Northern Illinois Sports Beat: Rough Start Dashes Braves Title Hopes

By Cody Cutter, NISB Publisher
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PEORIA (Mar. 13) � The Annawan Braves played their best basketball game this season � for 24 minutes.

Unfortunately for them, they were the final 24 minutes.

In their first trip to state, Annawan dug an early hole they just could not recover from. They ended up on the wrong end of a 51-47 game to Macon Meridian in the Class 1A State Semifinals at Carver Arena.

Annawan (27-7) was down 21-8 after one quarter. They chipped away at the Meridian (29-2) lead most of the game, and led 41-40 early in the fourth quarter.

Mackenzie Chapman got the game off to a rousing start with a three-point bucket from an Alex Coppejans pass. Meridian countered that with a three from Trent Swigart, and then some. Swigart scored the first nine Hawk points, going on a 9-0 run by himself up until the 4:15 mark. The last two came off Annawan turnovers.

�Meridian is a great basketball team,� said Annawan coach Ryan Brown. �They showed it today. They had a great first quarter. They came out and really put a display here at State, and just played really great defense, and shot threes they wouldn't normally get.�

The Braves turned the ball over 10 times in the first quarter. That was twice as many as they had in the whole super-sectional game against Newark three days earlier. Also a big problem was the defense against Coppejans. Ryan Shasteen was assigned to the all-stater, and held him to only six points.

�He's very quick, and I can't really get my good first step on him to drive the baseline,� said Coppejans. �Whenever I would try to get around him, on a baseline drive, they would always have one guy sitting right there. So it was very tough.�

Annawan, despite being down by 13 after eight minutes, didn't quit. The Braves were able to close Meridian's gap to 11 points at halftime at 34-23. Midway through the third quarter they stepped it up on their 1-3-1 zone press. By doing so, they went on a 11-0 run offensively to end the third quarter. Heath Rakestraw scored six points, while Sean Walker had five.

�Our second half we started getting some of the momentum back,� said Brown. �We finally got in attack mode. It took us too long to get into our Annawan-style basketball.�

�We're better than that against the press,� said Meridian coach Jack Blickensderfer. �We've played against it over the course of the year. Today, though, we've never seen a press in the world like this one.�

The run continued with a pair of free throws by Rakestraw to give the Braves the lead at 41-40. Meridian scored the next two baskets courtesy of Kyle Fore and Shasteen. The cushion, albeit small, helped as they were behind 6-2 in fouls in the half.

Down 48-47, Chapman was fouled by Fore, but missed the bonus free throw that would have tied the game. With fouls to give, Annawan forced Meridian to the line with 23.5 remaining. Shasteen was fouled by Chapman and sank both free throws.

With 15.8 left, Chapman was stolen by Dakota Getz in the paint. After getting the ball back with one more Hawk point, Coppejans tried for a three-point shot, but the rebound was caught by Getz with seven seconds left.

�We gave the No. 1 team in the state all they could handle,� said Brown. �If we just played that first quarter all over again. The rest of the game, I don't know if we could play much better than what we did. We did everything we had to, and Meridian was just a little bit better than us.�

Walker and Matt DeDecker led the Braves with 11 points each. Chapman was also in double figures with 10, Rakestraw had eight and Steve DeMay chipped in one. Coppejans and DeDecker each led with six rebounds.

Getz, who will be attending the University of Iowa on a football scholarship, had a double-double with 15 points and ten rebounds (five on both ends of the court). Swigert led all players with 18 points, going four-for-seven from three-point range. Shasteen had 11 points to compliment his holding of Coppejans.

�This is great,� said Shasteen. �It's been our goal all year. I don't know if it's set in still, but we made it and we're in the state championship. We got to come back and play better tomorrow.�

So does Annawan. A lot of energy having been exerted in the comeback, the Braves now have to play again Saturday. The last time Annawan played back-to-back after a loss was in the Lincoln Trail Tournament. They fell to Princeville, but came back to avenge a past loss to Kewanee Wethersfield the next day.

�We're definitely taking this all in as a team,� said Coppejans. �I really wanted that victory to play in the state championship. The good thing about state is we got one more game to play. That's what we're focused on right now. We want to work as hard tomorrow as we did today.