Western Boone Jr. - Sr. High School

For a half on Wednesday night, the Western Boone boys basketball team was right there with one of the best teams in Class 3A. But when the second half started, they couldn’t sustain the pace. Class 3A No. 1 Danville out-scored the host Stars 32-13 in the second half and beat Western Boone 62-37. "Danville is another level and they are No. 1 for a reason," Western Boone head coach Dustin Oakley said. "To be tied at the end of a quarter, and down six at half - I think the end of the second quarter and the third quarter hurt us. We rushed some shots and they got us off the line. I thought every look we got was good and we had some opportunities, just didn't hit them." The game was originally scheduled for Friday, but Danville postponed the game when they weren’t in school due to the weather. The extra couple of days to prepare seemed to work extremely well for the Stars, as they led for large portions of the first quarter before being tied at 14 heading to the second. The Warriors took the lead for good in the second quarter, but it was still a six game at halftime and the Stars were right there. "We knew what they were going to do, especially defensively," Oakley said. "We had a good plan to beat their 1-3-1 and to be a little more patient against their man-to-man. Not playing back to back days helped us. We looked better on Saturday against Speedway, and then we had a couple days to review what we wanted to do against Danville. That helped today." In the third quarter, Danville showed why they are the top-ranked team in the class. They built the lead to double-digits, and gradually pulled away during the rest of the half to put the game away. "We don't have a lot of guys now, we are down to seven really and some are playing a lot of minutes," Oakley said. "(Danville's) overall size is difficult. (Jace Scrafton) can do whatever he does to get in the paint, but they just have trees down there. Danville is another level compared to what we see most of the year. That wore us down in the fourth quarter." Gavin Hawkins led WeBo with 15 points. Tristyn Faulk added nine and Marcus Fortner had seven. The Stars travel to North Montgomery on Friday night. The two teams met in the Sugar Creek Classic earlier in the month with Chargers winning 50-33. "They haven't won a conference game in a while and I'm sure this is one they are circling," Oakley said. "They are very physical and good defensively. I think with another day to prepare, we will be ready to go. This was a sectional test tonight and it shows us where we are. We're a lot closer than the 25 points at the end, for sure. If we play with the same effort we did tonight, we are going to win some games here down the stretch." Will Willems is the Sports Editor of the Lebanon Reporter. Follow him on Twitter @Will_Willems.