12-30-13
BY JACK BULLOCK
SESSER – Going the final quarter of a championship contest without scoring a point is normally not the way a team wants to finish.

But on Monday night in the title game of the Sesser-Valier Holiday Tournament, the Woodlawn Cardinals survived their eight-minute scoreless streak as Johnston City failed to take advantage.

Coach Shane Witzel’s Cardinals missed all ten of their field goal attempts in the quarter but the Indians were just 1-of-7 from the floor in the same frame.

The end result was Woodlawn hanging on for a 44-43 win, the program’s fourth SVHT title in succession.

“I am pretty ecstatic. I am so happy for these guys, they have worked awfully hard this season and it is good to see hard work pay off. It is my daughter Abby’s 12th birthday and what a good way to celebrate. I just wish my dad could have been here to see it,” said Coach Witzel, referring to his late father who passed away this year. “He would be real proud of this team.”

Johnston City had chances to win, but couldn’t convert late in the game. Trailing 44-39 heading into the fourth quarter, the Indians Levi Tanner scored just :20 into the fourth and senior Derek Smith added two free throws at the 5:57 mark.

Those were the only points of the quarter.

Following a Woodlawn turnover with 1:04 remaining, Coach Thomas made a decision that his Indians should hold the ball for a final shot.

“Down one with a minute left and we have the ball, I will take our chances,” said Coach Thomas about the final moments. “That was our rationale. If we go fast and we don’t get a score, we wouldn’t have been able to get them (Woodlawn) to the foul line with five fouls to give.”

Following a timeout with :16.2 left, Indians got the shot that they wanted.

Six-foot-two senior Luke McCormick, who had hit three previous 3-point shots in the game, found himself wide open in the right corner with a chance to win the game.

However his shot from 20-feet was off the mark. Woodlawn’s senior Chase Phelps grabbed the rebound and was fouled with :00.9 remaining.

Since it was only the fourth foul on Johnston City, the Indians couldn’t put the Cardinals on the foul line.

Woodlawn was able to inbound the ball to secure the win with a pass from Phelps to teammate Jayson Hapeman.

“We knew we had plenty of timeouts left and I knew Shane (Witzel) was going to switch to something different,” said Coach Thomas, referring to the final play. “We called two plays in the huddle. We called a zone set and we called a man set. Plus we had another timeout so I told the kids we have plenty of time. We are going to run something and if I don’t like it I am going to call a timeout. Hunter (Zeigler) found a wide-open Luke (McCormick) in the corner. I’ll take him getting a wide-open look. He just missed a good look.”

Woodlawn could have put Johnston City away a couple of different times in the contest.

If you subtract the 0-for-10 fourth quarter, the Cardinals shot the ball well enough to win the game.

Overall, Woodlawn was 19-of-45 from the floor and hit 4-of-10 from the 3-point line. The problem for Coach Witzel’s team was that they missed five of those long-range shots in the final period, allowing Johnston City a chance to steal a victory.

The Cardinals used a 10-0 run in the second quarter to give them a 25-14 advantage with 4:35 left in the half.

Woodlawn’s Ross Owens led the Cards with 13-points on the night and he triggered the scoring spree with a pair of scores.

Hapeman, who battled foul trouble in the game, finished with eight points and had a 3-pointer in the run.

When Jake Robinson scored on a fast break on a long pass from teammate Logan Wollerman, the Indians needed a timeout down 11.

“We didn’t shoot it well in the first half and we didn’t guard well in the first half,” said Coach Thomas. “I told the kids, lets pick up the pace defensively. Having seniors on the team helps because I told them if this continues we may break some records of getting beat the most. We started moving the ball better. Once that happened we were able to get to the basket.”

The Indians, a senior laden club, responded and got back into the contest in the final minutes of the second quarter.

JC guard Hunter Zeigler scored on a drive to the basket while McCormick and Tanner each scored for the Indians as they closed the gap to just 27-23 at intermission.

