Big second quarter helps Saxony past Perryville

During the Winter Warrior Classic, Saxony Lutheran struggled as the top seed in the opening round, trailing at halftime against Valmeyer.
Tasked with a similar situation, against Perryville in the Chester Invitational Tournament, Saxony coach Justin Callahan implored his team to be ready to play.
This time it was a drastically different outcome. The Crusaders used a big second quarter to create some distance and used that momentum to run past Perryville 72-46 on Monday.
“We talked about in the locker room coming out ready to play,” Crusaders coach Justin Callahan said. “I thought Perryville came out ready too though because we tried to put a little pressure on them and they handled it well.”
Saxony quickly led 10-3 in the opening minutes of the game, but Perryville battled back and stayed within striking distance at 22-11.
The second quarter was a different story.
Saxony Lutheran won the quarter 22-4 behind a trio of three-pointers in the quarter by John Hartmann to take a 44-15 lead into the locker room at halftime.
“It’s nice,” Callahan said of having both Hartmann and Eggemeyer. “Luke’s averaging 22 points a game and John is averaging 18 so it’s pretty consistent game in and game out.”
The large deficit didn’t phase the Pirates out of the locker room as they opened the third-quarter on a 13-5 run to cut into the lead.
Leading the charge for the Pirates was Jake Cissell who knocked down three triples to cut the deficit.
Cissell led the Pirates with 18 points, including six three-pointers. Callahan stressed to his team multiple times about slowing down the sharpshooter.

“I called two timeouts to remind them that (Cissell) could shoot it,” Callahan said. “It was just like we had forgotten everything we talked about.”
After a pair of timeouts from Callahan, the Crusaders managed to turn the faucet off on the Pirates, taking a commanding 64-30 lead into the fourth-quarter.
“We went back to man and eventually got it figured out,” Callahan said.
Saxony’s offense featured three double-digit scorers largely because of the way the Crusaders were moving the ball around.
“We need to move the ball quickly,” Callahan said. “I agree though it looked really good (tonight).”
The leader of the three in double-digits for the Crusaders was both Hartmann and Eggemeyer who each poured in 23-points.
Also in double-digits was Owen Bucheit with 12-points in the win for the Crusaders.
Perryville was led by Cissell who had 18-points on 6 made threes in the loss.
Perryville (1-11) will play the loser of Valle and Valmeyer at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 10, at Chester High School.
Saxony Lutheran (9-4) will play the winner of Valle and Valmeyer at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 10, at Chester High School.
“Either way we’re going to have our hands full,” Callahan said.