Woodbury at Central thoughts (08-09 4AAAA Quarterfinal)

To Central for a 3 vs 6 game as Woodbury comes to town. Woodbury with their passive 1-3-1 and standard power motion. It takes Woodbury almost 3 minutes to make a field goal before Bo Schiffler banks one home at 15:10. 6-3 Central. LeDarian Horton counters with his 2nd and 3rd offensive rebounds of the night for 2. Nick Quicksell and Schiffler with jumpers, Ross Bailey with 3 points. Brandon Nelson off the Woodbury bench with 1 of 2 free throws for Woodbury's 1st lead of the night 11-10 at the 9:06 mark. That concludes an 8-2 Woodbury run. Quicksell with a charge for his 2nd foul at 7:34 and he sits out the rest of the half. David Smith with a pair of free throws and Bailey with a pair of putbacks for a 19-15 Woodbury lead with 3:50 left in the half. Central outscores Woodbury 12-5 to finish the half as the Royals only must 1 tip in during that time. 27-24 Central at the half. Horton with 6 points and 10 rebounds. He's all over the offensive glass. Jordan Larson with 5 points and 2 rebounds in limited minutes. Schiffler with 6 points on 2-6 shooting. Ross Bailey with 7 points and 8 rebounds in a very nice 1st half inside. Quicksell held to 3 points on 1-4 shooting. Woodbury switching to a 2-3 zone for the last 8 minutes of the half.

The Royals stay in the 2-3 in the 2nd half. A Horton bucket and foul (missed the FT) push the Central lead to 34-28 with 14:24 left. Schiffler with a triple to cut the lead to 34-32. Woodbury had gone the previous 4:50 without a bucket. Larson to Horton for a layup against the zone. Nice work out of the high post there. 36-34 Central with 11:10 left. Central won't lead again.

Schiffler for 3, David Smith 2 and fouled (missed FT). Quicksell drives the left baseline for 2. 41-36 Woodbury with 7:31 left. Timeout Central. Interesting during the timeout that the Central students give the Woodbury cheerleaders a loud chorus of boos. Central then loses Quicksell in transition and he goes straight to the basket for a fast break layup. 43-36 Woodbury with 6:45 to play after a 15-2 run (7:40 time elapsed). Quicksell with 2 more buckets for Woodbury to make the score 47-38 Royals (19-4 over 10 minutes). Junior Cameron Smith won't let Central go quietly. He nails a 3, has 2 straight steals (1 for a bucket). He then puts back a miss at 2:20 and the Woodbury lead is only 49-45. Quicksell misses the front end and then has a Fred Brown moment (Georgetown vs UNC in the 1982 NCAA title game) and throws it right to Cameron Smith who coverts the turnover. 49-47 Royals with 100 seconds left. Brent Kallman with 1 of 2 FTs with 1:24 left. Cameron Smith misses a triple with 1:11 left. Schiffler 1 of 2 with 48.7 to play and the lead is 4. Out of a timeout, Central tries to go 1-4 high with some dribble handoffs and high screens against the Woodbury 2-3 zone. Interesting strategy as a quick 2 would work too. Smaller finally hits a floater on the left baseline with 20.2 left. Woodbury inbounds to Quicksell who finds Schiffler for a 2 on 1. Schiffler pulls it back and gets fouled. He buries both freebies for the 53-49 Woodbury win.

For Central, Jordan Larson with 7 points and 6 rebounds in very limited minutes. He was getting only 3 minutes or so at a time. He came out with 4 minutes left in the game. With 1:33 left he's on the bench with a towel over his head or his head on the scorers table. If he's 100%, he would have been deadly in the high post. Sad to see his career end this way. Central did a poor job of exploiting consistent good touches from there against the 2-3. LeDarian Horton was a beast on the offensive glass as he finished with 10 points and 16 rebounds on my sheet (half of them had to be offensive boards). He's the only guy in double figures for the Minutemen.

For Woodbury, they weren't full strength either as point guard Ernest Dorsett wasn't dressed. I think he may have been in the stands behind the bench. That forced Bo Schiffler to play the point spot and he's more of a shooting guard. He leads the Royals with 16 points on 4-13 shooting on my sheet. Nick Quicksell with 11 points and 11 rebounds on my sheet. Ross Bailey with 7 points and 9 rebounds in a usable performance inside. I think everybody played for them scored. The Tartan game is not a good matchup for them in my mind. Tartan has a ton of shooters to bust the zone and their defenders will be bigger than Woodbury's scorers.