Perryville boys basketball team falls to hot-shooting Blackcats 73-66

~ The Pirates' season ended with the first-round loss in the Class 4 District 1 tournament

DEXTER, Mo. -- Perryville's rally ran out of steam late in the fourth quarter Tuesday.

The Pirates cut Fredericktown's lead to two points with 3 minutes, 42 seconds left, but they couldn't get over the hump in their Class 4 District 1 boys basketball opener.

The fifth-seeded Blackcats made their free throws down the stretch to pull off the 73-66 upset of the No. 4 Pirates.

"We just waited too long to really start flying around and get after them," Perryville coach Joel Roth said.

Fredericktown built a 14-point lead at halftime with some sizzling shooting. The Blackcats went 18 of 29 (62 percent) from the field before intermission.

"Most teams that we play don't shoot that well," said Perryville junior Jared Thieret, who led his team with 19 points. "We played them man and we just couldn't stop their shooting. They were just amazing shooting."

The Blackcats' shooting forced the Pirates to abandon their plan to rely on their height advantage inside. Roth said he switched his personnel in an attempt to cool Fredericktown's shooters.

"We were going to play our two bigs more, but they were shooting so well in the first half that we had to go to our smaller lineup to try and get out and cover the perimeter better," he said. "So their shooting kind of took us out of our game plan because I had to take one of the bigs off instead of leaving them both out there because we're obviously not as quick when we have both of them out there."

Perryville (19-8) trailed 43-29 at halftime but closed the gap to 10 points entering the final quarter.

The Pirates used a 13-2 run about midway through the fourth quarter to pull within two points at 61-59.

"We were getting on the ball and not letting them get such easy shots," Perryville junior Bryce Weibrecht said. "As we were getting more rebounds from them shooting quicker shots and getting steals, we got more transition baskets."

Weibrecht hit a jumper to cap the Pirates' run. Caleb Killian hit a basket for the Blackcats to quell the momentum, and Perryville missed four of its next five shots after Killian's basket.

"When we got it down to a couple possessions, we talked about we don't have to shoot a bunch of 3s," Roth said. "There was plenty of time left on the clock. We just had to get stops on defense and be efficient scoring on offense. Unfortunately we missed a shot and they converted and pulled it away from us a couple times.

"They got far enough away that we had to start shooting 3s, and they made enough of their free throws down the stretch. It was really too little too late."

Fredericktown went to work at the free-throw line. It hit 9 of 14 (64 percent) from the charity stripe in the final quarter to ice the win.

Perryville's defense allowed it to make the second-half run. The Blackcats only hit 35 percent (8 of 23) of their shots and committed six turnovers in the second half.

"We picked up the intensity a lot because we knew in the first half they were shooting lights out and we weren't playing our best defense," Weibrecht said. "We knew we needed to get after it if we were going to have a chance in this game."

Fredericktown advanced to face top-seeded Sikeston in Thursday's 7:30 p.m. semifinal.

The Pirates just missed out on their first 20-win season in about 15 years, Roth said. But he was encouraged that only two of his 10 players graduate.

Fredericktown 22 21 13 17 -- 73

Perryville 16 13 17 20 -- 66

FREDERICKTOWN (73) -- Andrew Lewandowski 15, Tanner Ward 6, Keith Jackson 14, Brock Mills 20, Caleb Killian 12, Codee Stamp 6. FG 26, FT 13-22, F 12. (3-pointers: Jackson 4, Killian 2, Stamp 1, Mills 1. Fouled out: none)

PERRYVILLE (66) -- Jared Thieret 19, Bryce Weibrecht 11, Ross Moldenhauer 10, Jake Dobbelare 10, Jared Hotop 3, Alex Robinson 7, Colby Brown 6. FG 25, FT 11-16, F 13. (3-pointers: Hotop 1, Moldenhauer 1, Weibrecht 1, Robinson 1, Brown 1. Fouled out: Weibrecht)