Class 1A No. 5 Warhawks pull away from foul line

SHEFFIELD — Veteran coach Frank Schnoes said after the dust had settled that this game certainly didn’t feel like a double-digit victory.

Indeed, the annual Coaches vs. Cancer game between the Bulldogs and West Fork, ranked fifth in Class 1A, was 58-50 with a little more than a minute and a half to go before a march to the free throw line for the Warhawks resulted in a 69-50 home win.

“I expected a tough game tonight,” Schnoes said. “A 19-point win, but it feels more like a four-point win, we opened it up late with free throws and got some key rebounds late.

“Happy with the win, I thought they were good competition for us, I’m sure we were for them. We learned some things tonight.”

In fact, after a 12-10 Bulldog first quarter lead, it remained close until the final moments. Following a basket by Mario De La Cruz, who finished with eight points after starting with five off the bench in the first quarter, the Bulldogs trailed just 48-43 at the 4:14 mark of the fourth quarter.

The margin of victory was the closest in the series since the 2010-11 season when the Warhawks won the state title as West Fork beat the Bulldogs 63-47 that year.

“This is probably as competitive as Hampton has been for a few years,” Schnoes said. “I told the boys their record doesn’t really reflect for us how good of a team they are because of the competition they play night-in and night-out, which is a whole lot stronger than ours.

“Good to get a win, we’ll take it, but hats off to Hampton, I thought they did a nice job of preparing for us. It took all we could to get a win.”

It was the second game back for the Warhawks' Brayden Vold, who had eight points, three rebounds and blocked a shot.

“I think we got beat off the bounce way too much in the half-court, put us in bad situations and allowed them to finish too deep,” Bulldog coach Heath Walton said. “We came in thinking that if we could force some perimeter jump shots, that would be our goal. We didn’t force as many as we wanted, to rebound and get out.”

A three-pointer by Wyatt Sutter, who shared the Bulldog team lead in scoring with 14 along beside Jordan Severs, made it 58-50 at 1:33, but from there the Warhawks were 12-of-13 from the foul line.

Brett Weaver, who led all scorers with 18, was 13-of-16 from the free throw line, 13-of-14 in the fourth quarter.

West Fork was 15-of-18 in the fourth quarter and 18-of-25 — all in the second half.

“And we weren’t in the bonus the whole game,” Walton said when told of the stat. “That made a big difference.”

The foul differential was 21-7 and the final blow was a technical foul with the final seconds ready to be ticked off, which put a damper on what was a competitive game.

“I watched tape of them playing Iowa Falls and I thought they were athletic and play hard and good athletes,” Schnoes said. “I thought it would be a tough contest. We had a number of games this week with a quick turnaround to prepare for each other but all things considered, it looked like we were prepared pretty well.”

It was the second straight night that Walton thought his team played well, the first a 77-61 win over Clarion-Goldfield-Dows.

“I was very proud of the way we transitioned, we tried to get out and go, tried to run the floor,” Walton said. “And, for the most part, as the game went, I thought we kept playing hard for the full 32 minutes.”

West Fork 69, Bulldogs 50

Bulldogs (3-9, 1-7)– Cade Klein 0-0 0-0 0, Jace Spurgeon 3-6 2-4 10, Drew Uhlenhopp 0-2 0-0 0, Wyatt Sutter 4-15 2-2 14, Benji Sauke 0-3 0-0 0, Carson Miller 2-2 0-0 4, Mario De La Cruz 3-5 1-2 8, Riley Heeren 0-0 0-0 0, Jordan Severs 7-12 0-0 14, Colin Hill 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 19-47 5-8 50.

West Fork (15-1, 11-0)– Ian Latham 3-8 3-4 9, Brett Weaver 2-5 13-16 18, Kayden Ames 6-13 0-0 15, Colin Martinek 0-0 0-0 0, Jakob Washington 4-6 2-5 10, Ren Heimer 2-3 0-0 5, Cail Weaver 2-3 0-0 4, Brayden Vold 4-9 0-0 8. Totals 23-47 18-25 69.

H-D             12     6   12   20      -   50

W. Fork      10   12   19   18      -   69

Three-point goals – H-D 7-23 (Sutter 4-12, Spurgeon 2-4, De La Cruz 1-1, Sauke 0-3, Severs 0-3); WF 5-19 (Ames 3-10, Heimer 1-1, B. Weaver 1-2, Washington 0-1, C. Weaver 0-1, Latham 0-4). Rebounds– H-D 22, 1 off., 21 def. (Uhlenhopp 5, Severs 5, Hill 3, Spurgeon 2, Miller 2, Klein, Sauke, De La Cruz); WF 25, 5 off., 20 def. (Ames 8, Washington 6, Latham 5, Vold 3, Martinek 2, B. Weaver). Assists– H-D 11 (Severs 3, Spurgeon 2, Sutter 2, Uhlenhopp, Miller, De La Cruz, Heeren); WF 10 (Latham 4, Washington 2, B. Weaver, Ames, Heimer, Vold). Steals– H-D 7 (Spurgeon 2, Klein, Uhlenhopp, Miller, De La Cruz, Severs); WF 7 (C. Weaver 3, Latham 2, Ames, Heimer). Blocks– H-D 3 (Sutter 3); WF 1 (Vold). Total fouls– H-D 21, WF 7. Fouled out – H-D (Miller); WF, None.