Catholic Central came to town Friday night with upset on its mind.
The visiting Cougars made a pretty strong bid to pull off the feat against the No. 4 Class B team in the state, but Wayland made 20 of 26 free throw attempts in the fourth quarter and finally pulled away to 65-59 triumph.
The Wildcats, still undefeated at 7-0 in the O-K Gold Conference, now are 13-1 on the season overall. The Cougars now are 7-8 overall.
Catholic Central will give opponents a lot of trouble in the future. Its starting point guard, Austin Braun, is a freshman and it has twin tower sophomores in 6-7 Jake Polakovitch and 6-5 Jalen Mayfield.
The Cougars battled Wayland evenly throughout the ballgame, mostly through amazingly successful drives to the hoop, particularly by senior guard Sean Campbell, who scored 18 points for the evening.
The Wildcats took their biggest lead in the early going 21-13 just after a three-point field goal by sophomore Carter Nyp, but the upset-minded guests didn’t let the difference get that big again until the waning seconds of the contest.
Wayland had its flashes of brilliance. Down 4-2, 6-7 center Zack Nieuwkoop scored a basket inside, Mike Kelly stole an in-bounds pass, point guard Avery Hudson scored and was fouled after the shot and the ‘Cats wound up scoring six straight points without their opponents even touching the basketball.
Campbell scored 10 points in the first half to lead the Cougars to dare to come to within just two points, 28-26, at intermission.
Then Catholic Central kept it up and dared to be great, actually taking the lead in the third period. It was so alarming that Wayland coach Mike Hudson called a timeout when his team fell behind 39-36, when Jose Torres swished a three.
The Wildcats still were down at the end of the third quarter, 45-43. And for the next eight minutes, they would score only one field goal, but put together 20 free throws.
Wayland’s only basket in the fourth period was courtesy of a heads-up play by Kelly, who tipped a rebound off a missed three to Hudson, who then drove the hoop for the team’s only basket down the stretch.
Near the end, it was Nieuwkoop and Hudson who went to the line often and sealed Catholic Central’s valiant, but doomed effort. Nieuwkoop, who seems to have a knack at drawing fouls, finished the evening with 24 points. Hudson had 16 points and even showed a little flair by draining a three, broken fingers and all.
Coach Hudson’s strategy seemed to be going after the opponents who were in foul trouble and they obliged. The ‘Cats were shooting in the double bonus at the line and they were able to retire three Cougars to the sidelines, Braun, Torres and Polakovitch.
Besides playing a heady game that included some crisp passing assists, Kelly had nine points.
Supporting Campbell’s 18 points were Mayfield with 10 and Braun with eight.
Wayland will play a nonleague game at Mattawan next Tuesday.
PHOTO: The Duke and Duchess at the Wayland Winter Homecoming festivities were Haley Thelen and Cody Johnson.
Michael Kelly (Photo courtesy of Kenny Ritz)
