Nashville cruises past Wesclin at Lebanon Tourney; Newman getting more Division I football offers

The combination of Nashville jumping out to an 11-0 lead Tuesday and Wesclin missing its first 15 3-point tries led to a predictable outcome at the 18th annual Lebanon-Wesclin Thanksgiving Tournament.

The Hornets capitalized on their hot start and quickly slammed the door shut on the Warriors, racking up a surprisingly easy 63-28 victory.

“We were as surprised as anything,” said Nashville coach Brad Weathers,whose 2-0 squad was ranked third in the state Tuesday when the first Associated Press Class 2A rankings came out. “They’re not going to go 0-for-13 ... I think they were 0-for-13 from the arc at half. I do want to credit out defense a little bit, I thought we had them pushed out a little and it was a bigger lineup to start with.”

Nashville will play Columbia (2-0) for the tourney championship at 8 p.m. Saturday at Lebanon High School. Columbia defeated Lebanon 79-47 in the second game Tuesday and is the defending tourney champ after going 3-1 last season and beating Nashville 67-61 in two overtimes,

KEY MOMENTS

The Hornets broke out to an 11-0 lead with senior Brady Bultman scoring eight straight points during the run. His personal hot streak reached 10 straight points before another Hornet scored again and Nashville built a commanding 18-2 lead after the first quarter.

“We knocked down some shots early to get that lead,” Weathers said, referring to Bultmann hitting all four of his first-quarter shots including a pair of 3-pointers.

Smothered by Nashville’s 1-2-2 zone defense, the Warriors missed their first 15 3-point tries and were 2-for-22 from beyond the 3-point arc. Wesclin (0-2) hit only 10-of-47 shots overall (21 percent).

Bultman led Nashville with 15 points and 6-foot-7 senior Royce Newman scored 13 when football coaches from Nebraska watching from the bleachers.

NEWMAN’S OPTIONS OPEN

Newman originally committed to Missouri as an offensive lineman, but recently has attracted a lot more recruiting interest. Two football assistant coaches from Nebraska were in the gym watching him play.

“I’m still committed to Missouri, but I’ve got recent offers from Nebraska, Illinois, Ole Miss and now Penn State and North Carolina State,” Newman said. “(I’ll) see what else is out there, see what’s the best thing for me.”

Newman and several of Nashville’s other basketball players helped the Hornets’ football squad reach the Class 2A semifinals.

“We had a really good run this year and made it to the final four,” Newman said. “I’m still trying to get in basketball shape; the football players have only had about three practices.”

Nashville led 18-2 after one quarter and 28-6 at the half as the Warriors could never find their shooting touch.

KEY PERFORMERS

Wesclin senior center Jake Stephens had all six of his team’s points at halftime and led the Warriors with seven points. Freshman Nate Brede, the son of Wesclin coach Brent Brede, came off the bench to score six points in the fourth quarter.

The Hornets also got 10 points from 6-6 junior Brogan Kemp, who didn’t play varsity last season but adds size and strength inside.

“I thought we did some things well considering we’re not in sync very much, especially on offense,” Weathers said. “We were in better sync on defense than we were on offense, that’s fine by me.”

Wesclin missed 20 of its 23 shots in the first half, rushing some threes and most times being unable to penetrate the Nashville zone. The Warriors were scoreless until Stephens drained a turnaround jumper with 2:57 remaining in the first quarter.

Wesclin didn’t score again until Stephens hit a shot three minutes into the second quarter with his team down 18-2 at the time.

“They had an off-night shooting,” Weathers said. “I know we played good defense for a lot of the game, but still, they had an off-night shooting and they’re still a very good ballclub. They’re going to get better.”

COLUMBIA WINS

In Columbia’s 79-47 victory over Lebanon, the Eagles got 21 points from senior Jonathan Holmes, 14 from senior Korbin Farmer and 11 from sophomore Jordan Holmes. Lebanon’s top scorer was Derrick Guthrie with 11 points.

This story was originally published December 1, 2015 at 9:15 PM with the headline "Nashville cruises past Wesclin at Lebanon Tourney; Newman getting more Division I football offers."