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WMU topped by West Burlington for SEISC Shootout title
Wolves struggle to find shot in ranked battle with Falcons
WEST BURLINGTON — Winfield-Mt. Union just couldn’t find an offensive rhythm on Saturday night in the Southeast Iowa Super Conference Shootout championship against West Burlington.
The No. 4 (Class 1A) Wolves never led in the conference shootout final as the No. 10 (Class 2A) Falcons did just enough offensively, coupled with some stellar work on the defensive end of the floor to take their second straight SEISC crown 45-38.
West Burlington scored the first four points of the game before WMU was able to get on the board off a lay in from Abram Edwards.
The Wolves wouldn’t score again for over three and a half minutes, but were able to keep the Falcons in check during that span, trailing by just six.
Cam Buffington added a two and Jake Edwards buried a three before the end of the first quarter, but West Burlington led 12-7.
The three from Edwards was just one of three the Wolves would hit in the game. WMU ended 3-for-23 from beyond the arc. The other two of those deep balls came in the second quarter, one from Edwards once again and the other from Carter Loyd.
“They were sagging so much and we got really stagnant outside,” WMU head coach Klay Edwards said. “We would just stand and watch and didn’t get very much movement going on.”
WMU didn’t let the tough shooting get to them early. The Wolves cut the game to one, 16-15, midway through the second frame after a Buffington two and the pair of threes.
West Burlington led 20-15 at the half as the Wolves didn’t score again the rest of the quarter.
To begin the second half, WMU came out firing again. The Wolves scored four straight points to bring it to a one point game once again, 20-19.
To the Wolves’ dismay, from the 4:36 mark on they scored just three points. Meanwhile, the Falcons ended the quarter on a 9-0 run to make it 34-22 after 24 minutes of action.
In the final period, the Wolves were able to get it down to seven on three separate occasions, but never closer than that.
“In the fourth, we started to attack more off the dribble and it worked,” Edwards said. “We just settled for a lot of threes and unfortunately tonight we were not making very many.”
The Wolves shot 32% from the field and 13% from three in the loss as well as 3-for-10 from the foul line.
West Burlington finished 36.2% from the field and 8.3% from three, but went 10-for-15 from the stripe.
“I thought we defended well and it kept us in the game,” Edwards said. “It’s tough when we shoot like we did. They grabbed a couple offensive rebounds in the fourth when I though we had a good opportunity to cut into it. We just got to make those little plays.”
Cam Buffington led WMU with 14 points and seven rebounds. Abram Edwards, Carter Loyd and Jake Edwards all ended with eight points. Abram Edwards pulled down 12 boards as well.
The Wolves drop to 15-2 on the season and sit at 14-1 in SEISC play.
