Western Boone Jr. - Sr. High School

Western Boone put itself in a position to come away with a season-opening road win on Tuesday night, leading Speedway by seven early in the fourth quarter. But it couldn't sustain the momentum, allowing the host Sparkplugs to come back to force overtime, then pull away in overtime for a 79-71 win. "The two biggest things were we struggled against their 1-3-1 and committed a couple untimely turnovers. Those are things we can definitely work on," Western Boone head coach Jason Smith said. "Offensively, outside of the turnovers, we did well, and defensively outside of transition defense we did well, but when you have two big Xs there that leads to a tight game." Western Boone led most of the way and held a 46-44 lead heading to the fourth quarter. Junior Quinn Westerfeld scored the first five points of the fourth quarter, pushing the lead to seven. Speedway clawed its way back, getting within three at 58-55, but Tristyn Faulk scored inside and pushed the lead back to five. But the Sparkplugs countered with a 9-2 run to take a 64-62 lead, before Faulk tied the game with 22 seconds left. Speedway's 3-pointer was off the mark at the buzzer to send the game to OT. Smith said Speedway was able to get out into transition too much, and the Stars' had some tough turnovers in the stretch that hurt them. "I felt like our half-court defense was pretty good, and that's what we wanted," Smith said. "But they kept getting out on us in transition, and then it's hard to set up our defense." The Stars came up empty on their first three possessions of overtime, letting Speedway take a four-point advantage before WeBo's Jaden Latham split a pair of free throws. freestar A Faulk 3-pointer got WeBo within 70-68, but they would get no closer as Speedway's A.J. Lund hit a big 3-pointer and the Sparkplugs hit 5-of-6 free throws during an 8-1 run that sealed the game. Early on, Western Boone showed some of the things that should help it throughout the season. The Stars led 21-12 at the end of a quarter, hitting 7-of-13 shots - including 5-of-9 from behind the arc. "It was really good," Smith said of their offense. "Especially when they were in man, I felt like we really diced them up. We just have to continue to build on that, and I'm sure a lot of teams will see this film and start to zone us, so we have to continue to work on that in our half-court offense." Speedway closed to within five at the half, getting a buzzer-beater heading into the break. The Sparkplugs inched a little closer heading to the fourth and final quarter. Speedway's Drew Matelic led all scorers with 38 points. Kendrick Kiser had 18 and Lund added 14. Westerfeld led Western Boone with 22 points, 14 coming in the fourth quarter and overtime. Faulk had a double-double with 19 points and 12 rebounds. Beau Sawyer had 11 and Burke Cavins had 10. Smith said that is the kind of balance he hope continues throughout the year. "It is what we want and even with that, we had a couple guys in foul trouble," Smith said. "We are always going to be able to divide it up to a bunch of guys, and that's kind of what I want to see - not just one guy but a bunch of guys scoring a lot of points for us." Western Boone will hit the road again on Friday night, opening Monon Athletic Conference play at Greencastle. It will be a girl-boy double-header with the girls game scheduled for 6 p.m. Will Willems is the Sports Editor of the Lebanon Reporter. Follow him on Twitter @Will_Willems.