1A St. Bede Regional: Putnam County dismisses Woodland 53-27 to advance to semifinals

GRANVILLE – The Putnam County Panthers couldn’t have envisioned a better way to start the first game of their postseason.

Facing Tri-County Conference foe Woodland in the quarterfinal round of the Class 1A St. Bede Regional, the No. 3-seeded Panthers held the No. 14-seeded Warriors scoreless through all but the last 45 seconds of the first quarter and built a huge lead that culminated in a 53-27, running-clock victory Saturday evening at R.M. Germano Gymnasium.

“I was happy because we haven’t gotten off to a very good start the last few games, and I was glad to see we came out tonight and were ready to guard with our defense right away,” PCHS veteran coach Harold Fay said. “We haven’t performed like that defensively probably in the last two or three weeks. It was an excellent first quarter for us.”

The Panthers (18-14) executed offensively as well, knocking down 21 of 49 shots (43%) while also outrebounding the Warriors 36-15.

Junior Austin Mattingly led the way with a game-high 14 points, while senior Jackson McDonald followed with 13 points and a contest-best eight rebounds. Senior Drake Smith chipped in with nine points and seven rebounds, while junior Wyatt Grimshaw came off the bench to post eight points and haul down six rebounds.

Woodland (5-23) saw its season some to a close, receiving six points and five rebounds from senior center Phoenix Cooper, while freshman Connor Dodge added a pair of 3-pointers for six points.

But the Warriors connected on only 9 of 36 shots for the game, and their scoreless streak in the opening quarter proved to be the catalyst toward their undoing.

“We knew coming into this game it was going to be difficult against a very tough team, and they got off to a great start while we were really cold,” Woodland coach Connor Kaminke said. “We had a good game plan coming in, but you can never expect going scoreless for as long as we did to start the game.

“But I’m so proud of these guys for battling so hard to try to get back in the ballgame even though we couldn’t. I love these boys, and they’ve come a long way, though our record may not reflect that. I will miss our seniors who gave it their all, but I’m encouraged by what we can build on and what our future holds.”

The Panthers raced out to a 16-0 lead as McDonald posted four interior points before the Warriors, who missed their first six shots, finally found the hoop when Cooper canned an inside bucket with 45 seconds to go in the quarter to put Woodland on the board trailing 16-2.

After Mattingly’s three-point play, Dodge nailed a top-of-the-key 3 at the buzzer that cut the Panthers lead to 19-5 entering the second stanza. There, Grimshaw came off the bench to tally all eight of his points as PC outscored Woodland 13-8 to take a 32-13 advantage into the half.

McDonald started the third quarter with an inside basket at 7:50 and a three-point play at 5:40. Mattingly ended the low-scoring quarter with buckets at 1:30 and 0:40, which extended the Panthers’ lead to 43-15 as Woodland could notch only two points from Cooper.

“Coach [Fay] told us at halftime not to let up, and even though we didn’t score a lot of points in the third quarter, we held them to only two,” McDonald said. “From there, we closed things out.”

Mattingly’s nifty reverse layup opened the fourth quarter at 7:00, and a running clock ensued with PC up 45-15.

PC will face TCC foe and No. 5 seed Dwight (17-12) at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in the regional semifinals at St. Bede. On Dec. 3, the Panthers bested the Trojans, 47-43, in a conference game at Granville.

“We were shorthanded the last time we played them, and we were able to grind out a tough win,” McDonald said. “But we’re looking to come back against them this time, play with a bunch of energy and hopefully get to the regional championship.”