Boys basketball: Fieldcrest stays unbeaten with 75-56 win over Woodland

MINONK – Fieldcrest 6-foot-5 senior Brady Ruestman had a chance for a dunk in the late stages of the Knights championship game win a couple of weeks ago at the Colmone Classic.

He missed it.

However, as the closing seconds ticked down before halftime of Tuesday game against Woodland, Ruestman made amends – taking a pass on the left wing and throwing down a two-handed slam to give the host Knights a 13-point lead on the way to a 75-56 victory to stay unbeaten on the season.

“This was my first one ever in an actual game. I missed one in the championship game (of the Colmone Classic) and (Fieldcrest) coach (Jeremy Hahm) wasn’t too happy with me about it,” Ruestman said. “Everyone on that play did exactly what they are supposed to do, and (point guard) Jordan (Heider) gave me a perfect feed to go up with. I was a pretty amazing feeling to finally do it when it counted.”

Ruestman scored 14 points, to go along with eight rebounds, six assists, two steals and four blocks. Jozia Johnson paced the hosts with 16 points, while Ed Lorton added 14 points and three assists. Heider (eight assists) and Connor Reichman each chipped in eight points.

“Everyone on that play did exactly what they are supposed to do, and Jordan gave me a perfect feed to go up with. I was a pretty amazing feeling to finally do it when it counted.”

—  Brady Ruestman, Fieldcrest senior

Woodland was led by 16 points from Nick Plesko and 15 points from Tucker Hill on five 3-point field goals, three in the second quarter.

“We knew that have some guys that can really shoot the ball from the outside, so we wanted to limit that as much as possible,” Ruestman said. “We let No. 3 (Tucker Hill) get hot there in the second quarter, but I think we did a better job of making sure we knew where he was all the time in the second half. I thought we did a pretty good job on the offensive end and our passing, which it usually is, was solid.”

[ Photos: Woodland vs Fieldcrest boys basketball ]

Fieldcrest – ranked No. 5 in the latest Associated Press Class 2A poll and now 9-0 – led 20-11 after one quarter with Johnson scoring 10 points and extended the lead to 39-26 at halftime as Reichman splashed a pair of 3s.

“Fieldcrest is a very good basketball team that is well-coached and plays very good defense,” Woodland coach Connor Kaminke said, his team dropping to 9-3. “One of our goals tonight was to try and slow the game down and to take care of the ball. Fieldcrest is very dangerous if you turn the ball over because they have a ton of quickness and will kill you in transition. I really thought for the most part we did a pretty good job with those two things.

“It’s not often after a 19-point loss you can say proud of anything. But my guys played extremely hard, competed from start to finish and did everything we asked them to do tonight. Fieldcrest is ranked right now No. 5 in Class 2A for a reason and they showed why, but I also think we battled them pretty well.

“Brady Ruestman will without a doubt be one of the best players we face all season. He’s got size, he’s athletic and when he’s catching the ball at the free-throw line it’s going to be pretty hard to contain him. We went with a zone tonight to try and limit his touches, but when we sagged too much on him their other shooters made us pay.”

The Knights pushed the advantage to 62-39 after three quarters and finished 31-of-50 for 62% from the floor, while Woodland hit 49% overall (22-of-45) and 10-of-20 from beyond the arc.

“Woodland is an extremely well-coached team that has played together for a couple of years now and is having a fantastic season,” Hahn said. “We talked a lot at practice about how they have a number of kids that can knock shots down at a pretty high clip and you saw that in the second quarter. We were getting hung up on screens a little easier that I would have liked to see. We discussed at halftime how we need to get them off the three-point line, make them drive and then collapse.

“We did a much better job of defending the arc in the second half.”

Fieldcrest hosts Midland on Friday at 7 p.m., while Woodland is off until it plays Indian Creek on Dec. 26 at 1:30 p.m. in the opening round of the Marquette Christmas Tournament.