12-03-14
BY JACK BULLOCK
CARLYLE - In a suffocating fashion, the Woodlawn Cardinals defense didn't allow Midland Trail Conference rival North Clay a chance to take a deep breath.

Forcing the opposition into 17-turnovers and 5-of-28 shooting, Coach Shane Witzel's Cards blanketed North Clay, 57-22 in picking up their second victory in the week at the Carlyle “Kaskaskian Classic” and are now in title contention heading into the final weekend.

Ross Owens was the main thorn in the North Clay side as the other Cardinals simply couldn't withstand the pressure of the Woodlawn crew.

Owens hit for 21-points, nearly outscoring NC by himself.

Forcing five early turnovers and turning most of them into points, Woodlawn rolled to a 20-7 first quarter lead and never looked back in improving to 2-0 on the campaign.

“We were a little sloppy offensively but I liked the pressure that we created and we did a little better job offensively in the second half,” said Coach Witzel. “We wanted to get the ball moving better in the second half and execute correctly. We switched up some defenses trying to work on some things and it is early in the season. We want to try to get the best shot we can on each possession. As the game progressed we got better at that.”

Austin Ballard, a 6-foot-3 junior, added 16-points to the offensive night for Woodlawn while six other players scored at least one basket in the rout.

Junior Brett Harris tossed home six points while senior Bryson Sanders added five.

The Cardinals, the North Clay club, hit just one field goal in the first quarter (1-of-7) and fell behind by double-digits.

Woodlawn sophomore Blake Wollerman scored on a fast break lay in that turned into a conventional three-point play with 2:26 to go in the opening quarter.

By the time Owens hit his first of five 3-point shots, with 1:30 remaining in the first quarter, Woodlawn led 17-7.

A drive to the basket by the 6-foot-4 junior Owens along with a 1-of-2 effort from the foul line by Sanders and the Cardinals were up by 13 at the end of the quarter.

Owens, Sanders and senior Nathan Arnold produced points to open the second quarter in a run that gave Woodlawn its biggest lead of the half.

Owens began and finished the Cards' 10-2 run with a pair of 3-point shots while teammates Arnold and Sanders produced points.

When Owens canned a 20-footer from the top of the circle with 5:21 before the half, Woodlawn led 30-9.

North Clay had few bright spots but one of them was 6-foot-4 junior Clayton Halterman who hit a pair of shots in the paint for Coach Ben Fairleigh.

He hit a pair of shots in the second quarter for North Clay and finished with five points.

When Ballard closed the book on the second quarter with a nice move in the lane for a score, Woodlawn led 32-16 at intermission.

North Clay (0-2) had their best run to open the second half with a 3-pointer from 6-foot-4 senior Adam Cox and a back door lay in from junior Drew Coble that cut the Woodlawn edge to 32-21.

Unfortunately for NC, they would score only one point the remainder of the contest.

Woodlawn scored the games' next 23-points.

Owens and Ballard combined to score 14-points in succession.

Eight of those were from Owens as he padded his stats with two more long range missiles.

Ballard scored on a pair of shots in close with one being a fast break on an assist from Owens.

Following his fifth steal of the game, Owens found himself wide-open from the left wing and he buried his fifth and final trey of the contest for a 46-21 lead at the end of the third quarter.

The reserves swung the mops the final eight minutes as each coach emptied the benches.

Woodlawn finished 24-of-41 from the field (58.5 percent) while winning the rebounding battle 20-14.

North Clay finished with just 17.8 percent shooting.

Cox and Halterman finished with seven and five points respectively.

Woodlawn will face Flora on Friday night and then they will have two games on Saturday.

The Cardinals will tackle Greenville on Saturday at noon and then return to face Okawville at 5:30 pm that night.

North Clay has Greenville on Friday night at 5:30 pm and then games against Carlyle (1:30 pm) and Flora (7:00 pm) on Saturday.

“Every year it seems like they (Woodlawn) reload,” said Coach Fairleigh. “We are not a good shooting team but when we played our best and made a little run was when we got the ball inside. Woodlawn then made another run and we went back to shooting the ball outside and got away from what was working.”

Johnson powered the way with 18-points as Coach Andy Palmer's club jumped out to a 21-10 opening quarter advantage.

Toennies added 17-points while Andy Becker and Gunner Bretz added five points each for the Indians.

Flora (0-2) was topped by senior guard Bryce Pearce with 21-points and nine points from junior Jefrey Gocey.