02-29-08
BY JACK BULLOCK
NASHVILLE - The Wesclin Warriors – a.k.a. The Cardiac Kids – have picked up another piece of hardware.

Despite trailing at halftime of another championship contest – the Warriors once again rose to the occasion when it counted most.

Using an outstanding performance from Sean Rakers and a big fourth quarter from teammate Casey Ainslie – Wesclin moves into the Elite Eight after rallying past Cahokia Conference rival Columbia to win the Nashville Class 2A Sectional, 53-50 in overtime Friday night.

Rakers was nearly unstoppable from the field as he outmuscled a trio of big men that Columbia threw at him defensively for 33 points in the victory in front of nearly 2,500 fans at the Assembly Hall.

In three of its four previous championship contests during the 2007-08 season Wesclin trailed at halftime each time.

Coach Brent Brede's club won all three games in dramatic fashion.

Friday night turned out to be par for the championship course.

“It was everything I thought it would be,” said Wesclin head coach Brent Brede – who takes his second squad to a Supersectional having reached the Charleston Super back in 2002. “We told the kids when we were down 12 at halftime that as long as we had a manageable deficit heading into the fourth quarter we had a chance. When we were only down four heading into the fourth quarter we felt pretty good about our chances.”

Spotting a strong Eagles' squad to a 26-14 lead at intermission – the Warriors took advantage of six Columbia third quarter turnovers to get rolling.

Having been held in check for most of the game – Wesclin's Casey Ainslie scored all seven of his points in the fourth quarter and in the overtime including a huge 3-pointer with :34 seconds remaining to cut the Eagles' lead to 39-38.

Rakers grabbed a pair of offensive rebounds to get his club into an overtime session.

His second one on a deflected shot by teammate Charlie Bair tied the game with :06 left in regulation.

Despite having four fouls Rakers saved the Warriors bacon in the final moments of the fourth quarter as he blocked a potential game-winning shot by Columbia's Tory Arzola to send the game into OT.

Coach Brede's club sprinted out to a quick 47-42 lead in the overtime with Rakers scoring all five of the points.

He took a pair of nice passes for a duo of painstaking buckets that virtually killed the Columbia postseason.

His second score – while being fouled by the Eagles' John Topliffe – turned into a three-point play and a five-point lead.

“We were down by twelve at halftime but we have played from behind before,” said Rakers. “We were down at halftime to Nashville here in this gym in the Nashville Tournament but we knew we could come back. Casey (Ainslie) is a fourth quarter player and he stepped up huge for us tonight. Without him we wouldn't be where we are now.”

The Eagles saw their season come to a close at 24-7.

“I think it (the comeback) was more of what they (Wesclin) did,” said Columbia mentor Mark Sandstrom – whose club bowed out of the Sweet 16 in a contest that was nearly a win. “I think their defensive pressure stepped up because their backs were against the wall. We had ourselves in position with a lead. In the past three or four weeks we were able to put those games away. But tonight their two big boys (Rakers and Ainslie) made the plays down the stretch. You half to give them credit.”

Columbia looked like the squad that won the Cahokia Conference Mississippi Division in the first half as they dominated the Warriors.

Using the hot hand of Trent Blank to get rolling the Eagles turned a 3-0 Wesclin lead into an 18-7 Columbia advantage at the end of one.

Blank – a 6-foot-2 senior guard – netted seven of his team-leading 14 markers in the first quarter including a leaning shot in the paint that resulted in a three-point play with :52.2 left.

Blank also beat the buzzer with a drive to the bucket to close out the frame which gave Columbia its 11-point spread.

He added two more scores in the second stanza and his shot on an inbounds pass from the right elbow gave Columbia its largest lead of the night at 24-11 with 3:42 remaining.

“I thought that Columbia really executed in the first half and got a lot of clean looks at the basket,” said Brede. “In the second half we did a little bit better job defensively and we hit some shots finally.”

The Eagles defensive effort put the clamps on everyone but Rakers in the first half.

The 6-foot-7 Rakers scored 10 of the 14 Wesclin points in the first 16 minutes.

Blank's defense on Ainslie was one of the reasons that the Eagles headed into intermission with a 26-14 lead.

“I thought we guarded awfully well in the first half,” said Sandstrom. “We held Ainslie down the whole night until the end. They are a very good team and I wouldn't be surprised if next week they win that game (referring to the Carbondale Supersectional).”

