Woodland boys win own tournament

Woodland High School’s boys varsity basketball team jumped to a 20-point lead after just one quarter and had five players finish in double figures on its way to a 99-52 title game victory over Meadow Heights in the 57th annual Woodland Invitational Tournament Friday, Dec. 6, on its home court.

The Cardinals made six of their nine 3-pointers in the opening quarter as they raced to a 36-16 lead. Lane Lee scored nine his 14 points in the first quarter while teammate Korbin Kinder added 11 of his 22 points in the early going.

Calvin Layton led all scorers with 23 points while Jackson Shock scored 20 points. Kameron McCormick scored 10 in the blowout win.

It was 54-21 in favor of Woodland at halftime, and then the lead grew to 82-39 through three quarters as Woodland outscored the Panthers 28-18 in the third period.

Maison Whitener scored a team-high 17 points for Meadow Heights. Braeden Hays contributed 15 points while Mason Mayfield added 11 points in the championship contest.

Woodland coach Shawn Kinder liked his team's defensive effort, which often times helped the offense, with fast break opportunities.

“I thought the guys came out with defensive intensity tonight,” he said. “We kind of got Meadow Heights on their heels a little bit in transition. We ran the floor really well and got some easy buckets on transition our defense forced. We also did a pretty good job of sharing the job tonight.”

“Our help defense has got to get better. Our rotations sometimes on the defensive end aren’t there. Our closeouts on the ball, we’ve got to get down and stop dribble penetration. Teams are still getting to the house, to the paint on us probably too much. We’ve got to do a better job of really rotating on weak side.”

Overall, Kinder was pleased with the tournament win.

“It’s definitely one of our team goals, to win this tournament," he said after the game. "It kind of sets the tone a little bit going into Christmas. I really like to see this early in the season guys sharing the ball this much. We didn’t have a whole lot of selfish play."

Meadow Heights coach Gary Poyner said the Cardinals shot extremely well in the championship game win, and the Woodland defensive effort led to various fast break chances for the Cardinals.

“They come down and shot the ball well early," Poyner said. "They’re a good shooting team. They hit six 3s in the first quarter, they hit three right out of the gate, and put us in a whole early. Between that, and they play good pressure defense, we struggled to settle down and play through the pressure early, and those were the two big things that put us in a hole to start the game. The other thing that they did that we struggled with at times was getting back in transition. They do a good job of getting defensive rebounds, looking to push the ball and run the floor.”

While the loss was a disappointment, Poyner said he was grateful for the chance to play in the final, and it ultimately will provide a chance to learn.

"What I told the boys here tonight afterwards is, ‘We’re disappointed in the way things went tonight, obviously, but there are four other teams that would have loved to be playing in the finals," Poyner said. "Be proud of the opportunity you got to play in this (championship game) because four other teams would be love to playing in the final game, too.

"We started our season playing Scott City, playing Greenville, playing Woodland, which are 3A schools, all three in the same district and they’re probably going to be the top three teams. The schedule that we’ve started out with compared to a lot of schools our size…we’ve started out with a pretty tough schedule, and we’re learning a lot early what we need to do, and these are the types of games that will help us get better when we get later on in the season and get playing those teams that are in our district."