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 The Toppers knew that to get to that point, they would have to go
through the Calvary Saints, a team they had beaten earlier in the
season, but only by two points, 57-55. Wednesday night the Toppers
marched over the Saints, 68-51, and earned the right to play for the
regional championship on Friday night versus Springfield Lutheran.
Leading the march against the Saints was senior Beau Collier with 19
points. Blake Collier had 15 points, while Michael Lowery
contributed 12 points and 7 rebounds and Matt Amidon rounded out the
senior scoring with 10 points.
The Toppers were hot from the start in this one, and even though it
was not an easy battle, Mount Pulaski never trailed the Saints.
Blake Collier's three to start the Toppers scoring would set the
tone early for Mount Pulaski. It would not take teammate Michael
Lowery long to shoot his own trey and the Toppers were up 6-2. A
nice pass from Beau Collier into the lane to big freshman Peyton
Taylor next would give the Toppers an 8-2 edge and things were
looking good early for MP. Blake Collier would score the next four
points for the Toppers on free throws and the crowd was loving the
12-6 lead.
 At the end of one, Mount Pulaski was up 14-10 as Matt Amidon scored
his first bucket of the game and all the Toppers starters were in
the scoring column. Beau Collier got his second foul at the end of
the first quarter and had to warm the bench for part of the second
quarter, but luckily he re-entered the game before the lead slipped
away. His three at the 5:28 mark fired up the rest of the team and
padded the Toppers lead, 17-12. Following a basket by Taylor, it was
Beau Collier again nailing a three from the corner to extend the
Toppers lead to 22-12 with 3:45 left to play in the second. The
Saints kept marching on though and closed the gap to 26-20 and
nearly had another basket as the Toppers were stalling and Lowery
mistakenly passed the ball to one of the Calvary players.
Fortunately, the Saints missed that bucket and Lowery redeemed
himself by getting the rebound and in return Amidon made a nice
little bank shot at the buzzer to give the Toppers a 28-20 lead
going into the locker room. Things were certainly going the Toppers
way.
To the Toppers advantage, things continued to go their way in the
third quarter and thanks to great ball movement and great defense by
the starters and the subs off the bench, the Toppers were able to
extend the lead to 43-30 at the end of the quarter.
The Toppers continued to play confident in the fourth quarter and
even as the Saints stepped up the man-to-man defense, the Toppers
were never rattled. Particularly the hard-nosed Collier twins, who
scored a combined 15 fourth quarter points and nearly stole the
show, that is until Lowery used one of his moves he got from
watching YouTube videos of LeBron James while in high school. Lowery
was coming down the court for the layup and with Calvary's Tyler
Upshaw right beside him, he decided to do a little bounce pass
behind the back to teammate Beau Collier, who he thought was
following close behind. Luckily for Lowery, Beau Collier usually
isn't too far from him, on or off the court, and the pass worked
perfectly as Beau scooped it up and laid it in for a thunderous two
points for the Toppers.
[to top of second column] |
The Toppers lead was now 58-44 with 2:32 remaining. From here the
Toppers extended the lead by going a perfect 8-for-8 on free throws
and that brought their total of free throws on the night to 21of 25,
good for an eighty-five percent free throw percentage.
Another basket by Lowery in the fourth quarter rounded out the
scoring and the Toppers could celebrate with a 68-51 victory and
another shot at Springfield Lutheran.
The Toppers (17-11) will have a tough battle on their hands against
the state-ranked Crusaders (28-1), who defeated the Toppers back on
February 6th, 61-56 on the Crusaders home court.
Following the Toppers win over Springfield Calvary, Coach Ryan
Deibert was finally able to look ahead to a rematch on a neutral
court with Springfield Lutheran. "Lutheran is heavily favored. But I
know we can win and the boys know they can win, and that's all that
matters," said Deibert.
The Toppers take on the Crusaders, currently ranked third in the
Class 1A state rankings, Friday night in Mason City at 7:00 p.m. for
the regional championship.
Mount Pulaski scoring:
Beau Collier 19
Blake Collier 15
Michael Lowery 12
Matt Amidon 10
Peyton Taylor 8
Brett Huff 2
Will Stewart 1
Dalton Litterly 1
Calvary scoring
Isaiah Martin 12
Tyler Upshaw 11
Jrai Wood 8
Joseph Martin 7
Neil Ferris 4
Michael Johnson 4
Taylor Upshaw 3
[Teena Lowery] |
