02-19-13
BY JACK BULLOCK
WALTONVILLE - When the Sesser-Valier Red Devils have been successful this season, they have gotten the ball inside to 6-foot-6 senior Justin Kulich.

That game-plan served the Devils well on Tuesday night at the 1A Waltonville Regional.

Kulich delivered the goods by notching 18-points while corralling 15-rebounds as the Red Devils moved into the semifinals with a 54-38 win over Wayne City.

Head coach Chip Basso's club jumped out to an early 10-2 lead and were never headed in improving to 13-15 on the season.

Wayne City saw its season end at 6-22.

Sesser-Valier is the number three seed and will now face second-seeded Steeleville on Thursday night.

Derek Hood, a 5-foot-11 senior guard, and backcourt teammate Cody Lingle helped get S-V going early.

Lingle drained hit the first of two 3-pointers for the 5-foot-10 senior and Hood capped a 7-0 run to begin the game on a fast-break off of one of Wayne City's six first quarter turnovers.

Hood scored again to close the frame off of another fast break as the Red Devils led 14-6 at the first horn.

The key to the first quarter was offensive rebounding as S-V got second chances at scoring and made the Indians pay.

Despite not shooting the ball well early (4-of-17 from the field in the first quarter) Sesser-Valier led the entire contest.

“I didn't feel like we were taking bad shots, they just weren't falling for us early,” said Coach Basso. “We missed some easy shots early but in the postseason you just want to survive and advance and we did that tonight. I hope we play a bit better on Thursday.”

The second quarter was where Kulich took control.

This senior grabbed six rebounds and scored six of his points directly from the offensive glass.

Back-to-back offensive rebounds produced points and a 20-6 lead, which forced a Wayne City timeout at 4:25 of the second quarter.

“We were able to get some good shots in the first half but we missed some bunnies (easy shots) from point blank range that we should have made,” said Coach Gerlach. “If we made a couple of extra shots maybe we are only down 25-18 instead of 25-10.”

The Indians had some bright spots, one of which was the play of 6-foot-1 junior forward Billy Irwin.

Irwin led WC with 14-points while teammate Brandon Haile added seven.

Haile scored Wayne City's only two baskets of the second quarter and, when he took a pass from Irwin for a drive in the lane for a score, the Indians trailed just 20-10.

However Sesser-Valier responded with a 3-pointer from the top of the arc from sophomore Jacob Vanwey and yet another Kulich rebound and put-back for a 25-10 halftime lead.

With 11-first half turnovers and just 4-of-21 shooting, the Indians were in trouble heading into the lockerroom.

Coach Russ Gerlach's Tribe made a brief run at the Devils in the third quarter, scoring six-consecutive points on a rebound basket by junior forward Jimmy Mayberry and four free throws by Irwin.

This run cut Sesser-Valier's advantage to 32-20 with 3:10 left.

But at this point, the Red Devils put the game out of reach by going on a 7-2 run with Kulich, Tyler Baxter and Luke Thompson all hitting shots.

Thompson, a 5-foot-10 sophomore guard, canned a 3-pointer from the right wing on an inbounds pass for a 39-22 edge heading into the final quarter.

Wayne City made things briefly interesting in the final stanza, hitting a trio of 3-pointers.

Chase Gammon, Canyon Clark and Haile all dial up from behind the circle.

Haile's trey with with 5:38 remaining cut the Indians' deficit to 44-31.

Nevertheless Wayne City would get no closer the rest of the way as their season came to a close.

A 3-pointer by Hood and two more baskets from Kulich closed the notebook on this contest.

Both teams finished out the game with the reserves on the floor.

Sesser-Valier didn't shoot the ball well in hitting just 21-of-62 attempts (33.8 percent) but commanded the boards (38-29) and got 17-offensive rebounds.

Following Kulich in scoring was Hood with 13-points and Lingle with nine.

Extra chances turned into points for the Red Devils, who are in search for a second-consecutive regional championship.

“When you are struggling shooting the ball you have to come up with other ways to score and tonight our defense created some offense for us,” added Coach Basso. “Offensive rebounding was big for us tonight.”

Wayne City was just 13-of-42 from the floor (30.9 percent) while coughing up 22-turnovers in the matchup.

The Indians did make 9-of-10 free throws on the night but that advantage wasn't good enough for any sort of late game heroics.

“I was a little worried after practice yesterday that we had pretty much decided that the season was over. But before the game started you could tell in the lockerroom that they were ready to play,” said Coach Gerlach. “We had some mistakes from the start but we got after them (Sesser-Valier). We just got killed on the offensive glass.”