Six teams gathered at St. Peter’s Lutheran School over last weekend to compete in the St. Peter’s Lutheran Invitational, and the Immanuel Lutheran fifth grade boys team had quite the showing.

The teams were split up into two pools — A and B — and each team was guaranteed three games. There were originally eight teams scheduled to compete in the invite, but two teams dropped out.

Joining Immanuel in Pool B was White Creek Lutheran School and Brownstown Elementary School. Immanuel defeated both of those teams to become the No. 1 seed in Pool B, and they were tasked with taking on the No. 1 seed of Pool A to determine who would become the champion of the invite.

Lutheran Central School won Pool A, so those two county teams squared off in the title game. It was a low-scoring affair, but Immanuel was able to come out on top, 29-23, and claim the trophy as St. Peter’s Lutheran Invitational champions.

“They jumped completely out of their seats. They were so excited, and rightfully so,” Immanuel head coach Kerry Bevers said. “They played hard and they played really well. I couldn’t be more proud. They are good sportsman’s about it. I’ve never seen them so excited.”

The name of the game for Immanuel across the whole invite was playing stellar defense. They’ve played a lot of games this season, but Bevers believes this was the best defensive effort his team has put together this year.

“Brownstown game and the Lutheran Central game were both close. Couple of possessions here and there it could’ve gone either way. In all honesty, we probably played our best defense of the year,” he said. “We’ve had a lot of good games this year, but in this tournament, we played good, solid defense.”

There were 13 members on the roster, and each one of them got some run during the tournament. The 13 boys are Westley Marshall, Tyler Bobb, Zach Lister, Lukas Toppe, Lucas Otte, Adam Alberring, Ben Dyer, Corbin Adair, Christopher Pumphrey, Eli Williams, Reese Tempest, Clark Bohall and Brady Hageman.

“It was really our defense that won it for us,” Bevers said. “Everyone contributed. We had 13 boys and they all contributed some way.”

This is Bevers first year back after being “semi-retired” last year. He didn’t do any coaching last year but he was asked to come back and coach since the fifth graders didn’t have one. Bevers happily accepted as he has been coaching to some degree at Immanuel since 2001.

This is around the third or fourth time he has coached fifth graders.

“It’s fun teaching, though. I like teaching kids basketball,” he said.

Kids growing up today are so fixated on the offensive side of the basketball, which is no surprise thanks to some of the professional players that showcase so much flash and talent on that side of the ball.

But even if it’s a cliché saying — defense wins championships — Bevers likes to emphasize that side of the floor to younger players, and that’s how Immanuel came out as champions at the St. Peter’s Lutheran Invite.

“I teach them help defense. It’s difficult for them to understand defense at this level. Everything is offensive-minded,” Bevers said. “The boys were open-minded and wanted to learn. Like I told them, offense is one thing but defense will win you the game.”

After winning the invite, Immanuel has three games left on the season. Their record currently stands at 20-6.