After facing challenge after challenge, the Whetstone boys basketball team's season came to an end in a 61-36 second-round tournament loss to Dublin Scioto at the Ohio Expo Center Coliseum Saturday.

The Braves (2-19) kept things close early, but in the end the seventh-seeded Irish (14-7) had way too much firepower.

Scioto led the entire game, but Whetstone found itself down only two points on three different occasions in the first half before the Irish stepped on the gas.

"I thought the press in the second quarter kind of got us where we needed to be," Scioto coach Tony Bisutti said. "We came out in the third quarter and I thought that maybe with their youth they took some shots they might not have wanted."

The Braves were down 17-15 before giving up four points to end the first half, but coach Todd Phillips wasn't at all unhappy about the way things had gone. His team, on the other hand, seemed to feel differently. "Our kids are the strangest bunch of kids I've ever seen in my life," he said. "I'm giddy going into halftime, down six with the way we started the game, and I go in (the locker room) and they're just sitting there. I don't know why.

"We've just done a horrible job of coming out in the second half and playing well. We just can't have any kind of bad break. One bad break and they make it five in their heads."

While a Whetstone zone, and some hesitation at times on the part of the Irish players, kept the game close early, it was a barrage of good play that sprung Scioto loose.

"We were trying to move (in the first half)," Bisutti said. "We weren't moving real efficiently and we weren't getting aligned properly in the gaps. Of course they were sending three guys in on (center) Clark (Crum). We've been a kind-of-average three-point shooting team, but we don't take a lot.

"What we did in the second half was we put Clark on the perimeter and I thought Chris McClain reaped the benefits of that. He got us going really well there and Chris has really come along in the second half of the season."

Crum remained patient and led the way with 15 points, while McClain scored 10.

Phillips also felt his team's lack of offense was the main reason for the tough second half.

"Dublin Scioto is good and our inability to score forced us to come out and guard them," he said. "Tony coaches them up as well as anybody and our inability to score really hurt our defense more than it hurt our offense."

Senior Ricky Richardson, junior Ben Tuttle and freshman Will Homan each scored nine points for the Braves.

Whetstone did get one thing to cling to in this, as rough a season as could be imagined for the coaches and players -- a tournament win.

The Braves defeated Teays Valley 64-62 Feb. 21.

"That was a lot of fun; we promised the kids that if you work hard you'll get rewarded," Phillips said. "It was a jubilant bunch of kids (after the win) and we were happy to come back again to play. We just felt like we had more in us than we showed in that second half (against Scioto)."

Senior Seth Philip saw some good things out of his mostly inexperienced teammates in the tournament win.

"That first game was exciting," he said. "We got back in there and practiced hard. We just couldn't shoot (against Scioto). We hung in there for a while and things were working really well. Then we got behind and had to come out and play a little catch-up defensively."
Sophomore Brandon Wheat led the way in the win with 15 points. Sophomore Landon Hinkle added 14 points.

Scioto must now prepare for a game against familiar foe Hilliard Davidson, which defeated No. 4 seed Westerville South 45-43 Saturday.

"They're an experienced group," Bisutti said. "A lot of those guys (at Davidson) have been playing since they were sophomores. We got lucky against them (in the tournament) when they were sophomores. I know (coach Kevin Logsdon) really well, I'm familiar with their program and I think it's going to be a really good game.

"We present each other with some match-up programs. I think both programs are kind of focused on defense first so it'll come down to the little things."
The Irish and the Wildcats are scheduled to square off at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at the Coliseum.