Defense keys Eustis-Farnam win in D1-11 Sub-District final

NORTH PLATTE -- The Eustis-Farnam boys basketball team got very defensive Thursday night.

The result was a 49-38 upset victory over top-ranked Wauneta-Palisade in the finals of the Class D1-11 Sub-District Tournament at the North Platte High School gym.

According to Eustis-Farnam head coach Bobby Johnson, the scouting report on Wauneta-Palisade said the Broncos were a great shooting team when they got open looks, but not as good when they were closely guarded. So the Knights played a smothering defense to help hold the 21-3 Broncs to their lowest scoring output of the season.

"We knew we could beat these guys coming into tonight if we played good defense," said Eustis-Farman senior Drew Wetovick. "Wauneta-Palisade is a great team. They are rated number-one for a reason and you've got to respect that. We just said if we can shut down their big three, Harris, and Bartels and the Martin kid, if we could shut those three down, we felt we were pretty strong with our other two guys."

Ricky Martin led W-P with 18 points. Drew Harris managed 10 points, but Chris Bartels was held to just two points.

"They understood what we like to do and tried to force us to do other things, and we weren't able to do that," said Wauneta-Palisade head coach Dave Kuhlen. "That's kind of the bottom line."

Wetovick led the winners with 19 points and 13 rebounds. Carson Bellamy added 11 points and 5 boards for Eustis-Farman.

Tough E-F defense

Wetovick, a 6-4 senior, said his team takes pride in playing tough defense. The Knights held Wauneta-Palisade's high-powered offense to just 17 points in the first half as E-F took a 25-17 lead into the halftime locker room.

"That's what we base it on -- we're physical and rough, and we like to get guys out of their comfort level," Wetovick said. "If we can make them miss shots, that's great. But sometimes we put them on the foul line too much.

"At the beginning of the year, we said defense is what's going to keep us in games, and it definitely did tonight. When you hold them to 17 points in one half, that's going to keep you in the game for sure."

The Knights had no problems with fouls Thursday. Wauneta-Palisade had just four foul shots the entire game, and the Broncos made just one free throw. Eustis-Farnam was 19 of 23 at the charity stripe -- including Wetovick's 11-for-13 performance.

Eustis-Farnam used a patient offense and solid shooting to go along with the strong defensive effort. The Knights hit 13 of 29 field goals for 44.8 percent, including 9 of 19 regular field goals and 4 of 13 beyond the 3-point line. Wauneta-Palisade hit 16 of 43 shots for 37.2 percent, including a 5-for-18 performance (27.8 percent) from 3-point range.

"I thought for two-and-a-half quarters they were by far the more aggressive team and we were kind of back on our heels for the most part," Coach Kuhlen said. "We weren't able to do anything in what is our regular defense that we run every single ball game. Out of desperation in the third quarter we switched to full-court man, which we never run, and that actually put some life in us and we actually started challenging them a little bit.

"I guess in retrospect you'd like to go back and say 'Well maybe you should do that earlier.' But we have never done that throughout the entire year. Certainly you don't want to do anything that you don't practice, and we don't practice full-court man too much.

"I give all the credit to Eustis-Farnam. They are a good basketball team, and they deserve to move on."

District final Tuesday

Eustis-Farman, 16-5, will face Sandhills/Thedford in the D1-6 District Final next Tuesday night at St. Pat's High School in North Platte. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. Tuesday's winner advances to the Class D-1 boys state tournament in Lincoln March 11-13.

If the Knights win Tuesday, Wetovick said he thought it would be the first state tournament berth since the schools from Eustis and Farnam combined.

"We're trying to make history," he said.

Mid-season slump

The Knights started the season strong with a 10-game win streak. E-F then hit a wall with five losses in the next seven games, thanks in part to injuries to Wetovick and fellow starter Djorn Dunlap.

"But we played pretty well even struggling (without them) like that," Coach Johnson said. "Now we're healthy again and we're back strong again."

Eustis-Farnam has won four straight games since the mid-season slump. Coach Johnson said the losses were probably a good benefit for his team.

"Actually it was kind of good," Johnson said, "because after that big run, you know how young kids are, they think, 'Yeah, we're world-beaters.' It kind of brought them back down to level ground, made them want to work hard again. Like a lot of teams that really do well, they've got to have that chemistry. I don't want to sound like every other coach, but we've got that chemistry. These kids do a lot of things together and they flow together, they stay with each other.

Eustis-Farnam...............12 13 15 9 -- 49

Wauneta-Palisade.........7 10 9 12 -- 38

EUSTIS-FARNAM -- Drew Wetovick 19, Carson Bellamy 11, Ben Kugler 7, Djorn Dunlap 6, Jorden Bendler 6.

WAUNETA-PALISADE -- Ricky Martin 18, Drew Harris 10, Myles West 6, Chris Bartels 2, Bo Fanning 2.