St. Anthony regrouped well after a nine-point loss to Newton on Tuesday with an overly dominating performance against National Trail Conference foe Dieterich on Friday night at the Enlow Center.
The Bulldogs (6-4, 3-1 National Trail Conference) defeated the Movin’ Maroons (5-3, 2-2 National Trail Conference), 64-32.
St. Anthony led 23-14 at halftime before outscoring Dieterich 38-18 in the second half.
Collin Westendorf made it a 13-point game, 28-15, after knocking down a 3-pointer with 4:28 to go.
Caleb Gephart then answered for the Movin’ Maroons with a tough corner shot to cut the lead to 11, 28-18, with 3:10 left, before Ryan Schmidt produced a 3-point play with 2:46 remaining to make it 31-17 following his made free throw.
Schmidt also made a 3-pointer with 38 seconds left in the frame that made it 38-21 before Westendorf hit a shot in the corner that made it 40-21 at the end of the frame.
Westendorf finished with eight points on the night — five in the third quarter.
“Collin’s improved,” St. Anthony head coach Cody Rincker said. “He was hurt and injured a little bit there in preseason conditioning, and it took him a little bit to get his legs back under him, but the way he’s been playing the last four-five games, his defense has improved, his length, his bouncing; he does a lot of nice things for us.”
Over the last three games, Westendorf has been a constant for the Bulldogs in the scoring column, averaging 18.6 points per game during that stretch.
Rincker said that confidence was needed for him, too.
“It’s huge. He’s a kid that’s hard on himself anyway,” Rincker said. “Now that he’s got that confidence and we’ve had that discussion about how we’re going to work together, I like where he’s at; every time he comes out, he apologizes for something, and I ask him, ‘What for?’ I don’t remember half his mistakes, and it’s been good for him.”
Aside from Westendorf, Max Koenig also had eight points. Griffin Sehy had five. Jonathan Willenborg had four, and Teddy Dietzen had two.
Brock Fearday had 15 points, while Ryan Schmidt led the team with 19.
Schmidt said after the game that his work during practice had paid off.
“Coach has been on me a little on trying to be more aggressive,” Schmidt said. “We’ve been doing drills to get aggressive, and I used those in this game tonight.”
Rincker added that he had recently challenged Schmidt during practice.
Schmidt answered him on Friday night.
“We were trying something out that wasn’t the right fit, so you got to adjust and go back to some things that you know will work.
“I challenged Ryan to ensure he was using his speed and length,” Rincker said. “He’s not always going to be the strongest guy underneath, but he’s using his speed, length, and anticipation to put himself in a better position to keep the guy from getting it. We’ve done a lot of that here lately. We’ve even done a few drills to work on that toughness around the basket. We call it the ‘Hamburger’ Drill, where three guys are going at it, and the first guy to three points is off.
“I think you saw some of that tonight.”
As for Dieterich, Gephart led the team with 13. Kaden Iffert and John Holste had three, and Jackson Holste, Luke Wente, and Garrett Niebrugge had two.
Lucas Westendorf finished with seven points.
“There was a lot of pressure on Lucas to try and get us some offense going,” head coach Brent Bohnhoff said. “That’s a lot for a sophomore. A lot of times, we were out of spaces where we needed to be; there was no spacing, we weren’t organized, guys were in the wrong spots, and I got to give Cody a lot of credit for that.”
Dieterich continues its season on Tuesday when the Movin’ Maroons host Lawrenceville before partaking in the Dieterich Holiday Tournament, starting on December 26.
Bohnhoff said the next two weeks would be crucial for his basketball team.
“Very important,” Bohnhoff said. “Lawrenceville will not be much easier, and we can’t overlook anybody in our tournament.
“We’ve got Arcola, Sullivan, and OPH; the records aren’t there, but they’ve played good teams.”
As for St. Anthony, the Bulldogs play at Olney Richland County on Tuesday before partaking in the Effingham/Teutopolis Christmas Classic, which begins on December 28.