Boy's Basketball Regionals 2015
The Regional Champions are the Althoff Crusaders.
This first week of March meant regionals for our boys basketball team. The games were scheduled to take place Monday, March 2, Wednesday, March 4, and Friday, March 6.
On Monday, our boys played Waterloo in a teeth clencher game but they finished with a win. Our Indians’ were leading by almost twenty points until the fourth quarter where the Bulldogs made it a 5 point game. The Bulldogs continued to fight but it was not enough to beat the Indian defense. The final score was 42-37. The Indians were excited to advance to the second round. Thomas Trumbull had 23 of those 47 points.
Devyne Strong gave some feedback on the game explaining that the team had been on a roll pulling in wins and by just losing to waterloo; it fueled the fire for them to win. He also said winning was great knowing all their hard work had paid off.
Taylor Kelly believes the boys played well but could have played harder at times. She explains that she was proud of them overall for bringing in a win.
The game following ours on Monday was the Freeburg Midgets against the Columbia Eagles. The Eagles won and advanced to play on Wednesday against Cahokia.
Wednesday evening our boys played against Althoff Catholic Crusaders. The Crusaders are 26-3 which is a tough match for our boys. However, the boys fought hard but fell to the Crusaders 66-26. Althoff advanced to play in the Regional Championship Friday night at 7. Many did not find this surprising due to the fact that Althoff was ranked 7th in the state.
Devyne also explains that the boys were ready to play Althoff all season and they were coming in as the underdogs so it didn’t feel as though there was much to worry about. He says that even though they came up short, they got to play a really good team who could be state champions in a few weeks.
While talking to Taylor Kelly about this matchup she shared that she felt the game would have gone much different if the team didn't go out they’re accepting they were going to lose.
The game that followed the Mascoutah vs. Althoff game on Wednesday was Cahokia and Columbia. Cahokia pushed past the Eagles and also advanced to play in the Regional Championship on Friday night.
Friday night, Althoff and Cahokia played the Championship game at 7. Cahokia fought hard and fell in the fourth quarter. The score was constantly back and forth. Cahokia was never in the lead however they were within 3 points much of the game. The final score was 62-46.
Also on Friday night, the 3-point shootout came before the before the game. Mascoutah had Chris Simmons, Devyne Strong, Tim Parks, and Thomas Trumbell who all shot and none of them advanced to the next round.
With the loyalty of the Mascoutah fans, many fans made it out to support the boys. Jeremy Aumack, 11th grader, said that the Indians played hard against Waterloo and believed knowing their playing style came in handy. Against Althoff, he believed they didn't play as hard. He felt like they knew it was going to be hard so they just let althoff go which resulted in a loss.