As the Columbia kids trying to defend Rakers started to get a bit tired – Wesclin took control by getting the ball inside.

When the Warriors made their third quarter run – Rakers scored 10 of the points.

He backed into post with a variety of power moves to hit four key shots.

In doing so he created foul problems for Columbia.

Topliffe, TJ Menard and Brad Buettner all spent time shadowing Rakers.

The trio of towers ended up with 13 personal fouls with Topliffe and Menard fouling out late.

By the time Rakers hit his final shot of the quarter on a drive that resulted in Menard's third foul – Wesclin trailed just 30-26 heading into the fourth quarter.

“Sean usually catches the ball in a better position in the second half because he is so big and strong that he wears them (defenders) down in the second half of games,” Brede explained. “He was in a better position to score in the second half and that was big.”

Even though Columbia saw its lead dwindle to just four points they still were in position for a win in the first three minutes of the fourth quarter.

Buettner – a 6-foot-6 junior post player – caught a deflected pass for a lay in and a 36-28 lead with 4:42 left in regulation.

However Wesclin made its first move to get back the lead in the next three minutes.

Senior guard Nate Fuhler hit just one field goal in the contest but it was a 3-pointer from the right wing to begin a 7-1 run.

Ainslie scored his first points of the game when he made a steal and took it to the basket for a lay in to cut the margin down to just 37-35 with 1:19 to go.

On most nights a team with a four-point lead that hits 5-of-6 free throws in the final minute of a contest will prevail victorious.

However on this night – it wasn't good enough.

Junior guard Brian Winters – who didn't make a field goal on the night – hit 7-of-8 free throws in the game and cashed in on those 5-of-6.

But Ainslie canned a 3-pointer from the top of the arc to close the gap to just 39-38 which set up the afore mentioned Rakers final minute rumble.

“You just knew that at some point he (Ainslie) was going to hit some big shots,” Brede added. “We got the ball to him late and that three was huge. It speaks to his character because he had just missed a lay up and it didn't phase him at all.”

Columbia had a chance to tie the game on its last possession of the game but – after a timeout with :07.8 remaining in the overtime – Buettner missed on a 3-point look from just right of the top of the circle.

Blank corralled the rebound in the left corner but his off-balanced shot misfired as the buzzer sounded.

“We didn't take any poor shots tonight and at the end we got the look that we wanted to get,” added Sandstrom. “We got the look but we didn't knock it down. That is the way it goes sometimes.”

Wesclin finished 19-of-32 overall from the floor with Rakers leading the way.

Ainslie and Charlie Bair added seven points each to the total while Tyler Shaw and Fuhler chipped in three each.

Rakers yanked down half of the Warriors 20 rebounds as the Warriors (23-7) will take on Pinckneyville (a 53-39 winner over Mount Carmel at the Benton Class 2A Sectional championship) on Tuesday night.

“We have five seniors on this team that play a lot and when that is the case you expect them in big games to play big and they did that tonight,” finalized Brede.

Columbia ended its season with Blank as the only double-digit scorer with his 14.

The Eagles hit 15-of-39 shots overall and committed 10 turnovers.

“I told the kids that It is going to hurt tonight and it is going to hurt next week but you have to look back at what we accomplished this year. We won this league and that is pretty good. We got 24 wins. There are a lot of people around the State of Illinois that would love to trade places with us. I'm disappointed that we lost but I am more disappointed that this is the last time that I will get to coach this group of kids,” finalized Sandstrom. “That is the best group I have ever coached.”

Trenton-Wesclin (53) - Rakers 14 0 5-10 33, Ainslie 2 1 2-2 7, Blair 1 0 5-7 7, Buehler 0 1 0-0 3, Shaw 0 1 0-0 3, Kunz 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-16, 3FG-3, FT-12-21, PF-20.
Columbia (50) - Roediger 1 0 0-0 2, Arzola 1 1 4-6 9, Blank 5 0 4-6 14, Winters 0 0 7-8 7, Buettner 2 0 2-2 6, Menard 2 0 0-0 4, Topliffe 3 0 2-2 8.
2FG-14, 3FG-1, FT-19-24, PF-16.
Fouled Out - Menard, Topliffe - Columbia.
Technical Fouls - None.