Perryville boys basketball team holds off Saxony Lutheran

JACKSON, Mo. -- Perryville junior Connor Stark led everyone on the court in scoring for the majority of the game against Saxony and finished with a game-high 18 points on Friday night.

But his final two points turned out to be the ones that mattered most for the Pirates.

Perryville had watched a seven-point lead slip away and with 28 seconds to play, the Pirates were only ahead by a point.

Senior Eli Tripp grabbed a rebound after a Saxony miss and quickly found Stark on an outlet pass. Stark was fouled almost immediately and headed to the line to shoot a one-and-one.

The point guard sank both of his free throws with ease to give Perryville a three-point lead.

"Those were big," Perryville coach Justin Dreyer said about Stark's free throws. "We got a stop and we got the ball, and I just wanted to relay to them that we had a one-point lead, we were in the bonus at the time and we didn't need to take a contested shot. We needed to be strong with the ball and get fouled. I told them when Conner hits these two, we were going to have to extend our defense because Saxony has a lot of good shooters on their team and a three-point lead is not good enough against them."

The Crusaders missed an opportunity to get within one again when freshman Graesen Meystedt missed a jumper with nine seconds to play. Tripp grabbed another rebound and was fouled. Tripp could not convert his free throws, giving Saxony one more chance to put up a final shot as time ticked off the clock.

Senior Ryan Palmer caught an inbound pass near midcourt and dribbled around Perryville senior Luke Schlichting before tossing up a desperation 3-pointer as the buzzer sounded.

Palmer's potential game-tying shot fell short of the basket, securing a 56-53 road win for Perryville at Saxony High School.

"This is a big turning point for our season," Stark said. "We'll be moving on from this and hopefully we'll see a lot more results like this."

Palmer, who resides in Perryville and grew up playing basketball with many players on the Perryville roster, said Schlichting partially blocked the shot just before he let it go.

"I had the shot. The block by Luke was clean," Palmer said. "This was a big game for me. I know most of these guys on the other team. I love them to death and they're my brothers. I've played with them forever, known them forever and it's always fun to play against them, but it's tough when I can't get the victory against them."

The first quarter featured five lead changes before a layup by Collin Stief gave Perryville (4-2) a 15-13 at the end of the first.

Saxony (4-3) opened up the second with a 11-4 run in the first four minutes to take a 24-19 lead, its largest of the game. Meystedt hit a 3 and added a jumper during that stretch. The freshman finished with eight points.

"I thought we played with excellent intensity all night long," Saxony coach Tim Winkler said. "We made a few too many mistakes, gave up a few too many offensive boards, but they responded when they needed to."

Perryville had an answer of its own with a 14-5 run to close out the half. Stark got things going with a turnaround jumper with 3 minutes, 46 seconds to go in the half. One minute later, Nathan Noland hit one of two free throws, followed by a Saxony turnover which led to an easy slam dunk for the 6-foot-5 Tripp at the other end of the court that tied the game at 26.

McGwire Short scored his only point of the half for the Crusaders on Saxony's next possession, but Tripp answered again with a layup for the Pirates 30 seconds later.

Each team hit a free throw in the final 1:30, before Stark hit his first of two 3s with 1:06 remaining in the half. Chase Steffens scored a basket with 34 seconds remaining to pull Saxony within one point, but Schlichting hit a 3 with four seconds left on the clock to send the Pirates into the locker room with a 33-29 lead.

Stark scored Perryville's first five points of the second half and Noland added a layup to give the Pirates their largest lead of the game at 40-33.

"We came out all right," Dreyer said about the Pirates' start in the second half. "It was a very competitive game and we knew it was going to be a good game against a good team, so we came out and we played hard, which was good to see."

Saxony didn't go down without a fight in the third. The Crusaders went on a 9-5 run thanks to a 3 from Meystedt and five points by Palmer to cut Perryville's lead to 45-42 as the teams headed into the final quarter.

Saxony quickly took a 47-45 lead less than a minute into the fourth on a layin by Corie Williams, and a 3 from Karsten Short, but Perryville got seven straight points in the next two minutes to take a 52-47 lead and never trailed again.

Saxony got within one point on a layup from Williams, but after a missed free throw and three straight misses by Meystedt and Palmer, the Crusaders fell.

Winkler said he thought his young team, which has seven underclassmen on its roster, took a step in the right direction despite the loss.

"Graesen Meystedt is a good shooter. He may have made a freshman mistake there kind of forcing things at the end, but I'd just as soon have the ball in his hands as I would Chase or Ryan," Winkler said. "I'm liking the progression. Nathan Ruark, my other freshman, also played a good ballgame for us tonight. The stats may not bear that out, but I thought he did a real good job on defense. He's a pretty good positional defensive player. He knows where he's supposed to be on the floor. The future is pretty bright as long as the coaches don't screw them up, but I like the progression that our young guys are making."

Dreyer said the Pirates are finally getting the practice time they needed earlier in the season, which is starting to help them succeed. Seven of the 12 players on Perryville's roster also played on the school's first-ever state championship soccer team, leaving them with only a week to prepare for the basketball season.

"Our first week we actually played our first five games within a little less than a two week span." Dreyer said. "Our last game was last Friday, so we had a whole week to practice and we needed that practice because our skills weren't very good at the beginning, but they've gotten better and it showed tonight because we were able to step up and make plays where as a week or two ago, I don't think we make those plays."

Perryville 15 18 12 11 -- 56

Saxony 13 16 13 11 -- 53

PERRYVILLE (56) -- Conner Stark 18, Eli Tripp 11, Luke Schlichting 8, Nathan Noland 7, Collin Stief 7, McGwire Bartley 5. FG 16, FT 12-18, F 14 (3-pointers: Stark 2, SChlichting 1, Bartley 1. Fouled out: none)

SAXONY (53) -- Ryan Palmer 14, Elwood Voss 9, Graesen Meystedt 8, Corie Williams 7, Chase Steffens 5, Karsten Short 5, Paris Johnson 3, Nathan Ruark 2. FG 14, FT 4-9, F 18 (3-pointers: Palmer 2, Meystedt 2, Short 1, Johnson 1, Williams 1. Fouled out: none)