By ANDREW FEEBACK
GASTON – An early wave of hot shooting from the Wes-Del Warriors put the Southern Wells Raiders (4-16) into a hole they weren’t able to climb out of, and the Raiders fell to the host Warriors 77-58 Tuesday night.
Wes-Del (10-10) hit 13 of 21 shots beyond the arc – seven of which came in the first quarter.
Cameron Buckner and AJ Nauman each made one in the first 30 seconds, and Buckner hit another one to give the Warriors a 9-0 lead a minute later.
Evan Whitesell and Cade Pretorius also joined in with triples of their own, and the first quarter ended with Nauman hitting one as he was fouled in the final seconds.
“The problem tonight was we weren’t keeping them in front of us, and not keeping them out of the lane,” coach Kyle Penrod said. “They hit a bunch of threes because we were allowing them to drive into the paint, we had to rotate to help, and then they were just kicking it to wide open people. They made everything in the first half.”
It sure felt like it.
Wes-Del finished the first half 11-of-14 on threes, spread out among five different players.
The Warriors shot 65 percent overall in the first half and went into halftime leading the Raiders 51-32.
In the third quarter, the Raiders put together a pretty good stretch, scoring 13 straight to pull within 56-50. Southern Wells got two free throws from Dustin Woodward, a 3-pointer from Jenson Nusbaumer, a bucket in the lane from Woodward, a layup from Nusbaumer, two free throws from Kedrik Sonnigsen and a bucket from Austin Harris to make it a two-possession game.
They held the Warriors scoreless for nearly four minutes, an impressive feat against a team that was on pace to hit the century mark when the half began.
“I thought we did a better job of walling up, moving our feet and keeping them out of the paint, so they couldn’t draw help and kick it to people,” Penrod said. “When they beat our hedge because we weren’t hedging in the first half, the back guy has to help and they get a three on the other side. We did a better job of using two guys to stop the dribble handoff, we did a better job of keeping them out of the paint, and we got stops. We were scoring all game, but we didn’t get very many stops except in that third quarter.”
That got the Warriors taking quicker, more contested shots they were less comfortable with than earlier, but it didn’t last.
Wes-Del ended the quarter with an 11-2 run, fueled by Whitesell, who led all scorers with 28 points.
The pace slowed down considerably in the fourth quarter, and the Raiders never threatened again.
The Raiders finished 23 of 53 from the field while the Warriors were 29 of 62.
Southern Wells placed three players in double figures, with Brandon Kirtley scoring 13 points. Harris and Nusbaumer both had 11.
The Warriors also got 14 from Zack Todd and 13 from Nauman.
Southern Wells will host Cowan Friday night.
The Raider JV team lost to Wes-Del 51-41, led by 20 points from Perrin Gates and 7 from Nick Lozoya.
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WES-DEL 77, SOUTHERN WELLS 58
At Wes-Del High School
SOUTHERN WELLS (4-16): Kedrik Sonnigen 3-5 2-4 9, Nick Lozoya 0-0 0-0 0, Dustin Woodward 3-7 2-2 8, Jenson Nusbaumer 4-12 0-0 11, Austin Harris 5-8 1-2 11, Brandon Kirtley 5-11 1-1 13, Andrew Aker 0-0 0-0 0, Evan Pennington 1-5 0-2 2, Tristen Worster 0-0 0-0 0, Quinton Mullins 0-0 0-0 0, Cody Thomas 2-5 0-0 4. TOTALS: 23-53 6-11 58.
WES-DEL (10-10): AJ Nauman 5-12 0-1 13, Cade Pretorius 2-2 0-0 5, Travis Bunch 0-0 0-0 0, Trey Adams 0-1 0-0 0, Will Delaney 2-4 0-0 4, Jack Rooker 0-0 0-0 0, Evan Whitesell 10-17 4-9 28, Alex Light 2-7 0-0 4, Cameron Buckner 3-5 0-0 9, Zack Todd 5-10 2-2 14, Corben Price 0-2 0-0 0, Brandon Wylie 0-4 0-0 0. TOTALS: 29-62 6-12 77.
Southern Wells 14 18 20 6 –– 58
Wes-Del 27 24 16 10 –– 77
Three-point Goals: Southern Wells 6-16 (Nusbaumer 3-8, Kirtley 2-5, Sonnigsen 1-1, Pennington 0-2), Wes-Del 13-21 (Buckner 3-4, Whitesell 3-3, Nauman 3-6, Pretorius 2-2, Todd 2-2, Light 0-2, Wylie 0-2). Rebounds: Southern Wells 33 (Woodward 7, Sonnigsen 7, Harris 5, Kirtley 5, Thomas 5, Nusbaumer 3, Pennington 1), Wes-Del 26 (Todd 12, Whitesell 5, Buckner 3, Wylie 2, Delaney 2, Light 1, Pretorius 1). Turnovers: Southern Wells 24, Wes-Del 13. Fouls: Southern Wells 14, Wes-Del 12. Fouled out: None. Technicals: None.
JV: Wes-Del 51, Southern Wells 41.
