Sports
Waterford Blows Over Southern
By: Nick Mullens
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With 40 seconds left in the game,the basketball slowly rolled out of bounds. At this moment seniors Jordan Welch and Tyler McCutcheon walked toward the bench and walked off their home court for the last time. The crowd in the gym stood together to cheer and applaud the seniors. Jordan and Tyler joined fellow seniors Tyler McCutcheon, Isaac Huffman, Clayton Campbell, Andrew Thieman and Riley Burns for the standing ovation.
The Waterford Wildcats defeated the Southern Tornadoes on senior night with a 63-50 score.
Do not let the final score fool you however, this was no walk in the park for the Wildcats. It was a back and forth game most of the night, One team would make a run and the other would come right back and respond with a run of its own. The teams went into the locker room at half Waterford ahead 30-24.
Skip forward to 5:44 to play. The Tornadoes seemed to be making a run after being down 10 just minutes prior, they were now within five points with a score of 48-43. Southern leaned heavily on Blake Johnson and Crenson Rogers during this run and throughout the game.
Johnson had 12 and Rogers had 10 points.
Waterford would respond as they had all night. The Wildcats would add a point to increase the lead to six when Welch would drive in the lane, he exploded to the rim where he was met by two Southern defenders where he would be fouled. Welch walked to the line with a half untucked jersey after the tough foul and sunk both free throws.
These two free throws would ultimately stop Southern’s run and allow Waterford to pull away. Coach Simms said that they meet as a team yesterday and that “Jordan stood up, looked at me and said ‘Coach I’m not starting,’ and that was the end of that conversation.”
This shows the camaraderie and unselfishness within the team, despite coming off the bench Welch as able to make a major impact finishing the night with 24 points and 10 rebounds. Fellow seniors Tyler McCutcheon had 16 points and Isaac Huffman had three points, eight boards and five steals.
Waterford will finish the finish the season with two games, they will be at Belpre Friday and then will Travel to Wahama for a makeup game on Tuesday. Southern will have senior night on Friday when they face the Eastern Eagles and then will finish the regular season against Trimble.