Rubber match, for all the marbles

Salem Class 1A basketball Super-Sectional preview

By JOHN ROARK

john.roark@register-news.com

SALEM — If singer Frankie Valli can have The Four Seasons, who’s to blame Chip Basso for the three he’s endured in his first 33 games as Sesser-Valier High School boys basketball coach?

Winning his first 11 games after being named Red Devils coach, Basso saw his team slump in January, losing nine of 14 games in one stretch. However, the last eight games have been a very, very good stretch for S-V.

The Devils have run off eight straight, and find themselves right up against Shane Witzel’s Woodlawn High Cardinals in tonight’s Salem Class 1A Super-Sectional.

The Cardinals have their own winning streak to chirp about, having won 20 straight games since, well, losing to S-V 53-43 in the Dec. 30 third-place game of the Red Devils’ own holiday tournament.

“We hit a little lull there,” said Basso, whose team carries a 24-9 mark into tonight’s 7:30 game in B.E. Gum Gymnasium. “How we got the ship righted, I don’t have a definitive answer for that, other than to say having a senior-led group had a lot to do with that.”

Included in that losing skid was a 63-41 defeat at the hands of WHS on Feb. 2, again on the Devils’ floor.

Which makes tonight’s neutral-floor contest a rubber match of two schools whose communities not only sit a scant 20 minutes apart, but also share their athletes in co-ops.

Two of Woodlawn’s basketball starters — Dawson Verhines and Casey Hammond — were starters on the Red Devils’ football team last fall, alongside football-playing Devils regulars Dane Eubanks, Myles Tinsley, Kendall Gibson and T.J. Eubanks.

Waltonville also co-ops with S-V in football and girls basketball.

“It is an interesting sidenote to the game,” Basso said. “These kids are the best of friends, hang out together and go to movies at various times. Sometimes you see these things happen in a tournament, but not this late.”

Both teams are battle-tested, and while the Cardinals — 30-2 a year ago and runnersup in Class 1A — have more recent postseason experience, Sesser has certainly earned its spot in tonight’s affair.

Basso is blessed with a senior group that knocked off top-seeded Waltonville in the Crab Orchard regional finals, then dispatched of Carrier Mills and then once-beaten Meridian to claim the Eldorado sectional.

The Devils’ leader is 6-foot-5 senior center Justin Matyi, the center of many an opposing coach’s scouting report.

Matyi has erupted in the postseason, including a 42-point effort Friday against Meridian. However, the Devils are much more than Matyi.

“To get this far, others have to contribute,” Witzel said. “There’s more to their team than just him, but you still have to be aware of his presence, and that says a lot for him.”

In the Devils’ win, the Cardinals limited Matyi to eight points. In the February rematch, the All-Stater scored 20 in a losing effort.

Woodlawn’s experience and talent has overcome a lot during the postseason. It trailed Patoka and Louisville in the final two rounds of the South Central regional, then took opposite routes to win the Red Hill sectional.

WHS stayed ahead of Altamont most of the way in the semifinals, then played from behind aplenty before surviving Cumberland in a one-point, overtime championship game decision.

Neither coach is looking back at the previous two games, but certainly are trying to tweak whatever needs fixing.

“You can’t draw parallels,” Witzel said.

Basso echoed those sentiments.

“This is on a different stage now,” added the Sesser coach, whose team is at the Elite Eight level for the first time in school history.

So, what are the keys to the game?

For Basso, his team must rebound better than it did in the teams’ last meeting. Woodlawn’s transition game can be brutal if the Cardinals are able to grab missed shots, which allows Hammond and Verhines to break free downcourt.

“We have to limit those things,” Basso said. “We can’t give them easy baskets, and instead force them into a half-court game. Plus we can’t get too far behind; Woodlawn is a far too-talented team to allow them to be ahead. On offense we have to realize where the double-teams on Matyi may come from.”

Witzel said foul trouble has been costly the past few games, all which has forced the Cardinals to use reserves Bryan Johnson and John Cavender for longer stretches.

“Both games in Red Hill, we had foul problems,” Witzel said. “We have to avoid that. Then it comes down to our basics in rebounding and defending.”

Woodlawn seems to have used its time wisely to right the ship, and part of the solution was getting Verhines, its point guard, healthy.

Verhines injured his knee during S-V’s football season, and was slow to recover.

Even when he returned, things didn’t exactly go the Cardinals’ way until after the holidays. But since then, WHS has been virtually lights-out.

Witzel said his team simply hasn’t get rattled during the current streak.

“Part of that is just having a talented group of players,” Witzel said. “At one point, we were 6-5, and I think that took off the pressure that the players were going through.

“They wanted to continue the success that we had last year, and they wore that bull’s-eye.

“It’s a long season, and we are where we need to be, playing our best basketball when it matters most,” Witzel added.

Tonight’s winner will face the Jacksonville Super-Sectional survivor, either Madison or Lewistown, in Friday’s 2 p.m. semifinals at Peoria’s Carver Arena.

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