The St. Anthony Bulldogs captured the National Trail Conference Boys Basketball Tournament for the second straight season Saturday defeating the Dieterich Movin Maroons 53-48. All 14 tournament games were live video and audio streamed on www.979xfm.com and heard on 979XFM.
The Neoga Indians won the third place game, defeating Windsor/Stew-Stras 56-48, Altamont went overtime to defeat St. Elmo/Brownstown 71-65 to win the consolation championship, and North Clay defeated Cowden-Herrick/Beecher City 78-65 to win the 7th place game.
An all-tournament team was selected. The members, in no particular order, are Mitchell Stevenson and Alek Biggs of Altamont; Callaway Campton, Ryan Radloff and Tyler Higgs of Dieterich; Reese Johnson and Drew Ramert of Neoga; Adam Levitt, Cade Walsh and Alex Deters of St. Anthony; Lewis Brown of St. Elmo/Brownstown; and Christian Kessler of Windsor/Stew-Stras.
ST. ANTHONY 53, DIETERICH 48
The Bulldogs captured their 22nd conference tournament championship, but Dieterich was in the game throughout the contest.
The battle of the #1 and #2 seeds saw St. Anthony try to end the game early, leading 15-8 after one quarter. Dieterich fought back, though, outscoring the Bulldogs 15-11 in the second quarter to trail just 26-23 at halftime.
St. Anthony outpointed Dieterich 14-8 in the third period to lead 40-31 heading into the final period, and pushed the lead to 11 points before Dieterich came storming back. The Maroons pulled within one at 49-48 before St. Anthony hit four key foul shots to post the five-point win.
St. Anthony shot 48% from the field, making 21 of 44 attempts including 2 of 10 threes. The Bulldogs made 7 of 9 foul shots, grabbed 28 rebounds and turned the ball over 13 times.
Dieterich made 18 of 42 shots, 43%, including 3 of 9 threes The Maroons made 10 of 13 free throws, pulled down 18 rebounds and turned the ball over nine times.
St. Anthony's Alex Deters led all scorers with 17 points on 8 of 12 shooting. Adam Levitt scored 12 points on 5 of 9 shooting with five rebounds. Cade Walsh scored 10 points on 4 of 9 shooting and grabbed five rebounds. Jack Nuxoll scored nine points and led the Bulldogs with seven rebounds. Also for the Bulldogs: Jaccob Dust 2 points and Brandon Runge 1 point.
Callaway Campton scored 15 points to lead Dieterich on 5 of 8 shooting. Tyler Higgs scored 14 points on 7 of 10 shooting. Ryan Radloff scored eight points with six rebounds. Devin Flach scored six points and led Dieterich with seven rebounds. Bryce McClain added five points.
St. Anthony improved to 21-2 on the season, while Dieterich is now 15-6.