Menu
Woodland boys grab spot in WIT final, blowing past Leopold with hot offense
On its home court for the Woodland Invitational Tournament, Woodland boys basketball defended the floor against No. 4 Leopold for a lopsided 76-31 victory in the semifinals to advance to a third consecutive championship game in the competition.
Opening its season with a victory, the top-seeded Cardinals advanced to the second round off a bye and ran into a Leopold game fresh off a win in its own first game against Oak Ridge in the quarterfinals, but Woodland looked no worse for wear.
Despite winning by 22 the night before, the Wildcats came out slow and never caught up to the fast, flashy and efficient Cardinals on their home turf, with Woodland building a commanding lead quickly and never once looking back.
Junior guard Korbin Kinder led the game in scoring, putting in 24 points for the Cardinals as they jumped out to a big lead early and never looked back.
Josh Horrell led the Wildcats in scoring with 8 points in the loss, with Preston Campbell’s 6 finishing second as Leopold’s 31 total struggled to keep up with the fast-paced scoring of the Cardinals down the stretch.
The win improved the Cardinals’ record to 1-0 for the season, taking an impressive opening victory against a Wildcats squad expected to be competitive among the area’s finest small schools this year despite the loss.
Now 1-1 for the year, Leopold slips back to even for the year after a stout Monday victory, showing learning signs as the night progressed but never able to cut it back to a tight game after a big run from Woodland in the first half.
Moving into a championship final against Meadow Heights at 8 p.m. on Friday night, the Cardinals are headed back to a fifth consecutive championship game appearance.
Having won the last two tournaments, three in the past four years, the last time that hosting Woodland failed to win the championship was 2021, when it fell in the final to none other than the same Meadow Heights Panthers.
The No. 2-seeded Panthers are looking to upend the Cardinals, meanwhile, fresh off a tight-knit 62-58 victory over Greenville that they had to scratch and fight to win down the stretch after a Bears rally.
The loss drops Leopold into a third-place game, taking place at 6:30 p.m. on Friday against No. 6 Greenville with both sides having endured Tuesday night losses against top-two seeds.
The Cardinals got off to a quick start, led by 7 points in the first eight minutes from junior guard Korbin Kinder, to build a glaring 22-7 lead going into the second quarter as Leopold struggled to guard the depth scoring of the hosts.
That said, Leopold rattled off an 8-2 run to start the second quarter to cut the deficit back to single digits, but the Cardinals responded with an intense press to put together a 9-0 run of its own and force coach Jimmy Lincoln of the Wildcats to burn a timeout.
By the end of the first half, the Cardinals had built a 41-16 lead on the backs of some great transition play to get even further out in front as the Wildcats just couldn’t bite the turnover bug early in Tuesday’s semifinal.
That run continued into the third quarter, with the Cardinals extending that lead into the 40s, punctuated by a Calvin Layton and-1 that got the crowd into a roar in the final two minutes as Woodland started the running clock and exited the third up 65-24.
Ahead 41 going into the final eight minutes, Woodland had already amassed a healthy heap of lead and cruised to the finish, taking a 45-point victory to claim its spot in the championship game for the fifth consecutive season.