Is the magic wearing off? After winning six straight, the Saint Louis U. High basketball team (13-8) has dropped two of their last three. Both losses came against MCC opponents, as the Jr. Bills lost to De Smet 57-47 and to Chaminade 56-52 in overtime. Even the lone win of the week, coming against Mexico (5-4) in the Ramey Invitation, ended poorly as senior captain Zach Ortwerth injured his finger dunking and is sidelined for two weeks.

De Smet (15-5)  was entering Friday's game almost as hot as SLUH, winning five of their previous six. They are led by senior Justin Duff, who is averaging 17.9 points per game. SLUH held him to six points. 

“Duff is a solid player and he has been playing well down the stretch,” said Ortwerth, who guarded Duff the majority of the game. “We knew going into the game that he was going to be someone we had to be cognizant of.”

Despite the poor shooting night from Duff, De Smet started on fire, cooking the potent SLUH defense and getting out to an early 9-2 lead. But SLUH picked it up quickly with evenly distributed scoring from Ortwerth, senior Aaron Walker, junior Charlie Isom-McCall, and junior Jalen Jones. Because of the hole from the beginning of the game, they trailed 16-10 after one quarter. 

The second quarter was more of the same. Both Jesuit squads traded baskets back and forth. Ortwerth had one of his best quarters this season, scoring 8. Walker and sophomore Landon Pace also contributed. The Jr. Bills, slowly but surely, inched closer and a corner three from senior sharpshooter Cal Kreuter brought them to within one of the Spartans going into the halftime break, 25-24. 

“We strung together some defensive stops and got out in transition," said Kreuter. “That got us back in it.”

SLUH picked up right where they left off in the third and a Pace layup gave them the first lead of the night at the 5:50 mark. The two squads were in a stalemate. If SLUH scored, De Smet would come right down and score with ease. If SLUH missed or turned the ball over, De Smet would miss or turn the ball over. SLUH held a razor thin one-point advantage entering the fourth, 36-35. 

Coming off the break, the Bills started the fourth quarter off with a beautifully executed backdoor play resulting in a Walker layup. After a key defensive stop, Isom-McCall put in a layup to stretch the lead to 40-35. But then SLUH began to lose the grip on the game. Isom-McCall missed a fast break dunk with around 6 minutes to play in the game that turned into a De Smet three. This play was a key turning point for both teams as it would have given SLUH their biggest lead, but instead it gave De Smet all the momentum they needed down the stretch. Possessions seemed to be repeating themselves as SLUH turned the ball over on consecutive possessions leading to De Smet running away with it. 

It all seemed to be unraveling for the Jr. Bills as the Spartans were getting hot and converting on the majority of their possessions. On top of that, the seemingly experienced Jr. Bills were taking quick shots and the De Smet lead continued to grow out of reach. The Spartans finished strong and broke the Basketbills’ win streak, winning 57-47.

“We played hard and really were having success in the paint that game,” said Walker. “But down the stretch we made some silly mistakes that cost us the game.”

After the heartbreaking loss to the Spartans, the Jr. Bills traveled all the way to Harrisburg, Mo. to battle the Mexico Bulldogs, a team that SLUH is not too familiar with. However, the Bulldogs had played other St. Louis teams and they were not a big threat. 

For the first time all season, the Jr. Bills went into the game with a bigger frontcourt than their opponent. It became immediately apparent that Ortwerth and Pace were on pace for a big day. 

The tight-end duo dominated the boards and the offensive glass, but Mexico was feistier than SLUH anticipated and were keeping it competitive. After a quarter of back and forth basketball, the Bills were up 15-11 and looked to continue to dominate the interior.

SLUH was clearly the more talented team offensively and the two bigs, Pace and Ortwerth, combined for 22 in the first half. Unfortunately, Ortwerth fell on his hand after being fouled on a dunk attempt. That injury caused him to miss the rest of this game and he will be sidelined until Senior Night against Vianney. Despite the injury, SLUH went into the halftime break up 31-19.

Luckily the offense continued to function without Ortwerth. SLUH came out of halftime with a beautiful back door play drawn up. It was well executed and led to a good finish at the rim by Isom-McCall to start the second half scoring. 

