Looking to head into the postseason with something to build on, the Worthington Trojans turned in an solid performance Friday night in beating the Redwood Valley Cardinals 61-41 in a boys Southwest Conference regular season basketball finale.
Worthington guard Zach Traphagen led the Trojans with 16 points, 12 of which came in the first half. Senior guard Chris Aggen followed with 14 points.
Tyler Pendleton paced the Cardinals with 15 points, while Dan Bonebright and Mike Felt scored 10 apiece.
With the victory, the Trojans head in the playoffs with a record of 12-10, while the Cardinals post an 11-13 mark.
While neither team was very effective from the field to open the game, the Trojans' defense was razor sharp and created several Cardinal turnovers in the early going. Trip after trip resulted in RV miscues. As the first half progressed, the Trojans' offense began to turn those steals into points.
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"I was very happy with our defensive effort tonight," Worthington head coach Ron Vorwald said. "This was probably one of our better 36 minutes defensively. We played well on the boards and we got the kind of game we needed heading into the playoffs."
Leading 13-8, with six minutes remaining in the first half, the Trojan offense started focusing on the Cardinal backdoor. Aggen and Joel Olson garnered several easy buckets with nice cuts from back screens to help open up a 20-10 Worthington lead.
""We got a lot of points on our transition and back screens," Vorwald said. "This is what our team needed. I'm really happy for the seniors, who played their final home game tonight."
Traphagen quickly upped the ante, hitting two consecutive 3-pointers and converting off a steal. Aggen scored twice more on backdoor picks and the Trojans built a 34-17 lead at the intermission.
Traphagen, Olson and Aggen picked up where they left off to start the second. Traphagen drained a long jumper and Olson and Aggen teamed up to score three consecutive backdoor field goals and extend the lead to 20 points, 40-20.
But with 12 minutes left in the contest, the Cardinals looked to make a push. Bonebright, Pendleton and Felt each knocked down a couple of field goals, two of which were from beyond the arc. And with seven minutes left, Bonebright's free throw cut the deficit to a mere seven points, 46-39.
The Trojans quickly snuffed out any thoughts of a comeback, as Aggen, Traphagen, Brian Soderholm and Drew Stevenson combined to post 11 unanswered points for Worthington. Over the final six minutes, Bonebright would score the only points for the Cardinals -- a lone field goal.
"We have to give all the credit to Worthington," RV head coach Kelly Raymond said. "They came out and played very aggressive on the defensive end. They ran some very smart plays offensively. We think we're a pretty high-scoring team and they held us to 41."
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RV 17 24 -- 41
Worthington 34 27 -- 61
RV (3FG-2FG-FT-Total points): Ellingworth 1-0-0-3, Bonebright 0-3-4-10, Felt 2-2-0-10, Pendleton 1-3-6-15, Bruns 0-1-0-2, Bennett 0-0-1-1. Total 9-4-11-41.
WHS (3FG-2FG-FT-Total points): Traphagen 2-3-4-16, Stoll 0-0-4-4, Stevenson 0-2-0-4, Berg 0-1-0-2, Collin 0-1-0-2, Dudley 0-1-0-2, Aggen 0-7-0-14, Soderholm 0-2-4-8, Olson 0-3-0-6, Landberg 0-0-3-3. Total 2-20-15-61.
