Indians Defeat Leopards in Substate Play
Free Throws Seal Win
The opening round substate game between the St. Francis Indians and the LaCrosse Leopards was an exciting one! The visiting Leopards, seeded #5 with a 9-11 record, and the #4 seeded Indians (11-8) battled hard throughout the evening. The game was as close as the records would suggest with defensive intensity being the trademark of the contest.
Neither team could get much going offensively early in the contest due to excellent defensive execution by both teams. The Indians held a slim 9-6 lead after one quarter of play. The Leopards regained the lead (10-9) with 3:51 left in the second period, but the Indians soon regained the lead by halftime 13-12.
Matt Raile opened the second half scoring with a trey. Brett Lampe soon followed with a driving lay-up and the Indians had a 18-14 lead. The Indians would lead by 8 twice in the quarter, but the Leopards continued to battle. The Indians held a five point advantage (26-21) at the close of the third period.
LaCrosse scored two quick baskets early in the fourth quarter and cut the lead to 26-25 with seven-plus minutes to go. The Leopards then connected on a trey to take a two point advantage at the 5:40 mark (26-28). Trent Raile scored on an offensive rebound and free throw to recover the lead 29-28. Matt Raile was fouled and connected on two from the charity stripe at 4:26 to give the Indians a 31-30 advantage. Isaac Schiltz stuck a three to give the Indians a 34-30 advantage. Matt Raile followed with two more free throws to extend the lead to six at 3:22. Isaac made two more free throws to advance the lead to eight (38-30) with 2:53 remaining and the Indians looked in command. The Leopards were not about to go away without a fight. The Leopards scored a basket cutting the lead to six. Isaac hit another big three and Trent Raile followed with two more free throws. The Leopards responded by hitting consecutive treys to cut the lead to 43-41 with 1:03 remaining. An Indian turnover with 50 seconds remaining was forgiven by a defensive stop and Schiltz was again sent to the line. Isaac responded by nailing both attempts (45-41). Matt Raile was fouled a few moments later and also calmly swished both shots (47-41). LaCrosse scored a basket with 15 seconds left. Isaac was again sent to the line. Only one attempt was good, but the Indians held a 48-43 lead with only three ticks left on the clock. A long Leopard trey at the buzzer gave the Indians an exciting 48-46 win. St. Francis made twelve consecutive free throws in the fourth quarter to seal the win. The Indians were 12-14 from the line in the contest (86%) and played aggressive clean defense allowing the Leopard zero attempts from the charity stripe.
Matt Raile led the Indian scoring with 19 points but received some excellent help from Trent Raile (11) and Isaac Schiltz (14). LaCrosse got balanced scoring from four players: Webs (15), Moeder (11), Irvin (10), and Stull (8).
The Indians will now play Hill City (19-2) at 6:00 PM on Friday evening in Wakeeney. Hill City defeated Decatur Community (Oberlin) 54-33 on Tuesday evening. The scores on the the other side of the substate bracket were Ellis 55 - WaKeeney-Trego Community 29 and Oakley 64 - Atwood-Rawlins County 56.
Coach Jeff Beims had the following comments on the LaCrosse game,"It was a great win for our boys and for our program Tuesday night. If we want to be perennial contenders in sub-state the first step is getting past the first round. We did that against a tough LaCrosse team. I thought we handled their pressure real well. After the Quinter fiasco I was extremely proud of our guys and how they took care of the ball. We struggled offensively in the 1st half shooting only 30% from the field, but shot a whopping 77% in the 2nd half. With about 3 minutes to go in the game I remember turning to the bench and commenting that we were about to find out if in fact free throws really do win ball games. They do. We were 12 of 14 from the line (86%) and all but one of those came in the 4th quarter. For all that, the game ball goes to… (insert drum roll here)…The crowd! Our house was rockin’! Our student section looked like a scene out of a Tim Burton movie, and the little maniacs got everybody else fired up, including us. I haven’t seen our boys play with that kind of emotion in a long time – maybe ever. That kind of atmosphere makes the game fun for everybody, save maybe the opponent."
