Wildcats win wild one at buzzer vs. St. Vincent

PERRYVILLE -- Leopold junior Anthony Seabaugh was in exactly the right spot on the court with time expiring and his team down one point against St. Vincent on Thursday.

Leopold senior Larry Nussbaum collected a rebound off a missed free-throw attempt by St. Vincent senior Justin L'Hote with 7.2 seconds remaining. Nussbaum tossed it ahead to Darren VanGennip, who passed it to Dustin Thiele, who was beyond half court. Thiele fired a quick pass to a wide-open Seabaugh under the basket.

Seabaugh scored the layup right before the buzzer sounded and Leopold won a thriller, 49-48 over the Indians.

It was Seabaugh's only points of the contest.

"Larry got the rebound and we just got wide and ran the floor," Seabaugh said. "Somehow I was open. It feels great. It's an awesome feeling."

ELIZABETH DODD ~ edodd@semissourian.comLeopold's Darren VanGennip shoots as St. Vincent's Kyle Rollet, left, and Aaron Dzik defend Thursday at St. Vincent.

Leopold, ranked No. 8 in Class 1, improved to 9-2. St. Vincent dropped to 6-4.

"When he [L[']Hote] missed the second free throw, we were all supposed to hustle back," St. Vincent coach Bruce Valleroy said. "But instinct told us to go get the ball. And that was our biggest mistake because they aren't going to beat you 90 feet away from the basket. They're going to beat you by the basket. Instead of hustling back and trying to find our men and slowing the ball down, we all ran over to try to get the ball. They ran an outlet. Next thing you know we left him wide open for a layup at the buzzer. That's a lack of execution on our part and a lack of coaching on my part."

Seabaugh's basket capped a strong comeback for the Wildcats, who were down 11 points at halftime, nine points more than halfway through the third period and six points about halfway through the fourth quarter.

Thiele scored 10 points and did a nice job of hustling on defense to force some late St. Vincent turnovers and help Leopold chip away at its deficit. And Thiele delivered a nice pass to Seabaugh with the game on the line.

"It happened so quick," Thiele said about finding Seabaugh. "David just threw me the ball and I turned around real quick and I saw a blue uniform and I threw at it. I was nervous. But it turned out pretty good. I had no idea [how much time was left]. I knew it was close. I saw him closer to the basket than I was and I threw it to him."

VanGennip netted a game-high 19 points, and Nussbaum added 13.

"That was probably one of the most intense games we've had," VanGennip said. "Risco was probably the most intense, but as far as this game went, St. Vincent played tough. They played good defense and they're a very fundamentally sound team. We had to play our best to come up here and beat them."

Leopold trailed 47-41 with 4:26 left in the fourth quarter, but closed the game on an 8-1 run.

After David Fluchel scored to cut the deficit to 47-43, Thiele drove to the basket for a layup to make it 47-45 with 1:39 left. VanGennip tied it with 42 seconds left as hit a shot while off-balance, banking it off the backboard.

"I thought I was going to get fouled and that's kind of why I had a weird angle at it," VanGennip said. "I tried to get fouled and luckily made it."

Leopold then took advantage of St. Vincent's defensive breakdown on the last play of the game to come away with the victory.

Valleroy was pleased with the way his team played, especially in the second quarter when the Indians outscored the Wildcats 20-8.

"We had a very good second quarter," Valleroy said. "We executed so well on the offensive end. ... I don't want to make excuses, but tonight was the first night we've had our full team together. Matt Hotop, this is his second game playing because he had a virus after the Kelly game.

"Finally after 10 games we had our team together and that's just going to make us so much better when we get everybody healthy. He [Hotop] came out a bottle of fire tonight and he really stepped up to give us that leadership we needed inside."

Hotop and Aaron Dzik led St. Vincent with 12 points each.

@z_agate_HSbasketball_linescore:Leopold1581412--49

St. Vincent142059--48

@z_agate_no tab_no indnt_bld ld:LEOPOLD (49) -- Dustin Thiele 10, Wade Wiseman 3, David Fluchel 2, Darren VanGennip 19, Larry Nussbaum 13, Anthony Seabaugh 2. FG 21, FT 5-6, F 11. (3-pointers: VanGennip 1 Wiseman 1)

ST. VINCENT (48) -- Justin L'Hote 11, Kyle Rollet 6, Aaron Dzik 12, Brock French 2, Shawn Renner 1, Joel Fischer 4, Matt Hotop 12. FG 19, FT 7-11, F 11. (3-pointers: Hotop 2, L'Hote 1)