Historic win sends Bluejays to state tournament
When Villisca got down by 10 points in its Class 1A, Substate final to East Mills, they never panicked.
They just got the ball to Ryan Focht and Eli Cordon.
And the 6-foot-5 post duo didn’t disappoint as the Bluejays took control of the game, outscoring the Wolverines 30-21 over the final 15 minutes, for a 52-46 victory and the school’s first ever trip to the state tournament.
“We’ve been riding those two all year long,” said Villisca coach Jim Obermeier. of his two senior post players. “We graduated a pretty good player last year in Matt Herzberg so these two knew our offense had to start around them. We did a better job getting them the ball in the second half. The biggest reason for that was we took better care of the ball. We had 11 turnovers at halftime and our guards did a better job taking care of the ball.”
The scrappy Wolverines led most of the game, building a margin as big as eight in the first half and a 10 point lead a minute into the third quarter, with a three-quarter court press that hounded the Bluejays into those 11 first half turnovers.
But the Bluejays wouldn’t go away – on either end of the court – in the second half. They turned it over just six times in the final two quarters and were determined to get the ball to Focht and Cordon on nearly every possession.
Following Dylan Larsen’s three pointer to put the Wolverines up 32-22 with just over seven minutes to go in the third, Villisca held East Mills scoreless over the next five minutes. And that’s when the Bluejay offense finally came alive, racking up 12 straight points and taking their first lead, at 34-32, since the early moments of the game.
The Wolverines would eventually settle down to take a 38-36 lead into the final frame.
After tying the game on Cordon’s layup to open the quarter, the Bluejays scored eight of the next 10 points. The run, capped by Timmy Myers’ three pointer with four minutes to go in the game, put Villisca up for good at 46-40.
A three pointer by the Wolverines’ A.J. Westover cut the lead to 46-44 with 2:22 to go but East Mills could get no closer as Villisca – a 51 percent free throw shooting team on the season – got hot when they needed to at the line and hit 5-of-6 the final 1:45.
Focht and Cordon combined to score 24 of the Bluejays 30 halftime points. Focht finished with 21 points and Cordon 18. They combined for 19 rebounds.
“For the whole town of Villisca this a big deal,” said Obermeier, whose team improved to 22-3 on the season with the win. “We’ve had some health issues go through the town and I’m just so happy for the town itself and the first trip to state. The kids worked so hard for this.”
The win was the Bluejays’ fourth over East Mills this season. But Obermeier knew his team would get the Wolverines, and coach Kevin Schafer’s best shot in substate.
“All of our games (with East Mills), especially the first two were really close, so we knew we had to defend the three,” said Obermeier. “It seemed like they shot about 75 percent in the first half, they weren’t missing anything. I was happy to only be down seven. I feel fortunate we were still in it.
“We felt lucky to beat them the first three teams. The last game was a 17-point win but that wasn’t anywhere near a 17 point win. We knew we’d get their best shot. We didn’t overlook them at all. They’re a very good team.”
Schafer knew his his team wasn’t the favorite in the substate final but he couldn’t have been prouder of his team’s effort against what he called an excellent representative from the Corner Conference.
“I told them (his team) before the game we wanted a chance in the fourth quarter. They were favorites obviously but we just wanted to have a chance in the fourth and we did. We were up actually,” said East Mills coach Kevin Schafer following his team season-ending loss. “We struggled offensively for a while. Some of it was we’d penetrate and you’d have two 6-foot-5 guys waiting for you and our guys are 6-foot-1 and 6-foot-2. I was pleased with our effort. We gave it everything we had.”
A.J. Westover led the Wolverines with 19 points and Jake Bolton added 14 points and five rebounds.