Woodland makes late stop to hold off St. Bede for Tri-County victory

PERU - At the end of the first and second quarters Friday, the Woodland boys basketball team gave up buzzer beaters to St. Bede.

The Bruins’ Kaden Newman hit an off-balance 3-pointer to end the first quarter and Gino Ferrari scored on a putback just before the halftime buzzer.

But at the end of the game, the Warriors got the stop they needed as they held on for a 39-34 victory in a Tri-County Conference game at the Academy.

“We just finally got to who we were,” Woodland coach Connor Kaminke said about the final defensive stop. “We typically are a pretty stout defensive team. We preach intensity, discipline and toughness. We kind of lacked that the first half and even some through the third quarter.

“But finally down the stretch, I think we found who we were. We found that toughness and discipline to dig deep and get a stop when we needed it.”

St. Bede inbounded the ball down three points with 1:06 left and Woodland held the Bruins without a shot until St. Bede settled for a long 3-pointer with just over 20 seconds left.

It missed and the Warriors secured the rebound.

“I think we helped each other out a lot,” Woodland junior Nolan Price said about the final stop. “Whenever someone got open, we got over and closed gaps.”

Woodland then hit a pair of free throws in the final 10 seconds to hold on.

“It was kind of one of those classic Friday with no school games,” Kaminke said. “The kids probably laid around until 10. St. Bede came out pretty hot and they did a good job of commanding most of the night. Thankfully, we hung around long enough to keep it a game. We made one or two plays down the stretch to get the win. It doesn’t always have to be pretty. Give our guys credit for making plays down the stretch.”

The Warriors struggled on offense in the first half, trailing 21-16 at the break.

But Price drained a 3-pointer on Woodland’s first possession of the second half to get himself and the Warriors going.

“It was a quick halftime reset,” Kaminke said. “We talked about how a lot of his 3s in the first half were short. We just said, your shot is there, you’re rushing a tad and your shot is shot so just continue shooting. He’s a great shooter. We have all the trust in the world in him. We drew up a play for him right out of half and he hit a 3 to get going.”

Price knocked down another 3 with 1:35 left in the third quarter to give the Warriors their first lead since early in the second quarter.

Price made three 3-pointers and scored all 10 of his points in the second half as the Warriors outscored the Bruins 23-13.

“We had a really rough start (to the game). We were not the same team we’ve been all year,” Price said. “But we picked it up a lot in the second half.”

St. Bede led 30-29 going to the fourth, but the Warriors took the lead for good on Price’s 3 with 3:33 left.

The Warriors started the game on a 6-1 run, but St. Bede responded with an 8-2 run to take a 9-8 lead after the first quarter.

“We obviously didn’t score too much,” St. Bede coach Brian Hanson said. “We had 13 points in the second half, but we put ourselves in position to be competitive and win this game. We just didn’t make the plays we needed to down the stretch to do that. We lost to (Woodland) by 25 or 30 in our Thanksgiving tournament, so I’m proud of how we competed. We held them under 40, but we just couldn’t get the ball in the hole.”

Nick Plesko led Woodland (8-3, 2-1 TCC) with 14 points, while Quentin Porter added eight.

For the Bruins (4-8, 1-2), Newman had eight points and Ferrari added six.