Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

SOLON – For 18 consecutive games Solon had always found a way to win.

Solon had an opportunity to extend its winning streak on Friday but for the first time all season the Spartans didn’t do enough to come out on top.

Williamsburg (12-7) used an 11-0 third-quarter run to take a lead and fended off a late surge from Class 3A fourth-ranked Solon (18-1) handing the Spartans their first loss of the season 55-53 in a WAMAC cross-divisional contest in Solon.

“We had a chance,” Solon coach Jared Galpin said. “We had multiple chances to tie or take the lead. We were right there, we had good looks to tie, we had good looks to take the lead multiple times and the shots just didn’t fall tonight.”

Derek Weisskopf had a game-high 24 points and 12 rebounds and Kellen Cockrell had 10 of his 12 points in the second half as Williamsburg avenged a 67-65 loss to the Spartans last season.

Solon got 20 points from Jake Benzing but the senior standout was just 8-of-27 from the field as Solon shot just 35 percent as a team.

“We had looks we just didn’t hit them,” Galpin said. “Jake had a lot of high-quality looks and normally he hits those. It was just one of those nights.”

A back-and-forth first half ended with the teams deadlocked at 30.

Weisskopf gave Williamsburg an offensive boost early scoring 22 of his game-high 24 points in the first half on 8-of-11 shooting.

“Derek went off in the first half,” Galpin said. “We made some adjustments and I thought our guys did a good job in the second half to limit his touches and shots but they made some plays down the stretch.”

After a Benzing bucket opened the second-half scoring Williamsburg rattled off an 11-0 run to take a lead it would never give up.

Cockrell had six points during the 11-0 burst and had 10 of his 12 points in the second half.

After the bucket from Benzing gave the Spartans a 32-30 lead Solon went more than four minutes without a point before a Benzing 3-pointer stopped the Raider run.

“We didn’t get into our rhythm, they pose some challenges that we haven’t seen,” Galpin said.  “They have a lot of big bodies and they work to get the ball inside a lot and we honestly haven’t played a lot of teams like that.”

Despite the struggles Solon had a chance late.

The Spartans cut the lead to one on two occasions and trailed just 53-51 after Jackson Link hit a 3-pointer with 70 seconds remaining.

However, Solon missed its net two shots and Grant Hocker hit a pair of free throws with 19 seconds remaining to push the lead back to four.

“It’s going to be disappointing just knowing that we could have improved potentially what our district assignment could be,” Galpin said. “It was just a weird night and the ball didn’t bounce our way some times.”

Solon was 7-of-28 from 3-point range with Benzing and Link each hitting three 3-pointers and attempted just four free throws.

Vince Steinbrech had 13 points, all in the first half, and Link added nine for the Spartans.

“Offensively we just never got into a rhythm,” Galpin said. “I figured we would see that 2-3 zone and that’s exactly what we saw and they ran it well and we weren’t disciplined enough to make the extra pass.”

Williamsburg            16  14  13  12  –  55   

Solon                          15  15  10  13  –  53                                                                                              

Williamsburg (55) – Simeon Armbrecht 1-1 0-0 2, Clayten Steckly 0-6 0-0 2, Grant Hocker 3-9 3-4 9, John Eichhorn 1-4 0-0 2, Derek Weisskopf 9-15 2-2 24, Braden Plotz 3-6 0-0 6, Kellen Cockrell 6-9 0-0 12, Totals 23-49 5-6 55.

Solon (53) – Austin Knight 2-3 0-0 4, Nolan Seagren 0-2 0-0 0, Brett White 0-1 0-0 0, Vince Steinbrech 5-11 3-5 13, Jake Benzing 8-27 1-1 20, Isaiah Zoske 1-3 0-0 3, Gehrig Turner 2-7 0-0 4, Jackson Link 3-6 0-0 9, Totals 21-60 4-6 53.

3-point field goals – WIL 4-15 (Steckly 0-2, Hocker 0-4, Weisskopf 4-9), SOL 7-28 (Seagren 0-2, Steinbrech 0-1, Benzing 3-13, Zoske 1-3, Turner 0-3, Link 3-6). Rebounds – WIL 32 (Weisskopf 12), SOL 34 (Turner 8). Turnovers – WIL 13, SOL 11. Total fouls – WIL 10, SOL 11. Fouled out – SOL (Steinbrech). Technical fouls – None.

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