Teutopolis rolls past Effingham, 66-38, in Effingham County matchup
Dec. 15—Three players finish in double-figures in scoring for the Teutopolis boys' basketball team on Tuesday night in the Wooden Shoes' county matchup against Effingham at J.H. Griffin Gym.
Brendan Niebrugge led the way for Teutopolis (7-1) with 16 points, while James Niebrugge added 12, and Caleb Siemer pitched in with 10 in the Wooden Shoes 66-38 clubbing of the Flaming Hearts (4-6).
Teutopolis only allowed 15 points in the second while scoring 32 after a back-and-forth first half finished with the Shoes leading 34-23.
"I'm proud of our toughness," Teutopolis head coach Chet Reeder said. "We responded to every run they threw at us; we had different guys stepping up again."
Siemer started the game with a layup before a Caleb Bloemer 3-pointer made it 5-0.
Garrett Wolfe then answered for Effingham with a 3-pointer of his own before Brendan Niebrugge hit a 3-pointer to make it 8-3 with 5:33 remaining in the first quarter.
James Niebrugge then followed the Brendan long-range make with a layup that increased the lead to seven, 10-3, before Logan Heil answered with a layup at the other end.
Heil finished with eight points for the Hearts.
"Logan has an 'old man's game,' a lot of up-and-under [moves]; catches you off guard; shoots it real quick from the low spot," Reeder said. "They did a good job of getting Logan in the spots they needed to get him to."
Andrew Splechter was the leading scorer for Effingham and tied Brendan Niebrugge with 16 points.
Wolfe added nine, and Andrew Donaldson finished with five points.
Meanwhile, aside from the three scorers in double-figures, three others neared that mark for Teutopolis.
Bloemer finished with nine points. Logan Roepke had eight, and Garrett Gaddis had seven.
"It's like finding free money when those two score that many points," said Reeder of Bloemer and Roepke — two defensive-minded players. "It makes us a different team."
For Roepke, despite nearing double-digits, what he was happier with was his team's intensity, which he said changed at the break.
"At the half, we realized our intensity wasn't there," Roepke said. "We knew where we wanted to be; we practice every day to keep that intensity. We want two halves, so we knew we had to pull away a little more because 11 points isn't that big of a cushion."
Reeder added that the defense could have been a little better, as well, even though his team only gave up 38 points.
"We weren't very disciplined defensively for the whole game," Reeder said. "They were attacking the rim; we weren't guarding like we were supposed to. We either got blown by off the dribble on one bounce, or we didn't have the help-side defense to stop the drive. We never had everybody on the same page."
1st 2nd 3rd 4th F
Teutopolis (7-1) 23 11 16 16 66
Effingham (4-6) 13 10 10 5 38
T — B. Niebrugge 16, Bloemer 9, Gaddis 7, Roepke 8, Jo. Niebrugge 2, Koester 1, Ja. Niebrugge 12, Pruemer 1, Siemer 10. FG 27, FT 4-11. (3-pointers: B. Niebrugge 4, Roepke 2, Bloemer 1, Gaddis 1)
E — Donaldson 5, Wolfe 9, Splechter 16, Heil 8. FG 15, FT 4-6. (3-pointers: Wolfe 3, Donaldson 1)
Contact EDN Sports Editor Alex Wallner at 618-510-9231 or alex.wallner@effinghamdailynews.com.
