12-14-07
BY JACK BULLOCK
WOODLAWN - It doesn’t matter what the sport is – defending champions don’t go down without a fight.

The Waltonville Spartans have won the last two Mid-South Conference championships and they took a small - but important - step towards a ‘three-peat’ with a big 51-47 win over rival Woodlawn on the road Friday night.

Considered a young and inexperienced team – the Spartans have romped out to a 7-1 start thanks in part to the play of 6-foot-3 sophomore Joseph Lewis.

Lewis was Waltonville’s ‘crunch time crusader’ on Friday night – hitting for 29 points and nailing down the win with 5-of-6 free throws in the final :17 of the fourth quarter.

The victory put Waltonville on the top of the list in the MSC with a 3-0 mark.

“I really don’t know what to say. These guys (his players) have exceeded my expectations for sure,” added Denault. “When you lose eight seniors you don’t expect to go out and do what we have done. Our seniors have accepted their roles and there is no jealousy in this group.”

The Cardinals saw their record slip to 3-3 on the season and 1-1 in the conference.

“You have to give them (Waltonville) credit they put a lot of pressure on us and they did a pretty good job on Ethan (Shurtz) and our guards,” said Woodlawn head coach Shane Witzel. “Our guards had a hard time getting the ball into the post.”

Waltonville turned back each of the Cardinals’ late runs in the second half with defensive stops or big offensive plays.

Woodlawn seemed on the brink of taking over the game but the Cardinals couldn’t get any consistency offensively on a night where they shot the ball well enough to win and had just five second half turnovers.

However Coach Witzel’s club gave up six 3-pointers made (four by Lewis) while they themselves were just 8-of-15 from the foul line.

“We had trouble all night stringing together anything offensively,” said Coach Witzel. “We would get one or two scores and then we would miss a shot or turn it over.”

Woodlawn’s best run in the first half gave them their biggest lead.

An 8-0 march in the second quarter sparked by two baskets by Jase Green turned a deficit into a 19-13 lead with 3:34 before the break.

But at this point Waltonville’s Skylar Witges scored six of his 11 points in a 1:14 stretch to end the half.

This sophomore hit 3-of-4 free throws and canned an NBA-like 3-pointer from right in front of the Woodlawn bench to even the score at 21 heading into intermission.

Waltonville’s confidence increased with every minute that went by in the second half.

Lewis scored 20 of his 29 after halftime and he hit four big shots in the third quarter.

After the Cardinals had evened the score at 25 with baskets by Shurtz and Kyle Boldt – Lewis scored three times the remainder of the quarter.

His drive to the basket with :32 left in the frame gave his Spartans a 34-31 lead.

Woodlawn’s top point man with 16 points on the night – Jase Green - scored twice in the third quarter.

His second made field goal just beat the horn to cut the Spartans lead to just a point heading into the final quarter.

Waltonville opened the final quarter with Lewis and teammate Alex DuRietz hitting consecutive 3-pointers to give the Spartans a 40-34 cushion.

Woodlawn’s final lead of the game came with 4:04 remaining. Four Green free throws and a 15-footer by Boldt was a 6-0 run good enough for a 43-42 edge.

The Spartans grabbed control of the game with Witges putting in a one-handed drive down the left baseline and those 5-of-6 Lewis free throws.

After Green’s final score on a drive to the basket – Woodlawn had to foul again and Lewis hit his final two free throws to seal the win.

For the game they were just 10-of-24 from the charity stripe but Waltonville hit the ones that counted the most in the final minute.

Although Woodlawn had just 12 turnovers in the game – Waltonville’s defense had an effect in the outcome.

“This team is as athletic as any team that I have had since I started coaching and our calling card has been our pressure defense,” added Coach Denault. “And I think that we will get better and better defensively the further we go along in the season.”

The Spartans finished with a 17-of-38 effort from the field overall and 6-of-15 from behind the arc.

Although they were out rebounded by Woodlawn 27-21 – Coach Denault was pleased with his team’s work on the boards.

“For the size advantage that they (Woodlawn) had on us tonight I thought we did a good job on the boards.” added Denault.

The Cardinals were 19-of-44 on the night and just 1-of-6 from 3-point range.

After Green’s 16 points – the Cardinals got 14 points from Jesse Hart and 10 from Ethan Shurtz. Boldt added seven points, as those four players were the only ones to score points for Woodlawn.

“We are having a hard time finding that ‘go-to’ guy and right now we don’t have one,” added Coach Witzel. “We have a couple of guys who are trying to fit into that role. We have to find our identity on the offensive end because we can’t continue to struggle.”

After Lewis (29) and Witges (11) DuRietz added six points in the low-scoring defensive win.

“It was fun, it was fun,” said Waltonville head coach Mike Denault after the hard-fought win. “You’ve been around long enough to know that this (Waltonville vs. Woodlawn rivalry) is what it is all about for these kids. They (the games) are all like this. I told those guys (Woodlawn) when I was shaking hands with them that we’ll have two more of these at least.”

Waltonville (51) - Reeves 0 0 0-2 0, Bassett 1 0 1-2 3, Witges 2 1 4-6 11, Cook 1 0 0-1 2, Kash 0 0 0-0 0, DuRietz 1 1 1-5 6, Lewis 6 4 5-6 29, Ford 0 0 0-2 0.
2FG-11, 3FG-6, FT-10-24, PF-15.
Woodlawn (47) - B. Verhines 0 0 0-2 0, Green 6 0 4-6 16, Shurtz 5 0 0-0 10, Boldt 3 0 1-3 7, Hart 4 1 3-4 14, Hammond 0 0 0-0 0, Simmons 0 0 0-0 0, D. Verhines 0 0 0-0 0, Wehrheim 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-28, 3FG-1, FT-12-24, PF-22.
Fouled Out - Boldt, B. Verhines - Woodlawn.
Technical Fouls - None.