Great game! Woodlan earned this win.
2014 ACAC Champions
The ACAC Conference Tournament took place this week. The conference championship game has been around since 1924 with New Haven taking the first win. In 1954 the Indiana sportscaster icon, Hilliard Gates, had the first Indiana high school tournament live game broadcast on WKJG 33 at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum – the ACAC.
Kadin Gerig is fouled
He did this for 41 straight years. His involvement with high school basketball started in 1940. The television final began in 1954. Mr. Gates was the announcer the movie “Hoosiers” representing the Milan team that won the state championship that year. Hilliard announced these games until 1993. He passed away three short years after that at the age of 83 in 1997.
This is the Allen County Athletic Conference championship game. The tradition still continues at the same location and this year the teams making it to the final game were the Woodlan Warriors and the Garrett Railroaders. Last year the Woodlan boys made it to the final game, but fell to Bluffton. This year was different as the Warriors defeated the Bluffton team on Thursday night, kicking them out of the basketball tournament.
Jaylin Bennett scores under the basket
What a game! I could probably end it there, but it wouldn’t do justice to the hard work put into by the Woodlan team this year. Oh, not to leave Garrett out, but the Railroaders are not in our readership.
This game was near alternating back and forth of which team was in the lead that either team could have claimed the trophy. Half time score was 27-24 with Garrett in the lead. Woodlan has a penchant for winning these days and today was no different. Okay, maybe it was different. “Why?” You asked. Because Woodlan has not won this tournament since the last century, 1997. Yes, it’s been a long time in the making for the Warriors, now earning it’s 11th ACAC championship.
I don’t believe there was ever a point in the game where there was more than a 8 point difference, until the last quarter. I don’t understand the thinking of the Garrett coach, John Bodey. With only 43 seconds left on the clock the score was only 3 points different between the Warriors and the Railroaders. Garrett starts the last minute foul routine so many teams use to try and keep the ball. I’m not sure if they knew who they were fouling, but Greg White wouldn’t be the person to foul. He must have sunk 5 free throws in that last minute, maybe more, hitting all but one. He was on fire, totaling 12 of 14 free throws, and the Warriors were burning up the court! During one of the timeouts when coach David Randall was telling the team what were going to do, a cheerleader backflipped to such a distance, she flipped right into the back of an assistant coach. We all needed an amusing diversion near such a stressful conclusion to the close match.
By the end of the game Woodlan was 8 points ahead and won 62-54. Coach Randall praised his entire team for the great job they did together.
Congratulations to the entire team and the coach for creating a new pattern for future teams to follow.
Woodlan Top Scorers: Greg White 20, Jaylin Bennett 14, Jeffrey Jones 11, Kadin Gerig 8, Elyjah O’Hara 6, Caleb Stieglitz 2.
More pictures at westbendnews.net
Extra large pictures are now available for this event.
