BB SECT 41: 2A #4 Winchester, #6 Lapel to battle in championship

Koch picked up two quick fouls – the only ones the Golden Falcons would make in the first quarter – in the game’s first four minutes. Koch, who scored 37 points in last season’s 69-67 2A championship loss to Fort Wayne Luers and 24 in Winchester’s 78-74 double-overtime defeat by Northwestern the year before – ended the first period with zero points and a nice warm spot on the bench.

But he certainly made his presence felt in the second stanza. Koch scored the first five points of the period on a putback and way-long 3-pointer, extending a 10-4 Winchester run that had ended the first quarter to make it 21-10. After a three from Wapahani senior Tyler Hensley stopped the bleeding, Koch charged to the bucket and converted a drive that ended with him sprawled on the floor out-of-bounds.

Wapahani (17-4), which broke a streak of 11 consecutive losing seasons with a breakout year, got within eight just over a minute later on a basket by sophomore Brandon Estep. But Winchester would end up with points on seven of its first nine possessions of the period on 7-of-9 shooting, and the Golden Falcons entered halftime up a dozen at 35-23 on senior guard Andrew Haney’s jumper at :02.5.

Haney was key in the first half, stemming Koch’s absence with 14 points over the first 16 minutes. And he was a part of a most unusual sequence in the third period that put the game out of reach – almost. 

Four three-point plays – two from Koch, one by Haney, and the first of the series from senior Levi Cross – jacked the lead to 23 at 51-28 with 1:36 to go in the quarter. But Wapahani rallied with the last seven points of the period to make it 51-35 after three.

The Raider run reached 13-0 when senior Kyle Thompson’s drive to the bucket was successful, and suddenly we had us a ball game at 51-41 and 6:07 still to play. But Hensley missed threes on the next two Wapahani possessions, and Cross finally ended a Winchester scoreless streak of 4:55 by canning a 3-pointer from the left wing.

After a Wapahani free throw, junior Dustin Durham missed two free throws at the other end following a foul that saved a breakaway layup. But Durham hustled after the second miss and grabbed the rebound, maintaining control of the ball for Winchester.

Cross made the Raiders pay dearly by draining another trifecta from the same spot, making it 57-42 with 4:04 to go. When Wapahani missed on four shots at the bucket the next trip down, it was on to the Lapel-Elwood survivor for the Golden Falcons.

Despite a sloppy offensive performance, host Lapel (18-4) never let Elwood get within striking distance after the Panthers committed 17 first-half turnovers, including a paralyzing 10 in the first quarter.

Lapel only shot 41 percent on the night (22 of 54). And the Bulldogs – the 2005 Class A state champs – turned the ball over 17 times themselves.

Yet Lapel still managed to hold leads of 14-10 and 28-19 at the first two stops because error-prone Elwood (8-15) simply couldn’t generate an offense. The Panthers were outshot 17-8 in the opening period and 16-11 in the second, and their 3-of-8 and 3-of 11 efforts only registered 32-percent accuracy.

Lapel didn’t fare much better early on, hitting only 6 of 17 and 6 of 16 for 36 percent. But the Bulldogs took advantage of an extended Elwood second-quarter drought to extend the lead to a dozen at 24-13 before heading to intermission up nine.

Sophomore guard Chandler Guion had a particularly troublesome first half, hitting just 2 of 12 shots from the field.

The lead stayed between seven and 12 points the rest of the way till a Guion layup off a long outlet to beat full-court pressure plus six straight free throws built the Bulldogs’ advantage to 57-43 with 1:32 left.

Senior guard Michael Pritchett led Lapel in scoring with 15 points, while Guion (4-for-6 shooting in the second half) added 14.

Elwood was led by the 17 points of senior guard Jake Dunnichay, while senior center Travis Abner had 11.