Central locks up a share of Nashville tourney title with win over rival Mater Dei

He guards the other team’s top player. He scores over 20 points on most nights and does it inside, outside and everywhere in between.

And when Central senior guard Logan Kohrmann is operating in high gear as he was on Friday in a 57-44 victory over rival Mater Dei that gave the Cougars at least a share of the Nashville Invitation Tournament championship, it’s a fun thing to watch.

“I wish he was on my team, I know that,” Mater Dei coach Ron Schadegg said after Kohrmann scored 24 points for the second night in a row at the NIT. “He’s a good player. He’s just good, man.”

Kohrmann and many of his Central teammates grew up playing with and against their Mater Dei rivals, either in grade school or just in summer pickup games.

“Yeah, it’s definitely a rivalry, especially with them beating us three times last year,” said Kohrmann, whose defense limited Mater Dei leading scorer NIck Pollmann to four field goals and 14 points. “We definitely wanted to get them back. We talked about it in practice before the game, people’s moves and which way they’re going to go and everything.

“We’ve played with four or five of them (in the summer). It helps to know them.”

Central (18-2), now 3-0 in the tourney, can wrap up the championship by beating Teutopolis (16-4) at 8 p.m. Saturday to complete an unbeaten run. Mater Dei and Nashville, both 2-1 in the tourney, square off in the 6:30 p.m. game hoping for a T-Town win and a chance to share the title with Central.

“(Having a share) is a good thing, but the kids want to finish 4-0 and so do I,” said Central coach Jeremy Shubert, whose team hopes to avenge a 45-44 loss to Teutopolis on Dec. 6.

Key performers

Along with Kohrmann, the Cougars also got an early boost from Jack Strieker, who scored eight of his 12 points in the first half. Kolby Schulte added eight points.

Central ranked second in the state in Class 2A, put a stifling defense on the floor that limited Mater Dei (13-4) to only three field goals and a 3-for-17 shooting performance in the first half.

“It is a testament to our defense, a testament to our philosophy,” Shubert said. “Every night we take the floor ‘Defense wins basketball games’ goes on the board. I challenged the guys and they rose to the occasion and got it done.”

The Cougars led 22-10 at halftime and after Mater Dei crept to within 27-21 early in the third quarter, Kohrmann responded with a 10-point quarter that helped reestablish control.

“He’s just an all-around good player,” Shubert said of Kohrmann. “I’m glad he’s on my team. He does it all for us. He defends; we’ve got Kolby in there and Mitchel (Rule) in there to handle the basketball to kind of take that off Logan a little bit. Logan draws a tough defensive assignment every night and he takes pride in that.”

McKendree, Lindenwood-Belleville, Kaskaskia College and Southwestern Illinois are among the early schools showing recruiting interest in Kohrmann, but his recruiting choices could be growing.

“I hope he stays close so I can watch him,” Shubert said, “but yeah, he’s going to make somebody a good college basketball player for sure. I did get a phone call today from a college again so maybe more will start coming now.”

Key sequence

A combination of tight defense and cold shooting saw the two rivals slog their way through a scoreless start until Strieker lit up the scoreboard on a turnaround jumper with 3:49 remaining in the first quarter.

Central led 6-4 after one quarter, then caught fire and outscored the Knightsd 16-6 during the second quatrer to grab a 22-10 halftime lead. The Cougars drained seven of their first nine shots of the quarter.

Kohrmann and Strieker did much of the first-half damage, combining for 17 of Central’s 22 points. Central sank 10 of its 20 shots in the first half while Mater Dei was an ice cold 3-for-17.

The Knights’ next leading scorers were Jordan Kampwerth with eight points and Joseph Heimann wtih seven.

“I’m glad a team from Breese won,” Schadegg said when asked about one of the area’s top rivalries. “We root for each other and Jeremy and I get along really well, we’re good friends. It’s not a love-hate relationship.

“When Central plays you root for Central, when Mater Dei’s playing you root for Mater Dei. When they’re playing each other you’ve got a little bit of diversity, but especially since I’ve been here we’ve made sure that playing Central it’s all a good, clean rivalry. When they win their fans go crazy, when we win our fans go crazy.”

Teutopolis 67, Mascoutah 43

Teutopolis (16-4) won its first game at the tourney after back-to-back losses, getting 15 points from Brant Bueker and 13 from Kyle Smith as the Wooden Shoes pulled away from Mascoutah late in the first half.

Mascoutah (4-17), which finished the tourney 0-4, got 12 points from Ethan Mayberry and 10 from Blake Weiss.

Benton Invitational Carlyle 52, Mounds Meridian 51

Carlyle coach Andy Palmer picked up his 400th career win and managed to do it against his alma mater as the Indians edged Meridian on a layup by Eli Cox out of scrum near the basket. Donte Nettles led Carlyle with 17 points.

This story was originally published January 22, 2016 at 10:41 PM with the headline "Central locks up a share of Nashville tourney title with win over rival Mater Dei."