Saturday, January 13, 2001
Elder knocks off No. 1 St. X
Bazeley's basket wins in overtime, 55-53
By Dave Schutte
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Basketball Elder style is 32 minutes of intensity. But it took the Panthers 36 minutes of in-your-face basketball to defeat No.1 St.Xavier 55-53 in overtime Friday at St.Xavier.
Elder's Jake Bazeley (team-high 14 points) took inbounds pass after St.X tied the game with 14.8 seconds left in OT and drove the length of the court to the winning basket.
“I knew we were out of timeouts,” he said. “When I got the ball, all I wanted to do was take it all the way. I don't know know how many players I drove through to score.”
When Bazeley's shot dropped, St. Xavier's Jordan Cornette (20 points) and Mike Grogan (18 points) slumped to the floor.
The Bombers were ranked first in both the Enquirer coaches poll and the Associated Press state poll.
The loss was St. Xavier's first of the season and broke the 2000 Division I state champions' 17-game winning streak. St.X's previous loss was to Elder in the final game of the 1999-2000 regular season.
The game was close throughout. The biggest lead by either team was six (St.X 14-8 and Elder 50-44 in overtime).
With St.X trailing 50-44, Cornette sank a 3-pointer and Grogan followed with two free throws to cut the deficit to 50-49. Bazeley sank one of two free throws, and seldom-used Mike Kroeger converted two more for a 53-49 Elder lead.
Cornette tipped in a missed shot and, following an Elder five-second violation, Craig Cashen scored on a jump shot off the inbounds play. This set the stage for Bazeley's heroics.
St. Xavier was its own worst enemy. The Bombers, a 68 percent shooting team from the free throw line, converted only 11 of 23 (49 percent) while Elder came through with nine of 14.
Elder's game plan was to go inside rather than rely on the outside shot.
“We knew Cornette was a good player, but we had the size advantage,” Elder coach Joe Schoenfeld. “We didn't want to get in a game of H-O-R-S-E with St. X from the outside, because they're good shooters.”
St. Xavier was forced to play most of the game without Steve Callahan (sprained ankle in the first quarter).
“We had to move Mike (Grogan) to point and rely on some backups,” St. X coach Scott Martin said. “Free throws definitely hurt us, but overall, I thought we played a good game, as did Elder.”
St. Xavier was ahead 12-8 after the first quarter. Elder fought back and led 21-20 at halftime and 34-29 after three quarter.
“Beating (No. 2) West Hi on Monday turned our season,” Bazeley said. “We knew this was our hardest stretch of the season and we won two of three games.”
In the last two weeks, Elder had lost to Moeller and LaSalle.
“This was a big win, because we're now back in the GCL race,” Schoenfeld said.
ELDER (55) — Miller 1 0 3, Bazeley 5 3 14, Benken 5 3 13, Schenke 3 1 7, Mahon 3 0 6, Kroeger 2 2 6, Wiehe 1 0 2, Bengel 2 0 4. Totals: 21 9-14 55.
ST. XAVIER (53) — Grogan 3 9 18, Cornette 8 2 20, Bast 1 0 2, Shriver 1 0 3, Retzlinger 10 2, Cashen 4 0 8. Totals: 18 11-23 53.
Elder ....... 8 13 13 9 12—55
St. Xavier ....... 12 8 9 13 10—53
3-pointers: E—Miller, Bazeley, Mahon 2. SX—
Grogan 3, Cornette 2, Shriver. Records: SX 10-1, 4-1 GCL; E 9-3, 4-2 GCL.
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Elder knocks off No. 1 St. X
