Serena controls tempo, tops Woodland at Shipyard Showdown

SENECA — The Serena boys basketball team allowed Woodland’s Nick Plesko to make a wide-open jumper from the free-throw line a minute and a half into Thursday’s opening-round game at the Shipyard Showdown Tournament hosted by Seneca High School.

But that was one of the few good looks the Huskers allowed the rest of the way against the Warriors.

Serena followed Plesko’s hoop with 3-pointer and pair of free throws from Beau Raikes and drives by Cash Raikes and Payton Twait in succession to grab a lead they would not relinquish in a 54-33 victory.

Serena (7-4) advanced to play defending champion Lexington at 10:30 a.m. in the new gym. Woodland (8-4) moves to the consolation bracket and plays Putnam County at 10:30 a.m. in the old gym.

“The top thing on the white board before the game was that we wanted to slow Woodland down, we wanted the tempo slow,” Serena coach Dain Twait said. “It started with our 3/4 trapping zone pressure defense. We don’t run it well all the time, we’re getting there, but we did enough today to create some turnovers. We just wanted to make as difficult as we could for Woodland to get into its offense, because from what I’ve seen on film they are pretty solid in the half court.

“Woodland has some pretty good shooters and guys that can get to the rim, but I thought we did a good job of limiting them open looks and lanes to the basketball.”

The Huskers led 13-7 after one quarter, 23-14 at halftime and 37-21 heading to the fourth.

Beau Raikes netted seven of his game-best 19 points in the opening period and finished with four rebounds for Serena, which hit 22 of 43 (51%) shots from the floor, and won the rebound (26-22) and turnover (8-15) battles. Twait and Cash Raikes each recorded 10 points, with Blake Hjerpe adding seven points and a team-high six rebounds, and Matthew Farrell six points and four rebounds.

“Beau got us started by knocking down a couple shots,” coach Twait said. “The thing we’ve struggled with is finishing at the basket through contact, the physicality of taking the ball up in the lane. I thought we did a better job in that aspect. I also thought we ran some pretty good offensive sets and were able to get some good looks with them.

“We are still a work in progress but today was another stop in the right direction.”

Woodland, which finished 13 of 34 (38%) shooting, was led by nine points each from Connor Dodge and Plesko. Nolan Price and Noah Becker each added five points, while Jaron Follmer grabbed a team-high six rebounds.

“We just didn’t come ready to play and never seemed to have any energy,” Woodland coach Connor Kaminke said. “I’ve asked myself for years about why we have games like this, games where we come out like we are scared to death. We haven’t had a problem handling defensive pressure all season and today we it looked like we hadn’t ever seen a press.

“Everything we did today on offense and defense was so uncharacteristic of how we’ve played so far this year. We didn’t take care of the ball, we didn’t move the ball, we didn’t move without the ball, and we didn’t defend. All the things that have won us eight games this season, we didn’t do any of it. Disappointing isn’t really a strong enough word.”