Johnston City managed to get one final tie in the contest, with a pair of free throws by Zeigler getting the game back even at 37-37.

But every time the Indians thought that they could finally get control of the contest, Woodlawn would respond.

Phelps and Owens each scored in a brief run and Hapeman closed the quarter with a 3-pointer from the right wing on an assist from Owens with :02 left.

That set up a fourth quarter in which the two teams were 1-of-17 from the field.

The Indians didn’t shoot the ball well for the contest, hitting just 16-of-45 overall (35.5 percent) and 5-of-15 from beyond the 3-point line.

“When you guard people you try to contest every shot and keep them out of their comfort zone,” said Coach Witzel. “They (Johnston City) have some athletic kids that can beat you off the drive and we wanted to prevent their athleticism on the offensive end. We wanted to try and control that some and force them out to the perimeter.”

One of the keys for the Cardinals to stay in control was the fact that they committed just four turnovers in game compared to 10 from the Tribe.

Johnston City had a 25-21 rebounding edge.

Woodlawn is now 7-1 on the season while Johnston City is now 7-4.

“We got a lot of good shots (in the fourth quarter) and there are different ways you can win games. We guarded pretty well and we got the looks that we wanted,” added Coach Witzel. “We just couldn’t get them to go down. Fortunately it was enough to hold on there at the end."

ZEIGLER-ROYALTON 71, SPARTA 64
The Tornadoes survived a 32-point fourth quarter by the Bulldogs to secure the fifth place win.

The 12-2 Z-R club was led by Nick McPhail with 21-points while they got 16-points from Bailey Schimpf.

Brandon Jones netted 13-points for Coach Matt Morgan’s club.

Sparta (7-6) was led by Tra Edmonson with 17-points and 14-points from Dayton Oliver.

Sparta (64) – Dodson 4 1 1-2 12, Yearian 0 0 0-0 0, Bulliner 0 0 2-2 2, 0 0 2-2 2, Edmonson 5 3 0-2 19, Oliver 4 0 6-7 14, Brown 1 1 0-0 5, Garrett 2 2 2-2 12.
2FG-16, 3FG-7, FT-11-15, PF-22.
Zeigler-Royalton (71) – Schimpf 0 4 4-6 16, McPhail 7 1 4-7 21, Moskoff 2 0 3-5 7, Weddle 0 0 0-2 0, Stubblefield 3 1 0-1 9, Brooks 1 0 1-2 3, Reece 1 0 0-0 2, Jones 5 0 3-4 13.
2FG-19, 3FG-6, FT-15-27, PF-13.
Fouled Out – Edmonson - Sparta.
Technical Fouls – None.

VIENNA 62, CENTURY 54
The Eagles also went 3-1 at the tournament, snagging the consolation title over the Centurions behind 22-points from Quinnton Bent and 20-points from Zachryn Moore.

Caden Hight topped Century (5-5) with 17-points while teammates Blake Crane and Zach Sauerbrunn added 12-points each.

Vienna (62) – Wiggs 0 0 0-0 0, Gearing 0 1 0-0 3, Bent 7 0 8-12 22, Moore 8 0 4-5 20, Robinson 1 1 1-2 6, Krelo 0 0 0-0 0, Wright 0 0 2-2 2, Crain 0 2 3-4 9.
2FG-16, 3FG-4, FT-18-25, PF-20.
Century (54) – Hagler 0 1 2-2 5, Crane 2 2 2-2 12, Ae. Jones 0 0 0-0 0, Sauerbruun 3 0 6-6 12, C. Jones 0 0 0-0 0, Hight 3 2 5-8 17, A. Jones 2 0 0-0 4, Wright 0 0 0-0 0, Pullett 2 0 0-1 4.
2FG-12, 3FG-5, FT-15-19, PF-21.
Fouled Out – None.
Technical Fouls – None.