WOODLAWN - Woodlawn Coach Doug Means said he could sense his Bears were down when they entered the locker room at halftime tied 44-44 with the Dermott Rams this past Friday night at the Carl Jones Sports Complex.Woodlawn, undefeated with wins over both 2024 eight-man state finalists, was perhaps expecting a much easier time against a Dermott team that was 2-4 overall and 1-2 in South Conference play. Instead, the Bears found themselves in a track meet with a team that had a distinct speed advantage over them. But just as it did in its only other home game so far this year, Woodlawn managed to regain its focus and the Bears pulled away over the final two quarters for a 76-56 win. Woodlawn moved to 6-0 overall and 3-0 in South Conference play with the win while Dermott fell to 2-4 and 1-3."It's a mentality thing," Means said about the adjustments - or perhaps better described as the lack of adjustments - they made during halftime. "We really didn't change anything in the locker room. We talked about some things we did during the week that we weren't doing very well, so we corrected some stuff but we didn't change anything. "But what we changed was some mentality stuff," he said. "They came into the locker room, to me, looking a little whipped. We talked about self confidence and how much I love them guys, and how much I enjoy watching them, and they came out and proved me right as far as that stuff goes." Woodlawn seemd to have the momentum going into halftime before Dermott stole it away with a late score. Bear quarterback Ethan Saeler's scored on a 35-yard run and then added the conversionrun to give Woodlawn a 44-36 lead with just 1:27 left before the break. But Dermott quarterback Anthony Richardson answered with a 28-yard touchdown run with just 25 seconds, and he alsol ran in the two-pointer to tie it up, 44-44. The Rams had a chance to completely steal the momentum early in the third quarter when Dermott got a couple defensive stops and had the...
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