WOODLAWN - After a lackluster first half, the Woodlawn Bears turned up the defensive pressure in the second half as they pulled away from the Magnet Cove Panthers for 63-48 win Tuesday night inside the Woodlawn Gym.It was the Bears’ sixth straight 8-2A conference win as they improved to 17-7 overall and 7-3 in league play. As of Tuesday night, Woodlawn was tied with Junction City for second place in the conference standings. Both are a half-game behind Poyen, which the Bears face on the road Thursday night.Despite hitting five 3-pointers in the first half, Woodlawn would have gone into halftime down by two possessions hadJoshua Trantham not picked up a roller off the floor and drained a triple just before the buzzer to cut the Panthers’ lead to 31-30.The Bears, however, would take the lead for good when Garrett Weather scored on an in-bounds pass to give Woodlawn a 32-31 lead. He followed with a 3 and then Jude Roberts converted on the free throw followed a made layup to push the Bears’ lead to 38-31.Magnet Cove did cut it to 38-36 about midway through the third before the Bears closed out the frame with a 13-4 run to give them a 51-40 lead heading into the fourth.Weatherford then buried a couple of 3-pointers to start the fourth, and the Panthers never got any closer than 13 the rest of the way. “We just got up and pressured them a little bit more on defense, and kind of made them get out of their half court set,” Woodlawn Coach Logan Adair said about the second-half turnaround.“They want to play really slow. I thought the pressure kind of sped them up (to make quicker shots),” he said. “That allowed us to get out and get our transition game going.”Weatherford continued his recent hot streak, scoring 16 points in the second half to finish with a game-high 25. He had five of the Bears’ 11 3-pointers in the game.Roberts followed with 15 while Ryan Rutledge hit a couple of 3’s...
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