Just not St. Edward's night in 2A sectional loss
PLANO - The offensive flow St. Edward enjoyed last week in winning a regional title came to an abrupt halt in a 39-35 loss to Rockford Lutheran in a Class 2A Plano sectional semifinal on Wednesday.
The Crusaders made their defensive intentions known the first time St. Edward 3-point specialists Riley Coleman and Josh Dix touched the ball, guarding them tightly well past the 3-point line.
Against an aggressive, straight-up, physical man-to-man defense, the Green Wave shot 2-of-15 from 3-point range, a far cry from the eight 3-pointers a game they averaged at the Genoa-Kingston regional.
"We just couldn't get anything going," Coleman said. "No screens were set so nothing could get open. They were focused in on me and Josh (Dix) not getting any open shots."
"We always have a hard time when teams D us up and are physical on us like they were and they get away with it," St. Edward coach Keith Chuipek said. "I think that was the case. We couldn't even get the ball in on several of our offenses, our entries. You have to give them credit. They had a good plan. They were going to shut down the 3-point shooters and they did."
St. Edward never trailed the defensive contest in the first half and took its biggest lead at 27-22 early in the fourth quarter on Jim Waclawik's layup with 7:40 left.
St. Edward was able to forge and maintain its lead in the face of its 3-point woes, mainly because the Wave got to the free-throw line 12 times and sank 11 attempts compared to the Crusaders' 8-of-19 performance from the stripe.
However, Rockford Lutheran (19-8) responded to Waclawik's basket with an 8-0 run and outscored St. Edward 17-8 in the game's final seven minutes to win it. Junior reserve Earl Grigsby (10 points) led the way by scoring 6 of his team-high 10 points down the stretch, and senior guard Eric Widstrom delivered a clutch 3-pointer.
Grigsby sank an open baseline jumper with 5:47 remaining that gave Rockford Lutheran a 28-27 it would never relinquish.
St. Edward pulled within 32-31 when sophomore Mike Ellis popped a short jumper, but Widstrom responded by swishing a 3-pointer - his only bucket of the game - with 3:17 left to put Rockford Lutheran ahead 35-31.
The Crusaders left the door open by missing 7 straight free-throws late in the fourth quarter. Trailing 38-35 with 17 seconds left, Dix pump-faked a 3-pointer, drew light contact and shot the ball flat-footed in hopes of drawing the foul. But no foul was called, true to the physical tone the officials had set early.
"We were probably more confident coming into this game, but shots didn't fall and they got some key box outs at the end," Dix said. "There was not a lot of scoring, so little things like that make the difference."
The Crusaders grabbed the rebound and senior Nathan Green sealed the Wave's fate by splitting 2 free throws with 8 seconds to play.
Dix scored 12 points in his high school finale. Coleman was limited to 6 points on 1-of-7 shooting and senior Steve Martin was held to 5 points. Waclawik finished with 4 points and 8 rebounds before he fouled out late in the game.
Though it wasn't the advancement St. Edward hoped for, the improbable run was fun while it lasted.
"I'm happy for the seniors," Chuipek said of winning a regional title. "I've been with three of those guys for three years now. At least they can go home and talk about being a regional champ. Twenty years from now (they'll talk) like I talk about my 40-point games, which were only 15-point games."