19th St. Joseph Classic scheduled for this week

Photo by Hunter Brooks

By Hunter Brooks and Abigail Hodgson

UCA Sportswriting

St. Joseph will host the 19th annual St. Joseph Classic starting today at the St. Joseph Family Activity Center.

The eight-team tournament (with divisions for boys and girls) will be a classic bracket format with each team guaranteed to play at least two games. 

Today's schedule includes Lonoke vs. Guy-Perkins girls at 4:30 p.m., Marshall vs. Mayflower boys at 5:45; Vilonia vs. Mayflower girls at 7 and Perryville boys against Guy-Perkins at 8:15.

Tuesday's schedule will include Perryville against Marshall girls at 4:30, followed by Lonoke-Vilonia boys at 5:45, St. Joseph-Hazen girls at 7 and St. Joe-Hazen boys at 8:15.

First-round winners will advance to Wednesday's second round. Losers will drop to the consolation bracket Thursday. The tournament will conclude Saturday with fifth-place, third-place and championship games.

The Lady Bulldogs are 6-1, having lost for the first time this season against Greenbrier.

 Coach Chris Kordsmeier is confident that his team will compete well against the other schools.

“We hope to make a good run in the classic,” he said. “We can gain some momentum and experience for the rest of the season.”

Hazen, the Bulldogs' opening opponent, has yet to play a game all season. 

St. Joseph head coach Brent Bruich said 

“As a coach, it’s hard to play a team in its first game of the season,” St. Joe boys coach Brent Bruich said. “We have nothing to go off of about them and it’s a complete unknown. But the good thing is we have a few games under our belt, and we’ve got some kinks out. We don’t know anything about them other than they’re quick and athletic.”

St. Joseph also will play a non-tournament game Friday at home against Rose Bud. Bruich said the potential of playing four games in five days would benefit the team.

“It will be good for us,” he said. “We will see different styles and teams. We want to win so we can have an extra day of preparation. We’re going to play a lot of games in a lot of days. We will really see how deep our bench is. It will prepare us for regionals and hopefully the state tournament where we will have to play quick turnaround games. We’ll see it all this week.”

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Greenbrier hands Lady Bulldogs first loss

Photo by Hunter Brooks

By Abigail Hodgson

UCA Sportswriting

The St. Joseph girl’s basketball team fell short for the first time this season with a loss to Class 5A Greenbrier Monday night, 42-29, at the St. Joseph Family Activity Center in Conway.

The Lady Bulldogs dropped to 6-1 for the season. Coach Chris Kordsmeier said he knew it would be a challenging game for his team as it faced a stronger opponent.

“Greenbrier is a competitive team,” Kordsmeier said. “We knew this would be a tougher game than one we have had before so far. Greenbrier is a bigger school that plays in a bigger class. It’s going to be good experience for the girls to face this type of team.”

Greenbrier jumped to a quick eight-point lead in the first quarter after a follow-up shot and two free throws by junior guard Heather Donham.

With a steal from senior point guard Rachel Briggler resulting in a quick lay-up and a 3-pointer on the left wing, the Lady Bulldogs closed within 10-3 in the beginning of the second quarter.

But the Lady Panthers were quick to respond with 3-pointers by senior point guard Brooklyn Freeling and Donham again. Greenbrier continued to lead with a left side lay-up by Donham, a set of free throws by Freeling, and Donham again with a 3-pointer. Briggler ended the second quarter for the Lady Bulldogs with a right baseline shot, but it wasn’t enough as St. Joseph headed into halftime down by 10.

“At halftime I told the girls to keep working hard,” Kordsmeier said. “This game is definitely going to improve our fitness level and will help prepare us for our 2A conference games.”

St. Joseph had a few opportunities to finish baskets, but the shooting was a little off.

“We started off a little shaky and had a good comeback in the second quarter,” Briggler said. “The third quarter was a little rough but overall we did OK and not our best.”

Greenbrier came out in the third quarter hot with a 3-pointer by junior forward Kenzie Batterton and continued with another 3-pointer by Donham. St. Joe’s only response was a free throw by junior Monica Dabanzo.

“We should have made some of those shots tonight, and it all comes with practice,” Dabanzo said. “We've just got to put the basketball in the net.”

With a 3-pointer in the center of the court by Donham and two free throws by Batterton, the Lady Panthers reached their biggest lead of the night, 40-21, in the fourth quarter. Dabanzo responded with a left-handed lay-up and a free throw after making a two-point basket, but it wasn’t enough to finish the game.

