WOODLAWN 1A REGIONAL
Woodlawn, Christ Our Rock Lutheran advance to title game
Cardinals shutdown South Central's season, 54-27
Silver Stallions top Patoka for the fourth time in 2012-13
02-20-13
BY JACK BULLOCK
WOODLAWN
- Defensive pressure and a short bench proved to be too much for the South Central Cougars to handle on Wednesday night in their game against defending state-champion Woodlawn.

Coach Rick Simmons club had their sights set on pulling an upset and for nearly two quarters the plan was working.

However, as has happened many times this season, the talent level and depth of the Cardinals was more than the opposition could handle.

Behind 22-points from Gabe Owens and a defensive blanket that covered up the Cougars in the second half, the Cardinals moved into the regional title game with a 54-27 romp.

South Central came close to pulling off a miracle, leading in the early going and gaining confidence.

The Cougars led 11-9 at the end of the first quarter and were just pesky enough to cause Woodlawn some first half issues.

Coach Shane Witzel's team, however, turned up the heat in the final three quarters and, after taking a 22-17 halftime lead, punished the visitors by outscoring them 32-8 in the second half.

Furthermore South Central, in the final 13:10 of the game, scored just one basket on a drive by Bret Harmeier with :27 remaining in the third quarter.

South Central wouldn't score again as Woodlawn forced nine second half turnovers and an 0-8 shooting performance in the fourth quarter.

“It is a credit to them (South Central) because they handled our pressure early and their game-plan was to get through the first two traps and then attack the rim,” said Coach Witzel. “We were able to weather our offensive lull (first quarter) but we got some offensive rebounds. When we don't shoot the ball well from the perimeter and we don't get things off of our defense, that was why the first quarter ended up the way it did.”

The Cougars' senior leader and four-year starter Fischer Tharp had his night cut short by foul difficulty.

After scoring six of his seven points in the third quarter, Tharp went to the bench with his fourth foul with 4:55 left.

Woodlawn proceeded to score the game's next nine points with Owens nailing back-to-back trifectas to push the Cardinals advantage to 36-23 with :52 remaining.

Owens closed out the period with another 3-point blast and a 14-point lead heading into the fourth quarter.

“Well it is kind of tough when your leading scorer, leading assist man, leading rebounder is finding himself on the bench quickly (in the third quarter with foul trouble) and he is an unselfish player, you can tell by his assist totals. When he picked up his fourth foul, that changes everything,” said Coach Simmons. “We just haven't had a secondary guy (scorer) that we could go to this season. Rudy (Hablewitz) is about as close as we had but he can't pass it to himself.”

Woodlawn closed the game by pitching a shutout in the fourth quarter, not allowing a South Central point.

Spreading the floor and running their offense with a preciseness of a master craftsmen, the Cardinals got easy baskets in the final quarter with Matt Kennedy scoring on a pair of in close shots and Owens adding another bucket on a drive in the lane.

Tharp fouled out on a charging call with 6:22 left as the season for him and his teammates was nearing the end.

South Central appeared to be an upset threat in the first eight minutes, jumping out to an 11-4 lead with Harmeier scoring twice and Tharp taking the ball to the basket with authority on a fast-break that forced a Woodlawn timeout with 2:41 remaining in the opening stanza.

However Owens, a 6-foot-5 senior vet, came up with a his first 3-point bomb and then Owens took a pass from teammate Jayson Hapeman, who stole an errant South Central pass, and scored on a fast-break lay in finish the first quarter at 11-9.

Woodlawn used an 8-0 run to close the second quarter to take the lead for good.

Hapeman, Isaac (four points) and senior guard Ty Coleman all scored in the run as the Cardinals led 22-17 at intermission.

After a solid second half beginning, the Cougars yielded to the Woodlawn defense as their season ended at 11-17.

Woodlawn finished the night, after a tough start, with an 18-of-42 effort from the floor.

South Central committed 15-turnovers and were not very good from the field, finishing at 12-of-33.

Behind Owens in the book was Logan Isaac with nine points while Kennedy finished five.

