Waylen sparks 'Dawgs to big win

It might have been the best timed musical sound bite ever.

"Baby don't hurt me. Don't hurt me, no more."

Those lyrics from the Haddaway song 'What is Love' blared over the loudspeaker between the first and second quarter of Tuesday's Colonial League boys basketball game between Wilson and Northern Lehigh.

The lyrics had to be exactly what the Warriors were thinking about Northern Lehigh's Jordan Waylen.

That's because Waylen was virtually unstoppable in the opening quarter, drilling four three-pointers and scoring 16 points. Wilson never recovered from the hurting that Waylen put on them.

The result was a shockingly easy 57-26 Bulldog victory over a Wilson team that entered the game unbeaten in league play.

"I think we were due for a start like that," said Waylen. "We had starts like that in a lot of our scrimmages, but hadn't been able to match that in any regular season game. Tonight, we finally did."

They did in large part because Waylen was on fire. He had all six of the Bulldogs' field goals in the opening quarter as they jumped out to a 20-5 lead.

"Some days you just feel like you can't miss and this was one of those days for me," said Waylen. "I was making every shot I took in warm-ups and it just carried over to the game."

Wilson coach Bob Frankenfield said Waylen was in a zone that great shooters sometimes get in.

"I've seen Northern Lehigh play five times this year and this was by far the best Waylen has played," he said. "He hit some shots in the opening quarter that I thought we did a nice job of contesting.

"But he just moved out a little further and went up over the defender to make it anyway."

With a comfortable early lead, Northern Lehigh worked its game plan to perfection.

"Offensively, we wanted to take our time, work for a good shot, and not turn the ball over," said Bulldog coach Rich Oertner. "Defensively, we wanted to take away their transition baskets and force someone other than [Drew] Parr and [Pat] Mocoale to beat us.

"I thought we did a great job executing that game plan. We protected the ball (just six turnovers) and didn't give them any easy baskets."

After building its big early lead behind Waylen's perimeter game, the Bulldogs padded it by going inside to Nick Pappas and Evan Biegley. Pappas had 11 points during the middle periods while Biegley dropped in seven.

Behind their scoring, Northern Lehigh extended its advantage to 44-22 after three quarters.

Unable to carve into that lead early in the fourth period, Wilson (9-5, 8-1) emptied the bench with 4:39 remaining in the game.

"This was 100 percent about what Northern Lehigh did right and not about what we did wrong," said Frankenfield. "They probably have the best tandem of big men in the league in Pappas and Biegley, they had Waylen shooting the lights out, and their execution was flawless.

"It was a great performance."

Waylen finished 24 points to lead the Bulldogs (10-4, 6-3). Pappas added 15.

"This was a fantastic win for us," said Oertner. "This put us right back in the [Colonial League] playoff picture. "

"Even though we had lost two games in a row coming in, I expected us to play well. We were coming off two really good practices and it carried over to the court tonight."

Wilson won the JV game, 47-37.

WILSON

Monahan 2-0-0-4, McCoale 1-0-0-3, Cooper 1-0-0-3, Sostorecz 0-0-0-0, Scott 0-0-0-0, Parr 0-2-2-2, Spirko 1-0-0-2, Berger 1-0-0-2, Davidson 3-0-0-6, Peters 0-0-0-0, Nester 0-0-0-0, Lippencott 0-0-0-0, Rolek 1-0-0-2, Larson 1-0-0-2, Ulmer 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 11-2-2-26.

NO. LEHIGH

Seremula 0-0-0-0, Hahn 0-2-2-2, Glose 0-0-0-0, Waylen 8-4-4-24, Malaska 3-0-0-9, Everhart 0-0-0-0, Biegley 3-1-3-7, Johnson 0-0-0-0, Pappas 6-3-3-15, Pierce 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 20-10-12-57

Wilson 5 8 9 4 - 26

No. Lehigh 20 12 12 13 - 57

Three-pointers: W - Cooper 1, McCoale 1. NL - Waylen 4, Malaska 3.