Steeleville boys take third at Sparta
<span>SPARTA -- In a matchup determined by free throw percentage, Steeleville's contest against Red Bud on Saturday was ironically determined by it.</span>
<span>First Team All-Tournament selection Nic Hagel scored 30 points, and went 15-for-15 from the charity stripe in the fourth quarter, helping the Warriors pull away from the Musketeers for a 61-43 victory in the third place game of the Sparta Mid-Winter Classic.</span>
<span>"We work on free throws every day," said Steeleville coach Bryce Bainter. "I've seen too many times we either win or lose games when it's just you up there at the line and it's up to you to make it.</span>
<span>"We try to put the kids in pressure situations in practice where they have to make free throws and knock on wood in this tournament, it paid off."</span>
<span>Hagel finished 16-for-18 overall from the free-throw line, while Steeleville (12-7) finished 25-for-31 as a team.</span>
<span>Reid Frederking contributed 10 points for Steeleville, the only other player to reach double figures for the Warriors.</span>
<span>"We had a hard time keeping the Hagel kid in front of us, which a lot of people do," Porter said. "We've got to do a better job of that or find somebody who can do it against kids like that.</span>
<span>"But (Hagel) does a good job of getting to the basket. He's a handful."</span>
<span>Hagel swished four 3-pointers in the second quarter, helping Steeleville take a 25-20 lead into the locker room at halftime.</span>
<span>"We gave them seven 3's in the first half," said Red Bud coach Vance Porter. "So we were going to make an effort to take those away and they did a good job of concentrating getting the ball inside.</span>
<span>"They got inside right away and they got us behind and we switched to man-to-man."</span>
<span>Steeleville's Trey Lazenby scored five points to start the second half and later added two free throws to help stretch the Warriors' lead to 37-24 entering the fourth quarter.</span>
<span>"This is Trey's first year of playing organized basketball," Bainter said. "He's really athletic and his ceiling is high because I'm still teaching him the game.</span>
<span>"He's got kind of a higher ceiling than some of the other kids who have played all year. I think he can do some damage the last month or so of the season."</span>
<span>The fourth quarter was a free throw contest. Steeleville shot 23 foul shots in the frame, while Red Bud shot eight.</span>
<span>"We've got to find the positives in this tournament, obviously we only won one game," Porter said. "But we beat a solid Waterloo team. I know they're not happy with the tournament they had, but we did some good things against them pretty much consistently throughout the game - which is what is missing when we play a decent team."</span>
<span>Jack Richards led Red Bud (6-13) with 15 points in the loss, while Logan Kueker added 10.</span>
<span>In other tournament action, Trico took seventh place with a 68-64 win over Waterloo and Sparta took fifth place thanks to a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by Drew Byington in a 53-51 overtime win over Du Quoin.</span>
<span>In the championship game, Murphysboro continued its dominant tournament run with a 71-35 win over Freeburg.</span>
<span>The Red Devils (20-3) outscored their opponents by an average of 23.5 points en route to their third Mid-Winter Classic title in six years, and first since 2012 after finishing third in 2015 and runner-up in 2014.</span>
S'ville 68, Sparta 45
<span>Dusty Sutton scored 23 points to lead four players in double figures and Steeleville downed Sparta in the Warriors' first game of the Sparta Mid-Winter Classic.</span>
<span>Owen Gross (12), Nic Hagel (10) and Trey Lazenby (10) also reached double-digits for the Warriors, who outscored Sparta 19-8 in the second quarter to take a 34-25 lead at halftime.</span>
<span>Drew Kordys led Sparta with 12 points in the loss.</span>
Trico 71, S'ville 62
<span>Trent Koch scored 17 points and seven other Pioneers scored at least four points as Trico defeated Steeleville.</span>
<span>Jake Compton added 14 points for Trico, which led 31-24 at halftime. Nic Hagel scored a game-high 29 points for the Warriors, who also got 11 points from R.J. Smith and 10 from Dusty Sutton.</span>
<span>nFreeburg 52, S'ville 48</span>
<span>Trey Lazenby scored a team-high 16 points to lead three scorers in double figures, but Steeleville fell to Freeburg on the final day of pool play.</span>
<span>Nic Hagel added 12 points and R.J. Smith contributed 10 for the Warriors. Will Berger led all scorers with 19 points for Freeburg.</span>
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