01-16-09
BY JACK BULLOCK
WOODLAWN - The Woodlawn Cardinals are headed toward basketball graduation but they still have many tests to pass.

Friday night they aced another pop quiz – a 66-43 win over a very talented Lebanon Greyhounds’ squad that entered the non-conference fray at 11-4 overall against a rough-and-tumble Metro-East St. Louis Area schedule.

Again the unbeaten Redbirds used balanced scoring, defensive pressure and its river deep bench to put away Lebanon with a strong second half to notch its 13th win in succession.

Bronson Verhines again stood out for the Cardinals.

The 6-foot-4 senior forward took advantage of the Greyhounds size disadvantage around the basket as he led all scorers with 22-points and seven rebounds on the night.

Casey Hammond and Kyle Boldt also added double-digits (13 and 11) in points for Coach Shane Witzel’s club that crushed the opposition on the boards 30-14.

Dawson Verhines – a 6-foot sophomore and younger brother of Bronson – scored just three points but handed out nine assists.

ABV has seen a lot of good scoring runs this season.

But the one that tops the list happened at the end of the third quarter and the beginning of the fourth.

Woodlawn scored 24-unanswered points to change the outcome of the contest.

Using its depth and quickness and a defensive switch to a zone jumpstarted the pulverizing run that put the Greyhounds down for the count – Woodlawn moves on with its unblemished mark intact.

Lebanon lost its cool a bit during the run and a couple of technical fouls added logs to the fire.

Woodlawn shot “Lights Out” from the field – connecting on 26-of-38 shots after a slow start.

The Cardinals allowed just four offensive rebounds to the visitors – who left the building with an 11-5 mark.

“The idea was to get some quality teams on the schedule and Lebanon always has some quickness and size. They have some good athletes and Chad (Coach Chad Cruthis) does a good job with his kids,” said Coach Witzel. “We need to play against teams like that – physical teams with quickness.”

Lebanon shot just 19-of-51 from the floor – 4-of-18 from behind the 3-point line – and managed to get to the foul line just once in going 1-of-1.

“We lost our composure tonight and once you start doing that against a good team like Woodlawn – I compare it to a Shark smelling blood in the water,” added Cruthis. “We are not a good enough to give a team like that the advantage. You have to give them (Woodlawn) credit. They went after us.”

From the outset Lebanon showed that athletically they would be a tough match up for Woodlawn.

Five-foot-eight senior guard Darren Bush hit a pair of shots late in the opening quarter to give the Greyhounds the lead at the first horn.

Bush hit a 3-pointer from the top of the arc to spark an 8-0 run to finish the frame at 12-8 Hounds.

Jeremy Moore – Lebanon’s 5-foot-11 senior guard – also canned a long range shot in the run.

But once again Woodlawn got an offensive lift from its bench in retaking the lead for good in the second quarter.

After starters Jase Green and Kyle Boldt both scored early in the quarter – senior Jordan Wehrheim connected on a 3-point shot from the right wing with 5:07 to go.

His bucket gave Woodlawn back the lead for keeps at 17-14.

Luke Simmons – another key senior role player – put back his own rebound late in the second quarter to help build a 28-23 lead at intermission.

“Again we got some big minutes from our bench guys who sparked us in the second quarter,” Witzel explained. “They made some shots and got us going after we struggled some in the first quarter.”

The second half belonged to Bronson Verhines who scored 16 of his points in the final 16 minutes.

After Lebanon’s Bush converted a 3-point play after being fouled by Boldt with 3:57 left – the Greyhounds were in good shape trailing just 38-34.

Someone pulled the plug at that point and the lights went out on the Lebanon night.

Woodlawn went to a zone defense and Lebanon went cold from the floor at the same time.

Two transition scores by Josh Wiggs and Casey Hammond were wrapped around a 3-pointer from Dawson Verhines.

Dawson then gift-wrapped a pair of assists to his older brother as Woodlawn turned a four-point ad into a 49-34 lead at the end of the third quarter.

Bronson’s second bucket in that run came on a lob pass from his brother that he turned into a reverse lay in just a second before the buzzer.

“We got to a point in the second half when we knew we had to be more aggressive and get after them,” added Cruthis. “We knew that we would have to come out and pressure the ball more and they took advantage of that.”

By the time Bronson got another assist from Dawson with 5:43 to go in the game – the lead reached 57-34.

“We felt like we would have some opportunities to get some back door cuts to the basket because of the way they (Lebanon) defended on the ball,” added Witzel. “Specifically when we got the lead and they had to do something. They were trying to create some pressure because that is what they do.”

Lebanon had already received a bench technical foul and Wyatt Essenpreis – after fouling Bronson underneath the Woodlawn basket – picked up another technical for good measure.

Verhines hit 3-of-4 free throws to push the Cardinals lead to 60-34.

Coach Cruthis had seen enough and emptied his bench at that point.

Coach Witzel followed suit a minute and a half later.

“The adjustment (zone defense) in the third quarter worked better than I hoped,” added Coach Witzel. “We really had a hard time stopping their dribble penetration and that was one of our keys. They had about four straight possessions where they put it on the floor and they spread you out so far that it is hard to get help defense. They (Lebanon) shoot the three so well that it is hard to guard both of those. When we forced them to shoot shots from outside we got the long rebounds.”

Bush was the only Lebanon player in double-figures with 12 points while Moore added nine. Michael Clark pitched in eight points for Chad Cruthis’ club.

Nine players scored for Woodlawn as the Cardinals – the ABV top ranked 1A school and number three in the latest AP state-wide poll – moves on to the its first Midland Trail Conference tournament next week.

Lebanon heads to the Sparta Mid-Winter Classic on Monday.

“We didn’t shoot the ball as well as we have and you have to give them (Woodlawn) credit for that defensively,” Cruthis explained. “They did a good job defending us.”

Lebanon (43) – Bush 3 2 1-1 13, Moore 3 1 0-0 9, W. Essenpreis 2 0 0-0 4, Clark 4 0 0-0 8, Johnson 0 0 0-0 0, Thornton 2 0 0-0 4, Neil 1 0 0-0 2, Sellers 0 0 0-0 0, R. Essenpreis 0 1 0-0 3, Wagner 0 0 0-0 0, Zurliene 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-15, 3FG-4, FT-1-1, PF-12.
Woodlawn (66) – D. Verhines 0 1 0-2 3, Hammond 6 0 1-1 13, Boldt 5 0 1-1 11, B. Verhines 8 0 6-8 22, Green 3 0 0-0 6, Wiggs 2 0 0-0 4, Hart 1 0 0-0 2, Simmons 1 0 0-0 2, Wehrheim 0 1 0-0 3, McNeil 0 0 0-0 0, Aparicio 0 0 0-0 0, Dunbar 0 0 0-1 0.
2FG-26, 3FG-2, FT-8-13, PF-11.
Fouled Out – None.
Technical Fouls – W. Essenpreis - Lebanon, Lebanon Bench.