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By Alex Kuhn
Sports Editor 

Warriors hold off Douglas to qualify for state

Worland set to play Cody Thursday in 3A State quarterfinals

 

March 6, 2018

DAILY NEWS/ Alex Kuhn

The Warrior bench and Worland faithful celebrate after a big play by Warrior Devin Mercado during Worland's 70-59 win over Douglas during the 3A East regional tournament Saturday morning at Douglas High School. The win gave the Warriors their fourth-straight bid to the 3A state tournament.

DOUGLAS - After being roughed up by the Buffalo Bison the night before in the semifinals of 3A East boys basketball tournament, the Worland Warriors faced the Douglas Bearcats in an elimination game Saturday morning. The winner moved on to the 3A State tournament this week in Casper, while the loser prepped for their end of the season banquet.

It was touch and go but in the end, the Warriors prevailed beating the Bearcats 70-59, advancing to their fourth-straight state tournament, a first in program history.

"It means a lot, and I've been a part of this program for four years and have put a lot of heart and effort into it. It means a lot to lead this team and get to the state tournament again," said senior Warrior guard Jadon Swalstad.

Added senior Warrior guard McCoy Molzahn, "It feels awesome because Worland hasn't been to the state tournament four seasons in a row. We're the first senior class to do that and it feels great. A lot of people doubted us and it feels awesome to prove them wrong."

The Warriors were physical against the Bearcats, which is exactly what their coach Aaron Abel asked them to do. Forward Andrew Edholm best displayed the Warriors physicality by controlling the paint on both ends of the court.

"I was thinking I didn't want the season to end for our seniors. I wanted to do my part so the seniors get to wear the Worland jerseys one last time," said Edholm when explaining his mindset going into the game against Douglas.

Edholm's physical play also fouled out Douglas' big Nate Underberg, forcing the Bearcats to go to a smaller lineup.

"Andrew Edholm shut down their big kid Nate Underberg. Last time we played them he had 15 points and 18 rebounds, Andrew didn't play very well. The second time, Andrew completely frustrated him, shut him down, [Underberg] didn't play very well and looked like he wanted off the floor. He fouled out with a lot of time left and looked like he didn't want any part of Andrew. I thought Andrew was terrific and limited their chances at getting second-chance points," said Abel.

In the Warriors, previous two games finishing around the rim had been a struggle for Edholm and his teammates. Yet, against Douglas, Worland got those buckets to fall and for Edholm, he finished off offensive rebounds with putbacks, often through heavy contact.

"It's hard when you're right there and it doesn't go in. I did miss more than I liked today too [Saturday vs. Douglas] but I was also able to get some to go in. I was trying to be more physical and go to the basket and it paid off," said Edholm.

The Warriors got off to a blistering start against the Bearcats, opening the game with a 14-4 run. Their physical play put Douglas into the double-bonus early on in the second quarter allowing them to build on their lead and take a 47-22 lead into the halftime break. A total of 73 free throws were shot in the game.

In the second half, Douglas began to chip at the Worland lead cutting it to 55-39 by the end of the third. As one would expect with a state tournament bid on the line, the fourth quarter proved to be the most dramatic.

"They [Douglas] had guys hit 3s that typically don't hit those kinds of shots. That got the crowd into it and as they got more excited we'd panic and turn the ball over, which in turn got the crowd more excited," Abel said.

He added, "The game threatened to snowball away from us there in the second half but our guys did a good job of maintaining a sense of composure at the end. I thought Wyatt Wyman, particularly, was able to right the ship for us as Douglas cut the game to two possessions. He got to the free-throw line, he only knocked down two of four, but it seemed to calm everyone down," said Abel.

Douglas came within two possessions of Worland several times during the fourth. Making things more interesting Warriors starters Rylan Mocko (4:06 left to play), Edholm (3:08) and Rudy Sanford (2:22) all fouled out, putting the pressure on Worland's reserve players to help deliver a win in crunch time.

