03-01-11
BY JACK BULLOCK
ALTAMONT – For the first 6:17 of their Altamont Class 1A Sectional contest on Wednesday night the St. Elmo Eagles were “living the dream.”

After having upset a pair of teams to win their own regional last week – these Eagles were looking at becoming another team in the long line of “David's who have slayed the Goliath's” in the history of this sport.

In for nearly a quarter the Eagles were doing all the right things and had jumped out to a 14-6 advantage over state-ranked and ABV preseason number one Woodlawn.

However – as has been the case so many times before in contests like this one – reality set in.

The Cardinals showed why they are so highly regarded by going on a 27-4 run to turn the dream into a nightmare for St. Elmo.

Behind 21-points from Gabe Owens and 18-points from Dawson Verhines – Woodlawn rallied to win 61-38 to advance to its third consecutive sectional championship game.

The Cardinals – after a slow start with four early turnovers – rolled into a match up with Red Hill on Friday night by forcing St. Elmo into nine second half miscues.

Coach Shane Witzel's team improved to 27-3 on the season with the victory.

“This is a long game. It is 32-minutes and there are a lot of different parts to the game and the main thing is that you don't panic,” said Woodlawn head coach Shane Witzel. “We wanted to continue to grind out defensive possessions and keep trying to wear them down. They (St. Elmo) made some big shots early in the game and it was important for us to withstand that first punch of theirs.”

By the time that the combination of nervousness on the part of the Cardinals and the adrenaline produced euphoria displayed by St. Elmo had wore off – Woodlawn turned that early eight-point deficit into a 22-18 halftime lead.

A 9-0 run to start the second half changed the complexion of the contest around and the Cardinals never let St. Elmo back into the game as they rolled to their fifth consecutive sectional game win in three seasons.

After having won 9-of-11 games heading into the sectional – the Eagles saw their season come to an end at 13-16.

After Woodlawn had tied the game early at 6-all – St. Elmo had its best run of the contest by scoring the game's next eight points.

Five-foot-ten senior guard Garrett Buzzard had the Eagles fan base thinking upset by scoring all eight points – including a pair of 3-pointers.

When his second bomb found the mark with 1:43 left in the first quarter – the Eagles led 14-6.

A pair of free throws by Verhines to close the quarter started Woodlawn on its first big run of the evening.

The Cards scoring spree was of 14-0 variety – turning an early deficit into a lead they would not relinquish.

Four different Woodlawn players scored in the cavalcade with Verhines finishing the run by taking a back door pass from teammate Josh Wiggs for an easy lay up and a 20-14 lead with 3:43 left before halftime.

Wiggs – who was saddled with early foul trouble – finished with just four points but was still a troublesome defender as this 6-foot-8 senior blocked five St. Elmo shots on the night.

Blake Pruett scored on a hook shot to stop the Woodlawn run and a pair of free throws by Jake Mansker had St. Elmo still feeling pretty good being down just 22-18 at intermission.

However Woodlawn finished its 27-4 onslaught with Verhines having a hand on seven points in a 9-0 sprint.

He canned a 3-pointer from the left wing just ten seconds into the third quarter and then he fed senior classmate AJ Webb for a pair of fast break scores that forced a St. Elmo timeout at 33-18.

“We have some players that haven't been in situation before. They have played in a lot of big games this year but they were excited and we like that,” added Coach Witzel. “It was important to get this game out of the way and for three and a half quarters we played very well.”

The Eagles last hurrah was a brief 5-0 run with Mansker scoring twice and junior Ben Sperry hitting 1-of-2 free throws.

Woodlawn slammed the door shut by out-scoring the Eagles 14-3 to close the quarter.

Owens scored eight of the points – starting the run with a 3-pointer from the top of the arc and finishing the scoring jaunt with a drive to the basket and another trey.

Woodlawn held the ball for a final shot with Verhines in charge.

The 6-foot-2 senior guard found Owens open from the right wing and the 6-foot-3 sophomore drained his third and final trifecta of the game just before the horn for a 47-26 lead heading into the final quarter.

“He (Owens) had some bad turnovers in the first half and that is uncharacteristic of him and he missed a few shots but the good thing about him is that he is always willing to take the big shot when it is there,” added Coach Witzel. “He makes good decisions with the ball in his hands. He does a lot of positive things for us.”

St. Elmo would get no closer than 18-points the rest of the way as Woodlawn closed the game out with charity work.

The foul line – a place where all good teams shine – was a bright spot for the Cardinals on Wednesday night.

Woodlawn – who came into the contest hitting 68 percent from the foul line - was a scorching hot 20-of-23 from the charity stripe and Owens closed the game by hitting six-straight and was 8-of-9 for the game.

Behind Owens and Verhines in scoring was Christian Hollenkamp with 10. Hollenkamp was also good from the foul line hitting all four of his freebies.

Webb, Wiggs and sophomore reserve Logan Isaac finished with four points each.

The Cardinals were not only effective from the foul line but overall they were very good from the field – connecting on 18-of-30 shots overall (60 percent) and hit 5-of-9 3-point attempts.

St. Elmo was forced into a rough shooting night – hitting just 14-of-43 overall and just 5-of-13 from behind the arc.

Coach Greg Feezel's club was led in scoring by Pruett and Mansker - a pair of junior guard/forward's - with 10-points each.

Sophomore Connor Beasley hit two 3-point shots for St. Elmo for six points as the Eagles have plenty of optimism heading into next season with nearly everyone back.

However Beasley – who came into the game averaging nearly 12-points a night – was held in check by Verhines.

The two treys came in the fourth quarter after the game had already been decided.

Woodlawn gets Red Hill on Friday night in a rematch of two seasons ago when the Cardinals won their first ever sectional title by beating the Salukis on their home floor back in March of 2009.