Woodland shoots down Kelly in battle of C3 ranked squads

MARBLE HILL - Noel Trimmer knew full well how tough of a game his Kelly High School varsity boy’s basketball squad would have at Woodland on Thursday.

“That senior group,” Trimmer said of the six senior Cardinal players, “when they played JV for me, they went 22-0. The junior group was 16-1 at one point.”

Those 12 Woodland players, and a few others, utilized very effective shooting against the Hawks to hand Trimmer’s team a 79-71 loss at Woodland.

“You can’t play those kids with a zone (defense),” Trimmer said, “because they shoot the ball so well.”

The Cardinals (9-4) took advantage of Kelly’s errant accuracy at the free throw line, particularly in the second quarter, to separate themselves enough to hold off a late rally by the Hawks (13-3).

“I thought our kids did a really good job defensively on (Hawk junior Ross Peters),” Woodland coach Shawn Kinder said following the win. “It was our game plan coming into this to really focus on him."

The Woodland defense limited Peters to just four points through the initial three periods, and he scored just nine points total, as the Cardinals methodically built their advantage throughout the opening 24-plus minutes.

The contest was tight into the second quarter, but Class 3 No. 11-ranked Kelly, whose only other two losses this season were both to Class 3 No. 8-ranked Charleston, missed seven free throws in the second period, as Woodland took a 39-31 lead at halftime.

“We struggled,” Trimmer said. “There is no doubt about it. We struggled from the opening tip (and) they were on their game by the opening tip.

“They were knocking down shots. They were setting great picks (and) we weren’t communicating on those picks.”

Trimmer knew what he was going to see from the Cardinals because until December of 2022, he was coaching those kids until he stepped away mid-season for health reasons.

“Defensively,” Trimmer continued, “there was no good match-up for us against that speed.”

Conversely, Woodland, which is ranked No. 14 in Class 3, knew there was “no good match-up” for it against the size of Kelly senior Dalton Forck (6-foot-7) and the strength of senior Reece Eftink.

Eftink finished with 25 points while Forck added 21.

“Kelly has a tough team,” Kinder said. “They have a good inside-outside game. I felt like defensively, we had to compete and keep them in front of us, and then we had to compete on the boards.”

To combat the size of Kelly, Kinder had his guards get the outlet pass from the Cardinal rebounders and go – quickly.

“We pushed the ball in transition pretty well,” Kinder said.

The Cardinals led by nine points in the final period on a couple of occasions, but Kelly wouldn’t go away.

A couple of times, the Hawks would trim their deficit to as little as four points, but Woodland would hit a jumper or score on a back-cut at the other end.

“They just outworked us,” Trimmer said.

Kinder’s son, sophomore guard Korbin Kinder, had nine of his 21 points in the final quarter, with five of those points coming after drawing fouls from Kelly's defenders.

The Cardinals weren’t great from the free-throw line, as they connected on 12 of 20 attempts, but they were more efficient than Kelly, which missed 13 of its 28 attempts.

In addition to the free throw woes for Trimmer’s team, it also did not make a 3-point shot all night.

Kelly senior Michael Dollins added 15 points in the win.

Woodland was led by senior Brayden Hastings, who had 23 points while senior Reed Layton and junior Lane Lee chipped in 11 points in the win.

Woodland is the No. 2 seed in the upcoming Stoddard County Athletic Association Tournament at Bloomfield High School and will play No. 7 seed Bell City (5-10) on Tuesday at 7 p.m.

Hawks bounce back

Kelly bounced back in resounding fashion on Friday, as they toppled Delta 98-47 at Kelly.

The Hawks will visit Saxony Lutheran (10-6) on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.