Woodland High dominates title game with explosive first quarter performance

Woodland High School’s boys varsity basketball team jumped to a 20-point lead after just one quarter and had five players finish in double figures on its way to a 99-52 title game victory over Meadow Heights in the 57th annual Woodland Invitational Tournament Friday, Dec. 6, on its home court.

The Cardinals made six of their nine 3-pointers in the opening quarter as they raced to a 36-16 lead. Lane Lee scored nine his 14 points in the first quarter while teammate Korbin Kinder added 11 of his 22 points in the early going.

Calvin Layton led all scorers with 23 points while Jackson Shock scored 20 points. Kameron McCormick scored 10 in the blowout win.

It was 54-21 in favor of Woodland at halftime, and then the lead grew to 82-39 through three quarters as Woodland outscored the Panthers 28-18 in the third period.

Maison Whitener scored a team-high 17 points for Meadow Heights. Braeden Hays contributed 15 points while Mason Mayfield added 11 points in the championship contest.

Woodland coach Shawn Kinder liked his team's defensive effort, which often times helped the offense, with fast break opportunities.

“I thought the guys came out with defensive intensity tonight,” he said. “We kind of got Meadow Heights on their heels a little bit in transition. We ran the floor really well and got some easy buckets on transition our defense forced. We also did a pretty good job of sharing the job tonight.”

“Our help defense has got to get better. Our rotations sometimes on the defensive end aren’t there. Our closeouts on the ball, we’ve got to get down and stop dribble penetration. Teams are still getting to the house, to the paint on us probably too much. We’ve got to do a better job of really rotating on weak side.”

Overall, Kinder was pleased with the tournament win.

“It’s definitely one of our team goals, to win this tournament," he said after the game. "It kind of sets the tone a little bit going into Christmas. I really like to see this early in the season guys sharing the ball this much. We didn’t have a whole lot of selfish play."

Meadow Heights coach Gary Poyner said the Cardinals shot extremely well in the championship game win, and the Woodland defensive effort led to various fast break chances for the Cardinals.

“They come down and shot the ball well early," Poyner said. "They’re a good shooting team. They hit six 3s in the first quarter, they hit three right out of the gate, and put us in a whole early. Between that, and they play good pressure defense, we struggled to settle down and play through the pressure early, and those were the two big things that put us in a hole to start the game. The other thing that they did that we struggled with at times was getting back in transition. They do a good job of getting defensive rebounds, looking to push the ball and run the floor.”

While the loss was a disappointment, Poyner said he was grateful for the chance to play in the final, and it ultimately will provide a chance to learn.

"What I told the boys here tonight afterwards is, ‘We’re disappointed in the way things went tonight, obviously, but there are four other teams that would have loved to be playing in the finals," Poyner said. "Be proud of the opportunity you got to play in this (championship game) because four other teams would be love to playing in the final game, too.

"We started our season playing Scott City, playing Greenville, playing Woodland, which are 3A schools, all three in the same district and they’re probably going to be the top three teams. The schedule that we’ve started out with compared to a lot of schools our size…we’ve started out with a pretty tough schedule, and we’re learning a lot early what we need to do, and these are the types of games that will help us get better when we get later on in the season and get playing those teams that are in our district."

Greenville 48, Leopold 47

Leopold led by five after the first (16-11) and third quarters (40-35) and was ahead by 10 at halftime (29-19) but three starters fouling out in the final quarter proved to be too much to overcome as the Wildcats fell 48-47 to Greenville in the third place contest of the Woodland Invitational Tournament Dec. 6.

Riley Engelen departed after picking up his fifth personal with 6:43 remaining. He scored seven points before getting too many fouls. Senior Karsen Castile left the game at the 4:17 mark after picking up a fifth personal. Leopold was clinging to a 40-38 lead at that time. Nine second later, a basket by Preston Campbell gave the Wildcats a 42-38 lead. Two made field goals by Greenville in the next 50 seconds tied the contest at 42.

