By K.D. Norris
ken@wktv.org

Godwin Heights High School head boys basketball coach Tyler Whittemore wanted more for his group of eight seniors who have been essential in building the Fighting Wolverines into the dominate team in the OK Silver Conference, again.

The team, as a fan t-shirt pointed out, have been the conference champs for 10 straight seasons and hoped to add another district title to its resume.

But in a Division 2 District 44 tournament semifinal game Wednesday that felt a whole lot like a finals game, Godwin Heights season came to an end with a tough-as-nails battle with tournament host South Christian, 47-45.

Both teams came into the district tournament with impressive records and OK conference titles: Godwin Heights finished the season at 15-6 (12-0 in the OK Silver), while South Christian is now 17-4 (10-2 and a conference title in the OK Gold).

As Whittemore said to WKTV after the game, he could not have been more proud of his team, especially his seniors, for their effort in this game and during a sometimes trying season.

“Senior-led team. I love them. I appreciate all their hard work, their leadership and their toughness,” Whittemore said. “We started out 1 and 5, and being that tough mentally, they came in to the gym during the Christmas break, and all those other snow days and the stuff that we had. The guys were in the gym and improving every single day.

“These guys can be proud,” he said. “These guys are Godwin Heights basketball players and you can’t be more of a warrior than that.”

In the South Christian game, it was about as back-and-forth defensive struggle as possible: Godwin led 8-7 at the end of the first quarter, trailed 16-18 at the half and 30-31 at the end of three. And its seemed that the lead changed with every possession in the fourth quarter including a 3-pointer by Wolverine senior James Horrell with 35 seconds left gave his team a 45-43 lead.

But then the Sailors responded with a 3-pointer by junior Tyler Buwalda with 14.5 seconds remaining to give South Christian the lead for good.

Up to that late scoring outburst, defense and rebounding were the keys to the Wolverines matching points and toughness with the Sailors.

“That is a very good team there,” Whittemore said of the Sailors. “You have to give a lot of credit to South Christian, to that coaching staff — their players came to play and we did too, and that was a fun game to watch. … We were able to be very intense, but level-minded, against this very good team that really helped us.”

While it seemed as though senior Godwin big man Marshawn Kneeland was in the middle of the Wolverine down-low defense and rebounding effort all night, coach Whittemore also loved the work of his guards.

The rebounding success was “our guards coming down, our 5(-foot)-8, 5-10 guards coming down and grabbing those balls,” he said. “A lot of credit goes to our big guys, they were really being physical, but a lot of credit to our guards coming down and helping out as well.”

For the game, South Christian was led by senior Peyton Vis’s 17 points, while Buwalda had 15 total and senior Derek Meyering added 10 points.

Godwin Heights was led by Horrell’s 13 points, while senior Jaylen Coates added 12 and Kneeland and fellow senior Jamaal Bailey added eight points each. Other seniors on the team included Bryson Chandler, Karen Brown, De’Amontae Clark and Jadon Ivy.

For the season, Bailey, Coates and Horrell gained First Team All-Conference honors, while Clark earned All-Conference Honorable Mention.

This game, and all Featured Games, as well as other high school sports and community events covered by WKTV, are available on-demand within a week of play at wktvondemand.com.

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