Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Substate update 3/3

Monday’s games (March 2)
Girls

3A substate quarterfinals


JCN 65, Pleasant Ridge 37
• The top-seed Chargers took an 18-6 lead after a quarter and coasted to the win to improve to 21-0. They were set to play Riley County in Thursday’s semifinals in Marysville. Sophomore Katie Noll led the Chargers with 13 points while senior Amelia Noll and junior Mallory GrandPre scored 12 each, freshman Jordan Kramer scored 11 points and senior Lisa Weishaar scored 10 points.

Oskaloosa 47, Rossville 36

• The second-seed Bears pulled away each quarter to win by 11 and improve to 18-3. They moved on to play KC Christian in the semifinals in Silver Lake Thursday. Senior Nicole Rockhold led the Bears with 21 points and sophomore Hailey Kelly scored 12 in the win.

McLouth 48, Silver Lake 45

• The fourth-seed Bulldogs trailed by 2 at halftime and 1 after three quarters but came back to win and improve to 11-10. They moved on to play the winner of Rock Creek and Mission Valley, who were playing Tuesday. Junior Missy Rome led McLouth with 19 points while junior Kylie Shufflebarger scored 16 points.


Boys

4A substate quarterfinals

Perry-Lecompton 48, Hiawatha 34
• The fourth-seed Kaws led by 5 at halftime and pulled away in the fourth quarter to win and improve to 12-9. They moved on to take on top seed Basehor-Linwood in Thursday’s semifinals in Perry. Senior Shane Gimzo led Perry-Lecompton with 12 points while senior Joel Gantz scored 11 points.

Holton 59, Jefferson West 54

• The sixth-seed Tigers’ season ended at 6-14.

2A substate quarterfinals


Valley Falls 55, Wabaunsee 51

• The Dragons took the lead in the second quarter and held off Wabaunsee in the second half to move to 11-11. They were set to play top seed St. Marys in Thursday’s semifinals in Lyndon. Junior Riley Bunde led the Dragons with 14 points while senior Ray Cook scored 13 points and sophomore Brooks Glassel scored 11.


Hoops update 3/2

Tuesday’s games (Feb. 24)
Girls

JCN 68, Pleasant Ridge 30
• North led, 37-13, at the half on the way to the win to move to 19-0. Freshman Jordan Kramer led the Chargers with 17 points, senior Amelia Noll scored 16 points, junior Mallory GrandPre scored 12 points and sophomore Katie Noll scored 11 in the win.

Oskaloosa 52, KC Christian 38

• The Bears took a 9-point halftime lead and stretched it out in the second half to move to 16-3. Senior Nicole Rockhold led the Bears with 16 points while freshman Rachel Schmanke scored 10 in the win.

Jefferson West 44, MHMA 25

• The Tigers ended the regular season at 14-6 with the win over Maur Hill Mount Academy.

Doniphan West 38, Valley Falls 33

• Valley Falls fell to 9-11 with the loss.

McLouth 61, Jackson Heights 36

• The Bulldogs outscored the Cobras in each quarter to roll to the win and move to 9-10. Junior Missy Rome led McLouth with 28 points while junior Cassidy Bristol scored 10.

Basehor-Linwood 36, Perry-Lec. 27

• The Kaws trailed by 5 at the half and couldn’t overcome the deficit to fall to 3-15. Junior Katie Volle led the Kaws with 12 points.


Boys


Basehor-Linwood 62, Perry-Lec. 37

• The Kaws were outscored, 34-18, in the second half as Basehor-Linwood dropped them to 10-9. Senior Andy Bowman led the Kaws with 9 points.

Oskaloosa 55, KC Christian 50

• A 12-4 advantage in the third quarter was the difference for Oskaloosa in the win as the Bears improved to 11-9. Senior J.T. Thurston scored 21 points and senior Chase Tenpenny scored 14 in the win.

Pleasant Ridge 53, JCN 44

• North led after the first quarter but Ridge pulled away in the fourth quarter to drop the Chargers to 10-10. Senior Riley Noll led North with 15 points while sophomore Jeff Hale scored 14 points.

Valley Falls 68, Doniphan West 55

• The Dragons pulled away a little each quarter in improving to 9-11. Four Dragons were in double figures led by junior Riley Bunde with 18 points. Senior Ray Cook scored 14 points, sophomore Alex Nottingham scored 11 and senior Jake Massey scored 10.

