Saxony Lutheran boys basketball team upends Clearwater in district semis

PARK HILLS, Mo. -- Saxony Lutheran coach Dane Church has been talking about defense and little else with his team over the last couple of weeks.

He wasn't pleased with the results after a Class 3 District 3 quarterfinal win Saturday, so it was back to talking about defense in preparation for No. 2 seed Clearwater.

Tuesday night's performance resulted in a 50-44 win and a much happier coach.

"It was a lot better tonight," Saxony senior Nich Johnson said. "The past two weeks, that's all coach has been working on with us is defense. If you mess up on defense, it's suicides. We make sure to get it right."

The third-seeded Crusaders went on a 7-0 run early in the third quarter to take a lead and trailed just once more in the game.

"I thought that second half was awesome," Church said. "I'm really proud of our guys. We really stepped up on defense. I'd say it was the best half we've had all year. We had a hard time with their half-court trap on offense, but we were strong with the ball and we were able to knock down our free throws."

Johnson said the team made slowing down Clearwater junior Ethan Roach a priority.

"We talked about stopping No. 20," he said. "We watched video, and the past few days we've been going over how we're going to deal with it. In the first half, he shot a lot, but we shut him down in the second half."

Roach, who had 17 points and five 3-pointers in limited time against Kelly on Saturday, scored 16 points against Saxony Lutheran, but just four in the second half.

"We ran a play -- it was zone, but we stuck our top guy just on him the entire time and that shut him down completely," Johnson said.

Johnson led Saxony Lutheran with 17 points. Forward Gabe Bohnert, who scored 30 points against Woodland on Saturday, finished with just six points but played an important role in breaking Clearwater's press and eventually helping get the ball to Johnson in the paint.

"I thought Gabe did a great job passing the ball," Church said. "We had a hard enough time getting it across halfcourt. Gabe really helped out with that pressure."

The semifinal upset was the second in as many nights for the school. The No. 7 Saxony Lutheran girls team upset No. 2 seed Clearwater on Saturday before taking out No. 3 seed Woodland on Monday to advance to the championship game.

"I guess we've been going to church," Church said. "We've been staying at chapel longer."

The Crusaders will face Scott City in the championship game. Scott City won 66-47 at Saxony Lutheran on Jan. 31.

"We'll have to be ready to go defensively," Church said. "They're a little bigger, a little longer."

Saxony 10 12 16 12 -- 50

Clearwater 13 11 10 10 -- 44

SAXONY LUTHERAN (50) -- Trent Steffans 5, Logan Sprandel 6, Clayton Carver 14, Taylor Johnson 2, Gabe Bohnert 6, Nick Johnson 17. FG 17, FT 12-17. (3-pointers: Steffens 1, Carver 3. Fouled out: none)

CLEARWATER (44) -- Caleb Rowald 2, Austin Ayers 9, Ethan Roach 16, Tim Jackson 2, Eli Holmes 15. FG 15, FT 10-12, F 14. (3-pointers: Ayers 1, Roach 2, Holmes 1. Fouled out: none)