Sports

Shackleford & Defense Drive De Smet Jesuit To Sectional Win Over Eureka

The Spartans advance to face Jackson, which downed Chaminade 60-59 Wednesday.

The Hot Read: De Smet Jesuit advanced to the Class 5 state quarterfinal with a 59-38 win over Eureka Wednesday at Maryville. The Spartans (23-6) refocused on defense in the second half after only taking a four point lead into halftime to wear down the Wildcats (18-11). De Smet Jesuit was led by senior Nolan Berry with 18 points and 12 rebounds, while Eureka was paced by senior Tyler Jordan who had 17 in defeat.

Key To The Game: Foul Trouble. After playing a full 32 minutes in was plagued by 2 early fouls in the first three minutes of the game Wednesday and sat most of the first half. Eureka's leading scorer Mason Bodingo (15 pts ppg) also picked up 2 fouls early and was not an offensive factor.

Patch MVP: De Smet Jesuit Senior Brandon Shackleford. With Barton on the bench in the first half, Shackleford picked up the ballhandling and scoring slack for the Spartans, leading the team at the half with 10 points. He finished with 15 for the game.

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Quotable I: De Smet Jesuit Head Coach Kevin Poelker "In the first half I thought they out hustled us, they out-toughed us on the board and I feel like the second half we responded to that I thought that was really big." 

Quotable II De Smet Jesuit's Brandon Shackleford "It really feels great. Usually with Jimmy and Nolan and Al, I have such a good team behind me that, I'm not in the position to have to make those shots but it feels good when I need to make those shots, to actually make those shots. it builds my confidence a little bit." 

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Quotable III Eureka Head Coach Craig Kennedy "Every time we had a defensive breakdown it was a catastrophic breakdown that led to something real easy for them, but as I told the kids there were 16 teams in class 5 getting to play tonight and we were one of them and we just happened to fall in the part of the bracket where it was going to be really really tough and we had to play pretty close to flawless to have an opportunity to win and we didn't do that." 

What's Next: De Smet Jesuit advances to play Jackson (19-10) on Saturday in a 1 p.m. tipoff at Lindenwood University. Jackson defeated Chaminade 60-59 Wednesday night. Poelker and his team were surprised with that news by reporters following the game, with the coach admitting that his squad was looking forward to a third chance at their crosstown conference rival. 

"If Jackson beat Chaminade, we better be ready for Jackson because it means they're playing really good basketball and that they're a team that's doing really good things," Poelker said.  


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