Foul trouble plagues Dutchmen in Belle title game

By Will Johnson, Sports Editor
Posted 1/28/21

BELLE — Defeating Missouri Military Academy and Belle’s junior varsity Tigers earlier in the week, Cullen VanLeer’s Owensville Dutchmen earned a spot in Saturday’s …

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Foul trouble plagues Dutchmen in Belle title game

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BELLE — Defeating Missouri Military Academy and Belle’s junior varsity Tigers earlier in the week, Cullen VanLeer’s Owensville Dutchmen earned a spot in Saturday’s championship game of the Belle Boys Basketball Tournament.

Facing Newburg’s Wolves, OHS was making their second straight appearance in the championship game at Belle looking to atone for their loss to Richland in last year’s championship game.

Leading 6-1 near the midway point of the first quarter, Owensville appeared to be on their way to hoisting championship hardware.

However, a 14-2 run by Newburg gave the Wolves a 15-8 lead after one quarter.

Getting within four points on two occasions the rest of the game, the Dutchmen were not able to get any closer before coming up on the short end of a 74-66 final score.

Throughout the game, Owensville made several runs at the Wolves only to see Newburg have an answer for every one.

Trailing 22-11 with 4:46 until halftime, A pair of Austin Lowder free throws sparked a 9-2 Dutchmen run cutting Newburg’s lead to four at 24-20 with 2:57 for the second quarter.

Answering OHS’ run with a 7-0 run of their own, the Wolves took a 31-20 lead into halftime.

Tyler Heidbrink led the Dutchmen with seven first-half points while Hunter Mentola paced Newburg with 12 first-half points.

Even with both teams trading baskets the majority of the third quarter, Owensville edged Newburg 14-11 to trim their deficit into single digits entering the fourth quarter 42-34.

Falling behind 59-46 with 3:22 remaining, Owensville strung together another run to get themselves back into the game.

Started by a Heidbrink 3-pointer with 3:07 to play, a Brendan Decker bucket at the 1:50 mark of the fourth quarter capped a 10-4 Dutchmen run cutting Newburg’s lead to 63-59.

Forced to start fouling the Wolves, the Dutchmen saw Newburg hit seven of their next 10 free-throw attempts to put the game out of reach.

Heidbrink and Mentola led their respective teams sharing game-high scoring honors with 22 points each. Heidbrink added seven rebounds, four assists and three steals to his team-high point total.

Decker also finished in double figures scoring 14 of his 18 points in the second half while adding four rebounds and four steals.

Netting eight points in the second half, Brandt made it a trio of Dutchmen in double figures finishing with 10 points.

Mentola added 10 rebounds to his 22 points giving him a double double.

Two nights earlier, Owensville faced Belle’s JV Tigers in their final pool-play game of the tournament.

Belle’s JV Tigers entered the tournament when Chamois had to withdraw due to COVID-19 related quarantine.

Holding Belle’s JV to single digits in each quarter, the Dutchmen went on to a 90-20 victory Thursday night.

Decker led four Dutchmen in double figures with 19 points. He also added four steals, four assists and three rebounds.

Bryce Payne finished with 16 points scoring 14 of them in the first half.

Landon Valley just missed a double double finishing with 12 points and eight rebounds.

Will Lauth rounded out the quartet of Dutchmen double-digit scorers with 10 points.

Heidbrink just missed double digits with nine points followed by eight markers from Brandt.

Zaid Epstein added seven points and dished out a team-high five assists.

Charlie Whelan posted six points, six rebounds, five steals and two assists for the Dutchmen.

Logan Evans chipped in two points, six rebounds, three steals and three assists for Owensville against Belle’s JV Tigers.

Sam Willis led Belle with six points followed by five points from Kaiden Robertson.

Last Tuesday against the Colonels from Missouri Military Academy (MMA) out of Mexico, Owensville turned a 35-28 halftime lead into a 64-43 victory in their opening game of the Belle Boys Basketball Tournament.

Putting up a baker’s dozen (13 points) in the first half, Heidbrink led the Dutchmen and all scorers with a game-high 15 points to go with a team-high six rebounds.

Payne ended up with 12 points against the Colonels scoring six points in each half.

Epstein hit three 3-point shots to finish with nine points.

Owensville’s junior varsity and varsity Dutchmen will return to action tomorrow (Thursday) night on the road at Capital City.