Out of the 'Loop,' Wildcats exit postseason
Lead Summary
By
Stephen Forsha-sforsha@gmail.com
LUCASVILLE — The Whiteoak Wildcats has no answer for South Webster senior Austin Loop, and for that, they were eliminated from postseason play, falling to SW, 61-33 in the Division IV SE District Sectional semifinal, Wednesday at Valley High School in Lucasville.
Loop, a 6-4 senior who averages 17.1 points per game (along with 6.4 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game this season), took control of the game for the first three quarters with a game-high 24 points, going 5-of-5 from the free-throw line. Loop added eight two-point buckets and one 3-pointer.
[[In-content Ad]]Two more players from the Jeeps finished in double figures, with sophomore Levi Cook finishing with 13 points (two 3-pointers) and senior David Sutton with 10 points.
"We wanted to play zone because of their size," Whiteoak head coach Tom Wessner said. "We've been focusing on that the past few days, but we just didn't do a very good job."
As for the Wildcats, who were the away team on the scoreboard, they were led by junior Doc Seip with nine points, who played limited minutes due to foul trouble. Juniors Luke Taggert and Gage Carraher each scored eight points, with Carraher making one 3-pointer, along with a 5-of-6 performance from the free-throw line.
"Doc plays well in the middle, and once he came out of the game, we don't have a big post presence," Wessner said. "That allowed their (SW) big guys to help more, allowing their bigger guys to rotate out and stop the basketball.
"Instead of stopping us at eight or 10 feet from the hoop, they were stopping us at 15 feet and out. We took a lot more jump shots in the second and third quarters and we weren't getting to the basket."
The game started out strongly for the Wildcats (7-15) as they built a 7-2 lead at the 5:48 mark of the opening frame with points by Seip and Carraher, including the aforementioned 3-pointer by Carraher.
The Jeeps answered with a 12-2 run to end the first frame in a span of 5:18, taking a lead of 14-9.
After the ensuing eight minutes, the Wildcats trailed the Jeeps 29-16 at halftime as the Jeeps outscored WHS, 15-7. In the quarter for SW, Loop scored eight points, while Cook sank a 3-pointer and junior Lance Swords connected for two points.
Whiteoak's struggles continued for nearly a 10-minute span, being held to two points from the 3:00 mark of the second to the 1:29 mark of the third where they went from being down three points to trailing by 22. During that time, the Jeeps outscored WHS 21-2, with Loop ending the second with eight straight points and in the third adding eight more points in the run of points by WHS.
"We tried to change it up … we got down double digits, and we couldn't just sit in zone," Wessner said. "South Webster is smart enough, they would just have held the ball for quite a while. I was hoping to speed up the tempo for just a little bit, get the game back into manageable single digits, then get back into the zone, but it just never happened and spiraled out of control."
The streak of points by the Jeeps was stopped by Seip with 1:19 left on the clock in the third, as he had the other two points mixed in during the run by SW.
Once the third ended, WHS trailed by 22 points, and by the time the game ended, they trailed by as much as 30 points.
Scoring in the fourth for WHS were senior Wes Stratton, Seip, Taggert, Justin Emery and Carraher.
Playing his final game for WHS was Stratton.
"I'm very proud of Wes Stratton for being the lone senior," Wessner said. "He was here for four years, played very hard … was a two-year starter.
"I'm proud of this junior class, and we have some sophomores that are looking to do some things. Hopefully we can get together this summer and put together a game plan, get to November and execute better than we did this year."
BOX SCORE
SCORE BY QUARTERS
WHS 09 07 08 09 — 33
SW 14 15 17 15 — 61
INDIVIDUAL STATS
SW (61)
L.Swords 1 (0) 0-0 2
L.Cook 3 (2) 1-1 13
A.Loop 8 (1) 5-5 24
J.Dyer 0 (0) 0-2 0
S.Goddard 0 (2) 0-0 6
D.Sutton 5 (0) 0-0 10
TOTALS: 20 (5) 6-8 61
WHS (33)
W.Stratton 1 (0) 0-0 2
S.Meyers 1 (0) 2-2 4
D.Seip 4 (0) 1-5 9
L.Taggert 4 (0) 0-0 8
J.Emery 1(0) 0-0 2
G.Carraher 0 (1) 5-6 8
TOTALS: 11 (1) 8-13 33
Loop, a 6-4 senior who averages 17.1 points per game (along with 6.4 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game this season), took control of the game for the first three quarters with a game-high 24 points, going 5-of-5 from the free-throw line. Loop added eight two-point buckets and one 3-pointer.
