Late-game heroics marked the first Region 7-AAAA meeting between crosstown rivals Woodland and Cass, with Wildcat forward Greg Murphy providing the game-winning tip in the final seconds.

The rematch between the two didn't need nearly as long as for a victor to emerge as host Woodland scored off the opening tip and never let up, routing the Colonels 71-40.

Wildcats coach Mike Tobin thought his team played a step behind Cass earlier this month and in the Colonels' home game last season, but Woodland played the role of aggressor from the first tap on.

"I tell you what, the last two times we played Cass at their place, it felt like they were two or three steps faster than us. Tonight, it seemed like we were a little quicker tonight. Obviously guys are fired up, [we] knew it was gonna be a battle -- it always is when we play Cass. We played pretty well tonight," Tobin said. "After that Lambert letdown ... we're really trying to concentrate on playing every possession and not worrying about the score and trying to win every possession. And I was real pleased offensively. I thought we played real unselfish, made some extra passes.

"Greg [Murphy] had 13 points, but he probably accounted for another 20 points off assists."

While the Wildcats flourished offensively, Cass had quite a hard time finding the bottom of the net. Following R.J. Williams' layup to put Woodland ahead 2-0, the Colonels' Zeke Reed tied things up at 2-all with two free throws, but Cass failed to score again until Kelin Wells made 1 of 2 free throws with 50.8 seconds remaining in the first quarter. The Wildcats added another score and at the end of the quarter, their lead stood at 15-3.

"Worst shooting performance we've had all yearlong," Colonels coach Greg Scott acknowledged. "We're a team that has to be able to score and shoot the ball from the perimeter to open up other things, and we couldn't do it tonight. Part of it was a credit to them and their defense, and the other part of it was when they jumped on us and we couldn't make [shots], we got shell-shocked and we never recovered from it.

"I didn't see this coming, but we've known all along, all yearlong, that we were the type of team that had to be able to score so that we could set our defense."

Cass's best stretch of play came in the second after it had fallen behind 21-3. Tony Mitchell made three of four free throws on two trips to the line and -- following a 3-pointer by Woodland's Xavier Niblet -- Mitchell sparked a 6-0 run after those makes, with Kadeem Sutton scoring back-to-back baskets in the paint to trim the deficit to 24-12.

The Wildcats, however, responded by outscoring the Colonels 13-6 the rest of the half to take a 37-18 lead at the break. In its previous three games, Cass had around 37 points in the first half, Scott noted.

"We were just out of it tonight. I mean, I don't have an answer. I told the kids in there when we got dressed, there's no use for us to ... point fingers or fuss or do anything," he added. "We had a bad night."

After swishing 10 shots from beyond the arc, the Colonels only had two against Woodland this time, with their first of the night coming from Reed late in the third quarter. It answered a 3 from Corey Tobin -- who had two 3s on the night -- and made the score 51-31. Tobin then scored on an offensive putback, and the Wildcats held a 53-33 lead at the end of the third.

Tobin added four more points at the start of the fourth, giving him the last 10 Woodland points as the lead ballooned to 57-33. The deficit would grow even higher for Cass as the Wildcats held the visitors to seven fourth-quarter points.

Woodland yielded just a tad more than half the total it allowed the Colonels in their first meeting, a 68-66 win.

"We got a lot of respect for Cass. We spent a lot of time preparing for 'em, and they got some offensive weapons," Mike Tobin said. "Tony [in their] last game [against Rome] scored 24 ... Kadeem Sutton, I love the way that kid plays. I was bragging on him last time. He got in early foul trouble. That's helped us both games. That kid's one of the best offensive rebounders I've seen in a while. Obviously, Zeke can score, and Jozelle [Payne] lit it up last time, so we got a lot of respect for 'em, and we spent a lot of time working on defense this week trying to prepare for 'em.

"Our biggest concern with Cass was sprinting back on defense 'cause they do such a good job [with] offensive transition. I thought we did a good job tonight, making 'em work for their points."

Corey Tobin dropped 28 points for the Wildcats and Murphy added 13, including a two-handed jam off an off-the-backboard assist from Williams that could have been a top-10 kind of play on just about any highlight show in the country. Other scorers for Woodland were Williams, 9; Niblet, 8; Deo Adams, 4; Chandler Royal, 4; Brandon Thompson, 3; and Carrod Watson, 2.

Sutton had a double-double to lead Cass -- 14 points and 11 rebounds -- and Reed (9), Mitchell (7), Payne (7), Najae Jackson (2) and Wells (1) also scored for the Colonels.

"I thought we had some kids that competed hard. I didn't think we surrendered, but we didn't shoot the ball well and if you don't shoot the ball and score in this league, you get beat," Scott said. "Against teams in this region, you can't lay an egg offensively and still hope to have a chance of winning. ... We competed, we played hard, but we made some silly turnovers [and] they converted on 'em. They made shots, we didn't make shots. They went to the free throw line more than we did. They got us about every way they could get us tonight."

"Hey, they're a good team. They're where they're at because of what they've done this year," he continued. "I don't think [this loss is in] any way shape, form or fashion a reflection of what [our] team is about."