02-25-09
BY JACK BULLOCK
WOODLAWN - Long time South Central head coach Gary Shirley is set to retire at the end of the 2008-09 basketball season.

There is no question that he would like to coach a few more games.

Wednesday night at the Woodlawn Class 1A Regional – thanks to the offensive outburst by 6-foot-5 senior forward Isaac Grapperhaus and a defensive effort that shutout Odin in overtime – South Central kept the Shirley regime alive for at least one more contest with a 47-40 win over their longtime Midland Trail Conference rivals.

Grapperhaus scored 30-points with nearly all of those points coming within five feet of the basket as the Eagles had no real answer for the big man.

Head coach Mike Finckbone’s club was an eyelash from making it to a regional title game behind 22-points from junior phenom Tyler Parrish.

The 6-foot-2 guard scored nearly every way imaginable on long shots and drives to the basket.

Odin stayed close the entire contest but ran out of steam in the extra session – missing all eight of its field goal attempts in the final four minutes and ending up just 14-of-54 for the game.

“We were dead tired at the end and if you can’t score your not going to win,” said Coach Finckbone. “We had trouble putting the ball in the hole in the overtime and a lot of that was fatigue. Grapperhaus is a handful and for the most part I thought we did ok on him. He earned them tonight. Our goal was to keep Bushue from going off and having a bunch and for the most part we did that. We worked our tails off tonight.”

Using a “Box-and-One” with help on Grapperhaus – Odin stayed close despite the South Central forward getting a lot of points.

Besides Grapperhaus and Parrish – no other player in the game reached double-figures in scoring.

South Central improved to 23-6 on the season while Odin – who became the first Eagles’ squad to win 20-games in 28-years - ended its run at 20-6.

“We did a decent job on the boards and the Arnold kid (Seth) came up with some shots,” Coach Shirley said. “It wasn’t ‘up-and-down’ or anything like that but we probably had fewer turnovers than we have had in a long time. I expected to see what they had been playing all year – the 2-1-2 or the 1-3-1. I didn’t expect the Box-and-One.”

Grapperhaus gave his team a huge spark when he dominated the second quarter from both sides of the lane.

He scored 12-consecutive points for South Central including eight unanswered during a three-minute stretch that forced an Odin timeout at 19-13.

Parrish closed the first half with a pair of big 3-pointers that kept Odin alive.

His trey from the right wing from at least 25-feet found the mark to beat the second quarter buzzer.

Odin trailed just 23-19 at the break.

“We did a good job of having some traffic in there to make it tough on him and he made some nice moves around the basket,” added Coach Shirley. “You have to give that kid (Parrish) credit.”

The Eagles took back the lead with its best offensive run of the evening - fueled by a pair of offensive rebound scores by Caleb Mathews and another 3-pointer from Parrish.

Parrish rebounded his own missed shot on a drive to the basket and then took the ball to the left wing where he launched a 20-footer that found the mark.

His trifecta made it 32-29 Odin with 3:15 remaining.

South Central got the last bucket of the quarter on a pass from Tyler Gillett that went between the legs of an Odin defender to Arnold for a lay in and a 38-36 South Central lead heading for the fourth quarter.

The final eight minutes of regulation was more “cat-and-mouse” than it was basketball.

Odin was content to pack its defense inside and South Central was satisfied to be patient.

That combination made for a six-point quarter combined (Odin 4, South Central 2)

Parrish scored all four of the points for the Eagles on two nice drives to the basket in transition.

On a fast break he brought the ball behind his back and then threw up a shot from underneath the basket that found the mark off the glass to cut the Odin deficit to 40-38.

He then went coast-to-coast on a fast break after taking the ball away from Grapperhaus from behind for another reverse lay in to even things at 40 with 2:12 left.

“Parrish, he does some things and he is a pretty good player but I was pleased with our defensive effort tonight on him,” added Coach Shirley. “Stock did a good job on Parrish tonight and I was glad to see the effort.”

South Central held the ball the rest of regulation.

On an inbounds play – Tanner Bushue had an open look at a game-winner that was off the mark and when Parrish grabbed another rebound time expired sending the contest into OT.

South Central owned the extra four minutes – shutting out Odin.

The Eagles missed nine consecutive shots in the overtime and Grapperhaus polished off the win with seven more points.

Arnold and Bushue followed up Grapperhaus by scoring six and five points respectively.

The Cougars finished just 19-of-43 from the field and 0-of-8 from behind the arc but committed just five turnovers in outlasting a game opponent.

Mathews was second in scoring for Odin with eight points while Ryan Cluck added five.

The emotional Eagles – who lost a friend of the program this week when Coach Finckbone’s brother passed away – were out of gas and out of time when the extra period begin.

“It has been a tough week with my brother passing away and the whole team went to the funeral. They played through all of this stuff. They are a good group of kids and seven of our top eight kids are coming back next season it is something to build on,” added Coach Finckbone. “We put ourselves in position to win the game and a break here or there and we are moving on.”

South Central moves on to play Woodlawn on Friday night – a team that conquered the Cougars 50-25 two weeks ago at Woodlawn.

“We are going to have to run our offense a little sharper than we did last time,” said Coach Shirley. “There are no soft spots on that team (Woodlawn). It is not like they have a great, great player. They’re just good. I told the kids that ‘Hey, they may be a better team but you only have to win once’.”

Odin (40) – Parrish 4 4 2-2 22, Spitler 0 1 0-0 3, Mathews 3 0 2-2 8, Minor 0 0 2-2 2, Cluck 1 1 0-0 5, Shaffer 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-8, 3FG-6, FT-6-6, PF-13.
South Central (47) – Bushue 2 0 1-3 5, Stock 0 0 3-5 3, Gillett 1 0 1-2 3, Arnold 3 0 0-1 6, Grapperhaus 13 0 4-6 30.
2FG-19, 3FG-0, FT-9-17, PF-8.
Fouled Out – None.
Technical Fouls – None.

WOODLAWN 55, PATOKA 46
The host Cardinals survived a scare from fourth-seeded Patoka – trailing 29-26 at the half before going on a 12-2 run in the third quarter to recapture the lead.

Bronson Verhines led the Cardinals (25-1) with 16-points for Woodlawn who once again used balanced scoring to wear down an opponent.

Casey Hammond and Josh Wiggs chipped in eight points each as eight players scored for Coach Shane Witzel’s team.

Patoka (17-11) ended its postseason run with Derek Back and Drew Baldridge scoring 19 and 18-points each for Coach Joe Eddy’s team.

Woodlawn will play South Central on Friday night in the regional championship – the second consecutive season in which the Cardinals will play in a finale at home.

Patoka (46) – Baldridge 5 1 5-7 18, Jenkins 1 0 1-2 3, Whisler 1 0 2-4 4, L. Murfin 1 0 0-0 2, Thompson 0 0 0-0 0, Allen 0 0 0-0 0, Back 5 3 0-0 17, Wimberly 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-13, 3FG-4, FT-8-14, PF-16.
Woodlawn (55) – D. Verhines 2 0 3-7 7, Hammond 3 0 2-3 8, Boldt 3 0 1-2 7, B. Verhines 7 0 2-2 16, Green 1 0 1-2 3, Wiggs 4 0 0-0 8, Hart 1 0 0-0 2, Simmons 1 0 0-0 2
2FG-23, 3FG-0, FT-9-16, PF-18.
Fouled Out – L. Murfin, Whisler - Patoka.
Technical Fouls – None.