By Greg Chrapek
WKTV Contributor
Taking on a red-hot Godwin Heights squad the opening night of the state tournament, the South Christian boys basketball team left nothing to chance as they struck early and often on its way to a 62-43 win in the Division 2 district at Unity Christian.
Godwin Heights, fresh off winning the OK Silver Conference championship, entered the game on an eight-game winning streak. With plenty of momentum and confidence, the Wolverines were on a mission to keep rolling. The Sailors, however, had other plans. South ramped up the defense, kept the ball in junior standout Carson Vis’ hands and shot out to a 12-2 lead midway through the first quarter. By the end of the opening quarter that lead stood at 21-5 and the Sailors had the upper hand for the remainder of the game.
“Although it’s not March yet we consider it March,” Vis said, “because in March we try to be at our best. We wanted to come out and try and set the tone tonight. We wanted to come out and lock things down on defense. Our goal was to hold them under 30 points. Obviously, we didn’t do that, but we came away with the win.”
Carson Vis led South Christian with 29 points
While the Sailors were busy holding Godwin to five points in the first quarter, Vis was also busy filling up the basket on the other side of the floor. Vis totaled 13 points in the first quarter and added eight more of his game-high 29 points in the second quarter.
Sailors up 34-16 at halftime
South continued to play stingy defense in the second quarter as it limited the Wolverines to 11 points in that stanza. The Sailors also built the lead to 18 points at halftime as they entered the break with a 34-16 lead.
South also accomplished the feat without the benefit of standout senior guard Jake Vermaas who missed the game but will be back for Wednesday’s district semifinal showdown with Unity Christian.
“I’m real proud of our guys,” said South Christian Coach Taylor Johnson. “We had to play without Jake Vermaas, but he will be ready to go on Wednesday. Carson did a real nice job of stepping up. He was scoring in a variety of ways for us. He was scoring inside and outside. Guys got him the ball and he made the shots.”
Vis also brought the Sailor crowd to their feet with a highlight-reel dunk during the third quarter that put the Sailors up 46-30.
The Sailors also received a strong scoring effort from senior Sam Weiss who also reached double figures in scoring with 10 points.
“I was happy with how Sam stepped up,” Johnson said. “He played the point and played with a lot of energy on both ends of the floor. I was very proud of him.”
The Sailors also handled the ball effectively against Godwin’s swarming defensive pressure.
“We prepared for that pressure,” Vis said. “We knew what was coming so we actually started preparing for it last week. A lot of teams consider our ball handling a weakness so we wanted to show people that we can handle the pressure.”
South scored a number of points in transition after navigating the Wolverines’ defensive pressure.
Along with the double-digit offensive efforts of Vis and Weiss, the Sailors received eight points from Caleb Pleune, seven from Davis Kemper.
With the win, the Sailors improved to 18-5 for the season and will face Unity Christian, 18-4, in one semifinal game Wednesday.
Godwin Heights ended the season with a 16-6 record. The Wolverines were led in scoring by sophomore Isaiah Guyton who finished with 11 points. Senior Jacari Jones added nine points and fellow senior Jace Reid-Anderson added eight.
