EFFINGHAM — Cody Rincker made sure to get his message across to his team at halftime.
St. Anthony — the No. 4-ranked team in Class 1A, according to the Nesto Hoops rankings — led by five points, 18-13, after the first quarter and seven points, 31-24, at halftime.
“We gave them some encouragement at halftime in the locker room,” Rincker said. “I think that’s the boys recognizing the situation; they had an opportunity tonight to make a statement.”
The Bulldogs (4-2, 1-0 National Trail Conference) did just that, and then some, outscoring North Clay 27-9 in the third quarter and 12-5 in the fourth en route to a 70-38 win over their league rivals.
The tides shifted in the second half and with the blink of an eye, the contest went from a close game that looked as if it might go down to the wire to one that had the starters resting toward the end.
Overall, four different St. Anthony players recorded double-digits in points.
“They were sharing the basketball,” Rincker said. “I hate to say that it’s that simple, but I really think it was.”
Ryan Schmidt, who recently returned to action after suffering an injury to his ankle earlier in the year, finished with a team-high 15.
“It is what it is,” Rincker said. “[The ankle] will probably be a little tender and sore throughout the rest of the year, but he’s going to give us everything he’s got and, as long as we avoid doing something like that again, he can’t hurt it any worse.”
Brock Fearday and Collin Westendorf each had 14 points and Brady Hatton had 10.
“Brady’s been in a unique situation because he didn’t play his freshman year due to injury,” Rincker said. “He came out his sophomore year and he has a very high ceiling. We had some high hopes for him and then he hurts his ankle, so he gets set back and never really recovers. So, really, this is his first varsity experience. I think what you’re seeing is him adjust to that physicality, speed and strength with which he needs to play with and I’m excited to see what he can bring to our basketball team.”
Henry Brent neared double-digits, finishing with eight points. Will Fearday had five and Nick Ruholl and Sam Link each had two.
As for the Cardinals (1-3, 0-1 National Trail Conference), head coach Josh Zink said he was pleased with a number of players.
“I was pleased with how a lot of guys played. We worked our game plan in the first half; we’re young and inexperienced and it showed in the second half, but I really like our group of kids,” he said.
Jesse Weidner led all scorers with 16 points. He scored all of his points in the first half.
Carder Walden added 10 points. Ethan Kuesntler had eight. Gavin Hosselton had two and two others finished with one.
“I love this group of kids,” Zink said. “We’re scrappy and we’re going to continue to be scrappy and being that way is going to give us a chance to win ball games this year.”
Both North Clay and St. Anthony were without two starters.
The Bulldogs had Max Koenig out due to an illness; the Cardinals were missing Cody Zimdars, who has been out since the first game of the season.
“We haven’t had our whole team yet,” Zink said. “In the Cumberland Thanksgiving Tournament, we were missing two guys and then Cody [Zimdars] got hurt in the first game. We felt like his shoulder was getting better this week, but we’re not going to risk that at all.”