However, it wasn’t perfect. The Jr. Bills streaky second half of the game was filled with the highest of the highs and the lowest of the lows—the lows being consecutive missed layups on fast breaks and giving up 11 straight points to a bench player for the Bulldogs. Despite these simple mistakes by the Jr. Bills, they found themselves able to make key plays when it mattered most. Walker managed the game well as usual and Pace played his best game of the year, finishing with 17. He filled the void that was left when Ortwerth was sidelined during the first half. 

“Our bench stepped up after Zach got hurt. And Landon stepped up big time,” said senior Cayman Butler. 

In the end, the Bills left Harrisburg with a 64-51 win over the Mexico Bulldogs. Landon Pace was named MVP of the game, and everyone’s thoughts were on their next matchup: Chaminade.  

“I’m happy I got the recognition for my play by being named MVP,” said Pace. “But it was a great test for us to see how we would respond after a loss.”

The Chaminade game started as bad as it possibly could have for SLUH. The rim seemed to be sealed shut because on the offensive end, no one could do much of anything. Walker, who ended the game with 22 points, was held scoreless and the Jr. Bills as a whole only put up a measly two points, which is a season low for a quarter. Starting with the loss to SLUH on Jan. 27, Chaminade (15-8) was on a five-game losing skid so Coach Bennett and his team came out with more intensity than they’ve had all season. It seemed like they were hustling more, jumping SLUHs plays, and doing everything possible to blitz SLUH out of the game early. Despite a good defensive quarter, SLUH found themselves down 14-2 after one, and in the eyes of Walker, it was a quarter they had to forget about. 

“We started out really slow, only scoring two points in the first quarter,” said Walker. “We needed to pick it up big time, and eventually we did.”

SLUH picked up right where they left off in the second quarter: struggling to get the ball in the hoop. At the halfway point in the quarter, SLUH had doubled their points, getting up to four, with the lone bucket coming from Walker. 

But then all of the sudden something started to change. Vintage SLUH was starting to peek through, offensive opportunities were made by defensive stops. Walker and Isom-McCall each got steals that resulted in points on the other end and in the waning minutes of the quarter, the momentum was starting to shift. Going into halftime, they still found themselves down 26-12, but they ended the quarter on a 10-4 run. 

“Offensively we started in a 4 out, went away from plays and were looking for movement and driving opportunities,” said Kreuter. “And that seemed to work. The defense collapsed on the drives and we were able to find shooters that were knocking down shots.”

After an intense halftime talk from the coaches, the Jr. Bills kept their momentum rolling, and found success on their first possession in their new 4 out look as Walker found Isom-McCall for a corner three. They kept up their offensive streak with a stepback three from Walker then a Pace putback. 

And while everything seemed to be going SLUHs way, the veteran coaching staff and head manager Louis Kertz made a rare mistake. In the middle of the third quarter, freshman Keenan Harris, who was pulled up from JV due to Ortwerth’s injury, checked in; however, since his number was not in the score book, it was a technical foul. SLUHs momentum drained. They scored a mere two points the rest of the quarter and still found themselves down 12 against the best offensive team in the MCC.

But being down 12 meant nothing for Walker. He scored nine points in the first three minutes and got SLUH to within four. Striking distance. Then came Isom-McCall. The junior guard got two steals, a forced turnover, and a fastbreak layup. The lead was down to two, 41-39. 

Chaminade, then, got to the free throw line and got it back up to four but an Isom-McCall layup and two Walker free throws tied it with 26 seconds to go. Normally, the last shot for Chaminade would go to Nilivan Daniels, who is averaging 26 points in conference games, but he had just gotten his fifth foul and watched anxiously on the sideline. So, the ball went to senior guard BJ Ward, who with 5.7 seconds left, stepped out of bounds giving SLUH a chance to win. However, nothing came from that 5 seconds and the game went to overtime. 

SLUH started strong in OT with a Kreuter three pointer, but Chaminade started stronger. BJ Ward came right back and hit a three, but unlike SLUH their offense kept going and got up six with a minute left. There was not enough time for SLUH to come back as Chaminabde were knocking down their intentional free throws. Chaminade won 56-52. 

“We managed to hit some big shots and get some key stops down the stretch to send it to overtime but we just didn’t have enough to get it done,” said Walker. “It sucks because with Zach we probably win that game. Still proud of how we came back.”

SLUH looks to bounce back tonight at Soldan at 6:00.