For the second time in six days, Seckman’s Colin Debold had a golden chance to send rival Fox packing.
The senior guard already had converted his first opportunity, draining a 3-pointer at the buzzer to knock off the Warriors 72-71 Dec. 9 in the Gene Steighorst Tournament at Hillsboro. In a rematch six days later at the schools’ annual C-6 Showcase, hosted by Fox, Debold showed there’s more than one way to win in the final seconds.
He rifled a pass between two Fox defenders to junior forward Sam Wason, who made a go-ahead layup with 10 seconds remaining as the Jaguars pulled out a 70-66 win. It marked the sixth straight Showcase victory for Seckman. The game also was the season’s first outing for the Jaguars (3-3) and Warriors (3-6) in the Suburban Conference Blue pool.
“I just really trusted Colin there,” Wason said. “He’s my teammate, the best scorer, and I found a way to get myself open. He found me, (and) I made the layup.”
Fox senior guard Kyle Gast, who finished with a game- and season-high 30 points, missed a potential game-winning 3-pointer with six seconds remaining. Seckman guard Keagan Heitert, a junior, closed out the scoring with two late free throws.
“We can be a little bit of a roller coaster,” Seckman head coach Aaron Carroll said. “We play hard and we battle. We don’t quit and (we) get after it. I’m just trying to put (the team) in position to be successful and let our guys make plays.”
Fox jumped out to an early advantage behind Gast and senior guard Seigo Piatcheck, who combined to score their team’s first 15 points. An 8-2 run sparked by freshman Jude Pribish and junior Ethan Mazzola pushed the Warriors’ lead to 23-17 midway through the second quarter.
But the Jaguars clawed back behind Debold and a balanced attack. Senior guard Cade Bonastia, one of four Seckman players to connect from behind the arc, hit a 3-pointer with less than four minutes to go until halftime, and a free throw from Debold pushed Seckman ahead 33-32 entering the break.
“I thought we were competitive on both sides of the ball,” Fox head coach Mike Wilken said. “Debold is just a really tough matchup, and I thought we did a decent job on him. But he also distributed the ball really well.”
Debold finished with a season-low 18 points, but Wason (16) and junior Carter Gibbar (13) both notched their highest point totals of the season. On the Warriors’ side, Mazzola was the only other player to score in double digits, finishing with a season-best 10 points.
Fox mounted a second-half comeback behind Gast, who charged the hoop to score nine consecutive points, including a two-handed dunk, and pulled Fox within two points. Senior guard Mason Nance then nailed a 3-pointer to give Fox a 46-45 lead with less than three minutes remaining in the third quarter.
“That’s kind of been the theme for us so far this year,” Wilken said. “We’ve shown that we can fight back. It’s just finishing those close games out. We’ve got to find a way to win, but (Seckman) did a good job of finishing the game, so credit to them.”
A layup by senior Wyatt Harris helped push the Jaguar advantage to 57-49 early in the fourth quarter. Then came the frantic final minute.
Fox senior Cayden Keisker knocked down a 3-pointer from the wing to bring the Warriors within three points. Then, on the ensuing inbound, Mazzola alertly tipped the inbound pass right back off the inbounder, Heitert, to give Fox an unexpected chance to tie the game.
Gast flashed his knack for making the difficult shot, drilling a game-tying 3-pointer from the left wing. But Debold and Wason had the last word in securing the Jaguars’ third victory in four games.
On Tuesday, after the Leader deadline, Seckman hosted Lindbergh (6-0), which is ranked No. 2 in Missouri Class 6 by MaxPreps. Fox will next compete in the Valle Catholic Christmas Tournament starting Dec. 27 in Ste. Genevieve.
Fox responds to coach’s halftime challenge
Matt Weber had a simple halftime message for his team: “Play the way that we are.”
The Fox girls responded to that challenge from their head coach, opening the second half with a 12-1 run and riding that momentum to a 36-30 victory over Seckman Dec. 15 in the annual C-6 Showcase at Fox. The win also registered in the Suburban Conference Green pool standings, where the Warriors are 1-0 and the Jaguars 0-2.
Warrior senior guard Lexie Kettler kicked things off with a 3-pointer on the opening possession of the second half to snap an 11-11 tie. Fox never trailed again as its balanced scoring and timely defense withstood a late Jaguar rally.
“Credit to our girls because they took it to heart that this rivalry was theirs,” Weber said. “Four years in a row now.”
Fox senior guard Gwen Williams tallied a game-high eight points while sophomore Taylor D’Aquila and senior Natalie Miller added seven points apiece for the Warriors (4-4). Sophomore Payton Bantle and senior Madi McElrath each tallied six points to lead Seckman (5-2).
“We worked hard,” McElrath said. “I’m really proud of how much we hustled, and I really wish we could have gotten the win. But I’m proud of our effort.”
Seckman, playing its first true road game of the season, struggled to find any offensive flow, facing constant on-ball pressure from a suffocating Fox defense. The Warriors held their rivals to their second-lowest offensive output of the season.
“Our upperclassmen leadership (worked well for us),” Weber said. “Natalie Miller did an incredible job up front. Izzy Frissell, Lexi Kettler, Gwen Williams and Miranda Hardy put in some huge minutes, (and seeing) them do what they’re supposed to do was fantastic.”
Fox did not allow a point for the first 3:20 of the game, before McElrath got the visitors on the board with a layup. Then the Jaguars tightened down, not yielding any points until early in the second quarter.
Seckman faced an 11-point deficit in the third quarter but shaved that down to just three points on a 9-1 run that ended when Fox called timeout with 6:27 left to play. Frissell, who started the night averaging 13.3 points per contest, left the game with a lower-leg injury at the 5:15 mark, but back-to-back jumpers by D’Aquila and a fastbreak layup from Williams clinched the win.
“Any given night, we have people who are going to score,” Weber said. “It says a lot about our depth that we’re going to get girls who score four to eight points, and if we get enough of them that score (like that), we’ll get enough points on the board to win the game.”
Seckman head coach Kevin Werner praised his squad’s defense, which is averaging less than 24 points allowed per game, including single-digit totals by Bishop DuBourg and Crystal City in the first two games of the season.
“I thought defensively, we played really well,” Werner said. “I’ve been preaching defense this year, that we’re going to go and try to hold teams in the 30s, which we did. It just happened that offensively, we couldn’t quite finish.”
Fox is idle over the holidays and won’t return to action until the Warriors host Ritenour (2-2) Jan. 3. Seckman hosted Notre Dame of St. Louis (1-4) on Monday, past the Leader deadline.