12-09-2021
BY JACK BULLOCK
WOODLAWN - For the first week of the 2021-22 basketball season, Woodlawn and head coach Dawson Verhines played against some good competition, going 1-3 at the Carlyle “Kaskaskian Classic.”

With a win over Okawville after three straight defeats in the tournament, Woodlawn was hoping to keep things going forward when they hosted Patoka/Odin on Thursday night.

Although it wasn't a complete 'four quarters' of quality basketball, the Cardinals never trailed in a 41-27 win.

In this mostly 'offense optional' contest, Woodlawn made the scoring runs that they needed hold up in improving to 2-3 on the season.

The scoring runs came in the first and third quarters as they handed the Warriors its fourth loss of the season (3-4).

Six different Woodlawn players scored in the balanced victory with sophomore Chance Phelps and senior Drew Martin netting 13 and 10-points respectively to lead the numbers.

Five-ten junior Lowell Moore added eight-points, all in the second half, including a pair of third quarter 3-point bombs.

Those two buckets were part of a 13-0 run that gave Woodlawn its biggest lead of the game.

Junior Carson Burkett and sophomore Wyatt Rollie added four-points apiece while sophomore Logan Palmer added one basket for two-points as Woodlawn won its home opener.

Coach Joe Eddy's group struggled, but never quit, as they cut into the Cardinals' lead after each big run.

However they never got the Woodlawn lead under eight-points in the second half.

Only three Patoka/Odin players scored in the defeat.

Senior Brendon Hamburg led the Warriors with 12-points, senior Kyle Friend ended up with nine-points and senior Drew Belcher finished with six.

The Cardinals jumped out to an early lead with Phelps initiating the early offense.

The 6-4 sophomore scored nine of his points in the first quarter, including two straight scores on drives to the basket to open the scoring.

Burkett hit a shot from the right wing and Martin nailed down the first of his three 3-pointers as Woodlawn led 11-2 with 2:18 left in the first.

Belcher nailed down a 3-pointer to cut into the margin but Phelps answered with a trey from the top of the arc to end the quarter at 14-5 Woodlawn.

Coach Eddy switched up his defense by going 'triangle-and-two' to try and confuse the mostly young Cardinals and it worked during the low scoring second quarter.

Neither team got much going in the eight minutes before halftime.

Patoka scored the first four-points of the second with Hamburg hitting a pair of shots; one on a drive for a lay in and another on a nice cut to the basket, which cut the Woodlawn lead to 14-9.

However the Cardinals closed out the half with another Martin 3-pointer and a score inside by Burkett with :04 left as the two teams went to intermission at 19-9 Woodlawn.

A score by Belcher made it 19-11 in the first minute of the second half.

That, unfortunately for Patoka, was as close as the Warriors would get the rest the game.

The next 13-points came from the Cardinals.

Palmer got in on the scoring for Coach Verhines' club with a shot from the right wing which was followed up by back-to-back 3-pointers from Lowell.

The junior guard hit one from each of the arc, the right side first and then the left.

A score near the foul line by Phelps and the third 3-pointer by Martin ballooned the Woodlawn lead to 32-11 with 4:10 left in the third.

The open looks occurred after the young Cardinals figured out the gimmick defense and got the shots they wanted.

“It sometimes takes a while for a young team when they throw something like that at you (triangle-and-two) that you are not expecting. I thought our guys (in the second half) responded well to it. We got going, we got them moving,” said Coach Verhines. “After we threw up a few shots we settled down and were more patient against it. We got some good looks and a couple of our guys stepped up and knocked down some shots.”

Patoka answered with nine-consecutive points to close the quarter.

All were from Hamburg who hit two 3-pointers and scored on a baseline drive.

His second 3-pointer came on an inbounds pass near halfcourt where the senior hit a shot from 35-feet that beat the buzzer to make it 32-20 Woodlawn.

Patoka got to within nine at 34-25 with Friend scoring five points early on a pair of scores in the lane and 1-of-2 from the foul line.

That was as close as Patoka/Odin would get.

Woodlawn spread the floor on offense and got a lay in by Lowell,

Then the Cardinals took advantage of the Warriors having to foul.

After missing two one-and-one opportunities, Coach Verhines' club closed the deal with 5-of-6 from the line with Rollie nailing down 4-of-4 and Martin hitting 1-of-2.

Patoka can look at a telling stat from the game as Coach Eddy saw his club commit 15-turnovers, five each in the first quarter and fourth quarter.

Patoka/Odin was just 11-of-36 from the field, 3-of-14 from the arc as the offense didn't match the defense.

“We went to the triangle and it worked for a quarter but they went on a run,” said Coach Eddy. “We told them the defense has to be there right now because the offense is not there, we know that. We haven't played a lot together and we run motion (offense) and when you haven't played a lot together motion is tough to run. We are working on it and we're moving in the right direction. It's been a process.”

Woodlawn was slightly better from the floor overall (15-of-42) and hit 6-of-14 from the arc.

The Cardinals, other than a brief stretch in the fourth quarter, took care of the ball committing just seven turnovers (five in the fourth) overall.

Woodlawn won the rebounding battle, 26-25.

After three consecutive losses to 2A teams (Hillsboro and Flora) and 1A Carlyle to open the season, the Cardinals have won two consecutive games against 1A teams (Okawville and Patoka/Odin).

Coach Verhines' club gets right back into action with a home game against unbeaten Christopher on Friday night.

“We talked about this being our home opener and we finally got some fans in here and our guys were pretty 'jacked up' tonight, it didn't take a whole lot from me to get them going,” said Coach Verhines. “We got off to a pretty good start. We are happy to get a win tonight and then get back after it tomorrow night.”

The Warriors will next play on Tuesday night at the 61st annual St. Elmo Holiday Tournament against the host Eagles.

“That's the story of the night. If you score nine points in a half it's going to be hard to win,” said Coach Eddy. “You give up 41-points and you feel pretty good about yourself. Especially the way we play. We like to play faster than we did tonight. Typically a team I've coached gives up 41-points, we win. We had a hard time hitting shots and they (Woodlawn) did just enough.”

Patoka/Odin (27) – L. Haines 0 0 0-0 0, C. Haines 0 0 0-0 0, Friend 4 0 1-2 9, Belcher 1 1 1-2 6, Meier 0 0 0-0 0, Simmons 0 0 0-0 0, Landreth 0 0 0-0 0, Hamburg 3 2 0-1 12.
2FG-8, 3FG-3, FT-2-5, PF-14.
Woodlawn (41) – Martin 0 3 1-2 10, Phelps 5 1 0-0 13, W. Rollie 0 0 4-4 4, Burkett 2 0 0-0 4, Lee 0 0 0-0 0, Moore 1 2 0-0 8, Palmer 1 0 0-0 2, Metcalf 0 0 0-0 0, B. Rollie 0 0 0-2 0, Malcom 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-9, 3FG-6, FT-5-9, PF-11.
Fouled Out – None.
Technical Fouls – None.