Wuebker's first-half injury slows down Advance boys basketball team's offense

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- After scoring Advance's first four points of the game and adding two more baskets to close out the first quarter against Meadville in a Class 1 semifinal on Thursday night, Advance sophomore Preston Wuebker left the game with a minor injury to his left knee.

Before the Hornets' guard could return to the game, he had to get it patched and wait for the bleeding to stop.

"I fell in the first quarter and I had a little strawberry on my knee," Wuebker said. "I hit it and it started to bleed, so I had to come out and get that covered up before I could go back in."

Wuebker left the game with 4:38 remaining in the half. During that time, Advance went on its worst scoring drought of the game.

The Hornets scored just two points, on a pair of free throws, for the remainder of the half.

"I just didn't know what was wrong with him to be honest," Advance senior Dalton Wilson said about Wuebker. "I kind of didn't pay attention to it, I was trying to focus, but I would say we were a little flat."

Wheetley noticed the change in his team's offense and tried to make an adjustment by substituting freshman Armani Vermillion until Wuebker could return.

"When you have a guy come out and hit the first two buckets for your team and then he goes and sits on the bench, that really takes some air out of your whole team," Wheetley said. "I didn't think that would affect us as much as it did and I tried to sub Armani in, but you could tell that we didn't really recover from that to close out the half. When he did get ready it was almost halftime, so I decided to rest him."

Memories made

The Advance boys basketball team's season won't end how it had planned, but after a tough road to the final four, they're happy to be at where many never get to go.

"It's been an up and down year," Mayo said. "No one expected us to get this far, so it was pretty nice being here. We wanted to come out and win today, but that obviously didn't happen. But we're still glad to be up here and want to end the season with a win."

Wuebker said it's a rare chance to get to play on such a platform as Mizzou Arena and added that his teammates aren't taking it for granted.

"It's a once in a lifetime kind of deal," Preston Wuebker said. "We can't expect to come here every year, so you've got to enjoy every moment you get to spend on the big stage like that."

Wheetley said his young team could continue to shock other teams in the near future and looks forward to regaining mostly the same group next season.

"This is a young bunch of kids," Wheetley said. "For them to make it this far was something really special, and I hope we don't forget that. This team could do some great things in the future and I want these kids to remember this and have the desire to come back and win one of these. We aren't playing the game we wanted to, but we're here and we're going to come out tomorrow ready to play."

Up next

Advance will face Leeton, which fell to 28-3 with a 53-35 loss to Winston in a Class 1 semifinal Thursday night.

The Bulldogs average 66.2 points per game and shoot 48 percent from the field.

Leeton is led by senior Dylan Swabby, who averages 14.1 points per game. Senior Wyatt Fleming leads the team with 6.4 rebounds.