Week in Review: Clutch Time

SLUH 2/11

The Ladue Rams played one of their most important games of the season on Tuesday the 11th against the 13-7 SLUH Jr. Billikens. Both teams are in the same district, but will likely play again as 2 and 3 seeds because Chaminade, led by Jayson Tatum, is 16-2. They have beaten CBC, who Ladue lost to, and SLUH three times this season. More than likely this game is round one of two against Ladue and SLUH. However, a win will give the victorious a boat load of confidence, the upper hand, and most likely the 2 seed in the district parings. Otherwise the winning team will get to wear their home jerseys.

Last year at this time, Ladue hosted SLUH. The Rams were at a different level than SLUH was, but it was close throughout. The biggest lead of the game was seven points. The Rams were victorious, but the game almost went to overtime when Austin Sottile missed a wide open 3-point attempt at the buzzer. Then the two met again in the semifinals at Ladue and the Rams won 67-51. This year the venues have changed. SLUH hosts Ladue in the regular season, will host districts, and most likely play Rams in the semifinals.

The game started out well for  SLUH. Matt Nester and Austin Sottile made 3-pointers to get out to a seven point lead. In fact they didn't even miss any of their shots in first quarter. Ladue answered back, but SLUH kept holding their own. However Ladue seemed to never back down at all, which would become a reality as the game wore on. The score after one it was 20-18 in favor of the Jr. Bills.

SLUH came out strong to start the quarter and got their lead up to eight points. That would be the Jr. Bills largest lead of the game. The Rams made charges. Mark Rogers got a steal and converted on a contested layup. Then Johnston hit a three-pointer, but whenever they got within a possession, SLUH came right back with a bucket. Then a huge incident occurred that changed the momentum of the game.

Andrew Maddock was frustrated about a call that he thought should have been a foul when SLUH forward David Schmelter came from behind and poked a pass away when Maddock was about to receive it. SLUH got the ball and were up by seven. Sottile threw up a shot that was off the mark, which Maddock and Schmelter went after. They had each other locked up, which caused them to hit the deck. Both were fighting for the ball on the floor. Then with tempers flailing, Schmelter kicked Maddock out of frustration, which was seen by everyone. Maddock remained on the floor for a moment because of the blow he took. Schmelter was issued a technical foul and some argued that he should have been tossed for that alone. Ladue made 1 of 2 free throws, but got a bucket to make it a three point trip, which cut the lead to four.

The Rams ended up being only down 29-27 at halftime and had a surge of confidence with them as well going into the locker room.

Ladue carried their momentum into the second half immediately. Within minutes they took the lead and had to withstand a fury of SLUH comeback attempts. Matt Nester was still on fire as he kept his team in the thick of things. Same with Austin Sottile. The Rams weren't stopping SLUH's outside game, but they had taken away a good portion of their inside game.

On the offensive side Cornell Johnston took over and was involved in aspects of Ladue's scoring output. Johnston dribbled in and out of traps, blew by defenders, and found open Rams. SLUH had a difficult time stopping him. The Rams outscored the Jr. Bills 16-10 in the 3rd quarter and had a four point lead going into the final quarter.

Things started out slow to being with. The Rams did not have the killer instinct that they had in the 3rd quarter and SLUH were finally starting to cool off. With a little under five minutes to go Johnston started to do his thing and dribble the ball as much as he can to waste time. After a minute he dished off to Jordan Cosby, who slashed in, and hit a five foot floater to put the Rams up by eight. On the defensive side the Rams were getting turnovers when SLUH dumped the ball inside to their forwards.

The Jr. Bills began to get desperate as the game was already away from them, but now it was getting out of reach. Either foul Johnston or wait him out and try to force a turnover, which was really hard do because nobody on SLUH could keep up with Johnston at all. However, the Rams struggled from charity stripe that night.

With under three minutes to play David Schmelter fouled out on a charge, which summed up his night. The person who took the charge was Maddock of all people. With Schmelter out, SLUH were not as formidable with their height anymore. The Jr. Bills tried to get open looks for Nester and Sottile, but the Rams were too quick for them to get a enough space to shoot.

Ladue could smell victory with under a minute to play, but couldn't put the game away yet because of untimely free throw shooting misses. SLUH hat cut the lead down to 52-47 with thirty seconds to play, but Johnston dribbled his way out of traps and killed time away. One SLUH player started shouting at his teammates to foul him. When they finally did foul Johnston only twelve seconds were left on the clock and the game in hand.

The final score was 54-47. Cornell Johnston had 22 points, 8 assists, and no turnovers. Maddock had a season low 2 points, but did have 9 boards and that huge charge near the end. Jordan Cosby had 9 big points and came up big in the 4th quarter with timely shots and good defense. He also had 3 steals. Jon Collins worked hard for his 9 points to go with 6 rebounds. Mark Rogers made all three of his field goal attempts and finished with 7 points.

The win moves Ladue to 16-4 and probably secures the number two seed for districts, which will be hosted by SLUH.

Affton 2/14

For Valentines Day the Rams would love a win on the road against a 16-2 Affton Cougar team that has overachieved for the season or had they. 16-2 is an attractive record with only two weeks to go before districts start, but they haven't played against the prettiest of teams. Affton have only played against three teams that have winning records and Ladue was by far the hardest team they have played this season.

Since both teams like to run, the game started out quickly. The Rams got out to a 12-4 lead, but the Cougars cut into it thanks to some Reid Siebert buckets. Cornell Johnston, coming off of another 20 point game, was in form again and kept the Ladue lead at bey. The Rams had a 17-11 lead after one quarter.

Ladue stretched out their lead to eleven thanks to transition turnovers leading to buckets. Affton tried to keep up, but they seemed to be playing too fast for themselves. They were also unimpressive at the free throw line going 6 of 21 from the charity stripe. The lead was as big as thirteen points until Marcus Burse made a jump shot at the buzzer to make it a 32-22 lead.

Most times if a team is winning by ten points at halftime against a 16-2 team they are usually satisfied. The Rams seemed content with the score, but they knew they could stretch the lead much farther. They came out and did that immediately. A three pointer by Johnston, a basket by Maddock, another Johnston basket, and then a Jon Collins layup put them up by twenty. Ladue got a big enough lead to even give Connor Spirtas the keys to the offense and let Johnston have a rest with two minutes to play in the third quarter.

The lead was up to 21 points and Ladue outscored Affton 21-10 in the third quarter. More importantly the Rams were playing good defense. The Cougars did not even attempt a three-point shot, which is their bread and butter. Half of their points came on turnovers in transition that they converted into layups.

Ladue did not let up, especially when Johnston was put back in. The Rams cruised to a thirty plus lead and slapped a running clock on the 16-2 Cougars. Ladue ran Affton out of their own gym pretty much and won 72-43.

Johnston finished with 15 points, 13 assists, and 3 steals. If this was anybody else I would use an adjective to describe how many assists he has, but since he gets that many on a nightly basis, it is normal. Maddock had 14 points and a whopping 17 rebounds. I did it that time there. Jerrid Cosby had one of his better games of the year tallying 10 points and made all of his shots, including free throws. Spirtas had 7 points with 5 assists, and 4 steals. Jon Collins had only 4 points, but did have 12 rebounds. Mark Rogers finished with 8 points as did Jeremy Loftin.