BOYS BASKETBALL: Willis sends Verdigris to district title game with second-half surge

Feb. 16—VERDIGRIS — Just when things were at their darkest, Tyler Willis tapped into something that has helped Verdigris win five of its past six games.

His resolve.

Willis knew what was at stake, and with the Cardinals locked in a tight back-and-forth battle for much of their Class 4A Area IV District 8 semifinal contest against Miami, the 5-foot-10 senior guard took over with just under two minutes remaining in the third quarter.

Willis scored 10 of his 14 points in the second half and co-led the team in rebounds with five as he paced Verdigris to a gritty 52-39 victory over the Wardogs on Thursday night at the Verdigris Activity Center, securing his team's spot in the regional tournament while helping it advance to Friday's district championship against No. 10 McLain.

"Mentally, I knew it could be win or go home," Willis said of the postseason elimination game. "This is my last year playing basketball, so I knew something needed to happen and needed to get some momentum going. I just started shooting the basketball, and it started going in."

Following an uncharacteristically slow start that saw him score only four points in the first half, Willis regrouped and looked much more comfortable after halftime. All of a sudden, he couldn't miss.

Willis hit a 3-pointer at the 4:36 mark of the third quarter as part of a 7-0 run that saw the Cardinals take a 27-22 lead, and though Miami methodically rallied with five-consecutive points over the next three minutes, he wasn't finished.

Willis hit another 3 to regain the lead, and even when Wardogs senior Garrett Walls answered with a triple of his own, he remained undeterred. How did he respond? With a 3, of course.

This 3-ball — his third of the quarter — came just before the buzzer and sent Verdigris into the final eight minutes with a 33-30 lead. The war of attrition became increasingly one-sided from there, the Cardinals chipping away at Miami's fortitude to eventually score at 13-point victory.

Willis' 3 to end the third sparked a 14-0 run that spanned a majority of the fourth quarter, with the Wardogs finally stopping the game-winning surge with a free throw from Waike Roblyer with 2:34 remaining.

Willis contributed only one point in the fourth, but his teammates proved he wasn't the only hot hand.

Austin Boren managed seven of his 13 points in the final period while Cooper Coons and Maddox Mason added five points apiece, including a three-point play from Coons that garnered Verdigris its first double-digit advantage at 41-30. Coons finished with 10 points and one rebound, and Mason chipped in nine points and two boards.

"We're starting to clique, and we're working hard every single day," Willis said. "Everybody's starting to play their best basketball, and shots are going in, so we just gotta keep working and playing hard and getting better every day."

Roblyer, Walls and Blake Sooter all finished with eight points to lead Miami, with the first of the trio grabbing five rebounds while the other two had two and one, respectively. Colton Oelke had a game-high six rebounds to go alongside seven points.

This was the Cardinals' third showdown with the Wardogs this season, having defeated them 61-52 on Dec. 1 and 61-28 on Jan. 26. However, it was that aspect of familiarity that allowed Miami to challenge Verdigris much more competitively in the third matchup, threatening to end the home team's season early.

With that in mind, Cardinals coach Chris Houk made a strategic defensive adjustment at halftime — one he knew the Wardogs wouldn't be expecting. Eight of Miami's 17 turnovers came in the third quarter as a result, mitigating Verdigris' 26-19 loss on the boards.

"They know us and we know them, so in the last week or so we put in a half-court trap," Houk said. "It worked and caused those turnovers, and they (my players) feed off it if it's working, and it did. They (Miami) couldn't make an adjustment to it. It was 22-20 at half, and defensively, you still can't be too upset with 22 points. I knew it wouldn't be the same as the other two games, and that held true.

"Luckily we had something in our back pocket, and it worked."