the night before. Wolfe was held to a more reasonable 21 points as the Cougars rolled to the championship behind a balanced scoring effort that included 16 points by Kohrmann, 14 by senior Chase Schneider and 12 points and eight rebounds from junior Jack Strieker.

“We’ve had six people scoring in double figures for us already, which is a good sign,” Shubert said.

Kohrmann, Strieker and senior Mitchel Rule all were named to the all-tournament team, with Kohrmann also reaching the 1,000-point milestone for his career in the Cougars’ second game.

Shubert felt Kohrmann was struggling a bit in the season opener, especially when he scored only two points in the first half on the way to scoring 14. The first-team All-Area pick needed five points to reach 1,000 and did it the next game by hitting his first two shots against Mattoon, including a 3-pointer.

On the varsity since January of his freshman year, Kohrmann should be one of the region’s top small-school players again after averaging 19.2 points a year ago with 60 3-pointers.

“His sophomore and junior year he was our leading scorer,” Shubert said. “Now he’s become so much more of a complete player. He can guard and he can rebound; he led us in rebounding in almost every game up there.”

Kohrmann had 11 rebounds and five steals against Mattoon and 13 rebounds against Robinson. He’s not always a shoot-first type either and is averaging 15.5 points and nine rebounds through four games.

“He’s not selfish, he finds the open man and makes the extra pass,” Shubert said.

A strong returning group that includes the 6-5 Schneider (8.8 points per game, 61 3-pointers), Strieker (7.2 ppg) and Rule (5.7 ppg) should help the Cougars challenge for a Cahokia Conference-Mississippi Division title and a potentially long playoff run.

Central lost to eventual Class 2A state tourney qualifier Mater Dei in the regional last season.

“We dressed 14 players in the tournament and every one of the 14 made a contribution,” Shubert said, noting Schneider’s increased strength and better post presence defensively. Practice has been really competitive because I’ve got 14 guys vying for time.”

Senior Corben Zanger (6-3) adds more inside help while junior Kolby Schulte has eight 3-pointers already and provides another outside scoring threat along with Kohrmann and Schneider.

Strieker showed potential with 12 points in the championship game.

“He’s accepted more of a leadership role and I told him he needs to play with more confidence,” Shubert said. “If he plays up to his potential, that’s going to really help us down the road.”

Shubert said he expected the Cougars to compete with Wesclin and Columbia for the conference title since they are the three teams with the most returning experience.

Big-time matchups

East St. Louis and first-year coach Phillip Gilbert should find out a little bit more about the team with a 1 p.m. game Saturday against Larkin at the Chicago Elite Classic being played at the University of Illinois-Chicago.

Also on the schedule that night is a 7 p.m. game featuring Duke recruit Jayson Tatum and Chaminade against Miller Grove, Ga., preceding the entertaining finale featuring Chicago area powers Whitney Young vs. Simeon at 8:30 p.m.

The Flyers went 1-2 at the Springfield Lanphier Tournament with Reyondous Estes (14 ppg), Antonio Johnson (12.3 ppg) and Kenny Roberson (11.3 ppg) all in double-figure scoring.

ME Lutheran nails down tourney win

Metro-East Lutheran had plenty of drama along the way, but finished off a 4-0 run at its own Thanksgiving Tournament by edging Gibault 53-52 in overtime Saturday to win the championship game.

Senior guard Teddy Fifer led the way with 18 points and junior guard Kenrique Brown had 17 with tourney Most Valuable Player Jason Johnson, a 6-4 senior, contributing 12 points.

Gibault junior Trevor Davis had a big night with 16 points and 10 rebounds, with Colin Kessler adding 11 points and Jacob Rueter and Brian Deterding contributing 10 points each.

Fifer made the all-tournament team along with Davis and Rueter from Gibault and Roxana’s Trace Gentry. Gentry already has 24 3- pointers for Roxana (4-1) while averaging 19 points and 6.6 rebounds.

After blowout wins at the tourney over Valmeyer (63-34) and Odin (61-30), Metro-East Lutheran needed a late bucket by Johnson to defeat Southwestern 42-41 on Friday.

A strong returning cast should lead to an optimistic season forecast for the Knights and coach Anthony Smith.

Fifer (17.8 ppg) was one of the region’s top small-school scorers last season and the Knights also return Johnson (13.4 ppg). Fifer is already averaging 18.3 points through four games with 13 3-pointers. Johnson (9.8 ppg) and Brown (8.5 ppg) are also strong contributors along with 6-4 junior Braden Woolsey (7.8 ppg).

Davis is averaging 18 points and 9.4 rebounds for Gibault while Deterding is averaging 15.4 points and 10.2 rebounds. Jacob Rueter has 29 assists in five games.

This story was originally published November 30, 2015 at 5:18 PM with the headline "Central rides strong start to tourney title; Althoff tops first BND large-school poll."