Saxony Lutheran stuns Scott City, advances to C3D2 title game

Saxony Lutheran's Wilson Lodge and Lane Koenig celebrate with teammates after beating Scott City in the Class 3, District 2 tournament semifinals on Tuesday at Scott City.

Tony Capobianco ~ tcapobianco@semoball.com

Something clearly happened to Saxony Lutheran when the calendar turned to the month of February.

The last time Crusaders lost a game it was at home to Scott City on Jan. 28. Since then, they have been on a winning streak and extended it to five after upsetting the Rams on Tuesday 43-41, to avenge their last loss and advance to the Class 3 District 2 championship game.

“Honestly, it feels amazing,” said junior forward Wilson Lodge, who led the Crusaders with 15 points. “We didn’t really expect this at the beginning of the year but now that we’re here, we want to go all the way.”

The Crusaders were 3-13 prior to the streak. Since then they defeated Perryville on a buzzer beater by Wilson Lodge, dominated Crystal City and St. Paul Lutheran and beat Woodland by nine.

“I think as a team, we came together a lot more,” Lodge said. “We spent a lot more time in the gym, trying to make sure that we know what we’re doing X’s and O’s and personal skill wise. Here on these last few runs, we’ve been putting it all together in the whole game instead of just a couple quarters.”

“We just got closer as a team, started giving more effort and shots started falling,” sophomore Max Richey said.

The last three regular season games took place over the course of four days.

“I think as soon as we got through that hard week and we won them all,” Lodge said, “that really just gave us the confidence to go out and try to give it our all.”

Senior Camden Conner led Scott City with 19 points. The Rams took a 12-6 first quarter lead with the help of two 3-pointers from junior Kaleb Karrenbrock.

“Conner just destroyed us at the end of the half,” Richey said, “but we knew coming into this game we could win it.”

The Crusaders held the Rams to four points in the fourth quarter and tied the game 16-16 at halftime.

Junior guard William Eldridge scored all of his 13 points in the second half to give Saxony Lutheran the push it needed.

“Keeping my confidence up even when I’m missing shots,” Eldridge said, “just put the ball in the hole.”

Lodge and Eldridge scored 12 of the Crusaders’ 16 points in the third quarter to give them a three-point lead, 32-29 going into the final period.

“I think as soon as we came out and made a couple quick baskets,” Lodge said. “I think right then and there we knew we could do this.”

Karrenbrock finished with nine points. Senior Ethan Pennington scored 11 points and senior Nicolas Hillman scored the remaining two points for Scott City.

The Rams were without senior Cayden Beussink and freshman Mark Panagos due to a stomach illness.

“They’re both pretty solid players but overall I still thought we could come out on top,” Richey said.

The last time Saxony Lutheran (8-13) won a district title was in 2018. The Crusaders will take on Charleston on Thursday in the C3D2 championship game. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:45 p.m.