The Saxony Lutheran boys basketball team put on a show for those fans in attendance on one of the biggest nights of the year.
Saxony jumped out quick and cruised to a 77-37 victory over St. Paul Lutheran on homecoming Friday night. The victory is the seventh straight for the Crusaders, who continue their hot streak since the calendar turned to 2023. This game was a stark contrast to the contest the two teams played in December, which was a 55-38 Saxony victory as well.
“It’s a great atmosphere here and you always want to win on homecoming,” Saxony coach Justin Callahan said. “We have a lot of alumni back tonight and our student section is always great. Tonight was fun. We were hoping we would come out and play well.”
And they did.
Despite the players having limited practice time because of the inclement weather that hit the area, Saxony showed no ill effects of the longer layoff.
Saxony hit its shots early and often in the first quarter and led 16-2 five minutes into the contest. John Hartmann scored 13 points in the quarter including three three-pointers and the defense turned the Giants over five times. Saxony led 24-7 after the first quarter.
Saxony was led by Hartmann’s 24 points, as the Crusaders had four players in double figures. Luke Eggemeyer had 15 points, Max Richey, had 12 and Landon Ochs scored 11 points. While the points came in bunches, Callahan was concerned with slowing down and containing Devontae Minor for St. Paul.
“He’s really good and scored 24 points against us the first time we played,” Callahan said. “We wanted to stop him and make the other players beat us. The others weren’t able to pick up the slack.”
Minor ended with 15 points on Friday, with nine in the second half, including a pair of three-pointers from well beyond the arc. However, by that time, Saxony had the game well in hand.
“You weren’t able to really see what he could do because of what we did in the first half,” Callahan said.
That’s because Saxony led 50-15 at the half.
This game continues a roll that has seen Saxony win 10 of its last 12 contests. The Crusaders have lost only once in 2023 and it all stemmed from its loss to St. Vincent during the Winter Warrior Classic at Valle Catholic around Christmas.
“We went 1 for 13 from three and had that game in the palm of our hand and it slipped away,” Callahan said. “Reality set in after that game on the realization that we can’t go 1 for 13 or 2 or 16 or anything like that. We put an effort to more and more shooting. Since that St. Vincent game we have shot much better. We were shooting 22 percent from three earlier in the year, but that is almost up to 30 percent. Which doesn’t seem like much, but it’s a huge jump for us.”
Along with making seven three-pointers, Saxony was also 14 of 15 from the free throw line.
“The free throw shooting goes back to last year,” Callahan said. “We were 19-8, but there were four games that if we could just could make free throws, we could have won those game and been district champions. We went 1 for 6 in that title game. Free throws are just huge because in a close game that is what it will come down to.”
