Career night by star senior carries Metro-East Lutheran past Gibault

After hitting only one of his first six shots Friday, Teddy Fifer was anything but dejected.

The senior guard from Metro-East Lutheran kept firing away and didn’t stop until he had scored a career-high 33 points and did the majority of his team’s scoring in a 49-45 basketball win over the Gibault Hawks.

“Teddy’s a load,” Metro-East Lutheran coach Anthony Smith said after watching Fifer shred Gibault from long-range, mid-range and on moves to the rim. “All I can tell you is he’s a good ballplayer. He can shoot it.

“He’s going to make some Division I program very happy next year because he can shoot it and he’s a solid kid. He wants the ball in his hands when it’s on the line. He and I have those conversations like, ‘OK, it’s go time. It’s time for you to go.’ When he did, it is what it is.”

Key performers

Fifer and junior guard Kenrique Brown (11 points) accounted for 44 of 49 points for the Knights (7-1), who also beat Gibault 53-52 Nov. 28 in the championship game of the Metro-East Lutheran Thanksgiving Tournament.

Gibault (5-2) is ranked sixth in the state in Class 1A and fifth in the News-Democrat small-school poll, while Metro-East Lutheran is eighth in the state and third in the area.

Fifer came in averaging 18.3 points, but also came off a rough shooting night against Marquette that saw him sink only four of 16 shots.

“My teammates did a good job of getting me open and when I was open I was just knocking my shots down,” said Fifer, who hit quick 3-pointers to start the first, third and fourth quarters and also scored 11 points in the third. “I’m trying to become more consistent with my shooting. I shot a lot yesterday, so it was good today I came out and hit shots.”

Jason Johnson scored only two points for the Knights, but grabbed 13 rebounds.

Key sequence

Fifer’s explosion didn’t stop Gibault from erasing an 11-point deficit thanks to a 16-4 run capped by a 3-pointer by freshman guard Karson Huels. Huels’ shot tied it with 1:05 remaining, but Fifer broke free for a bucket and later sank two free throws with 8.7 seconds left to put the game away.

A 3-pointer by Garrett Rueter and two buckets by Trevor Davis helped fuel the Gibault comeback. The Knights seemed to bend just a bit, but quickly regained control as Fifer had the ball in his hands when it counted.

“Once we do things right we’re a pretty good ballclub,” Smith said. “I’ll give them a B-plus tonight because I thought the effort was there.”

Effort wasn’t the problem for Gibault, it was an inability to knock down shots. Davis scored 14 points and Huels added nine, with Jacob Rueter scoring seven.

Gibault was 20-for-54 from the floor overall (37 percent)and 5-for-16 on 3-point tries. Free throws also help in a close game and the Hawks missed all five of their attempts.

Many times when the Knights spread things out, it led to trouble for Gibault.

“We get ourselves in a position there where you’re kind of spread out a little but more than you’d like,” Gibault coach Dennis Rueter said. “That’s in their best interests; they’ve got a couple quick guards and obviously they have a field day on you because you’re spread out too much.”

Rueter came away impressed with Fifer, who scored 18 against the Hawks in the previous meeting.

“He was really good tonight and we weren’t good enough,” Rueter said,

Despite hitting only eight of its 30 shots in the first half, Gibault trailed only 19-17 at halftime as Trevor Davis tipped one in at the buzzer.

Fifer heated up for the Knights during a 10-0 run in the second quarter that put Metro-East Lutheran on top. He had 10 of his 13 first-half points during the quarter after hitting only one of six shots in the opening quarter.

This story was originally published December 11, 2015 at 10:27 PM with the headline "Career night by star senior carries Metro-East Lutheran past Gibault."