01-05-07
BY JACK BULLOCK
WOODLAWN - It took nearly the entire 32 minutes of Friday night’s Mid-South Conference between Woodlawn and Wayne City to decide the winner and 6-foot sophomore Kyle Boldt provided the drama, the game’s closing shot and a big defensive play to give his club a key league victory.

Boldt took an inbound pass and banked home an attempt with :08.8 seconds to go to give Coach Shane Witzel’s team a 48-47 lead.

He then deflected a pass in the lane by Wayne City’s Ryan Clevenger just before the final horn to secure the Cardinal’s third MSC win on the season.

In a contest that featured more problems than solutions, Woodlawn fell its conference mates while improving to 6-6 overall and second place in the MSC at 3-1.

Hitting on just 11-of-25 free throws the Cardinals failed to put Coach Steve Strickland’s Indians away.

“We anticipated it (free throw shooting) to be a problem this year because we weren’t a good free throw shooting team last year and it is something that we have tried to improve on,” said Woodlawn head coach Shane Witzel. “So far we’ve not seen any results and it would definitely make things easier if we could hit those shots but the good thing is that we overcame that. For a confidence thing, we’ve lost three close ballgames where we had the lead late so from that stand point that is a positive.”

Wayne City got a game-high 17 points from Ryan Clevenger and 10 points from Jasen Tubbs in a loss in which the Indians had a pair of fourth quarter one-point leads.

Taking a brief advantage of Woodlawn’s free throw disparity, Wayne City closed a five-point advantage with a pair of late 3-pointers.

Wayne City’s Landon Loker and Clevenger both hit trifecta’s in a fourth quarter stretch when Woodlawn was faltering from the foul line.

Woodlawn missed four consecutive charity tosses in a two-minute period allowing the Indians a chance for the road triumph.

When Clevenger’s rainbow ‘three’ from the top of the arc ripped threw the twine, Wayne City led 45-44 with 1:00 remaining.

The Cardinals didn’t show any panic in the final minute, getting the ball inside to 6-foot-5 junior Ethan Shurtz.

Shurtz scored 11 points on this night while topping the Cardinals with nine rebounds. His score from the right blocks gave Woodlawn back the lead at 46-45 with :45 seconds left.

Wayne City had the look of a winner when Travis Deitz took a pass from Blank and drained a short baseline shot to give back the lead to the Indians 47-46.

However Boldt made the big shot at the end, just his third and fourth points of the night.

“We got some good shots at the end and Kyle Boldt’s last shot was just sheer will-power,” said Woodlawn head coach Shane Witzel. “I don’t know how he scored. He just willed it in.”

Shurtz got the Cardinals off to a good start with six points and five rebounds in the first quarter.

Consecutive scores late in the quarter gave Woodlawn the lead 10-8 but a second personal foul by Shurtz sent him to the bench with 2:18 remaining in a quarter that ended 12-9 Cardinals after a Jase Green fast break score.

Woodlawn’s Scott McNeil – who along with Green topped the Cardinals’ scoring attack with 12 points – hit a pair of important shots in a lackluster second quarter.

His rebound of his own miss beat the second quarter buzzer and gave Coach Witzel’s club a 27-19 halftime advantage.

Woodlawn’s bench gave some support to the starters in the second quarter, an importance that didn’t go unnoticed by Witzel.

“It is pretty important that we get some contributions from our bench because we are pretty thin,” Witzel explained. “With Bronson (Verhines) hurt, (Kyle) Ritchey’s got a sprained ankle and Ethan was sick this morning we were concerned how that was going to play out.”

Wayne City quickly got back in contention when the third quarter got rolling.

Clevenger hit a pair of early shots and when Blank converted a fast break following a Woodlawn turnover, Wayne City forced a Witzel timeout with 5:36 left at 27-25 Cards.

Woodlawn’s free throw problems were amplified in the third quarter and allowed Wayne City to stay close.

The Cards were just 3-of-8 from the line and Green missed two in a row with :08.7 left in the frame.

Clevenger grabbed the second Green missed free throw and raced the length of the court unscathed for a lay in to cut the lead to 36-35 heading to the final eight minutes.

“Whenever he (Clevenger) shoots the ball well then we have a chance to win and I thought Blank (Kory) played his best game of the year,” added Strickland. “We’ve been on him (Blank) about shooting the ball more and tonight he did and that is a good thing. It will be a plus for us down the road.”

After Clevenger tied the game by hitting the back end of a two-shot foul situation, Woodlawn’s McNeil hit the Cardinals only 3-pointer of the night to make it 39-36 Cardinals.

Deitz matched the long range McNeil shot to even things once again at 39.

When Shurtz and McNeil both scored baskets following the tie and the Cardinals spreading the floor on Wayne City, the game could have been put away much earlier.

However Shurtz, Boldt and McNeil all missed free throws to set up the final exciting moments.

“I was really proud of our mental effort tonight because we switched defenses a lot tonight and we couldn’t have done that at the beginning of the season,” finalized Witzel. “We were trying to find a way to create some pressure. We’re not overly quick so we tried some 1-3-1 half-court traps. We didn’t want them (Wayne City) to get too comfortable on offense. If you let them dictate tempo then it will limit your opportunities.”

Woodlawn were 18-of-41 from the field in the contest including just 1-of-5 from 3-point land.

Coach Witzel got seven points from Jesse Hart, including four important points in the second quarter to go with the contributions from the top three scorers.

Wayne City – following Clevenger and Tubbs – received eight points from Blank in the low-scoring conference game.

The Indians struggled with an 18-of-49 effort (37 percent) from the floor 3-of-8 from behind the arc in a game in which they were eight seconds from the win on the road.

They, too, had trouble at the foul line hitting just 8-of-17.

“There were some things we could have done differently but we played right with them (Woodlawn) and didn’t let the game get away from us,” said Wayne City head coach Steve Strickland who saw his club fall to 5-8 overall and 1-4 in the Mid-South. “Jasen Tubbs worked hard for us in there tonight. If he was 6-5 he would be an animal but at 5-10 he does a good job inside,” Strickland added. “He gets a lot of rebounds and he keeps the ball alive.”

The Cardinals held a slight 27-24 rebounding edge and committed just three-second half turnovers for a total of 10.

“We had too many turnovers in the first half and we talked about that at halftime about giving ourselves a better chance to win,” added Witzel. “We made a concentrated effort to get the ball inside tonight because we have a size advantage. And if we can get Ethan (Shurtz) down there deep he can score. If they don’t send two guys then he can score.”

Woodlawn jumps back into Mid-South action with a road game at Thompsonville tomorrow night while Wayne City hits the road with a game next Tuesday night at Grayville.

Wayne City (47) – Clevenger 5 1 4-6 17, Tubbs 3 0 4-9 10, McCormick 2 0 0-0 4, Loker 0 1 0-1 3, Blank 4 0 0-1 8, Deitz 1 1 0-0 5.
2FG-15, 3FG-3, FT-8-17, PF-19.
Woodlawn (48) – McNeil 4 1 1-4 12, Shurtz 5 0 1-3 11, Ritchey 1 0 0-0 2, Boldt 2 0 0-1 4, Hart 2 0 3-5 7, Green 3 0 6-12 12, Hammond 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-17, 3FG-1, FT-11-25, PF-16.
Fouled Out – None.
Technical Fouls – None.