Jefferson West 72, MHMA 62 (OT)

• West took a tight game from Maur Hill by outscoring the Junior Ravens, 19-9, in the extra period to end the regular season at 6-13. Senior Willie Barnett led the Tigers with 28 points while junior Alex Baker scored 14 points and senior Jared Frye scored 13 points in the win.

Jackson Hts. 53, McLouth 48

• McLouth trailed by 1 at the half and was unable to overcome the Cobras in falling to 2-17. Senior Derrick Crouse scored 19 points and junior Cole Batman scored 18 points in the loss for the Bulldogs.


Friday’s games (Feb. 27)

Boys

Perry-Lec. 35, Santa Fe Trail 31
• The Kaws led by 8 entering the fourth quarter and held on to win and end the regular season at 11-9. Bowman scored 14 to lead the Kaws.

Horton 56, Oskaloosa 50

• The Bears trailed by only 1 entering the fourth quarter but couldn’t pull out the win to end the regular season at 11-10. Thurston scored 16 points and Tenpenny scored 14 in the loss.

Valley Falls 50, JCN 39

• The teams combined for 46 fouls as the Dragons took the lead at the half and held on to win as both teams ended the regular season at 10-11. Cook led the Dragons with 13 points while Bunde added 10. Riley Noll led JCN with 20 points.

Don. West def. McLouth, score n/a

• McLouth finished the regular season at 2-18.


Girls


JCN 52, Valley Falls 37

• North held off the Dragons in the second half to finish off a perfect regular season at 20-0. Valley Falls finished the regular season at 9-12. GrandPre led North with 22 points while Kramer scored 12 in the win. Senior Chelsey Correll led the Dragons with 11 points while sophomore Abbey Kearney scored 10 in the loss.

Oskaloosa 56, Horton 49

• The Bears took a 5-point lead after a quarter and made it stand to finish the regular season at 17-3. Rockhold led the Bears with 25 points, sophomore Hailey Kelly scored 12 points and freshman Haley Pfau scored 11 in the win.

Jefferson West 50, Nemaha Valley 38

• West led by 12 after one quarter and made it stick to improve to 12-6. Ploude scored 12 points and seniors Audrey Mullins and Hayley Hypse scored 10 each in the win for West.

McLouth 49, Doniphan West 42

• The Bulldogs outscored West, 31-26, in the second half to finish the regular season at 10-10. Rome led the Bulldogs with 15 points while freshman Morgan Drinnon scored 13 points and junior Kylie Shufflebarger added 10.

Santa Fe Trail 46, Perry-Lec. 44

• The Kaws had an 8-point halftime lead but were outscored, 29-19, in the second half to finish the regular season 3-16. Volle led the Kaws with 18 points.



JCN girls finish undefeated regular season

In one fell swoop, the Jefferson County North Chargers girls’ varsity basketball team achieved two goals Friday with a 52-37 win over Valley Falls – a Delaware Valley League title and an undefeated regular season.

One, the league title, was a goal of the team all season long. The other, an undefeated regular season, just became a goal as the wins kept piling up for the Chargers and coach Steve Noll. Noll had continued to talk throughout the season about taking it game by game, but he admitted as the season wound down and the team still had a 0 in the loss column, the thought of going undefeated began to gain importance.


“(Going undefeated) kinda became the focus for us the last couple days,” Noll said. “More importantly, we wanted to win the league outright. Our goals this year were to win the league tournament, win our own tournament, win the league regular season title, and another goal we have in front of us this week. We’ve done the first three.”


Noll came into Valley Falls expecting a tough game from the Dragons after getting just that from Valley Falls in their first meeting in the JCN Tournament championship game. North looked like this game would be easier for them in the first quarter but the Dragons would fight back to make the going not so easy.


A 13-2 North run keyed the first quarter as Valley Falls struggled to score and keep from turning the ball over on North’s pressure defense. The Dragons ended up with 10 turnovers in the first quarter alone as North used 3-pointers from freshmen Jordan Kramer and Kate Brickell and 6 points from junior forward Mallory GrandPre to build a 15-4 lead entering the second quarter.


The trend would continue but with more offense from the Dragons as they would commit 8 turnovers in the second quarter but also score 8 points. North held a 19-6 lead midway through the quarter and the advantage reached 15 points before the Dragons trimmed it to 26-12 by halftime.


