Woodland boys basketball team routs Zalma in third-place game of WIT

MARBLE HILL, Mo. -- It wasn't the game the Woodland boys basketball team was expecting, but the Cardinals made the most of it.

Less than 24 hours removed from losing in overtime and missing their chance to advance to the championship of the Woodland Invitational Tournament, the host Cardinals regrouped by trouncing fifth-seeded Zalma 82-62 in the third-place game Friday at Woodland High School.

"We expected higher of ourselves, so we came out here with a chip on our shoulder," Woodland junior Michael McCormick said. "We tried to pick ourselves up, pick each other up."

Senior Zach Beel finished with a team-high 22 points for second-seeded Woodland (2-1), including 15 in the second half. Beel made his presence most known with back-to-back alley-oop dunks that sent the Cardinals' student section into an uproar and extended his team's lead to 74-44 in the first minute of the final period.

"That gave us some hype," McCormick said about Beel's dunks. "It lets us know we've got a future [Division-I] player on our team."

McCormick gave Woodland the lead for good 11 seconds into the game when he knocked down a 3-pointer from the right corner. He finished with 18 points on 7-of-8 (88 percent) shooting from the floor, including 4 of 5 (80 percent) from 3-point range.

"He's very long, and he's a great shooter," Woodland coach Logan Nutt said about McCormick. "He gets a lot of deflections, and he anticipates everything very well. He'll be a good weapon for our team."

A 3-pointer from the right key by Brent Overbey kept Zalma (1-2) within reach at 10-7 with 4 minutes, 22 seconds remaining in the first quarter, but Tyler Womack scored 10 of his 18 points during Woodland's 16-4 run to close the quarter. The Cardinals led 26-11 at the end of the period.

"We just talked about everything, and we had to get our spirits back up ready for today, get focused on the task at hand," Nutt said. "I'm very proud of our guys. I thought we came out and gave our best effort and improved in areas that we thought we needed to. ... We were very efficient offensively, and we were definitely much better defensively and rebounding."

Woodland led by as many as 31 points in the second quarter and headed into halftime with a 52-22 advantage. The Cardinals shot 19 of 33 (58 percent) from the field in the first half.

"They've got a lot of options," Zalma coach Bryant Fernetti said about the Cardinals. "... Everybody's obviously going to key on [Beel], but if you're keying on him and other guys are hitting shots, you've got to account for everybody. That's just tough to do when they can do it all 1-5.

"When you run into somebody who shoots the ball that well, it's going to be a tough night."

Overbey scored 16 of his game-high 27 points in the third quarter with the game far out of reach. The Bulldogs finished 9 of 34 (26 percent) from beyond the arc and were 24 of 66 (36 percent) from the floor.

Fernetti took the blame for his team's offensive gameplan, which he said was ineffective in attacking the Cardinals' defense. He said his players weren't too shaken by the loss and were encouraged by their performance in the second half, during which they adjusted to more of a man-to-man offense and outscored Woodland 40-30.

"You're only going to get better when you play quality competition," said Fernetti, whose team faced the top two seeds of the tournament. "... We're not going to see many teams that have that type of size, so it's good to see a couple different styles."

Zalma 11 11 22 18 -- 62

Woodland 26 26 18 12 -- 82

ZALMA (62) -- Brent Overbey 27, Dallan Stotts 9, Christopher Lombeida 8, Cole Shelby 5, Peyton Ford 5, Alex Steinberg 4, Luke Robertson 2, Jacob Steinberg 1, Logan Borders 1. FG 24, FT 5-11, F 20. (3-pointers: Overbey 5, Stotts 3, Ford 1. Fouled out: A. Steinberg.)

WOODLAND (82) -- Zach Beel 22, Tyler Womack 18, Michael McCormick 18, Cole Schlief 7, Landon Thomsen 6, Jake Long 4, Connor Goodwin 3, Bruester Young 3, J.D. Jenkins 1. FG 27, FT 19-28, F 16. (3-pointers: McCormick 4, Womack 2, Thomsen 1, Schlief 1, Young 1. Fouled out: None.)

Consolation final

Meadow Heights 67, Oak Ridge 51

Sophomore Lane Baremore scored a game-high 19 points to lead the fourth-seeded Panthers to a win over the sixth-seeded Blue Jays in the consolation championship.

Meadow Heights (3-1) pulled away in the third quarter, outscoring Oak Ridge 21-11 in the period. Scott Pohlman added 11 points for the Panthers while Jacob Douglas contributed 10 points.

The Blue Jays were paced by 17 points from Trevor Dillard. Nathan Bolin finished with 16 points for Oak Ridge (1-2) while Steven Masterson had 10 points.

Oak Ridge 11 18 11 11 -- 51

Meadow Heights 22 13 21 11 -- 67

OAK RIDGE (51) -- Trevor Dillard 17, Nathan Bolin 16, Steven Masterson 10, Kyle Keller 6, Jordan Gilliland 2. FG 17, FT 9-10, F 14, (3-pointers: Dillard 5, Masterson 2, Bolin 1. Fouled out: None.)

MEADOW HEIGHTS (67) -- Lane Baremore 19, Scott Pohlman 11, Jacob Douglas 10, Devin Wilfong 9, Trent Liley 7, Brendan Welker 6, Spencer Bragg 3, Nick Mayfield 2. FG 29, FT 5-16, F 19. (3-pointers: Baremore 3, Liley 1. Fouled out: Douglas, Baremore.)