WEST DES MOINES – Woodward-Granger punched its ticket to state, taking down Albia 49-43 in the Class 2A substate finals on Saturday.
The Hawks, who fell behind early and for a good portion of the second half, utilized a dominant fourth quarter as their tipping point.
Woodward-Granger’s Bryce Achenbach scored a game-high 18 points, and teammates Keith Braunschweig and Pacey Moats each added 10 in the winning effort.
For Albia, Drew Chance led the Blue Demons with 16 points off the bench. Joe Teno led the Albia starters with 10.
Here are five takeaways from the Hawks’ win on Saturday:
Woodward-Granger’s Bryce Achenbach is going to be a problem
Woodward-Granger’s point guard is going to cause some issues for opposing teams.
Achenbach is a quick guard with solid handles. He caused Albia’s defense to break down numerous times when he’d take the ball to the rack, setting himself up for chances at the free-throw line.
At times, Achenbach tries to be a little too flashy. While some fancy passes work on the fast break (he had a nice no-look pass to a teammate), Albia’s defense clamped on him as he tried to free himself up in the half-court offense. The dribble clinic turned into a turnover.
Defensively, he’s very solid. Achenbach is a small guard, standing at 5’ 11,” but he absolutely locked up Albia. There’s one example of this in the first highlights clip below.
Albia’s Drew Chance is going to have himself a dominant 2A high school career
Drew Chance is a freshman, but he doesn’t play like it.
Albia’s big man came off the bench, scoring a team-high 16 points. He’s 6’ 2,” so it’s not as though he had a great size advantage over Woodward-Granger, but his strength in the post and footwork were excellent.
Chance got himself into great position down low, and when he got the ball outside the paint, he was able to move pretty smoothly. In the first quarter, Chance caught a feed around the elbow. He took one strong dribble, causing three Woodward-Granger defenders to close in on him, and then pumped faked, giving himself an easy layup.
He doesn’t possess jaw-dropping lateral quickness, but Chance consistently found a way to put himself in excellent position.
Pacey Moats was Woodward-Granger’s Mr. Electricity
Talk about a sparkplug. Moats made some game-cementing plays in the fourth quarter, showing that not only can he do a bit of everything offensively, but he goes about it with confidence. He essentially took over in the fourth quarter.
Moats drained a crucial 3-pointer midway through the final quarter as Albia kept things close. Then, with 3:25 left in the game, Moats took his defender off the dribble, drew the foul, and made a layup. He’s deceptively quick off the dribble, and Albia paid for it.
Here are the two plays:
Woodward-Granger is at its best when it’s sharing the wealth
In the first and second quarters, Albia looked like the far better team. That’s because Woodward-Granger had some sloppy turnovers and struggled to make its shots – most of which were decent looks.
But when the Hawks started clicking in the second half, everyone was contributing. In total, six players scored for Woodward-Granger. Three finished with 10 points or more.
Whether it was Moats catching lightning in a bottle during the fourth, Achenbach wearing down Albia’s defense, or Keith Braunschweig capitalizing on his chances at the free-throw line, the Hawks biggest strength is their ability to spread the scoring efficiently.
Woodward-Granger’s resiliency is going to pay dividends
Albia came out firing, nailing three 3-pointers in the first quarter. Woodward-Granger found itself down for most of the game.
But the Hawks put on a fourth quarter for the ages, outscoring the Blue Demons 19-9 and punching their ticket to Wells Fargo Arena.
The competition for Woodward-Granger will only get tougher from here, but it’s fourth quarter performances like the one Saturday that are a true measurement of what teams are made of. Woodward-Granger got multiple guys involved in the offense in the fourth quarter, and that’s when things clicked.
