Beal and Company Take Over in Second Half and Beat Jr. Bills by 26

 Last Friday the Red Devils of posted a 74-44 victory over St. Louis University High to finish the regular season with a 24-0 record. On Wednesday night, both teams faced each other again, this time at Webster Groves High School in a second round district playoff game. Number-one seed Chaminade, with a first round bye, got a rude wakeup call in the first half then took control of the game and breezed to a 78-52 victory.

SLUH led for most of the first quarter and part of the second thanks to outside shooting.  At the end of the first quarter the Red Devils had to come from behind in the last minute to take a 20-17 lead. The start of the second quarter saw the Junior Bills take the lead back until another Chaminade run gave them a 40-35 halftime advantage.

SLUH six-foot senior guard Sam Hill hit on five of six three-point shots in the first half and then scored no more. The Junior Billikens made eight-of-eleven long range shots in the first half and only one in the last two quarters of the game. They were almost shut out in the fourth quarter, scoring just two points.

“I have never had a team score eight three-point shots in a half against us,” said Chaminade coach Kelvin Lee. “We had to come back and stop them.”

The Red Devils did just that with a close man-to-man defense that gave SLUH players no breathing room while outside of the three-point arc.

Chaminade standout 6-foot-4 senior guard Bradley Beal scored 32 points scoring in his usual manner, by making baskets from all over the court. Beal shot 13-of-21 from the field. He had slam dunks, rebound put backs, a couple of pull up jump shots, coast-to-coast steals for baskets plus four three-pointers.

Lee credited his superstar with not getting frustrated. and playing an even-tempered game throughout. Beal finished with a game-high 10 rebounds.

“When Bradley keeps his cool there is leadership on the court from him beyond his years,” said Lee remarking on Beal leading the early comebacks and finally putting the game out of reach.

Sophomore guard Andy Kleinlein, senior guard Luke Bumgarner and senior forward Brandon Kelly all had 10-points each. Kelly also had eight rebounds.

Senior guard Tevin Evans was four-for-five from the field for eight points with two steals.  

“When you have kids like T.  Evans, Bumgarner, Kelly and Kleinlein playing well behind Brad we are going to be hard to beat,” said Lee.

“We came out real sluggish in the first half. We needed to get our confidence back and we did in the second half,” said Beal.

Sam Hill was the high scorer for SLUH with his 15 first half points. Three of his five shots were well beyond even the NBA 23-foot 9-inch arc.  Junior guard Jeff Mayberger and junior forward John Kelly each had 10 points as the Junior Bills finish the season with a 10-18 record.

“You have to do what you can,” said SLUH coach John Ross. “We hung with them for a while. As long as we could,” he added.                   

GAME NOTEBOOK:  Chaminade will face the winner of the #2-seed CBC and #3-seed Webster Groves game on Saturday at 3 at Webster.  Tickets for the Thursday night CBC-Webster go on sale at 7:30 a.m. on Thursday at the Athletics office at WGHS.   

SLUH got to the second round game against the Red Devils by beating 75-70 on Monday night.

Being at a basketball game in Roberts Gym at Webster almost makes you think you are in a Walt Disney movie and Tim Considine, Tommy Kirk or Kurt Russell will run on the court in black high tops with soles made of Flubber.

Roberts Gym was built in 1945 and has a balcony over the stands and behind one backboard with original wooden stadium style seats. The Red Devil students were in courtside seats while Junior Billikens were seated in the balcony near the SLUH bench.

If you were at the game and thought the PA announcer’s voice was familiar, you were right. Randy Muehlman took over the PA duties for Mizzou in 2010 and does the PA for the River City Rascals games in the summer. He has been doing Webster basketball games for four years.