by STOW, Ohio– Senior guards Austin Wilhoit and Cam Marconi combined for 38 of Stow’s 51 points Tuesday night to help lead their team to a 51-50 win over Euclid, advancing them to the Division II, Northeast District 6 district championship on Saturday.
“The first half was a struggle, we took some questionable shots, and they were very aggressive defensively and we didn’t respond to that well,” Stow coach Dave Close said. “It was an ugly game for both teams and we’re just thankful we got one more point than they did.”
The Bulldogs got off to a 3-0 lead and then their offense stalled out for the remainder of the first quarter. The Panthers were physical and made 3-point shots a premium for the Bulldogs throughout the night.
The Panthers got a nice boost from Zay Southern as he played elite defense on shooter Austin Wilhoit for the majority of the night. In fact, nobody could really find a rhythm for the Bulldogs as they struggled to find answers offensively.
With a 9-8 lead after the first quarter, the Panthers used that momentum to close out the first half. Once they reached a lead of at least five points, that’s when the Bulldogs started to take contested shots to try to get back in the game. Junior guard Jayden Basie got a corner 3-pointer to fall to close out the first half, as the Panthers held a 25-17 lead.
That’s when Wilhoit flipped a switch. He came out of the second half shooting, where he swiftly gained confidence after starting the second half scoring the first six points for his team. He and Marconi combined for 15 third quarter points as the Bulldogs scored 22 points in the third quarter alone after scoring just 17 points in the entire first half.
“They’ve been going all year for us, two seniors who shoulder a lot of the reasonability running this team,” Close said.
An emphasis coming out of halftime for Close and his team was to try to get easy shots near the rim, starting with Marconi facilitating and finding open lanes to the rim. He became more aggressive as seen by his nine second-half points to give his team a spark down the stretch.
“We thought Cam can get to the rim and he did a decent job of getting to the rim in the first half, but he wasn’t finishing,” Close shared. “In the second half, he started finishing some more.”
Both teams were trading baskets for the majority of the second half. The Bulldogs would take a 33-32 lead in the middle of the third quarter and from there, no lead felt safe. Panther senior guard Thai Duncan did all he could to mount a second-half comeback with his team-leading 14 points.
“We just believed in each other,” Wilhoit said about the team’s’ mindset down the stretch. “We knew we can get past them for easy layups…We got downhill and finished in the second half to help us out big time.”
Up next for the Bulldogs is a district championship matchup against Avon (13) on Saturday night.
