Valley Sports Report
ELMIRA HEIGHTS - Thomas A. Edison built a nine-point halftime lead, then blew the game open with a 14-2 third-quarter blitz for its first win of the season, a 49-38 decision over Waverly in IAC South Large School boys basketball action here Saturday afternoon.
It's the second loss in as many nights for the Wolverines, who had one practice after losing 6-8 junior Scott Woodring (averaging 32.7 and 16.9 rebounds per game) to a knee injury Wednesday, before playing on back-to-back night.
"There are some open wounds right now. We need to move on, and we need to move on quickly," said Waverly coach Lou Judson.
"I think some of the situations we find ourselves in now need to be corrected with some practice time," he noted. "Unfortunately, when you're halfway through the season, you don't have that."
The Woodring injury has also forced Judson to shuffle his line-up.
"Guys were playing out of position coming into the season. Now, they're playing out of position even further," said Judson. "I'm expecting them to do other things, and they're playing out of their comfort zone.
"Being young, it has snowballed on us," added Judson. "We need to find a way, and take baby steps to get back to where we need to be."
Freshman Caden Hollywood scored six points, including a 3-pointer, in the first quarter, and senior Dylan Ward added five points, but Edison Jack Shaw buried a trio of 3-pointers and scored 11 points to help the Spartans to a 15-11 lead.
Ward scored six points in the second quarter, but Edison used a balanced attack to extend its lead to 30-21 at the half.
Shaw hit another 3-pointer and scored five points in the third quarter as the Spartans pushed their lead to 44-23 entering the final eight minutes. A bucket by Hollywood kept the Wolverines from being blanked in the stanza.
The Wolverines closed the gap with a 15-4 spurt, fueled by 3-pointers from Ryan Lambert and Austin Ellers, but Edison hit 5 of 9 free-throw attempts in the fourth quarter to seal the victory.
"We were flat, and (Edison) came out playing pretty good," said Judson.
"We had a lot of open looks that we didn't convert," he added. "We shot the ball extremely poorly again, 3-for-28 from the 3-point line against a zone."
For the game, Waverly shot 23 percent (15 of 59) from the field.
Ward led Waverly with 13 points, 13 rebounds, three steals, and two blocked shots, while Hollywood had 12 points and three assists, and Lambert added five points and six rebounds.
Shaw led Edison with 18 points and four 3-pointers.
Waverly, now 5-4, returns to action Tuesday at Lansing.
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IN PHOTO: Waverly's Dylan Ward.
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