1A No. 2 WACO breaks Holy Trinity

WAYLAND - It's amazing what one can see in hindsight that can't be seen in foresight.

WACO's 6-foot-7 senior Nik Coble became the school's new career rebounding leader Thursday, a sight that would have been hard to imagine as a 5-11 freshman.

Coble grabbed 13 rebounds in a 64-34 Southeast Iowa Super Conference South Division win over Holy Trinity. Coble passed Ryan Shelman's record of 847 set from 2002-06. 'Hard work does pay off, that's what this record means to me,” Coble said. 'I wasn't always this tall, so it wasn't that easy.”

WACO's girls had an 11-4 lead when Holy Trinity scored the next 12 points of the game in a 36-27 South win.

'Toward the end of the second quarter, we were a little out of sync with some of our subs and we lost track of a couple of their players,” WACO girls coach Caylon DeVaul said. 'We just kind of fell apart and made some silly mistakes. With under two minutes before the half, I did not want to take the timeout, hoping we could play through it. I was thinking I would need them toward the end of the game but now that I look back on it, I wish I would've taken some timeouts. When they went on that run, I thought that we could work our way out of it.”

A 7-2 first quarter lead became a 14-12 halftime deficit, then 27-23 after the third quarter. It was 27-25 after Morgan Graber made two free throws but WACO would not score again until the final basket. Graber finished with nine points as did Maysan Lee.

In the boys game, the visitors led 4-3 and trailed just 10-6 after a quarter, but Drew Kissell had 12 points by halftime to break the game open for a 28-13 advantage.

'Drew was attacking the basket and getting out on the break,” WACO boys coach Paul Kissell said. 'All those things helped us beat their zone.”

A stingy Warriors defense also made a huge difference.

'We take great pride in our defense, no matter who we are playing,” Coach Kissell said. 'It helps that our kids have been in our system for four years and that is a tribute to the assistant coaches.”

Chayse Roth, Jeff McGohan and Jason Sutton are the WACO assistants.

The Warrior defense did not let up, holding the Crusaders to six points for a 48-19 advantage after the third quarter.

Kissell finished with 17 points, Coble had 12, while Gabe Reichenbach hit for 10 points and Pietro Vannini came off the bench for 18.

'I like having fun on the floor and getting my teammates involved,” Vannini said. 'If we all get involved on defense, we start playing better. We are willing to play defense to our best and win games. Defense leads to offense and we like to score. We are not going to turn down a basket. It's an advantage for me to come off the bench. It is like watching film.”

'Our big guys came to play,” Coach Kissell said. 'Reichenbach likes that short corner shot and that opens up the interior. Pietro has a certain flair to his game. He likes to watch from the bench and see where he can make an impact and he did that with some defensive steals.”

The biggest flair was the new rebounding record.

'It was a big record for our whole team,” Coach Kissell said. 'Shelman now coaches the Lone Tree girls. He played a lot of games for WACO so for Nic to accomplish this says a lot.”

Coble is averaging 14 rebounds a game.

'It's nice for the younger kids to see that progression he has made,” Coach Kissell said. 'It's a nice accomplishment for him.”

Coble broke the rebounding record for a season last year, finishing with 310.

'When I did that I knew I could get the career one and it came through for me,” Coble said. 'Rebounding is a stat that you keep an eye on, but at the same time, it's not as important to other people, but it's very important to me. Rebounding and passing are what I work on and then the scoring will come.”

The early years playing varsity as a short freshman taught him a lot about the finer points of the art of getting a rebound.

'Playing against much bigger kids teaches you that you have to get a box out,” Coble said. 'I'm not a great jumper so my height helps me, but it also helped a lot to learn the way I did. I had to learn the lower guy wins and how important boxing out is.”

No. 2 WACO remains unbeaten overall and in the South. The Warriors are one of only two unbeatens in Class 1A. The Warriors are 17-0 overall, 13-0 South and play at New London Tuesday. Holy Trinity boys are 6-11, 4-9 while the girls are 9-9, 7-7. WACO girls are 3-15, 2-12 and play at Columbus tonight.