Wilson escapes scrappy Giants

Wilson Memorial coach Rodney Cullen left his team in the visitors’ locker room, looking like his team had just been blown out of the water even though the scoreboard said otherwise.

The favored Green Hornets had trouble knocking the rust off during their opening game against future district foe Waynesboro, picking up a narrow 49-47 victory. At halftime Wilson led 26-13 but a strong Waynesboro third quarter, helped by solid performances by Joe Lucas and Jordan Ross pulled the Little Giants within two points.

“We didn’t do much at all well,” Cullen said. “Our defense, it didn’t matter what we went to, we were in the wrong position. We just played poorly defensively. Offensively we were impatient. We didn’t run anything; we just took the first shot. The only thing I was pleased with was we rebounded well.”

Waynesboro nipped at the Green Hornets’ heels for the entire fourth quarter and a Lucas bucket with under two minutes to play would give Waynesboro a chance to score the upset. Wilson led 49-47 when Waynesboro got the ball back with under a minute to play, but the Little Giants couldn’t get the ball into the basket despite Clyde Thompson’s buzzer-shot from behind the line that clanked off the rim.

“From being down 26-13 after playing an awful second quarter … we are not good enough to play three good quarters and one atrocious quarter,” said Giants skipper C. Jay DeWitt. “I was satisfied that we played a good second half.”

Wilson’s leading scorer, Hunter Cullen, came out strong in the first half — scoring 17 points — but was held to just four in the second half, scoring a bucket in each frame.

“They went and box-and-1ed me and we started forcing some back shots and just played terrible,” Cullen said.

DeWitt had the opposite composure as his counterpart, saying that the Little Giants played a great first, third and fourth quarter, but lost the game in the fourth.

“I don’t know if it is rebuilding, but I think we need to gain some experience and some confidence,” DeWitt said. “I think they did some good things out there.”

Lucas scored 28 points for the Little Giants, leading all scorers on both teams, and Ross put up 11 in the second half. The duo scored all but 10 of the Little Giants’ points.

Cullen said the Green Hornets came into Monday’s opener expecting to come out with an easy win, but were quickly given a dose of reality when Waynesboro took a 9-6 lead at the end of the first quarter.

“We thought this would be an easy game for us but it just proves that you can lose any given night,” he said.

Wilson quickly grabbed the momentum — thanks to a two-handed, swinging dunk by Cullen — and scored 20 points in the second quarter while holding the Little Giants to just four.

Waynesboro traded the favor in the third quarter scoring outscoring Wilson 23-12.

“Our scout team really helped out a lot and let our defense know where they needed to be,” Lucas said.

The Little Giants (0-1, 0-0 Southern Valley) will go back to work Wednesday in a old valley match-up against Broadway.

Wilson (1-0, 0-0 Shenandoah) will play its home opener tonight against Fort Defiance.

Notes: The Wilson JV team won its game against Waynesboro 49-47 … Wilson junior Dylan Hudson scored 13 points in the varsity game … Waynesboro and Wilson will play one more time this season, on Dec. 10 at Wilson.