Shells Defeated by Litchfield, But Stay in Rick McGraw Invite Winner’s Bracket Thanks to Tiebreaker

LITHCFIELD – The Roxana Shells wore white and were the home team on the scoreboard even though they were taking on the hosting Litchfield Purple Panthers in their annual Rick McGraw Boys’ Basketball Memorial Invitational.

Wednesday was the final day of pool play with both teams fighting to remain in the championship bracket.

The Shells would go on to lose to Litchfield 59-54 but remain in the winner’s bracket due to a free-throw tiebreaker. All three teams in Pool B, Pana being the third member, finished 1-1.

“It is a setback,” Roxana head coach Mark Briggs said postgame. “I’m disappointed in the fact that we don’t come in and play a little bit harder early. The kids want to win, there’s no doubt about that, but the effort’s got to be better. It just wasn’t very good tonight.”

Wednesday’s game against Litchfield was not pretty for Roxana early on. It faced a quick 6-0 deficit that turned into 10-3 and later 17-9 after the first quarter.

But the Shells opened the second on an 11-5 run that cut the lead to 22-20. They never gained control and still trailed 30-26 at halftime.

The Panthers pushed the pace in the second half, advancing their lead to 37-30, but the Shells used a 9-0 run to take the lead after three quarters.

Keelan Crawford got things started before Sean Maberry put in back-to-back baskets. Choen Dugan then put in a go-ahead three-pointer to make it 39-37 after three quarters.

Litchfield took a 42-41 lead thanks to a triple from Sam Schwab, but Maberry took it right back with a basket and two free throws to make I 45-42. The Panthers responded with straight baskets from Ethan Saathoff and Brody Dykema to regain control at 46-45, forcing Roxana into a timeout with 3:46 left in the game.

From there, the Shells never led again. They’d tie the game again at 47, but Litchfield used a 9-3 blitz to lead 56-50 and would go on to close out the game at the foul line.

“It took a lot of energy to get to that point,” Briggs said on his team finally getting the lead after three quarters.

“We didn’t execute very well in the first half, we didn’t play well, we didn’t shoot well. I think it took a lot out of them to get to the point to where they were back in the game, but we didn’t have enough juice left in the tank. Didn’t execute well tonight on both ends of the floor.”

With the result, Roxana falls to 14-6, snapping a three-game win streak. The Panthers improved to 11-9.

Litchfield’s Landon Wernsing led all scorers with 21 points. Max Leitschuh added 14 points and Schwab had 11.

“Litchfield played well tonight,” Briggs said. “They knocked down shots when they needed to. They played a better basketball game, executed a hell of a lot better than us.”

For the Shells, Aiden Stemm led with 18 points. Maberry scored 16 points, Dugan had 13 and Crawford had seven.

The Shells move on to face the Marquette Explorers, who went 2-0 in Pool C, defeating Greenville and Civic Memorial along the way. Roxana already has a win over Marquette this season. The Shells won 51-42 back on December 2 in Alton.

The semifinal game is scheduled for Friday, January 23 at 7:30 p.m.

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