Wolves wrangle Wildcats

WINFIELD - It took a while for Winfield-Mt. Union's offense to get rolling in Monday's Class 1A District 8 quarterfinal, but once the Wolves caught fire, they were never cooled off. W-MU used a 34-point second half to run away from Columbus Community 54-39.

Columbus was short-handed with leading scorer Eric Valdez (19.6 ppg) absent from the lineup but Columbus still put up a good fight in the first half. W-MU led 11-8 after the first quarter and 20-15 in the second. That was the lowest first-half point total Columbus has scored against W-MU in three meetings.

'(Valdes) is one of the few guys in our league that can go one-on-one and just take over a game,” W-MU head coach Klay Edwards said. 'They played well, really, but it is a big difference.”

The Wolves had quality chance after quality chance in the third quarter and that led to a boat load of open looks from outside. W-MU scored 22 points in the third and led 42-27 after three quarters.

Columbus could never get back in the game. Johnathan Gonzalez put up seven points in the fourth quarter but W-MU never let Columbus cut the lead back down to single digits.

'I just told them at halftime to take care of the ball,” Edwards said. 'We had 10 turnovers in the first half. And to get a little more movement, attack the rim.”

Daunte Oepping led the Wolves with 19 points and 11 rebounds. Christian Gerot scored 13 points. Jared Arnold had nine. Juanito Piper finished with six. John Day had three, and the duo of Nolan Rees and Ty Yocum scored two each.

'We started driving in more, not just shooting threes like we did in the first half,” Oepping said. 'We limited our turnovers a lot more, in the second half we did a lot better.”

Bawi UK led Columbus with 11 points. Brody Frost had nine. Jonathan Gonzalez scored seven. Evan Rees had four. Marco Martinez and Gustavo Anaya finished with three points apiece, and Jaime Villegas had two.

Columbus ended their season at 3-18. W-MU (7-15) will play at top-seeded WACO on Thursday night.

'This is why you play ball, to play the best,” Edwards said. 'It's a great opportunity for us. We have nothing to lose, and the pressure is on them, really. We'll just come out and shoot our best shot, and see what happens.”