Woodland boys basketball team sails past Richland in SCAA Tournament opener

DEXTER, Mo. -- Woodland boys basketball coach Logan Nutt thought inserting junior Bruester Young into the starting lineup could provide a spark for his team in its opening round contest at the Stoddard County Activities Association Conference Tournament on Monday night. The move paid off.

The 6-foot-4 guard opened the quarterfinal on fire, hitting three of his team's four 3-pointers in the first quarter to help top-seeded Woodland jump out to a 12-0 lead over the No. 8 Richland Rebels en route to an 89-45 victory at Dexter High School.

The Cardinals (13-4) increased their lead to 30-12 by the end of the first period and continued to pad their lead the rest of the way as it outscored Richland by six points in the second quarter and 20 points in the third period.

"We slid Bruester Young into the starting lineup," Nutt said. "It may have been his first start of the year. He's a solid player and has a very high basketball IQ. We thought he would be a good fit to throw into the starting lineup. We knew he could shoot the ball and he showed it in spurts tonight."

Young finished with nine points, all in the first quarter.

"I'm glad to see a few shots go down for him because he's a very good shooter," Nutt said. "I think giving him a start gave him some confidence. He compliments our team well and I'm very proud of him."

The victory was a nice bounce back after Woodland suffered a 49-48 loss to SCAA foe Bloomfield over the weekend.

"I thought we responded well from our most recent game against Bloomfield," Nutt said. "We were disappointed after the one point loss to Bloomfield Friday night. Over the weekend we had a couple of tough practices. We had to refocus and watch film. Our practices weren't as fun as usual.

"I thought our guys played harder tonight, which is one of the things we focused on. Mistakes are going to happen, but we wanted to make sure we played harder every possession. The biggest thing tonight was we wanted to have good energy and effort. I give credit to our guys. I think they did a good job responding to our recent loss and getting back on the winning side of things."

The Cardinals found ways to score inside and outside the paint against the Rebels.

Woodland had 25 2-pointers, seven treys and hit 18 of 26 free throws.

"I thought we did a good job of having the right balance of inside and outside shots tonight and did a good job finishing shots as the game progressed," Nutt said.

Woodland 6-foot-7 senior center Zach Beel scored all 32 of his points before the fourth quarter. Beel had 11 2-pointers, a 3-pointer and sank all seven free throws he attempted.

Jake Long added 16 more points and Cole Schlief recorded 10 points for the Cardinals. J.D. Jenkins hit a pair of treys in the fourth period for Woodland to pad his scoring total to eight points.

Preston Tilley put on a 3-point show of his own for Richland. Tilley hit five of his team's six 3-pointers on his way to a team-high 17 points.

Richland forward Josh Thornton also finished in double digits for the Rebels with 10 points.

Woodland has the luxury of having an extra day to prepare for its next opponent.

Fourth-seeded Advance plays No. 5 seeded Bell City in a varsity quarterfinal tonight at 8. The Cardinals play the winner in a championship semifinal Thursday at 8:30 p.m. at the Bearcat Event Center in Dexter.

"It was great to play Monday because we will get two days of rest and practice," Nutt said. "We will watch some film and take a lot of shots in practice. We'll come down Tuesday night and check out the teams and get a feel for how they play. But ultimately we just have to attack the next two practice days as business days and make sure we improve ourselves before we worry about anyone else."

Richland 12 15 5 13 -- 45

Woodland 30 21 25 13 -- 89

RICHLAND (45) -- Devin Stoker 4, Brandon Partenberry 1, Garret Phillips 8, Preston Tilley 17, Josh Thornton 10, Zach Carmack 5. FG 16, FT 7-10, F 17. (3-pointers: Tilley 5, Phillips. Fouled out: None).

WOODLAND (89) -- Logan Thomsen 3, Jake Long 16, Cole Schlief 10, Tyler Womack 1, Zach Beel 32, Bruester Young 9, J.D. Jenkins 8, Paul Duncan 4, Michael McCormick 6. FG 32, FT 18-26, F 10. (3-pointers: Young 3, Jenkins 2, Beel, Thomsen. Fouled out: None).