New Berlin holds off Pawnee in Blake Lucas' return to Saltyville

NEW BERLIN — Before the game, New Berlin junior Reid Hepperly, the last player introduced at the Pretzel Arena, went over and gave Pawnee coach Blake Lucas a handshake, then gave him a meaningful, sincere tap on the chest.

In the first quarter, Hepperly put on a display for his former coach by using his big body to worm his way in the paint and give the Pretzels (11-4 overall) eight points in the opening quarter. He finished the game with 16 points and 10 rebounds to help New Berlin and first-year coach Neil Holderread beat Pawnee 42-39 in a nonconference game and spoil Lucas’ return to the school where he coached for nine seasons and had a 165-102 record, plus two regional titles.

“As a coach, he was good,” Hepperly said of Lucas. “He pushed us real hard. Playing against him just gives us extra motivation. Losing a coach, I mean, it sucks, but playing hard to beat him, it just felt good.”

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Hepperly said he was hyped for the game all day.

“I was ready to go. All day at school, I was just waiting,” Hepperly said. “And then I came out here and did my best.”

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Despite Lucas’ prompt return to the school, it was his first time coaching in the Pretzel Arena, which opened this school year to replace the Pretzel Dome as the Pretzels’ home gym. Lucas mostly dodged answering questions about his return.

“You coach a group for several years and now you coach somewhere else,” he said. “God protects us. I'm thankful to be in Pawnee.”

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About the new gym, he said, “It's a nice gym.”

Gabe Molloy, one of two New Berlin seniors, had back-to-back layups to start the fourth quarter and pull the Pretzels into a 33-33 tie with 6 minutes, 58 seconds left. After a nearly two-minute lull in the scoring, Hepperly’s layup with 4:39 left gave New Berlin the lead for good.

“Gabe's a really good player,” Holderread said. “He sets the tone defensively, he gets everything organized offensively. Things that don't show up in the stat sheet all the time.

“He's not scoring a ton of points, (but) he's knocking down free throws when he needs to, he's getting us easy bucket after easy bucket. Gabe is a luxury to have, for sure.”

It was certainly a turnaround from how cold the Pretzels were in the second and third quarters. New Berlin began the game with a 14-9 lead after the first quarter but struggled to score in the middle periods: 3-for-16 in the second and 2-for-8 in the third. That allowed Pawnee (5-9) to establish its game and take a 28-21 lead before Carson Dodd connected on a 3-pointer with 3:21 left in the third. Ty Lederbrand, who was in foul trouble for most of the first half, scored in the paint and connected on a corner 3 for five quick points in the middle of that Pawnee run.

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New Berlin didn’t want to lose twice to Pawnee in less than two weeks. Pawnee beat the Pretzels 47-35 in the first round of the Waverly Holiday Tournament on Dec. 26.

“Last week we attacked their pressure and tonight, we just played a little hesitant,” Lucas said. “Because of that, we're on the other side of the win-loss column.”

Sophomore Gavin Greer led Pawnee with 15 points while Ryder Smith finished with 10. Pawnee shot 16-for-37 overall, including two of seven in the fourth. Pawnee was also outrebounded on the offensive glass 12-4 (New Berlin had a 30-26 rebounding edge overall).

“We told our kids you can't expect just to come in and play the same way and expect the same result,” Lucas said. “You've got to bring it. Tonight was different: a little bit lesser stage here in the regular season where Waverly is about as good as it gets besides the postseason. We told our kids you had to come and even play better than you did. We just missed some free throws (2-for-8) and didn't rebound well enough to win tonight.”

With 3:13 remaining, Max Pointer hit a transition layup for a 37-33 lead and Hepperly followed that with a layup 49 seconds later.

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“He's a big body,” Holderread said of Hepperly. “He can do a lot of things for us. He's good on the boards, he's good in the post, he can shoot the 3.

“He's a tough matchup for any team that we play. When he's able to do that early in the game, it kind of sets the tone for the rest of us, and we take advantage of that.”

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Lederbrand then snapped the Pawnee scoring drought that lasted 7:02, from a Randy Schutt 3 with 1:16 left in the third until the layup by Lederbrand with 2:14 left in regulation. Jace Jankousky and Smith then split a pair of free throws to pull Pawnee within 39-37 with 1:10 left. Molloy had the final New Berlin field goal for a 41-37 lead and Greer hit a turnaround fadeaway shot with 26 seconds left. Pawnee’s hopes were ended on a turnover that became a jump ball to New Berlin with 2.4 remaining.

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“We're a veteran group,” Dodd said. “We have a lot of seniors and juniors, too, that stepped up this year. We practice hard, we know what we're doing in that situation; we were prepared.”

Holderread reiterated Dodd’s sentiment.

“We are veterans, but we're continuing to learn,” Holderread said. “That's our goal. We want to get better every single day. That's what we're trying to do.

“I actually mentioned that at the end of the game here. We've kind of reversed roles. At the beginning of the season, it was me talking about how we're a veteran team, and we need to be able to close games when we lost a couple in the fourth quarter.

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“Now it's the opposite. We're doing those things where we have a lull in the middle of the game, and we're smart enough and veteran enough to make the right plays at the right time."

Contact Ryan Mahan: 788-1546, ryan.mahan@sj-r.com, Twitter.com/RyanMahanSJR.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: IHSA boys basketball: New Berlin takes Round 2 meeting with Pawnee