[[In-content Ad]]Two more players from the Jeeps finished in double figures, with sophomore Levi Cook finishing with 13 points (two 3-pointers) and senior David Sutton with 10 points.
"We wanted to play zone because of their size," Whiteoak head coach Tom Wessner said. "We've been focusing on that the past few days, but we just didn't do a very good job."
As for the Wildcats, who were the away team on the scoreboard, they were led by junior Doc Seip with nine points, who played limited minutes due to foul trouble. Juniors Luke Taggert and Gage Carraher each scored eight points, with Carraher making one 3-pointer, along with a 5-of-6 performance from the free-throw line.
"Doc plays well in the middle, and once he came out of the game, we don't have a big post presence," Wessner said. "That allowed their (SW) big guys to help more, allowing their bigger guys to rotate out and stop the basketball.
"Instead of stopping us at eight or 10 feet from the hoop, they were stopping us at 15 feet and out. We took a lot more jump shots in the second and third quarters and we weren't getting to the basket."
The game started out strongly for the Wildcats (7-15) as they built a 7-2 lead at the 5:48 mark of the opening frame with points by Seip and Carraher, including the aforementioned 3-pointer by Carraher.
The Jeeps answered with a 12-2 run to end the first frame in a span of 5:18, taking a lead of 14-9.
After the ensuing eight minutes, the Wildcats trailed the Jeeps 29-16 at halftime as the Jeeps outscored WHS, 15-7. In the quarter for SW, Loop scored eight points, while Cook sank a 3-pointer and junior Lance Swords connected for two points.
Whiteoak's struggles continued for nearly a 10-minute span, being held to two points from the 3:00 mark of the second to the 1:29 mark of the third where they went from being down three points to trailing by 22. During that time, the Jeeps outscored WHS 21-2, with Loop ending the second with eight straight points and in the third adding eight more points in the run of points by WHS.
"We tried to change it up … we got down double digits, and we couldn't just sit in zone," Wessner said. "South Webster is smart enough, they would just have held the ball for quite a while. I was hoping to speed up the tempo for just a little bit, get the game back into manageable single digits, then get back into the zone, but it just never happened and spiraled out of control."
The streak of points by the Jeeps was stopped by Seip with 1:19 left on the clock in the third, as he had the other two points mixed in during the run by SW.
Once the third ended, WHS trailed by 22 points, and by the time the game ended, they trailed by as much as 30 points.
Scoring in the fourth for WHS were senior Wes Stratton, Seip, Taggert, Justin Emery and Carraher.
Playing his final game for WHS was Stratton.
"I'm very proud of Wes Stratton for being the lone senior," Wessner said. "He was here for four years, played very hard … was a two-year starter.
"I'm proud of this junior class, and we have some sophomores that are looking to do some things. Hopefully we can get together this summer and put together a game plan, get to November and execute better than we did this year."
BOX SCORE
SCORE BY QUARTERS
WHS 09 07 08 09 — 33
SW 14 15 17 15 — 61
INDIVIDUAL STATS
SW (61)
L.Swords 1 (0) 0-0 2
L.Cook 3 (2) 1-1 13
A.Loop 8 (1) 5-5 24
J.Dyer 0 (0) 0-2 0
S.Goddard 0 (2) 0-0 6
D.Sutton 5 (0) 0-0 10
TOTALS: 20 (5) 6-8 61
WHS (33)
W.Stratton 1 (0) 0-0 2
S.Meyers 1 (0) 2-2 4
D.Seip 4 (0) 1-5 9
L.Taggert 4 (0) 0-0 8
J.Emery 1(0) 0-0 2
G.Carraher 0 (1) 5-6 8
TOTALS: 11 (1) 8-13 33