01-09-09
BY JACK BULLOCK
ODIN - Steve McQueen would have been proud of Waltonville’s “Great Escape” on Friday night in winning their Midland Trail Conference road contest at undefeated Odin.

Leading by 17-points midway through the third quarter – the Spartans survived a pressure packed Eagles rally to improve to 9-3 overall and 2-1 in the MTC with a 67-59 triumph.

Odin (8-1) couldn’t overcome a three-week layoff and slow start doomed a team that received a game high 29-points from Tyler Parrish in defeat.

Following a Brock Wheatley lay in with 4:31 left in the third quarter – Waltonville was in charge at 49-32.

But Odin put together a 22-6 sprint to slice the lead down to 55-54 at the 5:50 mark of the final quarter.

Waltonville closed out the contest with a parade to the foul line when the Eagles were forced to come out of its 1-3-1 zone and foul.

Skyler Witges and Wheatley combined to hit 7-of-10 charities to close out the win.

“I thought that when we got a 17-point lead that if we would have gotten a couple more baskets that we could have put them away. But we have to make better decisions out there with the basketball,” said Waltonville head coach Mike Denault. “We’re a veteran basketball team and we started making stupid decisions after we got the lead. We went into ‘Let’s try not to lose this lead’ mode. We’re just too good to make those poor of decisions.”

Two other Odin players hit double-figures for head coach Mike Finckbone.

Caleb Mathews and Ryan Cluck added 12 and 11 points respectively.

The Eagles were out-manned on the boards 33-19, which showed up the most in a first half that Waltonville owned.

The Spartans were topped by Justin Lewis with 20-points while Gavin Bassett chipped in 16.

It was Lewis who helped Waltonville roar out to a 9-2 lead early by canning a pair of 3-pointers from the left corner to open the game. When he missed his third trey-try – Bassett was there for the clean up which forced an Odin timeout with 5:37 remaining.

All three of the Lewis attempts were wide-open looks.

“A lot of our points early came in transition. They (Odin) were gambling on defense and we caught them out of position a few times and got some easy shots,” added Denault. “But what makes us pretty good is that we can have a guy or two struggle offensively but someone else can step up.”

Odin responded with Parrish closing out the opening frame with six of his eight first quarter points.

A pair of buckets by Wheatley in the early going of the second quarter gave Waltonville its first double-digit lead. One score was on a nice lob pass near the basket by Deven Lemke and when Lewis added a pair of free throws – the Spartans were ahead 26-14.

Parrish cut into the Waltonville lead to close out the half with two impressive scores.

He canned an NBA-distance 3-pointer from the right wing and then took a missed Waltonville shot on a long rebound down the floor for a fast break lay in - that could have been dunked - to close the half at 36-28 Spartans.

“He (Parrish) is a tough matchup and I don’t think you can guard him with just one guy,” said Denault. “But I think we did a good job on him. He earned his 29-points. He was as good as advertised.”

A pair of third quarter 3-pointers by Lewis and Lemke put the Spartans back up 42-30 and Wheatley and Bassett followed up with seven points to give Waltonville that 49-32 lead.

Odin’s big run that nearly got them a win included a pair of long 3-pointers by Cluck and CJ Spitler.

Spitler’s bomb from the right corner ignited the rally and when Cluck hit from behind the arc in the left corner on an assist from Parrish – Odin trailed just 53-46 heading into the fourth quarter.

The Eagles come-from-behind win was squashed by four costly fourth quarter miscues and ten made final frame freebies by Waltonville.

“We were off for three weeks but that isn’t an excuse – Waltonville is a good ballclub and they came at us like they should of,” said Odin head coach Mike Finckbone. “I don’t think we expected them to come at us as hard as they did.”

Odin shot the ball well on the night – connecting on 25-of-52 shots overall and 5-of-14 from behind the arc.

The Spartans hit 22-of-48 from the field and committed 15 turnovers – but survived.

Odin hit just 4-of-10 free throws – with five of the missed charities in the first half.

“That (missed free throws) will come back to haunt you and it did tonight,” added Finckbone. “If we would have just made a few of those free throws then we could have been up one late and who knows what would have happened then.”

The Spartans head back to action Tuesday night hosting Okawville while Odin has less than 24-hours to recover when they welcome Beecher City in an EIC game Saturday night.

“I’m proud of the kids. We got down 17 and we could have hung our heads and stopped right there but we didn’t,” Finckbone explained. “Waltonville shot well in the first half but our rebounding was horrendous. But overall we are 8-1 (2-1 MTC) and still alright. I told the kids that is we take care of business the rest of the way it could still come down to us and Woodlawn for the conference title.”

Waltonville (59) – Lemke 3 1 0-0 12, Kabat 0 0 0-0 0, Bassett 8 0 0-0 16, Wheatley 1 1 3-4 8, Witges 2 0 5-8 9, Johnson 0 0 0-2 0, Kash 0 0 2-2 2, Lewis 4 3 3-4 20, Ford 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-18, 3FG-5, FT-13-19, PF-14.
Odin (70) – Parrish 9 3 2-3 29, Spitler 1 1 0-0 5, Mathews 5 0 2-7 12, Minor 1 0 0-0 2, Cluck 4 1 0-0 11, Shaffer 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-20, 3FG-5, FT-4-10, PF-18.
Fouled Out – Cluck - Odin.
Technical Fouls – None.