02-15-07
BY JACK BULLOCK
WOODLAWN - Coming into Mid-South Conference action Thursday night on the road against Woodlawn - Grayville Bison head coach Will Knight had seen his team shoot pretty well from the field in accumulating a 19-4 record and a solid second place spot in the Mid-South Conference at 8-3.

But being as frigid as the outside air Coach Knight saw his club shoot a inopportune 3-of-18 from behind the 3-point line and just 20-of-52 overall.

Coupled with a strong showing by the Woodlawn Cardinals' defense the Bison skated back home on the short end of a 63-55 score in a weather-related make up game in the MSC.

Scott McNeil – Woodlawn's 6-foot-2 guard – topped all scorers in the contest with 21 points to make his senior night and last career home game a memorable evening.

McNeil had hand in a game-changing 13-0 run that ended the third quarter and began the fourth – which turned a 45-38 deficit into 51-45 lead.

“He (McNeil) played well tonight and for the most part he has played well all year for us,” said Woodlawn head coach Shane Witzel. “It is good to have him and Bronson (Verhines) out there because it gives us two point guards on the floor. They created a lot of scoring opportunities for us.”

Grayville – hitting just three shots out of its 14 attempts in the final quarter – made no run at the Cardinals in the final minutes.

Coach Shane Witzel's club hit nine consecutive free throws in the final 4:24 to polish off the Bison and earning a split in the two games with Grayville.

Grayville had captured a 66-60 win over Woodlawn back on February 6.

Woodlawn stands at 12-13 overall and 6-5 in the Mid-South.

Trailing late in the third quarter – Woodlawn made its move from the defensive end by forcing Grayville into four turnovers during that decisive run.

Woodlawn's Jase Green scored all six of his points in the scoring jaunt – including two buckets that closed the third frame.

Taking assists from both McNeil and Kyle Ritchey – Green converted two easy baskets. His second score cut the Grayville lead to 45-43 heading into the fourth quarter.

Kyle Boldt and Ethan Shurtz each scored to open the fourth quarter and - when Green got his third bucket in the run - Woodlawn had taken command of what was once a close match.

Grayville not only committed six fourth quarter turnovers to go with its poor shooting but managed to get just two offensive rebounds in the final eight minutes and just nine in the whole game as the Cardinals kept them from many second chances.

“One of the things that we have struggled with this season defensively is that we've never been able to get on a roll and get a number of successive stops,” added Witzel. “We did a better job of that tonight and having Ritchey and Verhines both back now helps our bench some and we are optimistic about that.”

The Bison will look back on this contest as one that could have ended up in the win column.

It was their shooting touch that came alive in the early going but failed them late in the contest when it mattered most.

Drew DiMaggio and Taylor Lynn each scored four points in the opening quarter as the Bison took an early lead and kept it the full eight minutes.

Lynn grabbed a rebound on a 3-point misfire from Greg O'Neal and stuck it home just before the first horn to give the Bison a 16-13 advantage.

But a bad trend had begun for Coach Knight's club as the Bison missed on all six of their 3-point attempts in the first eight minutes.

Woodlawn's first good offensive run of the night occurred early in the second quarter.

With McNeil and Shurtz topping the charts – the Cardinals took their first lead behind an 12-2 sprint.

McNeil opened the run with a mid-range shot and Shurtz scored twice in the lane.

A short bank shot in transition on a pass from McNeil and an offensive rebound were the two Shurtz contributions in the run.

Woodlawn sophomore Jesse Hart made a steal and scored on a fast break and McNeil closed the scoring spree with another fast break bucket after a Grayville miscue to make it 25-18 with 3:30 remaining before intermission.

Grayville managed to regroup and get back even with Woodlawn before the half.

O'Neal hit the boards for a rare offensive rebound and his conventional three-point play cut the Woodlawn lead down to 25-23.

Travis Rudisill nailed a 3-pointer from the top of the arc and Lynn followed that trey with one of his own.

Teammate Ryan Hosman scored on a drive to the basket at the 1:00 mark which ended an interesting first half at 31-all.

A 10-2 run to start the second half had the Bison on the doorstep of an easy victory.

Lynn and teammate Zach Short scored eight of those points.

Short closed the run with an off-balanced tip in and a 17-footer from the left wing to make it 41-33 Bison with 4:41 remaining.

Forcing six third quarter turnovers – Grayville had ample opportunity to make a rout of this contest.

However they committed too many mistakes of their own to ever pull away.

McNeil scored Woodlawn's next five points on a 3-pointer from the top of the arc and on a drive to the basket to force a Grayville timeout with 3:39 left.

Then the big run from the Cardinals to end the third quarter allowed these Birds to protect the nest for the last time in 2006-07.

Besides McNeil's 21 points – Woodlawn received 12 points from Boldt and eight apiece from Shurtz and Hart.

These Redbirds were 24-of-45 from the field overall and 2-of-8 behind the arc.

On both ends of the floor – Woodlawn commanded the glass with a total advantage of 29-20.

Grayville was led by Lynn with 15 points followed by O'Neal with 12 and DiMaggio with 10.

Both teams will hop on the bus Friday night to close out the regular campaign.

Woodlawn will head to Wayne City on Friday night while Grayville is scheduled to hook up with non-conference rival Edwards County at Albion.

	1	2	3	4	-	F
Grayville	16	15	14	10	-	55
Woodlawn	13	18	12	20	-	63

Grayville (55) – Short 2 0 2-2 6, O'Neal 2 0 5-6 12, Bailey 0 0 0-0 0, Brown 0 0 0-0 0, DiMaggio 3 0 4-5 10, Lynn 6 1 0-0 15, Hosman 3 0 1-1 7. 2FG-17, 3FG-3, FT-12-14, PF-16.
Woodlawn (63) – McNeil 6 1 6-6 21, Verhines 1 0 2-2 4, Shurtz 4 0 0-2 8, Boldt 4 0 4-5 12, Green 3 0 0-0 6, Ritchey 2 0 0-0 4, Hart 2 1 1-2 8.
Fouled Out – None.
Technical Fouls – None.