BCS GBB Tournament: Woodland dominates (again) en route to third title

PATTON – Each varsity boy’s basketball season, the team at Woodland High School hosts the Woodland Invitational Tournament early in its season. The Cardinals’ girl’s program is seemingly doing something similar in mid-season, but it goes by the name of the Bollinger Cape Scott Conference Tournament, as Woodland has absolutely dominated this event since its inception three years ago.

“We hope that we can continue that,” Cardinal coach Paul Lynch said following his team’s most recent championship victory in the tournament.

Woodland (11-5) dominated Oak Ridge on Thursday in the title tilt 70-23 after advancing past Advance/Bell City 44-26 in the semifinal. The championship was the third straight for the Cardinals, who have gone 6-0 in the tournament with a winning margin of over 33 points.

The Cardinals have five defeats this season, with three of them coming against Kelly. However, against Oak Ridge (9-6), Lynch’s kids used sound fundamental basketball (and really good perimeter shooting) to dismantle the Blue Jays’ zone defense.

“We spend a lot of time with fundamentals,” Lynch said. “We talk about the little things (like) a simple ball fake being able to shift the defense just a step to help us out.”

Getting the Oak Ridge defense to be “just a step” out of position against the Cardinal shooters proved an ingenious strategy for Woodland, which has won four consecutive games.

The Cardinals buried 11 3-point shots with nine coming from freshman Addy Massa (five makes) and junior Mallary Barks (four makes).

“For the shooting,” Lynch said, “we’re just happy for the ball to go in the basket.”

That wasn’t an issue, as the Cardinals took a 21-9 lead by the end of the opening quarter and never looked back.

“Woodland shot the lights out,” second-year Oak Ridge coach Julie Ward said. “I don’t know what their percentage was, but they were tough.

“We just had too many unforced turnovers.”

Massa paced Woodland with 25 points while Barks (19 points) and junior Maci McIntyre (eight points) also contributed.

Oak Ridge got 10 points out of junior Reagan Howe and five from sophomore Kinsley Bogenpohl.

Oak Ridge will travel to Crystal City (2-10) on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m.

Woodland will host Dexter (8-8) on Thursday at 7:30 p.m.

Panthers, Wildcats win

Meadow Heights got past Advance/Bell City 40-27 in the tournament’s third-place game.

The Panthers (6-5) were led by senior Rachael Hellebusch, who scored 10 of her team-leading 19 points in the opening quarter.

Advance/Bell City (4-11) was led by senior Maggie Stubenrauch with 13 points.

Advance/Bell City will visit Charleston (0-10) on Monday at 6 p.m.

Meadow Heights will host St. Vincent (6-6) on Tuesday at 6 p.m.

In the tournament fifth-place game, Bloomfield/Richland (Essex) took care of Puxico 62-38.

Bloomfield/Richland (Essex) was led by sophomore Kendall Phillips with 18 points while juniors Kaelyn Conner and Abbigail Heaton chipped in nine points each in the win.

Puxico was paced by junior Laney Porter with 15 points.

The Indians (3-11) will host Senath-Hornersville (2-8) on Thursday at 7:15 p.m.

Bloomfield/Richland (Essex) (6-7) will host Westwood Baptist Sr. on Friday at 4:30 p.m.