Trailing at halftime 26-21, Coach Cody Rincker's Bulldogs were struggling to find the Wolves' open shooters in the first two quarters.

However in the second half, they found them.

St. Anthony “threw a blanket” on Flora in the second half, allowing just two made field goals.

St. A held the Wolves without a field goal during a 10:02 stretch, in a commanding 49-38 title game victory.

While the Bulldogs' offense was just a bit more than adequate on this cold Illinois night, the defense was “red hot” as the tournament champs improved to 5-0 in the week and 13-2 overall.

After doing enough to get a five-point halftime advantage head coach Phil Leib saw his club hit just 2-of-20 field goal attempts in the second half, while Flora coughed up nine of their 15 turnovers.

The second half was nearly identical to the previous night's effort against Vandalia as Effingham St. Anthony also held the Vandals to just 12-points in the second half.

In the final 16 minutes in both games, 32 minutes total; the Bulldogs gave up just 24-points.

Offensively, Coach Rincker's team had three players in double-figures led by the tournament Most Valuable Player Adam Levitt.
Levitt and fellow senior Cade Walsh each had 12-points while classmate Jack Nuxoll added 10.

Modest numbers compared to the defensive effort that shifted the tide of the game.

“I think some of our defensive errors in the first half came from our offensive lack of efficiency. We weren't making shots and on the other end you're not as geared up as you would,” said Coach Rincker. “We came out in the second half and it kind of picked up with it. Those two guys (Alex Deters, Cade Walsh) did a heck of a number on those two (Woodrow, Brown) in the second half.”

Coach Leib got 14-points from Drew Woodrow and 12 from Trenton Brown.

The 6-foot-3 senior Woodrow hit three 3-point shots in the first half while Brown, a 6-foot-1 senior, nailed a pair of long range bombs.
Neither hit another 3-pointer after intermission, nor did their teammates (0-8).

Adding to the Wolves woes was nine second half turnovers, including four in the early part of the third quarter when St. Anthony's defense cranked it up several notches.

Up by five points at the beginning of the third quarter, the Wolves first six possessions in the second half resulted in four turnovers and two missed shots.

Although the Bulldogs didn't go on a big scoring run, they did score 10-points as they took a 31-28 lead at the end of the quarter.

Levitt scored twice in the frame while Nuxoll and 6-foot-5 senior Brandon Runge likewise scored points.

Despite a pair of Flora timeouts, Coach Leib never got his offense or defense adjusted.

At the beginning of the fourth quarter, Woodrow was fouled on a 3-point attempt by Walsh who blocked the shot but got him on the arm.

Woodrow stroked home the three free throws to cut St. Anthony's advantage to just 33-31 with 6:50 remaining.

That was a close as Flora got the rest of the contest.

Back-to-back 3-point bombs by Walsh and Nuxoll and a drive to the basket by Levitt made it 41-33.

“Those (shots) were huge because we weren't making our 3-pointers (4-of-20) but Cade hit a big shot and Nuxoll hit one when we needed it,” said Coach Rincker. “That gave us some breathing room. Then we could run our “four-out” offense, shoot free throws and run it (the clock) out.”

The Bulldogs ran their offense in the final minutes of the game and got to the foul line.

St. A closed out the contest by hitting 8-of-12 from the stripe.

“We did a better job of finding them and blocking out on rebounds in the second half also,” said Coach Rincker. “We can handle the ball and we can make the free throws.”

A late basket by Flora's senior center Logan Moses occurred with just :32 left in the fourth and the first made field goal since the 2:52 mark of the third quarter.

It was their only field goal of the quarter (1-of-12).

The Wolves looked every bit the part of a champion in the first half, getting shots to fall and doing enough on defense to get the lead with a 19-9 second quarter.

Trailing 19-13 in the second, Flora made its best run.

Woodrow hit three of his shots in the run, and closed the half by hitting a long range bomb from the right corner and then a nice move in the lane for a spinning lay in and a 26-21 halftime lead.

“Defensively we held a team like that to 21-points in the first half. Our goal was to limit them on their transition buckets and I thought we did a good job with that,” said Coach Leib. “But that second half they came out and smothered our two guards (Brown, Woodrow) and they chased them around. They do a great job on help defense. But what we have to learn from that is that opens up other people to screen off of them and get open. We didn't do that tonight. We will learn from this. It's like what Coach Calipari at Kentucky says, 'if you lose, you learn' and tonight we learned.”

The Wolves second half was a nightmare as they saw their overall mark slip to 10-3 on the season.

The final numbers for Coach Leib's club were 12-of-39 from the floor overall to go with being out-rebounded 30-17.

“They are a quality team and I know that they are 2A this year but they could still do some damage in 2A. They have four starters back from a state championship team so you expect good things,” said Coach Leib. “I'm just thankful that they didn't shoot as well as they normally do. Had they been hitting on all cylinders it could have been really ugly.”

St. Anthony weren't much better offensively with a 16-of-43 overall, but they made 13-of-20 free throws.

Levitt added a team best eight rebounds for the Bulldogs while Alex Beesley, a 6-foot-4 senior, grabbed seven boards.

Both Beesley and sophomore Jacob Dust added four-points apiece.

“I told the kids at halftime that the shots were going to fall, we just need to attack the goal a little more. We have to pick up the intensity defensively,” said Coach Rincker. “We moved the ball better in the second half and I thought we were more aggressive.”