02-13-09
BY JACK BULLOCK
WOODLAWN - The movie Friday the 13th – the latest edition of the long running series of films – was scheduled to open nation wide on Friday.

When South Central got off the bus Friday evening in Woodlawn they might have well have stopped at Camp Crystal Lake because - in a basketball sense - the host Cardinals carved up the Cougars every bit as well as Jason Voorhees would have.

Woodlawn attacked South Central from the opening tap - scoring at will against a diamond-and-one defense meant to stop Bronson Verhines.

They nailed the open shots that were needed to get an early cushion.

Then they used that cushion to suffocate South Central on the defensive end.

Coach Shane Witzel’s squad were a pretty good 18-of-39 from the floor overall and 5-of-10 from behind the arc.

Woodlawn forced SC into an 8-of-38 (21 percent) shooting performance – very poor by any stretch.

Holding the Cougars to just 17 points through three quarters – the Cardinals made a statement with a resounding 50-25 triumph that all but clinched the MTC West Division title.

Casey Hammond led the early attack with 16 first half points which held up as a game-high.

Senior forward Kyle Boldt had 10 points in perhaps his best outing of the season.

The Cardinals improved to 21-1 on the season while South Central saw its mark slip to 20-6.

“We felt like we would get some open looks against it (diamond-and-one) and Casey and Kyle hit open shots which forced them to switch up defenses,” said Woodlawn head coach Shane Witzel. “We were patient and didn’t turn the ball over much tonight but really it was won on the defensive end.”

Dawson Verhines hounded South Central scoring ace Tanner Bushue – holding him to just seven points on the night.

The other top gun for South Central – 6-foot-4 senior Isaac Grapperhaus – was held to just 10-points by Bronson Verhines.

Both Verhines brothers got help on defense as Woodlawn led by an “eye-opening” 48-17 in the first minute of the fourth quarter and then coasted home.

Hammond and Boldt got open looks in the first half and made the Cougars suffer.

Hammond scored Woodlawn’s first eight points and broke the game’s last tie with a 3-pointer from the left wing with 5:05 remaining in the opening quarter.

His second of two early treys made it 8-5.

Dawson Verhines and Boldt closed the opening stanza with points on a 3-pointer by Verhines and wide-open look by Boldt on the baseline to make it 17-9.

Bushue opened the game with a 3-pointer from the top of the arc. He didn’t hit another field goal in the game.

“Dawson (Verhines) did a great job on Bushue and Bronson did a good job on Grapperhaus but the other kids stepped up and helped, too,” added Witzel. “This might have been our best defensive effort this year. This was a good team defensive effort.”

Woodlawn shifted into second gear to begin the second quarter with a 9-0 run with Hammond, Boldt and Jase Green all hitting shots.

Both Green and Boldt got open looks on the each side of the paint down on the baseline.

Boldt canned his 12-footer from the left side with 6:40 to go while Green followed up with a 15-footer from the right side.

Green’s shot made it 26-9 with 5:08 before intermission.

They say that all teams will make a run in a game to get back in contention.

South Central had no run in them on Friday night.

In fact the Cougars went exactly 12 minutes of playing time without a field goal from the end of the second quarter to the beginning of the fourth stanza.

In that period of game history – Woodlawn kicked it into third gear and outscored its victims 18-2.

Boldt scored six points in the third quarter during the Cardinals’ hot streak.

Boldt made a steal on the defensive end and then followed up a missed shot on the other end of the play for a bucket and a 43-17 advantage with 2:31 remaining.

”I don’t know but we will struggle trying to guard these guys (Woodlawn) man-to-man because there are a lot of weapons over there,” said South Central head coach Gary Shirley. “We were giving them some perimeter shots and after the first five minutes or so it didn’t matter who we left open they were making shots. It was zone or man, what do you want to do? Pick your poison.”

A Grapperhaus (spin move in the lane) and Bushue (two free throws) represented the only South Central run of the night (4-0) that cut the Woodlawn lead to 48-21.

“We shot worse tonight than we have all season and part of that was that we weren’t patient enough,” said Coach Shirley. “The other thing was that the defense we were playing tonight didn’t put any pressure on them. I don’t know if it would have worked against these guys or not. Maybe if we could have gotten ahead of them some.”

Woodlawn took care of the basketball committing just seven turnovers with three coming in the final 2:50 remaining with the reserves playing.

The Cards never needed to shift into fourth gear.

Hammond and Boldt combined to hit 11-of-14 field goals on the night with Hammond connecting on all four of his 3-point attempts.

Bronson Verhines scored just seven points but pulled down four rebounds.

Dawson Verhines added six assists to his five points on the game.

Bushue and Grapperhaus each finished with seven rebounds to go with their points but little came from the other South Central players.

Woodlawn will play on back-to-back nights next week with a make up game against Webber Township on Thursday night and the season finale against Cisne. Both of those games are at home.

South Central will close its regular season hosting West Richland on the 20th.

South Central (25) – Snow 0 0 0-0 0, Bushue 0 1 4-4 7, Hill 1 0 0-0 2, Donoho 0 0 0-0 0, Harmeier 0 0 0-0 0, Stock 0 0 0-0 0, Cain 1 0 0-0 2, Gillett 2 0 0-0 4, Arnold 0 0 0-0 0, Grapperhaus 3 0 4-4 10.
2FG-7, 3FG-1, FT-8-8, PF-10.
Woodlawn (50) – D. Verhines 0 1 2-2 5, Hammond 2 4 0-0 16, Boldt 5 0 0-0 10, B. Verhines 2 0 3-6 7, Green 1 0 4-4 6, Wiggs 2 0 0-0 4, Hart 0 0 0-0 0, Simmons 0 0 0-0 0, Wehrheim 1 0 0-0 2, McNeil 0 0 0-0 0, Aparicio 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-13, 3FG-5, FT-9-12, PF-10.
Fouled Out – None.
Technical Fouls – None.