Crusaders victorious in maiden voyage

At a packed St. Andrew Lutheran Church gym Friday night, Saxony Lutheran's boys basketball team made history by winning its first-ever varsity game 72-38 over Chaffee.

Saxony Lutheran High School opened its doors in the fall of 2000, joined the Missouri State High School Activities Association last year and promptly debuted with junior-varsity basketball. After a 19-win season last year against junior varsity and freshman teams, the Crusaders went forward with their varsity plans, joining the Mississippi Valley Conference and being assigned to a Class 1 district.

"We're all really young, mostly sophomores. We really didn't know what to expect," said sophomore guard Lauren Lueders, the lone girl on the squad. She finished with 19 points in her varsity debut.

Saxony came out of the opening tip-off and scored the first 10 points. Chaffee (0-2) was held scoreless the first three minutes of the game and fell behind 14-2 midway through the quarter after a pair of baskets from Saxony center Tim Lorenz, who led the Crusaders with 21 points.

Saxony coach John Daniel said with it being such a historic game, his team was really fired up.

"This was probably a bigger game for us than it was for them," he said. "Our kids were really ready to play."

By the end of the first quarter the Crusaders had built a 21-9 lead. With the home crowd cheering them on, the Crusaders outscored Chaffee 10-2 to start the second quarter and extended the lead to 41-19 by halftime.

At halftime, Lorenz led all scorers with 15 points and Lueders was right behind with 13, including a pair of first-quarter 3-pointers.

Lorenz said the team was excited but didn't want to get overconfident at halftime.

"We wanted to keep our morale up, and coach told us to keep our heads in the game and not get too excited," Lorenz said.

There was no let up from the Crusaders in the third quarter. They used a late run to push the lead to 62-30. Saxony cleared its bench in the fourth quarter.

John Volkerding, a junior and the only upper-classman starter, added nine points for Saxony.

"I'm certain we're the youngest team in the state, so we'll see how we mature as a team," Daniel said.

Richard Hinkebein led Chaffee with 11 points and Sid Burks had 10.

The Crusaders, who have only five home games remaining on their schedule, will not be home again until Dec. 30. But after one game the Crusaders are on pace for a strong varsity debut.

"We didn't really set that many goals," Lueders said. "Just to take it one game at a time and hopefully get better as we go along."

jjoffray@semissourian.com

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