Creekview Advances to State Tournament with Win

The jumped out to an early first-half lead over the Woodland Wildcats in Wednesday’s quarterfinal-round game of the Region 7-AAAA basketball tournament, but still had to scramble, eventually holding off the Wildcats 62-56.

An eight-point lead grew into a potential rout as the Grizzlies entered halftime up by 14 points. But as head coach Casey Gramling knew all too well, no lead in this region is safe for his team.

“We're good at making games interesting,” said Gramling. “We've played 14 games this year that have been three points or less. I knew they were going to make a run and I'm just thrilled to death that the boys stood up and stopped their run and came out with a victory.’

Woodland started the third quarter making seemingly silly fouls, called three times in the first minute for infractions. It turns out that the Wildcats were setting the tone for the quarter – aggressive play was going to be their creedo.

“We were just more aggressive,” said Woodland head coach Mike Tobin about his team’s third-quarter run. “I don't know why we weren't aggressive in the first half, we preached before the game how important it was to be aggressive.”

The Wildcats made two separate runs to cut into Creekview’s lead. The first was a 9-0 run to get Woodland within striking distance, while the second run was a six-point momentum swing that cut the lead to just three points.

But three points was as close as Woodland would get, as the teams swapped baskets and fought hard in the fourth quarter.

“We played here a week ago, obviously it's not easy,” said Tobin as he responded to the difficulty of playing a regional tournament game on an opponent’s home court. “We came out really stale but played with a lot of pride in that second half and made it interesting.”

Daryel Morris scored 12 of his 13 points in the second half, while Greg Murphy had 11 of his 13 in the final two quarters. Morris, a senior, played his final game for Woodland on Wednesday, as did five other Wildcats, but Murphy is a freshman and Woodland will do well if he continues to play for three years as he did in the second half.

Creekview, with this win, will move on to play county rival Sequoyah on Friday in the semifinals of the regional tournament. But more important to Gramling is the fact that advancing to the semifinals means that his team qualified for the upcoming state tournament – the first time Creekview has accomplished that in the history of the school, which spans six years.

“It feels like a 1,000 pounds just came off our shoulders,” said Gramling. “This is the first time as a program that we have made it into the state tournament. We've had a couple of close years and then we've laid a few eggs in the postseason -- I'm just so proud of these kids.”

Now Creekview has its sights set on Sequoyah, a team the Grizzlies lost to twice in the regular season. Gramling is anxious for a third chance.

“I thought we played better than them over at their place and we had a shot in the air to win the game,” said Gramling. “My boys believe they can beat them (Sequoyah).

Tip-off for the Creekview – Sequoyah game on Friday is set for 8:30 p.m.