Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

DEWITT – Jamie Smith knew the challenges his Solon team faced in its regional final on Tuesday evening.

The Spartans faced an experienced, playoff savvy and red-hot Central DeWitt squad riding a 22-game winning streak and playing in front of a near capacity home crowd.

That combination had the Spartans walking into a buzzsaw on Tuesday evening.

Sixth-ranked Central DeWitt shot 65 percent from the floor in the first half and cruised to a 67-47 win over No. 11 Solon (15-8) in the Class 4A, Region 6 title game in DeWitt.

“They have a lot of experience,” Smith said. “That experience, I know they lost (last year’s leading scorer) Lauren (Walker) but they have a lot of minutes out there on the court and when you play in front of a crowd like that you can feed off that.”

A state qualifier last season, Central DeWitt graduated Walker, who averaged better than 25 points per game from last year’s team that fell to Norwalk in the 4A quarterfinals.

The Sabers returned four starters from last year’s 20-5 squad and that experienced showed on Tuesday.

Senior guard Zoey Fuglsang, who entered averaging 2.3 points per game, scored 17 points to lead three players in double figures as Central DeWitt secured back-to-back state tournament trips for the third time in program history.

Senior guard Ava Putman, who leads the Sabers with 17.2 points per game, had 15 points and sophomore Audey Fuglsang had a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds as Central DeWitt had five players with at least five points.

They had some other kids step up and score,” Smith said. “I thought we did a pretty good job on Putman but when they get rolling they get rolling.”

Solon trailed just 16-13 with 1:46 remaining in the first quarter when Jerzey Haluska converted a driving baseline layup.

Central DeWitt responded with a 9-1 run to close the opening quarter.

The Sabers then opened the second quarter with a 14-1 burst that snapped more than six minutes and pushed the lead to 39-15.

Central DeWitt led 43-23 at the break.

“I thought we got a little timid offensively early and you can’t do that,” Smith said. “We talked about slowing it down but we quit moving and once they saw a little blood in the water and they have the experience it was tough.”

Playing in front of a raucous home crowd, Central DeWitt never let Solon get loser than 19 points the rest of the game.

“We tried to take that out of it, we talked about the crowd isn’t playing the game but it is different man, you aren’t going to get much better than that crowd tonight, they were really into it, it’s a community thing,” Smith said. “You can talk about it all you want but when you really get into it, it’s different.”

Central DeWitt shot 57 percent from the field and limited Solon to 35 percent shooting, including just 5-of-20 from 3-point range.

The Sabers also held a 37 to 14 rebounding edge that included 14 offensive rebounds.

Freshman Tenley Levin led Solon with 18 points while senior Delainey Durr had 12 points for the Spartans.

“The first thing we’ve got to do is let this sit for a while,” Smith said. “We need to let it sit and be the butt kicking that it was and we’ve got to get like that, like they are with the experience. We need to use this experience, this is a great opportunity to get better all the way around. This is a great way to get better.”

Solon                          14   9   13  11  –  47

Central DeWitt       25  18  13  11  –  67

Solon (47) – Delainey Durr 3-8 5-6 12, Ellie Durr 0-1 0-0 0, Teagan Zearley 2-6 0-0 6, Laney Johnson 1-5 0-0 3, Mailee Schmidt 1-1 0-0 3, Laeni Hinkle 1-3 0-0 2, Tenley Levin 5-14 8-10 18, Jerzey Haluska 1-2 1-2 3, Totals 14-40 14-18 47.

Central DeWitt (67) – Kinley Burt 2-3 2-2 7, Landre Ruggeberg 2-3 2-3 6, Ava Putman 6-10 2-3 15, Lena Perrone 2-3 0-0 5, Clara LeConte 0-1 2-2 2, Emma Putman 0-2 0-0 0, Zoey Fuglsang 7-9 2-2 17, Audey Fuglsang 6-13 1-2 13, Jaelyn Sinclair 1-2 0-0 2, Totals 26-46 9-14 67.

3-point field goal – CD (Birt 1-1, Ruggeberg 0-1, A. Putman 1-, Perrone 1-1, LeConte 0-1, E. Putman 0-1, E. Fuglsang 1-1, Sinclair 0-1), SOL 5-20 (D. Durr 1-4, E. Durr 0-1, Zearley 2-4, Johnson 1-5, Schmidt 1-1, Hinkle 0-2, Levin 0-3). Rebounds – CD 37 (A. Fuglsang 10), SOL 14 (Durr 5). Turnovers – CD 14, SOL 12. Fouled out – SOL (Durr). Technical fouls – None.

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