GREENVILLE – Ethan Sharp led Staunton with 14 points, but the Bulldogs couldn’t overcome a large first-quarter opening run by Williamsville, as the Bullets hit many of their three-point shots in taking a 57-35 win over the Bulldogs in the second semifinal of the IHSA Class 2A Greenville sectional Wednesday night at the Greenville High gym.
Get The Latest News!
Don't miss our top stories and need-to-know news everyday in your inbox.
The loss ended the very successful season for Staunton, who finishes a remarkable season under Coach Ty Laux at 28-5, with the opening run and three-point shooting of Williamsville hard to overcome.
“It’s a tough loss,” said Staunton Coach Laux. “We knew coming in they were a great team with a lot of weapons. You can’t take away all of their weapons. They just came out, they just really shot it. They made a lot of shots, we couldn’t quite figure out their 1-3-1 (zone defense), and came out, forced us into some turnovers, and the way they shot it, we just couldn’t get over the top, just didn’t quite go on a run ourselves, because we just couldn’t get stops that made us so great this year.
"We were able to get stops when we were able to stop people, we didn’t turn the ball over this year. Tonight, we turned the ball over a lot, and we couldn’t get stops. It was opposite of how our season went, but so much credit to them, They force you into doing a lot of things you don’t want to do, and they’re a great ball team.”
Although the Bulldogs couldn’t overcome the opening run, Staunton kept plugging away and playing hard, much to their credit.
“At that point, we were looking to try to get a stop here, and a stop there,” Laux said, “and just keep building on stops, and we just weren’t able to do that. A lot of that was the way they shot the ball. We just couldn’t get anything going on offense, we had some turnovers, and they’re a great ballclub.”
The Bullets used their opening salvo to advance to the Sweet Sixteen on Friday night, getting off to their hot start, and never looking back.
“Oh, man, very happy with how we played tonight,” Williamsville head coach Nick Beard said. “We were scared about their shooting ability coming into the game, but we did a good job defensively, taking them out of what they wanted to do, forced them into a lot of turnovers, we were able to get some easy buckets, and then shot it real well in the first half. I’m very happy with the way we played tonight.”
The Bullets used Blake Shoufler and Carson Doran’s hot three-point shooting, in which the team made six threes in the opening six-plus minutes, to take their 21-0 lead, before Luke Moore hit a three of his own to cut the lead to 21-3. Williamsville led at the end of the period 23-3. At the start of the second quarter, Sharp hit on back-to-back baskets, sandwiched around another Shoufler three, that made the score 26-7, with Jeremiah Graham scoring to make it 26-9. The Bullets went back to work with the threes, hitting six more for a total of seven in the period, and 13 in the half, as Williamsville opened up a 46-14 lead at the interval.
Doran hit another three, and Shoufler scored to start the second half to give the Bullets a 51-14 lead, but Sharp scored a basket and hit a pair of free throws to cut the lead to 53-18, with Moore and Sharp scoring later in the quarter to make 55-22 after three quarters, which triggered the fourth quarter running clock rule. The Bulldogs never gave up, and made the score 57-33, but the Bullets prevailed to advance to the Sweet Sixteen.
Doran led Williamsville with 17 points, while Shoufler added 13 points, Dalton Root hit for nine points, Reid Bodine had eight points, Garrett Timm scored six points, and both Griffin Watkins and Jackson Sanders scored two points each. Sharp led Staunton with his 14 points, with Moore scoring seven points, Isiah Laux hit for five points, Zane Anderson scored four points, Zander Machota had three points, and Graham had two points.
The Bulldogs end their season 28-5, while the Bullets go to 30-3, and meet Auburn in the final Friday night at 7 p.m. The winner goes on to the Bank Of Springfield super-sectional Monday night against either Peoria Manual or Sherrard, the winner of the Sherrard sectional, in a 7 p.m. tip.
The state finals are set for Mar. 13-15 at the State Farm Center on the campus of the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana.Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
More like this:
