Meadow Heights slips past Saxony Lutheran

~ The Panthers hung on for a 63-62 road victory.

Saxony Lutheran gave visiting Meadow Heights a taste of its own medicine in the first 3 minutes of the boys basketball grudge match Thursday night.

Unfortunately for the Crusaders, the magic from beyond the arc didn't last long as the visiting Panthers pulled out a 63-62 victory that avenged a loss to Saxony on Feb. 4 in the Mississippi Valley Conference Tournament championship game.

After the Panthers (16-6) started the scoring with a 2-0 lead, Saxony (16-5) drained three of its first four 3-pointers to grab a 9-2 lead against a Meadow Heights team that set a national record with 36 3-pointers in a game last week.

Saxony opened the biggest lead of the game, 12-4, about midway through the first quarter, but the Panthers answered with an 11-0 run to go ahead 15-12 before finishing out the first frame with a 19-16 lead.

"Early in the game, they were dead set on not letting us get the ball inside," Saxony coach John Daniel said.

Meadow Heights' lead didn't last long, though, in a game that featured 15 lead changes. The lead was never more than seven for either team after the first quarter.

The Panthers' hit just six 3-pointers, including only two in the second half.

"We were off tonight," Meadow Heights coach Tom Brown said. "You have to credit Saxony's defense, though. They played us tough."

"Meadow Heights is a really good 3-point-shooting team," Daniel said. "We just got lucky tonight that they didn't shoot as well as they could've."

With their 6-foot-4 senior Tim Lorenz leading the way, the Crusaders controlled the paint for most of the game. All 11 of Saxony's second-quarter points came within three feet of the basket, and Lorenz rattled off 10 straight points for his team in the fourth quarter on layups.

"We give up a lot of inches and pounds, and it's hard to make up the difference," Brown said.

The Panthers figured out a way to get the job done in the fourth quarter. After swapping baskets for much of the last five minutes, the Panthers lead 63-60 with under a minute to go but couldn't put the game out of reach as they failed to convert on the front end of two one-and-one free throw situations.

Saxony had possession with under 10 seconds left, but Alex Jauch put in a layup in the final seconds instead of passing to an open Casey Petzoldt outside the arc.

With the win, Meadow Heights improved to 6-0 in regular-season conference play.

Anthony Bollinger led all scorers with 30 points, Terry Wagner had 11 and Michael Collier added 10 for the Panthers.

Lorenz led the Crusaders with 22 points, and Trey Maevers and Jauch added 11 apiece.

Meadow Heights 19 14 10 20 -- 63

Saxony 16 18 11 18 -- 62

MEADOW HEIGHTS (63) -- Anthony Bollinger 30, Heath Fulton 9, Terry Wagner 11, Dustin Davis 3, Michael Collier 10. FG 25, FT 7-17, F 16 (3-pointers: Bollinger 2, Davis 1, Wagner 1, Collier 2. Fouled out: none)

SAXONY (62) -- Lauren Lueders 9, Trey Maevers 11, Tim Lorenz 22, Casey Petzoldt 8, Alex Jauch 11, Ben Courtois 1. FG 25, FT 8-13, F 13 (3-pointers: Maevers 2, Lueders 2)

JV -- Saxony def. Meadow Heights