Woodlawn was 13-of-17 from the foul line and held a slight 19-14 rebounding edge.

“The one thing that we tell our kids is that it takes a while for your defensive intensity and the depth of your bench to take effect,” said Coach Witzel. “There are no tired legs out there in the first quarter. But you hope by the third quarter you start to see some turnovers. But they handled it early in the first quarter.”

1
2
3
4
-
F
South Central
11
06
08
00
-
25
Woodlawn
09
13
17
15
-
54

South Central (25)
– Henken 0 0 0-0 0, Harmeier 5 0 0-1 10, Hablewitz 2 0 0-1 4, Tharp 3 0 1-2 7, Ratterman 0 0 0-0 0, Rose 1 0 0-1 2, Langley 0 0 0-0 0, Schwarm 1 0 0-0 2, Wilkins 0 0 0-0 0, Riley 0 0 0-0 0, Peters 0 0 0-0 0. 2FG-12, 3FG-0, FT-1-5, PF-14.
Woodlawn (54) – G. Owens 3 4 4-4 22, Hapeman 1 0 0-0 2, Harlow 2 0 1-1 5, Isaac 3 0 3-6 9, kennedy 2 0 1-2 5, Coleman 1 1 0-0 5, Robinson 0 0 0-0 0, Phelps 1 0 2-2 4, R. Owens 0 0 2-2 2, Wollerman 0 0 0-0 0, Hodge 0 0 0-0 0, Richardson 0 0 0-0 0, Sanders 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-13, 3FG-5, FT-13-17, PF-15.

Fouled Out – Tharp - South Central.
Technical Fouls – None.
CHRIST OUR ROCK LUTHERAN 51, PATOKA 49
For the fourth time this season, the Silver Stallions got the best of the Warriors, this time holding off a Patoka second half rally as CORL won its 20th game for the first time in school history with the victory.

Coach Mike Shaffer got a pair of big free throws with :13 remaining as Silver Stallions improved to 20-8 on the season.

Patoka saw its season end on a sour note at 18-11.

CORL got 18-points from Tyler Burmester and 14-points from Lukas Mueller in the win.

“I knew that this would be a close game because Patoka plays well,” said Coach Shaffer. “We got a big lead but we didn't play very good defense in the second half. I just hope that we come in on Friday night and play better defense than what we did tonight. We will have to play the best game of our lives.”

Patoka battled back with a strong fourth quarter rally that fell short for Coach Joe Eddy's squad.

Johnnie Clift finished with 17-points to pace the Warriors while Quinn Wadkins added 10.

The Warriors hurt their cause by hitting just 13-of-22 free throw attempts.

CORL reached its first regional championship game where they will face Woodlawn on Friday night.

“They (CORL) got too many easy buckets in that run (13-2 third quarter run),” said Coach Eddy. “Going in a lot of people didn't give these guys (Patoka players) much of a chance and they thought .500 would be a good season. But we didn't believe that, we thought that we could be better than that. We thought that we could get a 20-win season and we got close to that.”

1
2
3
4
-
F
Patoka
11
09
08
21
-
49
Christ Our Rock Lutheran
13
09
13
16
-
51

Patoka (49) – Clift 6 0 5-7 17, Felchlia 0 0 0-1 0, Donaldson 0 0 2-4 2, Allen 0 1 0-0 3, Wadkins 1 1 5-8 10, Orrell 2 1 1-2 8, Back 0 3 0-0 9. 2FG-9, 3FG-6, FT-13-22, PF-15.
Christ Our Rock Lutheran (51) – Hine 2 0 4-6 8, Burmester 5 1 5-7 18, Mueller 4 1 3-4 14, Hahn 2 0 1-3 5, Klockenga 1 0 0-0 4, Garrison 1 0 0-0 2, Krenz 0 0 0-0 0, Kroeger 0 0 0-0.
2FG-16, 3FG-2, FT-13-20, PF-17.

Fouled Out – Back - Patoka.
Technical Fouls – None.