Scott City boys basketball team survives to down Saxony Lutheran and claim district crown

PARK HILLS, Mo. -- Scott City coach Mark Dannenmueller said there were a million words to describe how he felt after his team won the Class 3 District 3 championship Thursday night.

He picked out one to explain the 48-35 victory over Saxony Lutheran.

"What a relief," he said.

"You're just relieved that the kids finally had this hard work pay off for them because you want it so much and you're constantly telling them that if they keep working hard something great is going to happen," Dannenmueller said. "I guess I'm relieved from the fact that they finally got to see it firsthand. I'm just so happy for them. And I'm relieved that it's over."

Scott City senior Zach Cotner helped the Rams finish the victory by scoring six of his 10 points in just more than a minute in the middle of the fourth quarter. Scott City had its first double-digit lead of the night by the time he made two free throws with 2 minutes, 59 seconds left.

Scott City coach Mark Dannenmueller talks to his team during a timeout Thursday in Park Hills, Mo. (Laura Simon)

"We knew that we were up by a little bit, but we needed to put it on them real fast and keep going," said Cotner, who had eight points in the final quarter. "We put a run on them and just put them away pretty much."

The Scott City offense struggled at the start. The Rams scored just 19 points and shot 6 of 23 from the field in the first half.

"Defensively, the first half we did a great job," Saxony Lutheran coach Dane Church said. "We were able to do a pretty good job on their big boy. He didn't hurt us really at all in the first half. Nick was able to score inside on him."

Church referred to Scott City's 6-foot-5 junior Ryan Brock, who had 17 points in the game. Most of Brock's points came with Saxony Lutheran's 6-4 senior Nick Johnson, who missed several games this season with an ankle injury, on the bench in foul trouble.

"It hurt," Church said. "He just got back the past couple games playing the way he was at the beginning of the season. It just hurt. We just got him back and got used to playing with him on offense. There's no doubt it hurt not only against their size and their rebounders. We were outmatched."

Johnson missed the majority of the third and fourth quarters and fouled out of the game.

"They didn't have anybody to stop me," Brock said. "I scored on that other kid."

Scott City's defense more than made up for the offensive shortcomings in the first half. The Rams allowed Saxony Lutheran to score just 16 points on 6-of-19 shooting before halftime.

"Our defense definitely kept us in the game," Dannenmueller said. "There's no doubt about it. The big thing was it was big for us to keep the lead because if they had the lead, if they ran a delay offense and all that, then we're trying to play catch up. I thought once we got the lead and they got down by six or eight in the fourth, they had to speed it up and they weren't comfortable doing that. It just took us a while to get them to do it."

Scott City senior Landon Robert scored eight of his 10 points in the first quarter and made three of Scott City's four field goals in the period.

"Zach and Landon -- you want to talk about two seniors stepping up?" Dannenmueller said. "Landon got us started, kept us in the game early, and then Zach kind of finished it for us, so to speak. You don't want anything more out of your two leaders than that, so I was extremely excited for them, proud of them."

The Rams paid back Saxony Lutheran for a loss in the district title game a year ago.

"I feel pretty great, especially after losing to them last year," Brock said. "Feel like a little redemption right there. It was a big motivation for us. It was the district championship. That was a lot of motivation. That just added on to it."

Scott City will play in the Class 3 sectional round Wednesday in Hillsboro, Mo.

"It sounds amazing, especially since I think it's the first time in 12 years our school's done this," Cotner said after being called a district champion. "I don't even know how to explain it. I've never felt this way before in my life. This is a great feeling."

Saxony 12 4 8 11 -- 35

Scott City 10 9 9 20 -- 48

SAXONY LUTHERAN (35) -- Logan Sprandel 7, Chase Steffens 3, Trent Steffens 7, Clayton Carver 2, Gabe Bohnert 8, Nick Johnson 8. FG 14, FT 5-14, F 23. (3-pointers: Sprandel 1, C. Steffens 1. Fouled out: Johnson)

SCOTT CITY (48) -- Landon Robert 10, Jesse Sanders 5, Eric Essner 1, Jonathan McFall 2, Zach Cotner 10, Ryan Brock 17. FG 14, FT 17-25, F 17. (3-pointers: Robert 3. Fouled out: none)