Host Cardinals overtake Rams at Woodland Tournament

~ Woodland rallied to beat Scott City 66-53 in the first round of its own tournament

MARBLE HILL, Mo. -- The Woodland boys basketball team returned to the floor for the second half of their game against Scott City on Monday night trailing by six points.

"I think coming out of halftime we wanted to come out and make a statement," Woodland junior Garret Reynolds said. "Push the pace, especially early. Hit a 3, hit another 3 and we got tied. Then we had a bunch of energy, had the momentum."

The fourth-seeded Cardinals (1-0) rode that momentum to a 66-53 victory over the fifth-seeded Rams (0-1) in the opening round of the Woodland Tournament.

But the statement Reynolds hoped to make was about more than a single win.

"We're not the Woodland of the past," Reynolds said. "We're going to compete hard every time. We're not going to come into games thinking we're going to lose. We think we can win every game."

Reynolds scored on the Cardinals' first three possessions of the second half, including a pair of 3-pointers, to propel Woodland to an 8-0 run that gave Woodland a 39-37 lead with 6 minutes, 28 seconds remaining in the third quarter.

Scott City sophomore Trent Pobst, who finished with a game-high 26 points, replied with a basket to tie the score, but the Rams would never lead again.

Woodland led 50-47 at the end of the third quarter before outscoring Scott City 16-6 in the fourth.

The Rams, who had just one senior on their roster and started a freshman and a sophomore, shot 4 of 20 from the field in the second half and did not make a field goal in the fourth quarter.

Woodland´s Garret Reynolds tips a pass from Scott City´s Dylan Keller during the Cardinals’ win over the Rams in the first round of the Woodland Tournament on Monday at Woodland High School in Marble Hill. (Adam Vogler)

"I told them that wasn't the part that bothered me," Scott City coach Mark Dannenmueller said. "I thought when they came out and kind of hit us in the mouth, so to speak ... I thought you could really tell we didn't know how to react, and I didn't feel like we had anybody step up and lead us in the right direction. I guess that's the inexperience, but like I told them, I don't want to use that as an excuse.

"Bottom line is we didn't respond when they hit us. Give them credit, they came out, played well in that second half, and we just never recovered. You score 16 points in one half it's going to be tough for you to win."

Scott City attempted just three 3-pointers in the first half before attempting six in the third quarter and four in the fourth. First-year Woodland coach Scot Davis attributed that increase in outside shots to his team's switch to a 2-3 zone late in the second quarter.

"It was just a matter of they were destroying our 2-2-1, and also they weren't a sharp-shooting team, we felt like," Davis said. "All of their shots came in driving to the basket, so that's why we kind of packed it in. It ended up working, I guess. Might not work against them next time, but it worked against them today."

Dannenmueller didn't think the defense affected his team's offense.

"I didn't think so. ... Even on our dribble-drives, we were still getting inside," said Dannenmueller, who noted his team took significantly fewer shots in the paint during the second half. "I didn't really think there was much difference. We didn't look at it and say, 'Hey, we've got to run something different.' We were running our same offense. I just thought we didn't execute like we should have executed. That's part of it. It's the first game. We've got a lot of stuff we can take from it. We'll be all right."

Scott City´s Drew Short and Woodland´s Evan Grindstaff chase after a loose ball during the Rams' game against the Cardinals in the first round of the Woodland Invitational Basketball Tournament Monday, Dec. 2, at Woodland High School in Marble Hill. (Adam Vogler)

Woodland committed seven turnovers in the first quarter, including on four consecutive possessions at one point. Scott City led 14-11 after the first quarter before eventually leading by as many as 12 points in the second quarter.

"I thought the momentum turned at the end of the first half," Dannenmueller said. "We were up 30-18, and we had a chance to really put them away, so to speak, for the rest of the half and get up by 15 or 20, and we just kind of -- we fouled them, put them at the free-throw line and they cut it down to six. I thought they had the momentum the rest of the game."

Woodland advanced to face Perryville in the semifinal round at 8 p.m. Wednesday. Tournament organizers moved the schedule up one day in anticipation of bad weather late in the week, so the finals now will be played Thursday night.

The Cardinals got their first win of the season after winning just five games all of last season.

"The past 10 years, Woodland's been five wins here, six wins here," Davis said. "The guys know that we can be special this year. It's just a matter of getting over that hump."

Scott City 14 23 10 6 -- 53

Woodland 11 20 19 16 -- 66

SCOTT CITY (53) -- Trent Pobst 26, Drew Short 3, Isiah Berry 6, Brock Uelsmann 3, Braden Cox 10, Dominic Hooper 3, Tyler Rogers 2. FG 16, FT 18-29, F 21. (3-pointers: Berry 2, Hooper 1. Fouled out: Pobst)

WOODLAND (66) -- Evan Grindstaff 7, Collin Rhodes 5, Tyler Yount 8, Garret Reynolds 24, Devon Ritter 5, Cole Schlief 1, Landon Johnson 5, Devon Gramlisch 11. FG 22, FT 17-25, F 24. (3-pointers: Rhodes 1, Reynolds 3, Ritter 1. Fouled out: Reynolds)