St. Albert too much for East Mills in districts

Down two starters and with less than a day to prepare for top-seeded Council Bluffs St Albert, East Mills coach Kevin Schafer knew his team would have to play a near perfect game in the Class 1A, District 14 finals.

The Falcons opened the game on a 17-7 run, used their superior depth to play pressure defense and push the tempo the whole game.

And the undermanned Wolverines, who dressed just seven players for the game, hung in and traded blows with the Hawkeye 10 Conference foes for 32 minutes before finally running out of gas in the fourth quarter in a rugged 52-39 loss Thursday at Riverside High School.

“We really only played five guys and one of them hadn’t played much varsity this year and never started a game,”

Schafer said of team, who ends the season with a record of 20-4. “I’m proud of the kids. They fought and played hard.”

The Falcons (11-14) hit 3-of-6 three-pointers in the first quarter and 10-of-21 for the game but could never put the scrappy Wolverine away until late.

Compounding his depth issues, Schafer had just a 30-minute walk-through prior to the game to prepare due to practice being cancelled due to last Wednesday’s snow day. With that thin roster, Schafer decided to play a match up, 2-3 zone that made the Falcons earn every possession and slowed the pace of place.

“They’re very athletic and like to play up-tempo and we knew we were probably only going to play five kids,” Schafer said. “We thought it (the zone) give us the best chance. We knew we’d be giving up some outside shots and they did hit 10 threes but they only got to 52 points. It really slowed them down I think and made them work for points.”

The Wolverines had offensive issue of their own but trailed just 32-26 with a minute to go. After seeing the lead return to double-digits early in the final frame, East Mills never got closer the rest of the way.

East Mills shot 43.2 percent for the game (15-of-37) but were out-rebounded 30-22. Pedro Ragazzo led the way with 13 points and 11 rebounds. Michael Schafer added 11.

Ryan Hughes scored 13 points and Jared Gast added 12 to lead the Falcons.