Perryville boys basketball team nips Central in closing seconds

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- Perryville got the big win it's been looking for.

Central felt another heartbreak in the final seconds.

Jared Thieret had a put back with two seconds remaining to lift the Pirates to a 52-51 boys basketball victory and set off a raucous home crowd Wednesday night.

"I saw them go double-team Bryce, which teams always do," Thieret said. "We had the middle where it was a high-low. If Bryce doesn't shoot, he passes it to me. Bryce ended up driving and it took a guy off me, so I went ahead and crashed the boards and ended up being in the right place at the right time."

The Pirates (16-4) trailed 51-50 coming out of a timeout with seven seconds left.

Perryville’s Bryce Weibrecht drives against Central’s Garan Evans during the third quarter Wednesday in Perryville , Mo. (Kristin Eberts)

The plan was give it to Bryce Weibrecht -- the Pirates' go-to scorer -- and the senior forward took it strong to the hoop, drawing Thieret's man to help.

When Weibrecht's layup rolled off the front of the rim, Thieret calmly put it back in.

The Tigers (14-6) had one last chance but a Garan Evans 3-pointer at the buzzer was short.

"I've been mad at this group all year long," Perryville coach Joel Roth said. "Down the stretch at close games we have not executed well all year long. Bryce has been playing on the varsity since he's a freshman. He'll probably finish in the top two, maybe number one scorer of all time here. He hasn't had a great shooting season until recently. His 3-point shot has really come on, but those midrange shots that he used to be money on he's been missing. But in a game like this you have to go to your guy."

Weibrecht didn't disappoint in the fourth quarter.

The senior scored nine of his game-high 21 points in the period, going 4 of 5 from the field.

"Our offense wasn't really getting ran with our normal offenses," Weibrecht said. "So we had to throw some sets in, and this is probably the first game we've really hit all our shots on our sets and ran them well. It was a good game to come out and do it."

The fourth quarter was back and forth.

Central trailed 36-34 heading into the period but quickly took the lead on 3-pointer by Vance Toole.

Weibrecht answered with a 3-pointer from the corner and the match was on.

The final five minutes of the game featured 11 lead changes.

In the end, it was Thieret with the put-back.

Central suffered its second consecutive tough defeat, also having lost 55-53 in the final seconds to Notre Dame on Tuesday.

The Tigers were stifled in the first half, and especially the first quarter.

Perryville used a 2-3 zone to slow down Central's T.J. Tisdell on the inside, and the Tigers couldn't take advantage from the outside.

Central shot just 1 of 6 from beyond the arc in the first quarter, which ended with Perryville ahead 15-7.

"They're so big inside and they pack it in so much it was hard for T.J. to get it, and when he did he had two or three big guys right on him," Central coach Drew Church said. "They did a good job of packing it in like that. And early we weren't hitting shots.

"Later in the game we kind of got in a rhythm and were able to hit shots. You take away our inside game, we don't generate a whole lot of points on our 3-point shots. We like to pound it in and work it out. So we had trouble with their pack-it-in zone."

Tisdell, a senior forward, finished with 13 points.

"We were very worried about Tisdell," Roth said. "We knew they had perimeter guys that could shoot the ball, too, but we didn't want to get beat by Tisdell inside. He's a great player, probably the best post player we've played all year.

"Gosh he got a bunch of offensive rebounds, I wasn't happy about that. But we had to take away something so we thought we'd be better off taking away the inside game and taking our chances on the perimeter."

The Tigers clawed back to make it a 25-22 game at halftime.

Jake Dobbelare and Ross Moldenhauer each added 11 points for Perryville.

Evans contributed 12 points for Central, all coming on 3-pointers.

Central 7 15 12 17 -- 51

Perryville 15 10 11 16 -- 52

CENTRAL (51) -- T.J. Tisdell 13, Jamal Cox 7, Garan Evans 12, Tim Booker 4, Vance Toole 7, Ross McClanahan 8. FG 18, FT 8-12, F 12. (3-pointers: Evans 4, Toole 1, McClanahan 2. Fouled out: none)

PERRYVILLE (52) -- Jake Dobbelare 11, Alex Robinson 3, Ross Moldenhauer 11, Bryce Weibrecht 21, Jared Thieret 8. FG 23, FT 2-3, F 13. (3-pointers: Robinson 1, Moldenhauer 1, Weibrecht 2. Fouled out: Dobbelare)