WACO boys basketball 1 win from promise land

FAIRFIELD — Fairfield High School will be the site for Saturday’s much-anticipated Class 15 Substate 5 championship, as the WACO boys basketball team looks for one last victory to get to the state tournament.

The Warriors (20-4) will match up against Southeast Iowa Super Conference South Division foe Danville (22-2), a team they know all too well.

The Warriors and Bears have done battle twice already this season. Danville squeaked out both, helping the Bears to a second-place finish in the South Division. WACO had to settle for third.

The first battle of the year took place at WACO Community High School, and through one half, the Warriors looked like they might pull it out. Danville erased a three-point halftime deficit to take it 43-38.

The first game between the two was marred by a cold shooting night for both squads when it came to shots beyond the arc. WACO was 1-for-10 from 3-point land, and Danville was 1-for-8.

The two teams went in to overtime the next time they met. Hosting Danville scored the only two points of the extra period to pull out a 39-37 victory.

WACO’s top scoring output of the two games was a 15-point showing from sophomore Reece Oswald in the first matchup. In the second, fellow sophomores Colton Leichty and Chase Waterhouse put in eight apiece.

Another sophomore, Hunter Hughes, leads the Warriors with 11.9 points per game. Simeon Reichenbach is nearly to the 10-point threshold, putting in 9.8 points per game. Oswald scores 8.5, and Leichty scores 8.3.

Danville’s Drake Johnson has given the Warriors a tough time in the previous two matchups. The Bears’ senior, who leads the team with 14.3 points per game, has scored 12 points and eight points respectively in the two matchups.

Danville has three double-digit scorers. Along with Johnson, junior Caiden Gourley scores 13.9 points per game, and Sawyer Nelson puts in 10. Ty Carr is the fourth-leading scorer, with 8.6 points per game.

Both teams have given their fans gray hairs in the last two rounds of the playoffs. WACO had to storm back in the final minutes to knock off Montezuma 46-42 in the second round, and then needed to cling on at the end to hold off a late New London rush in the semifinals, winning 52-48.

Danville’s games have been even tighter. In the second round, the Bears survived by 42-41 against Notre Dame on a last-second tip in by Gourley. In the semifinals, Danville held off Winfield-Mount Union 44-41.

Danville has beaten WACO the last four times the two teams have played. WACO had won three-in-a-row before 2021.

Tipoff time at Fairfield High School is set for 7 p.m. The winner will earn a spot among an elite group of eight next week; the Class 1A state tournament field.