HS BKB - ND v Saxony

~ The crusaders had no answer for the Bulldogs' playin the post.

Notre Dame constantly pumped the ball into its big men near the basket, and the Bulldogs post players created headaches for the Saxony Lutheran defenders.

Notre Dame's Ryan Willen maneuvered down low and forced the Crusaders to foul him, generating 10 free-throw attempts in the first half alone. He converted all 10 and helped the Bulldogs earn the 67-50 victory Friday in boys basketball action.

"Free throws win all the close games, and they probably made a pretty big difference tonight," said Willen, who finished 13-of-13 from the line.

Not only did Willen score points from the line, he also put two of the Crusaders' better players in deep foul trouble. Saxony's Austin Kwikkel, one of the team's leading rebounders, committed his third foul with 4 minutes, 29 seconds left in the second quarter. Bret Steffens, one of the Crusaders' biggest offensive threats, picked up his third foul with 2:16 left in the first half.

"Notre Dame did a great job of getting the ball into [Austin] Greer and Willen and attacking the basket and got us in foul trouble early," Saxony coach John Daniel said. "It certainly put us in an awkward position, and defensively, the rest of the game having to get in some matchups that we would have liked to avoid."

Willen said the Bulldogs (11-6) attacked near the basket to keep getting fouls called.

"It's always important to get an inside presence," Willen said. "Our guards did a good job getting the ball down low. We were able to get their big guys in the air a few times and get fouled."

Willen finished with 15 points in the first half while Austin Greer added nine as Notre Dame opened a 31-21 lead at the intermission.

The third quarter quickly became a shootout between the guards. Notre Dame's Ty Williams hit back-to-back 3-pointers, then Greer and Mark Himmelberg hit one apiece in the first four minutes. Saxony (13-4) even got in on the action as Garrett Ruppel, who scored 16 points, swished one.

"We didn't want to let them get back in the game, so in the third quarter we wanted to get out, do our best and push the tempo and get some shots," Williams said. "We were on fire. Everybody was hitting shots."

Himmelberg's 3 pushed Notre Dame's lead to 48-24 after the Bulldogs opened the third quarter on a 17-3 run before Ruppel's 3 snapped the Bulldogs' run.

"I thought the key of the game was they found Ty Williams the first two possessions of the second half and hit two 3s," Daniel said. "It was a completely different game after [Notre Dame[']s lead] went from 10 to 16."

Notre Dame managed to limit Steffens to five points on 2-of-5 shooting. Bulldogs coach Paul Hale said his team made a concerted effort to slow down Steffens.

"He does most of the ball handling," Hale said. "We tried to keep the ball away from him as much as we could. He's a good penetrator and he runs the offense. If you can stop the guy that runs the offense a little bit, you can contain them a little bit."

Daniel credited Notre Dame's depth and athleticism for slowing down Steffens.

"They did a great job of defending Bret," Daniel said. "They have a lot of quality athletes and tremendous depth where we couldn't isolate Bret on anybody that he could dominate. They just had an answer for everything we tried to do with Bret."

Saxony's Max Wieser tried to rally the Crusaders in the fourth quarter, scoring 12 points, but Notre Dame kept matching Saxony's baskets. The two teams combined to hit nine of the first 10 shots from the field in the fourth quarter.

"They guarded us pretty good and they run a good offense," Hale said. "They really spread it out and it's kind of hard to guard. It's real patient and that kind of gave us a little bit of problem."

NOTRE DAME 67, SAXONY LUTHERAN 50

Notre Dame 17 14 23 13 -- 67

Saxony Lutheran 7 14 12 17 -- 50

Notre Dame (67) -- Austin Greer 23, Ryan Willen 22, Nick Koeppel 7, Ty Williams 6, John Unterreiner 2, Mark Himmelberg 5. FG 23, FT 14-18, F 15 (3-pointers: Greer 2, Williams 2, Willen 1, Koeppel 1, Himmelberg 1. Fouled out: none)

Saxony Lutheran (50) -- Garrett Ruppel 16, Bret Steffens 5, Zach Bohnert 5, Max Wieser 18, Ben Courtois 4, Austin Kwikkel 2. FG 19, FT 8-11, F 16 (3-pointers: Ruppel 4. Fouled out: none)