Pictured in the front row from left to right: Seth Huff, Dalton Litterly, Will Stewart, G Oliver, Mitchell Hagenbuch and Eli Griesheim. In the back row from left to right: Lukas Aylesworth, Brett Huff, Liam Haigh, Peyton Taylor, Caleb Przykopanski, Zach Drake and Eli Olson. The Mount Pulaski Hilltoppers finished second in the Bill Rucks Memorial Tournament Saturday night.

Mount Pulaski takes second in the Bill Rucks Memorial Tournament

[November 30, 2015]  by Teena Lowery

The Toppers fell to Petersburg PORTA 57-48 in the championship game. The second place finish was the best finish yet for the Toppers in the tournament's five-year history.

Brett Huff and G Oliver were named to the all tournament team along with Parker Nichols of Decatur LSA, and Trevor Watson and Max Muller of PORTA. Muller was the only unanimous selection of the tournament.

The Toppers played great ball in the first quarter, running the full court press and forcing turnovers. PORTA also had an outstanding press and did the same. The teams battled back and forth with Dalton Litterly knotting the score at 7-7 with 4:43 on the clock. Mount Pulaski even managed to take the lead, 10-9, on Brett Huff's free throws at the 1:22 mark.

Seconds before the buzzer ended the first quarter, Oliver connected from long distance much to the delight of the Mount Pulaski crowd and it was 13-11 in favor of the home team.

Oliver kick-started the second quarter with the same shot from the same corner and it was 16-11 Toppers. After a forced turnover, Lukas Aylesworth got a hold of the ball and his jumper in the lane gave Mount Pulaski an 18-11 lead. The Mount Pulaski crowd was fired up and a very upset PORTA coach called a timeout. Whatever Head Coach Nick Rathgeb told his Blue Jays in the timeout worked. Those boys came out fired up after the talk they were administered. In fact, Mount Pulaski only managed four points in the next two minutes and PORTA then went on a tear. A 20-0 run would be the result over the next five minutes of play.

The Blue Jays were led by Muller and Watson in this stretch as the two combined for 14 of the team's points. Most of those points were at the free throw line, as the two combined to make 9 of 12 from the charity stripe.

Meanwhile Huff, Taylor, Stewart and Aylesworth were in foul trouble and watched the action from the bench. Finally, Litterly broke the Toppers scoring drought with a free throw at 48.6 seconds and the purple and gold trailed 34-23.

Eli Griesheim did make a nice reverse layup to close out the half for the Toppers, who had dug themselves a big hole and were headed to the locker room down by 9 points, 34-25.

Unfortunately for Toppers fans, the guys only dug themselves deeper in the third quarter. Hats off to the Blue Jays though and their tremendous play, hustling and outscoring Mount Pulaski 26-5 in that third quarter.

The Toppers could not mount a comeback in the fourth quarter. The only excitement for the crowd in this quarter was a 3 from Oliver and two 3's from Huff. PORTA in the end had 20 points from Muller and 11 from Watson in the 57-48 win.

As the championship and second place trophies were handed out, it was obvious the Toppers were a little disappointed but it was still a great tournament and a great finish for Coach Ryan Deibert's team. Deibert summed up the situation, "Bottom line we got in foul trouble. I thought our first group played right with them, maybe even outplayed them. We got in foul trouble and that was our fault. We gave up extra offensive rebounds, those led to extra fouls and they mounted up. We put some guys out there that just haven't had a lot of minutes yet and against a very good team and they were able to make a run. I'm fairly happy with how well I think our first group, top seven or so, played together. They looked really fluid at times and that was one of our big question marks going into the year. So now we are just going to have to be more fluid without fouling. But to me we had some really bright spots come out of that."

Deibert added, "We know we are gonna get better. I look back at the week and overall it was a pretty good week. Especially with a lot of new parts being thrown together. We had a lot of good things to take from the week. That was a good ball team, too."

Deibert was also proud of his senior Brett Huff and sophomore G Oliver for making the all tournament team. "That's big for them," he said. "You know Brett putting in his work as a senior and playing four years for us, it was nice to see him get that," Deibert said of the 6'2" senior. As for Oliver, Deibert said of the young man who moved to Mount Pulaski from Springfield. "G coming to a new school, new system, new situation you know that's gotta be great for his confidence as well. He's a little bit timid still, but he's just a sophomore on a new team. We'd like to see him maybe be more aggressive with the ball but as the year goes on I think we'll see that."

Next up for the 3-1 Toppers, the Warrensburg-Latham Cardinals. That game will take place at the W-L gymnasium, the Bird Cage, Tuesday night with the junior varsity set for 6 p.m. followed by the varsity at 7:30 p.m.

Toppers scoring

Brett Huff 11
Oliver 9
Litterly 9
Aylesworth 8
Taylor 7
Stewart 2
Griesheim 2

Blue Jays scoring

Muller 20
Watson 11
Nicholes 10
Allen 7
Curry 5
Noll 4

[Teena Lowery]