Leopold capitalizes on Scott City's poor shooting at Woodland boys basketball tournament

MARBLE HILL, Mo. -- Thursday night was just the second night on the sideline for first-year Leopold coach Andy Beck, but when standout Kyle Stroder was called for his fourth foul with 5 minutes, 19 seconds left in the game, Beck knew Stroder could be trusted to stay in the game.

"He's a smart player," Beck said. "I've seen him in past years and I've seen him in practice where he knows when he can foul and when he can't foul. I thought that actually made a difference in the game. He made some big shots right down in that stretch that gave us the lead there."

Stroder actually made just one more shot in the game, but it was part of an important run that helped the Wildcats defeat Scott City 55-53 in the Woodland tournament semifinals Thursday night.

Stroder scored the first five points of the fourth quarter before picking up his fourth foul. Then Joe Elfrink, Stroder and Greg Davis all hit shots as part of an 8-2 run midway through the quarter that gave the Wildcats a 52-44 lead they were able to protect for the win.

Stroder eventually fouled out after scoring 25 points with 2:25 to go, and Leopold scored just three points the rest of the way and made just 1 of 9 free-throw attempts in the final 1:09.

"Coach tried to calm us down and just told us to play our game," Elfrink said about the late-game struggles. "We knew if we played our game and executed, we'd be all right. We just had to just keep working on the defensive end, and on the offensive end just play smart and not get out of control."

Poor shooting plagued Scott City throughout the game. The Rams shot 34 percent from the field.

"Our two best shooters were a combined 8 for 31," Scott City coach Mark Dannenmueller said, referring to senior Landon Robert and sophomore Jesse Sanders. "They're our two best outside shooters. It's all confidence. Landon Robert made 65 3s last year for us and shot 45 percent from 3. Jesse Sanders shot really well down the stretch. Neither one of them could get it to go down."

Scott City made just 4 of its 18 3-point attempts in the game.

"That's what I sat there and talked to them about forever," Dannenmueller said. "I wish I could explain it. I wish I could help them make the shot, but it just wasn't going down for us. That's part of the game sometimes."

Scott City fell behind 11-2 and trailed 20-14 after the first quarter.

"I didn't like our body language," Dannenmueller said. "I thought we were feeling sorry for ourselves, and I didn't think we were playing hard. I thought we were kind of taken aback by them coming at us really hard."

Both coaches agreed the Rams were able to change the game's tempo in the second quarter to trail just 27-26 at halftime.

"Offensively we kind of lost our rhythm," Beck said. "We weren't moving the ball. We were just kind of looking to got 1-on-1, and that's not what we do."

The Wildcats were 2 of 13 from the floor in the second quarter and did not score from the field in the final five minutes of the quarter.

"We were in foul trouble and we were trying to hide it," said Dannenmueller, who changed his defense to a 1-3-1 zone in the quarter. "We got lucky because they missed some shots, but I thought we did a good job of kind of slowing the tempo down a little bit. We kind of changed the pace of the game."

Leopold shot 36 percent through the first three quarters but was 6 of 11 in the fourth quarter.

The Wildcats, the tournament's No. 2 seed, will face Perryville in a championship game rematch from last year at 8 p.m. today. No. 1 seed Perryville defeated Oak Ridge 61-53 earlier Thursday to advance.

Bryce Weibrecht led the Pirates with 17 points, while Jared Thieret added 16. Sophomore Ryan Below led the Blue Jays with 18 points.

No. 3 seed Scott City will face No. 4 seed Oak Ridge in the third-place game at 6:30 p.m.

Leopold 55, Scott City 53

Scott City 14 12 13 14 -- 53

Leopold 20 7 14 14 -- 55

SCOTT CITY (53) -- Tyler Adams 5, Landon Robert 8, Jesse Sanders 10, Jonathan McFall 5, Zach Cotner 17, Ryan Fortner 7, Ryan Brock 1. FG 19, FT 11-22, F 21. (3-pointers: Adams 1, Robert 2, Sanders 2. Fouled out: none.)

LEOPOLD (55) -- Greg Davis 4, Kyle Stroder 25, Joe Elfrink 15, James Jansen 1, Cameron Davis 8, Brandon Jansen 2. FG 20, FT 12-27, F 22. (3-pointers: Stroder 2, Elfrink 1. Fouled out: Stroder.)

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Perryville 61, Oak Ridge 53

Oak Ridge 15 11 12 15 -- 53

Perryville 10 11 20 20 -- 61

OAK RIDGE (53) -- Hunter Seyer 15, Jacob Light 2, Ryan Below 18, Jake LeGrand 11, Kyle Rohde 3, Lance Rohde 2, Corvin Schoen 2. FG 17, FT 12-21, F18. (3-pointers: Seyer 3, LeGrand 3. Fouled out: none.)

PERRYVILLE (61) -- Nate Kennison 2, Jake Dobbelare 6, Alex Robinson 4, Cody Call 4, Colby Brown 10, Ross Moldenhauer 2, Bryce Weibrecht 17, Jared Thieret 16. FG 23, FT 13-19, F 20. (3-pointers: Brown 2. Fouled out: none.)

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Consolation semifinals

Woodland 71, Meadow Heights 40

Woodland 20 20 21 10 -- 71

Meadow Hts 15 9 4 12 -- 40

WOODLAND (71) -- Aaron Yount 9, Skyler Liley 6, Dylan Miller 14, Brandon Chapman 2, Sean Mcgee 2, C.J. McAlister 6, Lance Yount 24, Codey Miles 8. FG 33, FT 4-10, F 16. (3-pointers: A. Yount 1. Fouled out: Dakota Long.)

MEADOW HEIGHTS (40) -- Josh Douglas 10, Hunter Fulbright 7, Aaron Mayfield 15, Tyler Cook 2, J.C. Holt 4, Baremore 2. FG 15, FT 9-16, F 13. (3-pointers: Douglas 1. Fouled out: none.)