FLORISSANT • For much of three quarters on Saturday, the Hazelwood Central boys basketball team had no problem building a 21-point advantage against visiting Cardinal Ritter.
Then Cameron Biedscheid took over.
The Notre Dame signee scored 31 of his game-high 39 points in the final 11 minutes 22 seconds. His step-back 3-pointer from the left wing with 26 seconds remaining gave the Lions the lead, but it wasn't enough.
Demetrius Tippett drove the left baseline and hit a floater with 10 seconds left to give Hazelwood Central a 64-63 lead, and the Hawks secured the victory after Ritter missed a long jumper in the final seconds.
"Any time you can close out a ball game with making a play and getting a win, it's great," Hazelwood Central coach Josh Martin said. "But we did a lot of things to make it very interesting, and we continue to do the same things.
"A win's a win, but man, we like to make things difficult."
The No. 7 team in the STLhighschoolsports.com large-schools rankings, Hazelwood Central (16-5) couldn't overcome a slow start at McCluer North on Thursday and lost 79-69. Another defeat on Saturday, in the marquee game of the Red Out Shootout at Central, would have been tough to swallow with two weeks left in the regular season.
"Our decision-making, our shot selection, our choices down the stretch were just not good, and with that we let Cameron make some shots," Martin said.
The Hawks led 48-27 with 2:46 left in the third quarter when Biedscheid took control of the game. He had made a three-point play less than a minute earlier, which were his first points of the second half after scoring eight in the first two quarters.
"I just really tried to get my mind as focused as I could on winning this game," Biedscheid said. "I really just tried to lift my team's spirits up and try to take the W. I knew if we were gonna be anywhere close to getting it, it was going to have to start with me, and I was going to have to be a leader and take over. That's what I was trying to do."
Cardinal Ritter (13-5, No. 3 small schools) outscored Central 15-5 the rest of the quarter and trailed by 11 going into the fourth quarter.
Biedscheid opened the final quarter with a 3-pointer, and you could feel the momentum building. The Lions kept surging behind their 6-foot-8 standout forward, and the Hawks couldn't slow them down.
Biedscheid's third 3-pointer of the half, with 2:03 left, cut the deficit to one, and his fourth and final 3 gave Cardinal Ritter its first lead since the first quarter.
But Tippett made a big play on the other end, hitting the floater over Biedscheid's out-stretched arm with 10 seconds remaining, to give the Hawks back the lead.
"We were down, we were letting them score easy buckets. We weren't playing defense, weren't playing aggressive," Tippett said. "But when I saw that I had an open lane, I just took it. I've been working on that shot all year."
Cardinal Ritter had another shot attempt in the final seconds, but Hazelwood Central face-guarded Biedscheid, and he wasn't able to take it. The final shot attempt from Charles Harris was off the mark and the Hawks celebrated the win.
"We lost that game in the first half," Ritter coach Marvin Neals said. "We just turned it up. The kids hung in there and played a lot harder. I don't know what happened in the first half. We were kind of sluggish."
Biedscheid, who averages 32.1 points per game, finished with 39 points on 10-of-26 shooting. He made four of eight 3-point attempts and knocked down 15 of 19 free throws. He also had 12 rebounds.
"I've watched him for three years and especially the last two years when he's virtually had to carry us, and nothing surprises me," Neals said. "The boy is a fantastic player. He's a fantastic player, and he seems to be putting his all-around game together. He's playing better defense, and he's rebounding. He's doing a lot of things he wasn't doing earlier in his career."
Jordan Martin led Hazelwood Central with a team-high 23 points, 11 rebounds and four blocked shots. Marcus Lampley scored 13, Raynell Crossland added 11 points and Tippett finished with seven.
Ryan Hill had 11 points for Cardinal Ritter and Charles Jones added eight.
