Cameron Biedscheid added another milestone to an impressive season for the Cardinal Ritter boys basketball team last week.
The 6-foot-7 Biedscheid passed the 2,000 career-points mark against Hazelwood Central. After blowing up for 40 points against Trinity and another 37 in the Lions' 60-57 win over St. Dominic, Biedscheid, a Notre Dame recruit, is at 2,106 points for his career. It’s quite the milestone for a guy who scored just 13 points as a freshman.
“I didn’t know I was that close. It’s an exciting accomplishment,” Biedscheid said.
Biedscheid scored 576 points as a sophomore, 861 as a junior and has 656 to this point in his final season. Though it’s not realistic to believe he can chase down Chaminade’s Bradley Beal (2,634) or Maplewood-Richmond Heights’ Bryant Allen (2,632), Biedscheid has proven to be one of the more dangerous offensive players the metropolitan region has seen.
“It’s a byproduct of how we play and all the hard work,” Biedscheid said.
A state champion as a sophomore, Biedscheid has been a significant contributor on two consecutive district title teams that made unbeaten runs through the Archdiocesan Athletic Association and helped Ritter coach Marvin Neals pick up his 600th career coaching win against St. Mary’s last month.
Ritter, No. 3 in the STLhighschoolsports.com small-schools rankings, wraps up its regular-season schedule this week. It hits the road against DuBourg on Tuesday, then is at St. Mary’s on Friday. Its game tonight at Trinity was postponed and has not been rescheduled.
Biedscheid said he expects to be in the lineup after being head-butted in the Lions’ win at St. Dominic last Thursday. He suffered a nasty gash over his eyebrow that required 36 stitches.
SOLDAN TAKES FIRST LOSS TO LOCAL TEAM, PREPS FOR IMAGINE
Top-ranked Soldan (17-5) took another loss last week. But this one was different from the rest. The Tigers were beaten by a team that calls St. Louis city or county home.
The Tigers (16-5) have dropped games to teams from Memphis, Chicago and New Orleans. But when the McCluer Comets eked out a 60-58 win, it marked the first time since last year’s season opener against University City at the Borgia Tournament that Soldan was beaten by a team that resides within St. Louis County. Borgia, of course, has two wins against the Tigers in the Class 4 semifinals the past two seasons, but that school is in Franklin County.
In fact, Soldan has lost only three games to teams from St. Louis County the last three years. The Tigers were beaten by Maplewood-Richmond Heights in 2009-10, U. City in 2010-11 and McCluer last week.
Soldan will have its hands full Tuesday when No. 7 Imagine (18-6) comes calling for a 6:15 p.m. tip. Imagine will be without the services of junior guard Martavian Payne, who sustained a knee injury the last week of January.
Soldan coach Justin Tatum said there will be much hoopla around the Imagine affair. It’s Senior Night, and the Tigers have nine of them on the roster.
“It’s a highly-anticipated atmosphere,” Tatum said. “The kids think I’m going to cry, but I told them they got me messed up.”
MAPLEWOOD-RH GOING INDEPENDENT?
There are rumblings that Maplewood-Richmond Heights, fresh in at No. 10 in the rankings, could break away from the South Central Athletic Association next season and play an independent schedule. Since the 2007-08 season, the Blue Devils are 50-0 in conference, with two league games remaining this week at home against Brentwood (Tuesday) and at Crossroads (Friday).
The other athletic teams at MRH would not be affected by this move.
If the Blue Devils were able to swing it, they would be one of the more attractive teams in town. Maplewood has seven juniors on the roster that play heavy minutes and will graduate only two seniors.
Freed from the mandatory home-and-home games of the SCAA, Maplewood would open up 10 slots on its schedule. The following season, Maplewood plans on joining the Suburban East. An announcement is expected as early as Tuesday.
WESTMINSTER KEEPS ROLLING, TABBED AS TOP DISTRICT SEED
Westminster (20-4, No. 5) has won four straight and 11 of its last 12. The Wildcats picked up a really nice win over soon-to-be Metro League rival John Burroughs last Friday. Westminster sank nine 3-pointers in its 61-48 win.
“Our guys like to think of themselves as 3-point shooters,” Westminster coach David Klyn said. “It was a good night.”
The Wildcats will wrap up their regular-season schedule Wednesday at home when Seckman comes calling.
Westminster was tabbed as the top seed in the Class 4 District 6 tournament at MICDS next week. The Wildcats will play the winner of the first-round game between No. 4 seed Clayton and No. 5 seed Priory in the semifinals at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 22, at MICDS. Also included in the district are No. 2 seed University City and No. 3 seed MICDS. They’re slated to play each other at 8:30 p.m. Feb. 22.
The district title game is slated for 8 p.m. Feb. 24 at MICDS.
