Woodland boys basketball team halts Advance in semifinals of SCAA Conference Tournament

DEXTER, Mo. -- When the going got tough, so did Woodland.

The top-seeded Cardinals transformed a turnover with a minute left in regulation into a three-point play, got a go-ahead 3-pointer from Bruester Young in overtime and held off No. 4 Advance 67-60 in a semifinal that took an extra period to decide in the Stoddard County Activities Association Conference Tournament on Thursday night at Dexter High School.

Cardinal 6-foot-7 standout Zach Beel got a layup and a foul before completing the three-point play with 59 seconds left on the clock to knot things at 58, and Young came through in the clutch -- something the Hornets failed to do.

Advance (14-3) led by three and had the basketball with just over a minute to play but couldn't hang on. Even after Woodland (14-4) went on top, Advance got the ball back in a tie game with plenty of time left on the clock, but a jumper from the elbow by Preston Wuebker fell short and the contest moved to the extra period.

The Hornets' offense dried up in OT, failing to score from the field as the game slipped away.

Woodland's Jake Long takes a shot over Advance's Dawson Mayo and in front of Preston Wuebker during Thursday's game.

When Michael McCormick blocked a 3 and took it the other way for a dunk with 15 seconds left, Woodland was on its way to a matchup with No. 3 Bloomfield in the final tonight.

Bloomfield upended No. 2 Dexter on Thursday night, dropping the hosts 55-50.

"We had times throughout the game where we were not focused and not executing our strategy offensively and defensively," Woodland coach Logan Nutt said. "But late in the game, in the fourth quarter in the last two minutes and in overtime, they really focused and buckled down and they did a great job as individuals and as a team. I'm very proud of them and they deserve it."

McCormick put in a team-high 17 points with eight rebounds and two blocks. He was 4 of 7 from outside the arc.

"I put a lot of pressure on him because he's a very good player," Nutt said. "He's very skilled and he plays hard, so I expect more out of him sometimes. But he came up big when we asked certain assignments of him and he did a great job. He's a huge weapon for our team and I'm very proud of him. I'm glad he finished the game strong."

All five Woodland starters scored in double digits, as Jake Long added 15 points and 13 rebounds, Beel had 13 points, Schlief scored 12 and Young added 10.

Dawson Mayo paced Advance with 17 points, with 13 of those coming in the first half. He scored only one field goal after the break -- a layup at 1:49 of the fourth quarter.

Armani Vermillion and Wuebker each scored 13 points for the Hornets, who shot 21 of 53 (39.6 percent) from the field.

"They outplayed us and had a lot more intensity all night," Advance coach Bubba Wheetley said. "We didn't have any intensity. I can never get our group to give me the intensity.

"The game was over in regulation right there with about a minute left. We had a three-point lead with the ball in our hands and they take it away from us. They make a three-point play to tie. They just out-scrapped us. Bottom line, they wanted it more than we did."

The Cardinals didn't shoot the ball well, but were often dominant on the boards. They finished just 24 of 63 (38 percent) from the field.

What they did do was limit Advance's looks at the basket, and winning the shots-taken battle was enough to prevail.

"They're good shooters and good-shooting teams are going to make shots, we just want to limit the shots they're taking," Nutt said. "We wanted to make sure we knew personnel -- who was going to be shooting and who was going to be driving -- and they really focused late in the game."

Woodland used its size advantage to grab an early lead. That was no more evident than on the Cardinals' second trip down the floor, when they got five looks at the basket before Beel finally put the ball home for a 5-0 edge.

The top seed extended that to as many as eight points, going up 11-3 on a Beel jump shot from the left elbow.

Advance began to settle in after some early shooting woes, and it slowly but surely closed the gap. The Hornets went on a 13-4 swing during the period's final 2 minutes, 53 seconds, and with two seconds left on the clock Dakota Welty sank a 3-pointer to pull Advance as close as it had been, 15-13.

The Hornets began the second quarter quickly, as Vermillion put the ball off the glass and in to tie things at 15 just 23 seconds in. On the ensuing inbounds, Advance stole the ball back and it ended up in Vermillion's hands again; the guard scored easily to give his side its first lead of the game, 17-15, at 7:30 of the second quarter.

Welty then gave the fourth seed its biggest advantage of the first half, 19-15, when he drove to the hoop and scooped the ball up and in.

Schlief answered with his own acrobatic drive, and 30 seconds later Long layed the ball in to tie things at 19.

Young was fouled in a 3-pointer and hit all of his free throws to give the Cardinals their first lead since the first quarter, 25-23, but Mayo tied things up on the other end and Wuebker sank a triple for the Hornets with 33 seconds on the clock.

Advance went into the break up 28-27.

Woodland came out of the locker room and got a 3 from Schlief to edge in front, 30-28, and extended the lead to as many as six points. But Advance came roaring back with back-to-back treys from Brian Whitson and Wuebker to knot the game at 35-all.

The top-seeded Cardinals swung in front again, with a McCormick 3 pushing the gap to five points before the Hornets finished the third quarter on a 7-2 run, as Welty sank a jumper from the top of the key and Vermillion hit from long range to send the game into the final quarter tied at 42.

The game remained deadlocked. McCormick nailed a 3 from the top right of the arc to put Woodland up 55-52 with 2:53 left, but just over a minute later Mayo pump-faked and sank a layup -- his first field goal since the first half -- to pull the Hornets even again, 55-55, with 1:49 on the clock.

The momentum seemed to be with Advance, as Vermillion gave his team a lead by hitting the second of a pair of free throws, and Austin Ladd stole the basketball immediately thereafter and found Vermillion in transition, as he drew a foul and got both shots from the stripe.

Down by three with a minute to go, Woodland missed its initial look at the basket before Beel snagged the rebound, hit the putback and drew the foul. The old-fashioned three-point play made things 58-all and, ultimately, sent the game to overtime.

The two sides traded buckets before Young drained a 3 to go ahead 63-60 at 1:52, and Advance could not find enough offensive footing to keep pace.

"I saw some mismatches throughout," Wheetley said. "I stuck Armani in sometimes and down the stretch we had Ladd there and it worked. We drew some fouls. But they hit some big shots. They hit shots in overtime. I think it comes down to they wanted it more."

With 15 seconds left, McCormick blocked an Advance 3-point attempt and got the ball back on the break, dunking it home for an exclamation point on a 67-60 victory that put the No. 1 seed into the tournament's title game.

"To be able to play in the championship game, that's what we want to do," Nutt said. "That's what we've talked about since Day 1 -- we want to be the No. 1 seed and we want to play in the championship. I think this will be a great experience for us and an awesome opportunity. It will help the team be even better down the road and the rest of the season."

The title contest will be played at 8:30 p.m. in Dexter.

That will be preceded by the third-place game, where Advance will take on host Dexter at 5:30 p.m.

Advance 13 15 14 16 2 -- 60

Woodland 15 12 15 16 9 -- 67

ADVANCE (60) -- Armani Vermillion 13, Preston Wuebker 13, Brian Whitson 5, Austin Ladd 5, Dawson Mayo 17, Dakota Welty 7. FG 21-53, FT 13-20, F 10. (3-pointers: Wuebker 2, Vermillion, Whitson, Welty. Fouled out: None.)

WOODLAND (67) -- Jake Long 15, Cole Schlief 12, Zach Beel 13, Bruester Young 10, Michael McCormick 17. FG 24-63, FT 12-13, F 14. (3-pointers: McCormick 4, Schlief 2, Young. Fouled out: None.)