Drew Engelen was left alone beneath the bucket and caught an inbounds pass, putting it through to give LHS a 44-42 lead with 2:55 remaining. The Bears responded with a field goal from Ian Meyer, tying it at 44.

The Wildcats missed a 3-pointer with 90 seconds left, then got another chance after an offensive rebound by Avery Hoesli. Eventually, Preston Campbell was called for an offensive foul with 54.4 seconds left, giving Greenville possession in the final minute. The Bears took advantage as senior Jimmy Marler grabbed his initial miss then put another attempt back in, giving Greenville its first lead with 35 seconds remaining. Leopold still had an opportunity to tie, or possibly take the lead back. Drew Engelen missed a field goal, grabbed his missed, then was fouled as his second attempt was off the mark. He made the second of two foul shots, leaving the Wildcats down 46-45 and forcing Leopold to foul.

Cooper Sturgeon took the inbounds pass with 9.2 seconds and was immediately fouled. He made both foul shots to put Greenville in front 48-45.

The Wildcats had a final chance to tie it and possibly force overtime but Tommy Beussink bypassed a 3-point chance for a two-point layup and by then the quarter expired, leaving Leopold with one-point defeat. Beussink was the top scored for Leopold, finishing with 15 and three of his team’s six made 3-pointers.

Sturgeon paced the Bears with 21 points, including 7-for-11 at the foul line. He kept Greenville close early on, scoring nine of the team’s 11 points in the first quarter.

Greenville made just one 3-pointer but held a 15-12 edge in converted 2-point field goals. The Bears were 15-for-25 at the foul line while Leopold went 5-for-12.

Perryville 84, Oak Ridge 68 (Fifth place)

Perryville High School’s boys varsity basketball team used a 26-point third quarter to pull away from a close contest against Oak Ridge in winning the consolation (fifth place game) of the Woodland Invitational Tournament Friday, Dec. 6.

The Pirates led 21-20 after the first quarter and were in front 38-37 at halftime as each team scored 17 points in the second quarter which featured four lead changes and a tie, at 32. Oak Ridge took a 37-36 lead in the closing minute of the half on a basket by senior Kaden Borgfield. Moments later, Perryville got a field goal by Aiden wendel, who took a pass from Karston Schilli, to take the lead by 38-37 with 30 ticks left in the quarter. A late shot attempt was blocked by Perryville as the period expired but the officials added a fraction of a second for final in-bounds play. A three-quarters court heave hit the ceiling and sent both teams to their respective locker rooms.

PHS began the third quarter on a 10-4 run to take a 48-41 lead. Another field goal by Borgfield and a 3-pointer from Oak Ridge’s Cohen Hahs cut the Perryville lead to 48-46. They would get no closer.

With 2:35 remaining in the third, a basket got Oak Ridge within 53-48. A pair of missed free throws by the Blue Jays prevented them from getting any closer. It was part of a stretch in with both squads combined to miss four of five foul shots.

The Pirates closed the third on an 11-3 run to take a commanding 64-51 lead into the fourth period. A 9-2 scoring surge from Perryville pushed the advantage to 73-53 with 6:05 to go, the Pirates’ largest lead of the evening to that point. Oak Ridge converted a pair of field goals to get within 73-57, but a 9-0 run stretched the PHS lead to 82-57 with 2:46 left. A 7-0 Blue Jays’ run made it 82-64 but by then it was too little too late.

Jake Cissell led Perryville with 18 points. Also in double digits for Perryville were: Karston Schilli (15), Eli Schott (13), as well as Cole Rodewald and Waylon Huber (10 apiece).

Borgfield led Oak Ridge with 16 points. Hahs contributed 13 points while Jayden McCallister tallied 11 points for the Blue Jays, who were 10-for-18 from the foul line.

The Pirates finished the contest 34-for-81 from the field and recorded 29 steals, including 12 in the third quarter alone.