Second quarter surge leads Waldron to sectional win over Southwestern

STRAUGHN – Southwestern played a gutsy first quarter against Waldron without its second leading scorer and top three-point shooter.

Senior Cecil Newton compensated by aggressively seeking out shots. He connected for nine points in the first quarter to put the Spartans up 12-11 with just under two minutes to go in the Class A, Sectional 59 opener Tuesday at Tri High School.

The Mohawks settled in and scored the next 18 points, pushed the advantage to 43-19 at halftime and put a running clock into effect before the midway point of the third quarter to cruise to a 70-31 victory.

The Mohawks (16-7) collected their third win of the season over Southwestern and advanced to Friday’s first semifinal game against the host Titans (14-9).

Ethan Moody drained a 3 from the top of the key to get Waldron the lead for good at 14-12. The Mohawks scored the first 13 points of the second quarter forcing Southwestern to use multiple timeouts.

Waldron outscored Southwestern 27-7 in the second quarter by making more field goals (12) than the Spartans attempted (8).

“Southwestern was packing (its defense) in and giving us wide open shots,” said Waldron coach Jeb Stewart. “It’s hard not to take them.”

Waldron held Southwestern, playing without Jay Utley (9.4 ppg, 50 made 3s) who suffered an ankle injury during a Feb. 24 loss to Oldenburg Academy, to just three points in the third quarter.

Stewart played the entire sectional roster in the fourth quarter.

Eli Stewart finished with a game-high 15 points on 5-of-9 shooting. Caige Sheaffer hit a pair of third-quarter 3s and finished with 12 points, five rebounds and two assists. Luke Myers had 10 points and five rebounds.

Newton led Southwestern (5-17) with 14 points, eight rebounds and two assists.

 The Mohawks have won seven straight. That streak started Feb. 7 in a 51-40 win over Tri.

“We haven’t played our best basketball yet. We got really close (against Southwestern),” said Stewart. “We need to play even better Friday.”

In tonight’s quarterfinal games at the Tri Sectional, Knightstown (9-12) battles Edinburgh (9-14) in the opener and North Decatur (11-13) faces South Decatur (15-6).

The Shelby County Post is a digital newspaper producing news, sports, obituaries and more without a pay wall or subscription needed.