Sault boys basketball wins rivalry meeting with St. Ignace

SAULT STE. MARIE – The Sault Blue Devils seem to be finding ways to win games lately.

On Thursday night, the Sault boys' basketball team continued to play solid defense and got some help from their outside shooting on the way to beating the St. Ignace Saints 72-58 in a Straits Area Conference matchup.

Things didn’t start out very well for the Sault as St. Ignace took all of two seconds to get on the board, scoring after the opening jump was tapped ahead for a pass and a layup.  At the 5:44 mark, Jonny Ingalls knocked down a three pointer to put the Saints up 11-3.

“They were definitely in a rhythm early,” Fitzner said of the Saints’ hot start.  We were back on our heels defensively and they came at us.”

The Devils chipped away at the lead throughout the first quarter and took their first lead of the night in dramatic fashion as Dominic Haller drained a three-point bucket from the deep left wing as the buzzer sounded to end the quarter.  That basket gave the Sault a lead, 21-19, which they never gave back, despite St. Ignace’s best efforts.

“I thought that after that first few minutes, we found our footing defensively,” Fitzner said.  “We settled down a little bit and started to execute on the offensive end too.”

Watching the two teams play, it was obvious that the gameplans were very similar.  Both teams wanted to penetrate and kick out to open shooters when the defenses collapsed.

For that strategy to work for the Sault, people had to step up and knock down open shots when presented with the opportunities.  On this night, they did just that.  Carter Oshelski, in addition to having the unenviable job of playing Ingalls one-on-one defensively most of the night, knocked down a pair of threes in the game, as did Max Scott.  Dominic Haller had a pair of triples, and Nathan Koepp added one from long range.

“We thought we could get some open looks because of the way they crash down on any penetration,” Fitzner said of the St. Ignace defense. “We had some guys step up and make shots.  I think we shot it pretty well as a team tonight.”

The Devils took a 31-27 lead into the half and began to expand it in the third quarter.  The lead reached double figures with 2:57 left in the third on a Haller pull-up jumper to make it 39-29.  The Sault closed the third quarter with another dramatic play as John Gravelle went to the line for two free throws with 4.3 seconds left in the period.  Gravelle made the first but missed the second.  Koepp somehow got inside position on his St. Ignace counterpart and tipped the miss back in for the type of three-point play not often seen.

The Saints tried to rally in the fourth quarter and got as close as nine points at 64-53 as Tyrel Matson had two consecutive steals and converted both for layups, the second coming with 2:11 left in the game.  The Sault essentially slammed the door seven seconds later though as Haller converted a three-point play to bump the lead back up to 12.

Ingalls led the Saints on the night with 34 points, while Matson finished with 10.  Despite the scoring outburst, Fitzner thought his team played solid defense against him.

"He’s such a good player,” Fitzner said of Ingalls.  He can shoot it from long range, he has a good mid-range shot, and he can get to the basket.  You are really just trying to contain him a little bit and make him work for his shots.  They have a couple kids that are a real handful but I thought Carter did a great job defending Ingalls and I thought our team defense was pretty good.”

St. Ignace coach Doug Ingalls lamented his team’s foul trouble after the game.

“We just aren’t used to playing without Nick and Tyrel,” he said.  “They were in foul trouble tonight and we had trouble adjusting to that.”

Haller had another solid scoring night for the Sault as he led the team with 27 points.  Koepp was also in double figures with 16.

The Sault, 6-2, will travel to Rudyard on Tuesday for another SAC showdown, while St. Ignace, 5-2, will face Newberry next.

ST. IGNACE      19      8       7       24 – 58

SAULT   21      10      19      22 – 72

ST. IGNACE – Frazier 5, Ingalls 34, Halberg 4, Matson 10, Killscrow 1, McLean 4. FT: 8-17; F: 25; Fouled out: Matson, Frazier; 3PFG: 6 (Ingalls 5, Frazier 1).

SAULT – Oshelski 6, Scott 8, Koepp 16, Teneyck 3, Haller 27, Lujan 4, Gravelle 8. FT: 15-25; Fouled out: Oshelski; 3PFG: 7 (Haller 2, Scott 2, Oshelski 2, Koepp 1).

This article originally appeared on The Sault News: Sault boys basketball wins rivalry meeting with St. Ignace