02-01-07
BY JACK BULLOCK
WOODLAWN - It is a bit odd to see a boy's varsity basketball game on a Thursday night in Southern Illinois.

While the rest of teams down south were getting ready for an important weekend of hoops, Woodlawn and Thompsonville hooked up on a cold evening in Mid-South Conference play.

Although both teams struggled offensively, the Cardinals got out to a substantial early lead and pulled away late for a 57-42 win.

Coach Shane Witzel's club had its own first quarter troubles but overcame them all to improve to 5-3 in the league and evened its overall record at 11-11.

The trio of Ethan Shurtz, Jase Green and Scott McNeil played well for the Cardinals in the win.

The 6-foot-5 junior Shurtz scored 14 points and grabbed 15 rebounds for the Cardinals, including six boards in the fourth quarter to help secure the victory.

Led by the Shurtz board work – Woodlawn outrebounded the Tigers 43-27 in the win.

Green - 6-foot-2 sophomore - topped all scorers with 19 points while McNeil – a 6-foot senior - created a lot of offensive chances for his teammates.

McNeil dished out four assists to go with his 11 points.

Woodlawn still has hope of finishing second in the Mid-South in perhaps the final year of the longstanding conference.

“We were fortunate to be up in the first quarter and I wasn't very comfortable at halftime with our lead,” added Witzel. “We didn't play that well tonight but sometimes you just have to find a way to fight through it when things are going bad. We got enough offensive rebounds so we could score some points.”

The Tigers never really got in gear as they saw their overall mark slip 10-14 overall - 4-5 in the MSC.

The Cardinals took advantage of a poor shooting first quarter by Thompsonville to jump out to a 15-3 lead at the end of one.

Coach John Robinson's club hit just 1-of-9 first quarter shots while committing five turnovers.

But the deficit could have been much greater had Woodlawn not committed five turnovers themselves while missing nine shots (5-of-14).

“That was just sloppy. They (Thompsonville) had no pressure and played a zone early and we just tried to force the issue too much,” added Witzel. “We made bad decisions with the ball and then we missed four lay ups in the first six minutes. Even though we had a lead we told them don't be comfortable with this lead because they're going to make a run.”

It was toward the end of the first frame when Woodlawn got its game going.

After the Tigers' Jordan Browning scored on a 17-footer from the left wing to cut the Cardinals' lead to 8-3 - Woodlawn scored the next seven points to close out the opening eight minutes.

That Woodlawn trio mentioned earlier were the scorers in this run.

McNeil scored on a drive to the basket and had a hand in the next score – a lay in by Shurtz in transition.

Green closed out the quarter by converting a three-point play while being fouled by Thompsonville's Jacob Nielson.

As it turned out Thompsonville played even with the Cardinals the rest of the way but never got really close enough to make competitive game of it.

“We needed to start better than that. You look at the scorebook and we play even in the second quarter, even in the third quarter and they outscore us by three in the fourth quarter,” said Coach Robinson.

The smallest the deficit was eight points - which happened twice in the second quarter.

Consecutive baskets by Jacob Nielson and Josh Fisher cut the lead to 19-11 with 3:41 left.

Woodlawn answered every one of the Tigers' runs on this night.

Green rebounded his own missed shot for a score to push the lead back to double-digits.

Then reserve Casey Hammond and Shurtz each scored late in the first half to send the two clubs to the lockers at 29-17 Cardinals.

McNeil picked up another assist on the Shurtz score just :08 for the second quarter horn.

Unfortunately for Thompsonville playing even with a team the rest of a contest doesn't help cut into any advantage.

Woodlawn quickly increased its advantage in the third quarter with back-to-back scores from Green and Shurtz.

Shurtz backed in and scored on a spin move in the lane for a 33-19 lead with 3:34 remaining.

“The Shurtz kid played a lot better tonight than he did at our place,” added Robinson. “He had a nice game against us.”

A steal and fast break late in the quarter by Thompsonville's Nielson got the Tigers back to within 35-25 with :26 to go.

Once again Woodlawn answered with McNeil scoring just a few seconds later to make it 37-25 at the end of three quarters.

Thompsonville scored seven points in less than a minute – all by Browning – to briefly breath some life into a potential comeback.

The 6-foot sophomore scored 13 points in the game and his final points of the night cut the score to 51-37.

Nielson scored four points on one trip down the floor on a 1-of-2 performance at the free throw line.

After missing his second shot teammate Kyle Householder got the rebound.

Eventually Nielson got it back and scored on a drive to the basket while being fouled by Woodlawn's Jesse Hart with 2:48 left.

His made free throw cut the margin down to 53-41.

But that was it for the Tigers run as Woodlawn closed out the game with 4-of-6 shooting from the line in the final 2:04.

“We missed some free throws – specifically in the first half – but we had enough of a lead in the fourth quarter to pull out the win,” added Witzel. “We are still in the hunt to finish second in the conference and that is something that can be positive for the kids to play for.”

Woodlawn finished 24-of-52 from the field (46 percent) with nearly all of those shots coming inside the 3-point arc.

The Tigers finished just 14-of-46 from the field and just 1-of-7 from 3-point land.

Jacob Nielson led Thompson with 14 points.

“Our kids didn't quit tonight and there have been times this year where we threw in the towel but tonight we hung in there,” added Robinson. "We got two sophomore's out there – Browning and Jacob Nielson – that just refused to give up.”

	1	2	3	4	-	F
Thompsonville	03	14	08	17	-	42
Woodlawn	15	14	08	20	-	57

Thompsonville (42) – Ja. Nielson 4 0 5-9 14, Browning 5 1 0-0 13, Fisher 3 0 1-2 7, Sickmeyer 0 0 2-2 2, Householder 0 0 0-0 0, Gaither 0 0 0-0 0, Kerley 1 0 1-2 3, Jo. Nielson 1 0 1-2 3, Williams 0 0 0-0 0, Loss 0 0 0-0 0, Hosier 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-14, 3FG-1, FT-11-17, PF-17.
Woodlawn (57) – McNeil 5 0 1-3 11, Hart 1 0 1-2 3, Shurtz 7 0 0-4 14, Boldt 0 0 2-2 2, Green 6 1 4-6 19, Smith 2 0 0-0 4, Hammond 2 0 0-1 4, Simmons 0 0 0-0 0, Gaither 0 0 0-0 0, Clinton 0 0 0-0 0, Williams 0 0 0-0 0, Dunbar 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-23, 3FG-1, FT-8-18, PF-16.
Fouled Out – Fisher, Thompsonville.
Technical Fouls – None.