The Dragons pulled back within striking distance in the third quarter thanks in part to the shooting of senior guard Shelbie Glissman as a jumper from the senior cut the lead to 11 at 27-16. Three possessions later, Glissman hit a 3-pointer to keep the Charger lead at 11 with 2:32 left in the quarter. She hit another 3 with 38 seconds left to cut the lead to 9 at 33-24, which held as JCN’s lead entering the fourth quarter.


The Chargers would put the game away in the fourth quarter thanks mostly to a 13-4 run. Kramer hit a baseline jumper then scored off one of her 8 steals to make it 37-24 North. Senior Amelia Noll scored and was fouled with 5:20 left to make the lead 15 and, after Noll missed the ensuing free throw, GrandPre came through with an offensive rebound and short jumper to give North their largest lead at 17 points. GrandPre would follow with a 3-point play on the Chargers’ next possession to make it 46-28 with 4:39 to play. The Dragons ran off 7 unanswered points to cut the lead to 11 and force a Charger timeout, but it would be too little, too late for Valley Falls. The Chargers were 6-of-7 from the free throw line from then on to salt away the 52-37 win.


GrandPre and Kramer were the offensive standouts for North as GrandPre finished with 22 points and 8 rebounds while Kramer scored 12 points with 8 steals. The Chargers finished the regular season 20-0.


The Dragons were led by 11 points and 6 rebounds from senior post player Chelsey Correll and 10 points and 5 rebounds from sophomore guard Abbey Kearney. The Dragons finished the regular season at 9-12.


Noll said his team will need to be better offensively if North wants to make it through a tough 3A substate field this week in Marysville.


“We played well coming off that third quarter,” Noll said. The Chargers are the top seed at Marysville but haven’t played three of the teams in the field, including third seeded Sabetha and fourth seeded Riley County. “We’ve got to attack better on offense and hit free throws better. We weren’t hitting them very well that first half. We had a good finish to the game, I thought. It was a whole team effort, again, which you like to see as a coach. We got concerned when Glissman started hitting those threes, but luckily they cooled off a bit. We’re hoping everything goes well this week for us.”


The North girls are the only county team in the Marysville substate as fellow 3A teams Oskaloosa and McLouth are in the Silver Lake substate. North defeated Pleasant Ridge in Monday’s opening round in Winchester.


Valley Falls’ girls are the sixth-seed in the 2A Lyndon regional and were set to take on third-seeded Burlingame in the quarterfinals Tuesday.



Valley Falls boys 50,
JCN 39

The boys’ game was filled with fouls as the Dragons took command in the second quarter and held on to defeat their county rivals.

That looked to be anything but the case starting out as North ran to a 6-0 lead broken only when Valley Falls senior Ray Cook finally got the Dragons on the board with a 3-pointer with 2:37 to play in the opening quarter. North ended up taking a 9-5 lead into the second quarter.


The Dragons got back in the game in the second quarter as they tied the game at 9 with 5:05 left in the half and took their first lead of the game on their next possession. They would outscore North, 13-2, in the quarter to take an 18-11 halftime lead.


From there, it was a matter of the Dragons keeping pace as their lead reached 12 midway through the quarter. A 3-pointer by North senior Riley Noll cut the lead to 9 but the Dragons would take a 29-19 lead into the fourth quarter.


The fourth quarter saw a foul called seemingly each possession. The teams would combine for 46 fouls in the game. The Dragons upped the lead to 14 points on a 3-point play by Cook with 6:45 to play and North would be able to get no closer than 8 points the rest of the way in a fourth quarter that saw 41 points scored. Free throws helped the Dragons pull out a 50-39 win.


Cook led the Dragons with 13 points and junior Riley Bunde scored 10 points in the win as Valley Falls finished the regular season at 10-11. North was led by a game-high 20 points from Riley Noll as the Chargers also finished 10-11.


Valley Falls coach Caleb Gatzemeyer acknowledged the game wasn’t pretty but his team would take the win.


“A win’s a win,” Gatzemeyer said. “We’ve gotta do better at knocking down our free throws. It comes down to concentration and a little lack of focus. Inside defensively we’re pretty rock solid, so if we can knock down our shots that’s a big difference for us. We’re getting down to the time of the season where there’s no tomorrow. We’ve got a tough team coming in here, so I’m glad we have some home court advantage. We need to come in fired up and ready to play.”


The Dragons, who are the fourth seed on the boys’ side in Lyndon, defeated Wabaunsee in Monday night’s opening round. JCN’s boys are the sixth seed in boys’ play at Marysville and were set to travel to play Marysville in the opening round Tuesday.