It wasn’t a pleasant opening night for new Wayland High School basketball coach Chris Jasinski.
His Wildcats took a 71-40 drubbing from Caledonia that could have been worse except for a sudden fourth quarter three-point barrage. The local boys managed just five points in the second quarter, 18 in the first half and matched up poorly against a quicker, bigger and stronger group of Fighting Scots.
The visitors jumped out to a 7-2 advantage and junior guard Justin Holtz brought Wayland into a 7-7 tie at the 5:03 mark, but things went south for virtually the rest of the evening.
The Scots came out aggressive in taking the ball to the iron and picked up a lot of fouls along the way. Point guard Cody VanderWoude scored all 16 of his game-high points in the first half.
The best the ‘Cats could do was creep to within four points, 20-16, but Caledonia scored 14 unanswered points in the second period to mount a 34-16 lead before freshman guard Brett Bultsma broke the drought.
Scot 6-5 forward Andrew Larson added insult to injury by swishing a three-point field goal from the corner just before the buzzer to stake his group to a 41-18 cushion at intermission.
The Wildcats then were plagued by yet another drought, this one last through nearly half the third quarter before Holtz drilled a three, but by that time the home team was down 47-21.
Bultsma and sophomore guard Caleb Wielhouwer, who netted a couple of threes, both had seven points to go with Holtz’s 10.
VanderWoude, though he didn’t score in the entire second half, led the Scots with 16 points, Larson had 15 and 6-5 Luke Thelen, Aaron Henry and Paul Vogeler contributed nine apiece.
Jasinski has a really green hoops outfit that lacks size, as shown by Caledonia’s dominance on the boards Tuesday night. The only Wildcats with any extensive varsity experience are Holtz and junior guard Riley Fields.
COVER PHOTO: New varsity basketball coach Chris Jasinski, who took over from retired coach Mike Hudson, talks to his players on opening night.
