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Winton Woods' sophomore Allen Payne turned in a solid all-around game with 16 points, nine rebounds and three assists in the Warriors 57-46 win.

photo by Wayne Litmer

Saturday, Feb. 2, 2008

Warriors Get Big Win Over Milford

Winton Woods moves into first place in FAVC Buckeye Division

By Ed Letsinger

Winton Woods has picked the perfect time to be playing their best basketball of the year as they showed on Friday night in a key Fort Ancient Valley Conference contest at Milford.

Playing before a rowdy and packed house, the Warriors combined a strong defensive effort with a balance scoring attack to defeat the Eagles 57-46.

Winton Woods (12-5, 8-1 FAVC) and Milford (15-4, 7-2) entered the game in a tie for first place in the Buckeye Division and with the win the Warriors have inched closer to their first league title in four years.

It was the sixth straight win for a hot Winton Woods team, who lost to Milford 60-49 in overtime back on Dec. 21. That loss was the second of four straight that left the Warriors with an overall record of 5-4 entering January.

“We kind of went into a lull in December but we worked through it and are starting to get our rhythm back,” said head coach Donnie Gillespie. “The seniors buckled down and started playing better and we’re sharing the ball better.”

Sophomore forward Allen Payne scored a game-high 16 points, grabbed nine rebounds and had three assists in a solid all-around effort. Junior guard Maurice Norman added nine points for Winton Woods and earned high praise from Gillespie for his defensive effort against Milford’s all-league player Brandon Baker. Baker, who battled foul trouble in the first half, ended the game with a team-high 12 points but was just 6-of-16 from the field.

“Defensively Maurice Norman stepped up big for us,” said Gillespie. “He harassed Brandon Baker all night long and Baker is one of the best players in the league.”

Winton Woods’ pressure all night wore on Milford, which shot just 34.4 percent from the field for the game. The Eagles also had 12 turnovers.

Milford has dropped two straight games for the first time this season after winning 14 of their last 15 games coming into the week.

The Warriors never trailed in the game and opened up a lead as big as 43-29 early in the fourth quarter. The Eagles scrapped back to 46-37 on a 3-pointer by Baker with 3:11 remaining but Payne answered with a slam dunk and a pair of free throws to push the lead back out to 50-37 with a little over two minutes left in the game.

Winton Woods iced the game from the free throw line, where they converted 10-of-14 free throws in the fourth quarter. Payne converted 5-of-6 and scored seven points in the quarter.

Trevor Niles added nine points for Winton Woods, followed by Kierre Greenwood (8) and Dominique Brown (7). Tyler Diercks joined Baker as Milford’s other double figure scorer with 10 points off the bench.

Winton Woods has three games remaining in the regular season with a Feb. 8 showdown against Loveland – tied with Milford for second in the FAVC Buckeye Division - looming large with an outright league title on the line.