Boys Win Sagebrush Championship
Girls Defeat Stratton
The St. Francis Indians won the championship game in the Sagebrush Invitational Basketball Classic in Brewster on Saturday, December 10, defeating Stratton, CO, 66-59. The Lady Indians defeated Stratton's Lady Eagles to earn 5th place.
In the boy's championship game, Stratton got out to an early 0-4 lead before Wyatt Landenberger opened the Indian scoring with a basket. Mason Schiltz scored at the two minute mark to cut the Eagle lead to 7-9 and Isaac Schiltz followed with a three to give the Indians their first lead of the game (10-9) with 53 seconds left in the first period. The Eagles scored at the buzzer to take a 10-11 lead after one quarter of play.
The Eagles went on a run early in the second period. The Eagles led 16-20 at the 5:18 mark and 16-24 at 4:39. A Stratton trey advanced the deficit to ten (17-27) with 3:01 left in the second. Then it was the Indian's turn to make a run. A trey by Mason Schiltz cut the lead to five (25-30) with 1:15 left. A trey by Steven Nelson cut the lead further (28-30) with 29 ticks left in the half.
Dylan Peter scored on a nice post move on the first possession of the second half to tie the score at 30-all. The Indians earned a four point lead but turned the ball over twice and Stratton answered with a three to take the lead (36-37) again. The Indians regained the lead on a basket by Issac Schiltz at the 2:28 mark (39-38). A steal and basket by Mason Schiltz moved the score to 43-42 with 23 seconds left in the third period. A trey by Landenberger and a steal and basket by Isaac Schiltz gave the Indians a 48-42 lead after three periods. The Indians were turning up the defensive intensity and it was causing difficulty for the Eagles.
The defensive intensity of the Indians caused a couple more Eagle turnovers early in the final period. A trey by Dylan Peter with 5:59 left gave the Indians a 53-46 lead. Dylan picked up his fourth foul with 5:11 left to play. A basket by Matt Tygart on a Cade Bracelin assist gave the Indians a 55-47 advantage with 4:52 remaining. Bracelin scored the next Indian basket off a nice pass from Landenberger with about four minutes to go (57-49). Tygart worked for a stickback basket at the 2:20 mark (61-54). With 1:46 to go, Mason Schiltz grabbed a rebound, attacked the basket, and was fouled. He made both shots to give the Indians a 63-54 lead. Bracelin was fouled with 1:30 to go and made one (64-54). Stratton connected on a long trey at the 1:06 mark (64-57). St. Francis then committed two consecutive turnovers, and Stratton missed three-point attempts after both of them. Landenberger was fouled with 33.6 seconds to go and missed from the stripe. Dylan Peter picked off an errant Eagle pass and scored a lay-in with 23 seconds left to give the Indians a 66-57 advantage. Mason Schiltz was fouled with 6.3 seconds left. Mason missed the throw, and the Eagles scored one more basket before time expired. The Indians won the Sagebrush championship 66-59.
The Indians received good balanced scoring from several players. Isaac Schiltz (16), Mason Schiltz (12), and Wyatt Landenberger (11) led the Indians in scoring. Dylan Peter added 9, Matt Tygart 8, and Steven Nelson 6. Matt Tygart led the Indian rebounding with 9. Dylan Peter and Isaac Schiltz each grabbed 8 rebounds. The Indians shot 58% from the field (50% {9-18} from 3-point range) but could only make 5 of 16 from the charity stripe.
The Lady Indians defeated Strattton, CO, for fifth place. The Lady Indians played well in the contest, moving the ball crisply and playing more aggressive defensively than in earlier games. The Lady Indians earned their first win of the young season 57-32.
At the 4:01 mark of the first period, Kaitlin Figgins scored to give the Lady Indians a 5-4 lead. The teams traded baskets throughout the period, but a trey by Jackson at the buzzer gave the Lady Eagles a one point lead (9-10) after one period.
Figgins scored an old-fashioned three-point play on a stickback basket with 6:10 left in the second period to help the Lady Indians regain the lead 13-12. A trey by Clarice Neitzel and two more Figgin's baskets pushed the Lady Indians to a 20-12 advantage with 3:46 left. Justice Wiley scored after a nice pass from McKayla Taylor with 1:26 remaining in the half to move the score to 24-17. The half closed shortly after a basket by Taylor with the Lady Indians leading 27-18.
Early in the third period, a trey by Laura Brunk gave the Lady Indians a 32-20 advantage. The Lady Indians then committed three consecutive turnovers. The Lady Eagles scored after two of them and the advantage was cut to 32-24 with 3:18 left in the third. The period closed with a basket by Justice Wiley and a stickback basket by Figgins. The Lady Indians held a fifteen point advantage after three periods, 40-25.
A basket by Stratton's Jackson cut the lead to 44-35 with 2:01 remaining, but the Lady Indians held on for a 52-37 win.
Kaitlin Figgins led the Lady Indian offense with 25 points. Clarice Neitzel added 8. Stratton was led by sophomore Taylor Jackson with 18 points. Amanda Dreher added 8 to the Lady Eagle's point total. The Lady Indians shot 45% (20-44) from the floor and 52% (10-19) from the line. Figgins gathered in 11 rebounds while Aly Schlepp grabbed 9.
Coach Dinkel commented, "Honestly, defense won this game for us. I haven't seen us execute the defense this well...even in practice! We just anticipated better and communicated better. It was just as if it all clicked. Stratton has a couple of good outside shooters. We still need to close out better on them, but, I couldn't be more pleased with the defense that was played in the lane. Offensively, it certainly helped that we had a better scoring night, with all but one player scoring. If you can have that many girls score, you are usually going to come out of the game victorious."
"Jenna Hill won the 3-point competition at Brewster and Kaitlin Figgins was on the All-Tournament team. Also, St. Francis won the Sportsmanship Award. I think that says a lot about the character of our students and our fans. So, thank you all for your continued support of Indian Basketball!"
Mason Schiltz, Jenna Hill, and Isaac Schiltz represented St. Francis well in the free throw and 3-point contests. Mason placed second in the free throw contest making 21 of 25. Jenna and Kasey Hoyt of Triplains/Brewster both made 9 three-point shots in one minute to tie in the first round of the 3-point shoot-out. In the second round, Jenna made 6 to place first. Hoyt made five. Isaac Schiltz made 7 three-point shots to place second in the boys competition. Dan Brown of Triplains/Brewster won the boys contest with nine treys. Kaitlin Figgins and Isaac Schiltz were named to the Sagebrush Invitational All-Tournament Teams for their performances during the week.
St. Francis also won the Sportsmanship Award for 2011. The award is a traveling plaque that is displayed in the awarded school for the following year.
Congratulations!
The teams will play Rawlins County in Atwood on Tuesday, December 13th.
Click the photos to see more photos!