“We shot off tonight because normally we have a better percentage,” Briggler said. “Coach told us that we had a lot of good looks but it just wasn’t falling together tonight.”

The Lady Bulldogs will return to the court Tuesday night when they play host to Hazen in the St. Joseph Classic. 

Bulldogs fall to Panthers by 10

Photos by Hunter Brooks

By Wynrick Smothers
UCA Sportswriting

St. Joseph was outmatched Monday in a 51-41 loss to Class 5A Greenbrier at the St. Joseph Family Activity Center.

Greenbrier guard Tyler Simmons started the game by knocking down shots from beyond the arc from both wings, giving him a quick six points. The Bulldogs matched the aggressive play with senior guard Landon Enderlin driving to the basket, getting a layup from one and a couple of free throws from the other. The Bulldogs also got some good big man play from 6-3 senior forward Drake Cooper, whose  big play in the paint resulted in some early free throws that narrowed the difference to 10-8.

As the first quarter came to a conclusion, the Panthers’ guard play stayed on the rise with both Dustin and Justin Tims playing well. Dustin Tims knocked down a jump shot from 15 feet out, and Justin Tims attacked the rim for a layup. Bulldogs senior guard Taylor Schrekenhofer also displayed some attacking ability, resulting in him getting to the foul line, where he made three of four. Greenbrier hit a huge 3 from the baseline to stretch its lead to 15-11 after the first quarter.

St. Joe coach Brent Bruich said he thought the Bulldogs got the shots they were looking for; they just didn’t knock them down with basically all their first-quarter points coming from the free throw line.

“We have to hit those shots,” Bruich said. “We work from the inside out and when Drake is being doubled, we have to be able to knock down some shots, and we didn’t do that tonight.”

The start of the second quarter was better for the Bulldogs. After Dustin Tims came out and knocked down a short jumper, the Bulldogs came alive. They got a couple of layups from Dylan Schrekenhofer and Nash Nichols and a couple of free throws from Taylor Schrekenhofer to tie the game at 17 before the Panthers hit a big 3 from the top of the key. Cooper helped the Bulldogs by working for a couple of big layups to give his team a bit of a boost, which was cut short by Dustin Tims, who scored the final six points of the quarter to give the Panthers a 27-21 lead at the break.

Cooper scored six points in the third quarter, and it was obvious that Bruich wanted to get him the ball. His hard work paid off in spurts but wasn’t quite enough to help his team pull off a victory.

Bruich said he knew his big man was tired, but he had to keep him in the game if he wanted any chance of prevailing.

“He was tired and I knew it,” Bruich said. “I called a timeout just to get him a break. He probably had 20 points and 10 rebounds tonight. He’s a big part of us and so are the rest of the guys.”

Greenbrier's Simmons also had a big third quarter as he brought energy to his team with a couple of assists, a layup, and a big 3-pointer midway through the quarter. The Panthers’ were easily feeding off his play, and he propelled them to a 40-34 advantage after three.

The Bulldogs were back to looking for Cooper in the paint in the fourth quarter. The strategy worked for a couple of minutes with him attacking the rim getting layups. Once again, though, the guard play was too much for the Bulldogs with Tyler Simmons adding to his bucket of points and Dustin Tims using his quickness to attack the basket and get to the free throw line. The Bulldogs started to foul once they realized the game was just about over. Dylan Schrekenhofer knocked down one last jump shot from about 15 feet, but it was too little, too late, and the Bulldogs fell by 10.

Bruich said he was proud of his team and knew the Bulldogs still have some things to work on.

“We talked about some things we have to do that we’re not doing yet," he said. "They hit a lot of 3s and we didn’t hit one tonight, but the main component was that they wore us down.”

England games cancelled

By Wynrick Smothers

UCA Sportswriting

With England's Lions still involved in the football playoffs last week, St. Joseph's basketball doubleheader there was cancelled.

Coach K celebrates 600th victory

By Abigail Hodgson

UCA Sportswriting

St. Joseph girls’ basketball coach Chris Kordsmeier celebrated his 600^th win for the program on Tuesday night at the St. Joseph Family Activity Center.

The Lady Bulldogs rolled over Marshall, 61-21, improving their record to 6-0. The team and fans awarded Kordsmeier after the monumental win with a plaque and a celebration later that night after the boy’s game.

