02-19-10
BY JACK BULLOCK
WALTONVILLE - A great start will generally trump an average finish.

On Friday night at home after honoring the senior athletes and cheerleaders – Waltonville rode the emotions of the moment to sprint out to a 21-5 first quarter lead and withstood a rally from visiting Wayne City for a 66-52 victory.

Coach Mike Denault’s club forced seven first quarter Indian turnovers and 22 for the game during a splendid defensive effort that catapulted the Spartans to their 20th triumph on the season.

Joseph Lewis – a 6-foot-3 senior guard – topped the scoring list with 19-points on the night – hitting a trio of three pointers along the route.

Two other Waltonville senior standouts – Gavin Bassett and Dylan Johnson – added 16 and 14 points respectively in a game that wasn’t close from the outset in spite of some “lackadaisical” play late in the game.

Wayne City saw its fine record slip to 18-8 on the season despite 12-points from Trevor Shreve and 10-points from Cody Thomason.

Coach Russ Gerlach’s crew never got into any offensive rhythm in the contest and trailed throughout.

“We turned the ball over way too much early. We were kind of just ‘going through the motions’ and we didn’t put the effort into it,” said Coach Gerlach. “I don’t know why we picked a night to not really show up to start with. Effort level and execution was pretty poor to start with.”

The Spartans rolled out to a quick 6-0 lead in the first two minutes with Lewis and Bassett each scoring three points.

Lewis drove the lane to open the scoring and later added a free throw while Bassett grabbed his own missed shot and scored while being fouled by Shreve with 6:05 left.

A Thomason rebound basket opened the Wayne City scoring but Waltonville responded with a 10-1 run to open up its first double-digit advantage.

Skyler Witges – Waltonville’s 6-foot-3 senior guard – had an off shooting night but that didn’t stop this playmaker from contributing in other ways.

His steal and fast break lay in finished the run and it was 16-3 with 2:27 remaining.

Witges dished out a pair of assists in the run to Johnson and Bassett.

Thomason scored again in the paint for Wayne City but the quarter ended with Luke Stanhouse getting in on the scoring action with a steal and fast break basket as Waltonville led by 16 at the first horn.

Wayne City responded with a nice run of their own to start the second quarter as the Indians looked poised to get back into the contest by outscoring Waltonville 6-0 to cut the deficit to ten.

Tyler Porter scored on a drive to the basket and Joseph Evans stuck home a rebound opportunity in the scoring run.

Lewis canned two of his trifecta’s in the second quarter.

His first one found the mark with 4:47 to go before the break.

After taking a nice pass from Bassett – Lewis nailed a shot from the right wing to push the lead to 26-11.

Lewis then took a pass from Witges and drained another 3-pointer from the top of the arc to give Waltonville a commanding 35-21 lead at intermission.

“He (Lewis) is starting to shoot the ball better in practice and he is shooting the ball well in games, too,” said Coach Denault. “He hasn’t done that extensively well this year. When he starts making shots out there (behind the line) it will give Johnson and Wheatley more room to get to the basket.”

Lewis scored the first four points of the second half which triggered an 8-2 push to give the Spartans a 41-21 lead and forced a Wayne City timeout with 6:05 left.

Waltonville put the game out of reach late in the third quarter when Witges and Lewis both hit from down town.

Witges – who struggled shooting on this night – hit his only 3-pointer of the game from the top of the key to give his club a 52-29 spread.

Lewis – as he did to end the half – hit his third and final trey from the same spot as Witges did moments earlier in the final seconds of the quarter.

His bucket gave Waltonville its largest lead at 55-31.

Wayne City rallied late in the game to make the score closer than the contest.

Shreve scored seven of his points with a pair of drives to the basket and a 3-pointer from the left corner with 2:59 left to cut the Spartans lead down to just 60-46.

Nevertheless – the hosts gathered themselves and delivered the win by hitting four free throws late and forcing seven fourth quarter turnovers by Wayne City to finish with the 14-point victory.

“We talked about what they (Waltonville) want to do offensively but we didn’t do what we wanted to do defensively,” added Coach Gerlach. “We had a lot of mental breakdowns. You can’t that many mistakes against a good team.”

Waltonville closed the game by connecting on 23-of-48 shots from the floor overall (47.9 percent) while hitting 5-of-15 from the 3-point line.

The Spartans got a bit “sloppy” in the fourth quarter and wound up with 16-turnovers after having zero miscues in the first quarter.

“You have to give them (Wayne City) credit – they’re a good basketball team,” added Coach Denault. “They rebound well and they are physical. They are a senior-laden team as well. It has been a rivalry of sorts for us over the years with us being in the same conference previously. They are very capable.”

Wayne City ended up shooting 21-of-54 overall (38.8 percent) with 3-of-13 from 3-point land.

The Indians won the rebounding battle 27-25 with 13 offensive rebounds. But four of them came on one possession in the second quarter.

Besides Shreve and Thomason – Wayne City received eight points each from Mark Feather and Zach Meritt.

Waltonville got points from eight different players.

Besides the double-digit trio of Lewis, Bassett and Johnson – Coach Denault’s squad got six points from reserve senior forward Cody Compton and some good minutes from reserve senior Chris Kuhner.

“I can’t even put into words what they have accomplished,” said Coach Denault – when talking about his senior group. “Some of the things that they have been through. To me the most gratifying part of all this is that I got to watch them grow as a group of kids into young men. It has been a lot of fun.”

The Indians closed the regular season with the loss and will now gear up for the Edwards County Regional set to begin on Monday.

Wayne City – the number two seed - will tackle West Richland on Tuesday night.

Waltonville hosts Century in a make-up game on Saturday night before heading to the Crab Orchard Regional next week.

The Spartans drew a bye as the top seed and will play the winner of the Zeigler-Royalton/Galatia game on Wednesday.

Wayne City (52) – Feather 4 0 0-0 8, Courtright 1 0 1-2 3, Shreve 2 2 2-2 12, Smith 0 0 0-0 0, Porter 2 0 1-3 5, Evans 3 0 0-0 6, Thomason 5 0 0-1 10, Meritt 2 1 1-2 8.
2FG-18, 3FG-3, FT-5-10, PF-15.
Waltonville (66) – Bassett 7 0 2-5 16, Wheatley 1 0 2-2 4, Witges 1 1 0-1 5, Stanhouse 1 0 0-0 2, Compton 3 0 0-0 6, Johnson 2 1 7-8 14, Lewis 3 3 4-6 19, Kuhner 0 0 0-0 0. 2FG-18, 3FG-5, FT-15-22.
Fouled Out – Thomason - Wayne City.
Technical Fouls – None.