Boys Lose To Weston- McEwen In Final Seconds

WAITSBURG - It may sound like a strange observa­tion, but WP basketball Head Coach T.J. Scott almost pre­fers to start his season with a loss, particularly against good team.

"A loss makes you see what you need to improve on and become the team you want to be," he said. "That was a good team and that was their sixth game." The Cardinals Boys team lost by two points 47-45 in the last handful of seconds of their game against the Weston-McEwen Tigerscots, a heartbreaking cliff hanger more than a resounding de­feat, a better performance against this tough opponent from south of the state line than in years past - almost a victory in disguise. There were so many promising signs Scott said he saw on Kison Court Tuesday night: the number of shots on the basket, the intensity with which the team took on the Tigerscots and the way they came up with a lot of loose balls.

But there were many ob­vious lessons too: the need for better execution (the Cardinals were only 27 per­cent from the floor) and better defensive coverage to shut down the quick breaks, which Weston-McEwen ex­ecuted very well. "We let (Miles) Thul and (Dallas) Reich kill us," Scott said. "We tried to contain them but just didn't get it done. Zone or man-to-man, they were just too quick for us." The late start of the season after the long football play­offs was probably to blame somewhat. It was the Cardi­nals' first game, while their opponents already polished off half a dozen court appear­ances. But the Cardinals have a long ways to go offensively, he said.

The two teams were in a dead heat the entire night, just slightly behind at the end of the first quarter 10-14, the end of the second quarter 19-20 and the end of the third quarter 30-33. It remained a cliff hanger down to the wire. A late Tigerscots' trey from Thul evened the score at 42-42 with fewer than 3 minutes to go. Dustin Wood­erchak

was fouled with 1:41 to go and made both free throws to put his team ahead 44-42, but the Tigerscots quickly came back with a two-pointer. A WP foul brought Weston-McEwen to the free-throw line, making only one to put the Tigerscots ahead 45-44 only to see the Cardinals equalize the score with a shot from Wooderchak from the free-throw line sec­onds later. With 8 seconds to go, the ball went out of bounds and Weston-McEwen regained possession. Then the ball went straight to Reich, one of the Tigerscots' most dan­gerous players who broke through the Cardinals' de­fense and laid it up in the bucket as the final seconds disappeared off the clock to signal WP's narrow defeat.

"We'll learn from it and get better," Scott said. "It's a long season. This is the best we've slowed them down, stopping the fast breaks for most of the game but we just didn't score (enough)."

The Cardinals play Day­ton on Friday, giving WP its second "huge test out of the­box.

The Bulldogs have won three of their first four games, beating Pomeroy 58-30 on Tuesday. "We'll have to be ready to play because we know they will be," Scott said.

WP BOYS

WP vs Weston-McEwen

WP 10 9 11 15 45

WM 14 6 13 14 47

WP (45): Zach Bartlow 17, TJ Hofer 8, Dustin Wood­erchak

5, Tre Brannock 4, Matt Hamilton 4, David Brock 3, Guillermo Hernandez 2 and Kris Cady 2.