In his 23^rd year at the helm of the Lady Bulldog basketball program, Kordsmeier holds an impressive 600-202 record and said he felt honored to have the historic win at home at his alma mater.

“I told the girls that I was real proud of the fact that they could do this,” Kordsmeier said. “It’s a good group so it’s good that they were here to share that with me.”

Kordsmeier credited everyone involved in the St. Joseph athletic programs for reaching this mark for the girls’ basketball team.

“I’ve been blessed and I’ve obviously had a lot of good players, families, parents and a good administration,” Kordsmeier said. “Coach (Brent) Bruich has been a big help for me, and Coach (Luke) Davis, all of our pee-wee coaches. It’s just been a team kind of thing and it’s been really nice.”

During the game, the Lady Bulldogs dominated not only on offense but also on defense where they played in a zone formation. Marshall rarely passed half-court, and the Lady Bulldogs were able to limit them to just 21 points. With some Marshall players injured and out, the competition was a bit down against St. Joseph.

“We’re doing a better job [on defense] and that competition was a little bit down,” Kordsmeier said. “Marshall will get better when their players return, but we still did a good job as far as that goes. There’s always room for improvement. We let them drive us a little bit and didn’t quite cover like I wanted to, but I can’t complain too much when we only allowed them 21.”

The Lady Bulldogs are looking to continue their undefeated ways traveling to England on Friday night. 

Bulldogs win physical game against Marshall

By Abigail Hodgson

UCA Sportswriting

The Bulldogs improved to 5-1 Tuesday after an intense victory over a physical Marshall team, 68-51, in the St. Joseph Family Activity Center.

St. Joseph was called for 13 fouls on the night with Marshall having just seven; however, the Bobcats looked to be the more physical team on the court that night.

Bulldog coach Brent Bruich talked to his team at halftime about keeping composure and not letting Marshall get in the way of a win.

“It was a very physical game and we talked about keeping our heads and cooling our heads to prevail and to show a lot of poise out there,” Bruich said. “That’s one of the things we have as our goal, to stay composed, and we want to represent ourselves and our school well.

"We are a Catholic school and we want to act in the Christian way.”

The Bulldogs began the game with high intensity and pressure on defense, jumping to a quick lead in the first quarter, forcing Marshall to trail the rest of the game.

“We started the game really well and the other team had to play behind," Bruich said. "They were 10 points behind the majority of the game. Once we got that 10-point lead, we were just trying to save some legs and play good half-court defense from there.”

Senior Landon Enderlin led the Bulldogs with 16 points for the night. The Bulldogs could have had a more convincing lead; however, a couple of missed opportunities kept the game tighter.

“I think we need to be in better shape; I think we got tired at the end defensively and we didn’t move the ball as crisp as we needed to on offense,” Bruich said. “We missed some free throws and didn’t finish some plays, but we’re always going to have something to work on.”

Bruich said he was proud of the total team effort and high-pressure defense for the night, allowing some steals and getting points early to help the Bulldogs clinch a win.

The Bulldogs travel to play England on Friday. 

Basketball teams sweep Abundant Life

By Abigail Hodgson

UCA Sportswriting

The St. Joseph girl’s basketball team continued their winning streak and the boys got back in the win column after back-to-back games Friday night at Abundant Life.

The Lady Bulldogs (5-0) defeated Abundant Life, 58-21, and the Bulldogs (4-1) followed with another win, 56-40.

Lady Bulldog coach Chris Kordsmeier said he was pleased with the girls' performance.

“The girls played well,” he said. “Anytime you can get a win on the road is good.”

Before the season began, Kordsmeier noted that having returning players and varsity starters would help the team’s chemistry. This is evident with the Lady Bulldogs having a 5-0 record in their pre-district games.

“As far as the experience goes, it has helped us in our close games so far,” he said. “The girls have kept their wits and executed.”

In the boy’s game, St. Joseph was able to bounce back from a loss against South Side Bee Branch last Tuesday. The Bulldogs defeated Abundant Life, 56-40.

Bulldog coach Brent Bruich said he was proud of his team’s improved effort.

“We definitely improved on our intensity and we played with great defense intensity the entire game,” he said. “We are still not flowing like we should on offense, but we will continue to work on it.”

Bruich said the team needs to start shooting the ball better to have a more commanding control of the game. Leading the Bulldogs on the scoreboard were Drake Cooper with 18 points, Landon Enderlin with 10 and Nash Nichols with 7 points.

Both St. Joseph teams return home Tuesday to play host to Marshall.

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