And deliver they did as the Warrior bench came through. Whether it was Bryan Viktorin, Devin Mercado or Porter Harman, each player made critical plays that secured Worland the W along with their fourth-straight trip to state.

"It gets us really excited for the future and to watch guys like Devin Mercado guard Harley Rhoades, one of the best players in the conference, and do a really good job on him, as well as score four points. Bryan Viktorin and the job he did when Andrew got into foul trouble and fouled out. We had to have a lot of different players step up and make plays, the second half of that Douglas game was a total team effort.

"Porter Harman came off the bench and guarded their point guard and forced him into an offensive foul with his pressure. All the little things like that are what helped us win that game," said Abel.

THIRD-PLACE GAME

The win over Douglas advanced Worland into the third-place game against Newcastle. The Warriors beat the Dogies the previous week 74-68, in one of their better performances of the regular season.

Worland led Newcastle for most the game but in the final 60 seconds errors were made, the Dogies capitalized on those errors and stole the victory from the Warriors 53-50.

"All weekend our young guys learned a lot of lessons. Some of them were learned the hard way and we hope to be better in the future because of it. Newcastle, we pretty much led wire-to-wire until the end. We made some mistakes and they made plays off those mistakes. They deserve some of the credit for the way they played.

"It was frustrating but overall I was happy with the way the guys played that game. Newcastle is a strong team with four good scorers. I thought we defended really well, especially in the second half, we just came up a little short against a pretty good team," said Abel.

All in all, it was a good weekend for the Warriors, many young players, like Sanford, got better with each game and the team accomplished one of their goals, which was to be among the eight teams that have the opportunity to win a state title.

"All these guys got better. Whether that was Andrew Edholm, I think he really improved over the weekend. Rudy Sanford got better playing this level of intense basketball," said Abel. "The freshman, sophomores and even juniors got a taste of postseason basketball and how intense it can be and how every possession matters. That makes us better on both ends of the floor."

Added Abel, "I was impressed with a lot of our individual guys, Jadon Swalstad did a good job for us defensively all weekend and hit quite a few timely 3s for us. Then Luke Mortimer made plays like we ask him to do. All week we were happy with all of our guys and they were very good within their roles."

The sacrifices made by seniors Swalstad and Molzahn in taking reduced roles was also critical to the team's success and showed the maturity of the two players whose only concerns were that of the team.

"I'm just doing whatever it takes to get our team to the main tournament. Everyone wants to go to state and we've all made sacrifices this year and it's just one I had to make to get us to state," said Molzahn.

STATE QUARTERFINAL

Worland's 3A state quarterfinal matchup will be against the Cody Broncs at 1:30 p.m. at the Casper Events Center on Thursday. The Warriors and Broncs have battled only once this season and it was the season opener, a 73-49 loss for the Warriors.

"Cody is a team that relies on a couple of things offensively, their big guys inside with Zech Todd and Reece Andre and the shooting with Elijah Leyva on the perimeter. They play half-court man-to-man for most the game. We have to get some of our man-to-man offense sets ready for them and have to come up with a defensive game plan for their size. Because it's hard for us to match up with this team that runs a couple of 6-foot-4, 6- foot-5 guys out there, then the 6- foot-8 Todd. It will be a tough matchup for us but if we can defend we can hang with them," said Abel.

Having started in last year's championship game, Swalstad's experience will be beneficial for the Warriors as they aim to make another run at state.

"We have to keep our heads, it's no different than any other game. It will be a bigger scene and we'll be at the Events Center, but it's not going to be different than our games. We just need to play the way we play and we'll get up there in the bracket," said Swalstad.

The Warriors are a much different team from that Dec. 7 game. They've improved by leaps and bounds, if they can execute the game plan Abel and his staff put together, they can send shockwaves through the tournament by taking down the No. 1-seed out of the West.

 
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