Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Substate wrapup 3/10

Tuesday’s games (March 3)
Girls

4A substate quarterfinals
Jefferson West 44, Royal Valley 40
• The fourth-seed Tigers took a 16-9 lead after one quarter and held on to win and improve to 15-6. They moved on to face top seed Holton in Friday’s semifinals in Perry. Junior BriAnna Ploude led West with 13 points and senior Audrey Mullins scored 11 in the win.

Holton 70, Perry-Lecompton 25
• The eighth-seed Kaws fell to Holton for a second straight year to end the season at 3-17. Junior Katie Volle led Perry-Lecompton with 9 points.


2A substate quarterfinals
Burlingame 46, Valley Falls 44
• The sixth-seed Dragons fell behind, 11-3, after one quarter and couldn’t come back for the win to end the season at 9-13. Sophomore Abbey Kearney led Valley Falls with 16 points, senior Chelsey Correll scored 12 points and senior Shelbie Glissman scored 10 in the loss.


Boys

3A substate quarterfinals
Silver Lake 75, Oskaloosa 58
• The fourth-seed Bears trailed by 11 after a quarter and Lake pulled away in the second half to end Oskaloosa’s season at 11-11. Senior Chase Tenpenny led Oskaloosa with 14 points, senior J.T. Thurston scored 12 points, sophomore Adam Bowser scored 11 points and sophomore Levi Wade scored 10 points in the win.

Marysville 66, JCN 36
• The sixth-seed Chargers were down, 27-11, at the half en route to the loss to end the season at 10-12. Senior Riley Noll, junior Austin Gaspard and senior Brendan Stevens led JCN with 7 points each.

KC Christian 71, McLouth 31

• The Bulldogs’ season ended at 2-19.


Thursday’s games (March 5)

Boys

4A substate semifinals
at Perry
Basehor-Linwood 60, Perry-Lec. 57
• The Kaws’ season ended at 12-10 as Basehor-Linwood took a 7-point lead into the second quarter and made it last. Senior Andy Bowman led the Kaws with 23 points, senior Shane Gimzo scored 13 points and junior Riley Shafer scored 11 points in the losing effort.


2A substate semifinals
at Lyndon
St. Marys 72, Valley Falls 42
• The Dragons trailed by 20 after one quarter and St. Marys pulled further away each quarter to end Valley Falls’ season at 11-12. Junior Mitchell Streeter led the Dragons with 13 points while senior Ray Cook scored 10 in the loss.


Girls
3A substate semifinals
at Marysville
Riley County 46, JCN 43 (2 OT)
• The Chargers trailed by 6 at the half but outscored Riley County, 9-0, in the third quarter to take a 3-point lead. Riley County came back to force overtime and outscored North, 7-4, in the second extra period to end the Chargers’ undefeated run and season at 21-1. Freshman Jordan Kramer was the only Charger in double figures with 10 points.

at Silver Lake
Oskaloosa 57, KC Christian 40
• The Bears rolled past KCC to move on to the substate title game Saturday. Senior Nicole Rockhold led the Bears with 19 points while freshman Haley Pfau scored 17 points and sophomore Hailey Kelly scored 13 points. The Bears improved to 19-3.

Rock Creek 54, McLouth 22
• The Bulldogs trailed, 33-3, at halftime in ending the season at 11-11. Junior Missy Rome led the Bulldogs with 10 points in the loss.


Friday’s game (March 6)
Girls

4A substate semifinals

at Perry
Holton 58, Jefferson West 33
• Holton took a 10-0 lead early and withstood a couple Tiger runs before pulling away in the second half to win and end West’s season at 15-7.


Saturday’s game (March 7)
Girls

3A substate championship
at Silver Lake
Rock Creek 50, Oskaloosa 30
• The Mustangs took an 11-point lead out of the first quarter and slowly pulled away to end Oskaloosa’s season at 19-4. Rockhold scored 17 points in her final high school game to lead the Bears.

State hopes dashed in county

Substate play, the six-team Mid-East League and Jefferson County competition didn’t mix well this past week as all 12 county girls’ and boys’ basketball teams came home without a state berth.

In all, MEL teams were the demise of five county teams, including the previously undefeated Jefferson County North Charger girls and the Oskaloosa Bear girls, who were the lone team to reach a substate final this season. The Valley Falls boys, Oskaloosa boys, and McLouth girls also fell to MEL teams. Overall, the county was 3-5 against the MEL this postseason, as Oskaloosa and McLouth’s girls and the Valley Falls boys did overcome one MEL team each.


After that, Holton’s teams were the biggest poison to county state tournament hopes as both Jefferson West teams and the Perry-Lecompton girls fell to the Wildcats.


The Oskaloosa girls had the most successful run of any county team as they rolled past Rossville and KC Christian to reach the 3A Silver Lake substate finals Saturday versus the top-seed Rock Creek Mustangs, who took down McLouth by 32 points in the semifinals to end McLouth’s season at 11-11.


Against the Bears, Rock Creek would establish an early lead and use consistent rebounding and good defense to pull away for a 50-30 win. The Mustangs ended up outrebounding Oskaloosa, 26-12, in the win, which counteracted the Mustangs committing only 1 less turnover than the Bears.


The Mustangs took an early 4-1 lead and two scores from senior forward Dana Elliott made it 8-1 and forced an Oskaloosa timeout with 4:33 to play in the opening quarter. Senior Nicole Rockhold finally got the Bears their first field goal of the game with under three minutes left in the quarter but the Mustangs ended the quarter on a 7-2 run to take a 17-6 lead into the second quarter.


Rock Creek extended the lead to 13 in the early part of the second quarter and Rockhold, Oskaloosa’s leading scorer, had to leave the game because of an injury. She returned just more than a minute of game time later with the 13-point Bears deficit still intact. She responded with a 3-point play to cut the lead to 10 at 23-13 and Rock Creek came away with a 27-14 lead at the half.


Elliott started the second half scoring with a 3-point play for Rock Creek but Rockhold responded with a 3-pointer to keep the lead at 13. She picked up her third foul with 6:37 left in the quarter and was pulled to the bench. When she returned with 3:48 left in the quarter, Rock Creek had inched away to a 38-21 lead. The Mustangs scored the last 3 points of the quarter as they began to stall on offense to run off the clock. Elliott finished the quarter by dribbling time off the clock at half court, then driving and hitting a lay-up with 3 seconds left to give the Mustangs a 41-23 lead going into the final period.


Rock Creek kept up the offensive stall in the fourth quarter and Oskaloosa couldn’t take advantage of chances to trim the lead. The Bears couldn’t get closer than 16 points the rest of the way, and Rockhold was pulled for the final time to a standing ovation from Bears’ fans with 54 seconds to play. The Mustang bench finished off the 50-30 victory.


Rockhold led the Bears with 17 points, but no other Bear scored more than 4 as their season ended with a 19-4 record. Freshman Rachel Schmanke was the team’s rebounding leader with 4 rebounds. Two Mustangs were in double figures led by 14 points and 7 rebounds from Elliott. Junior guard Taylor Ebert also scored 14 points in the win. Junior post player Becky Lightfoot pulled down 8 rebounds, all in the first half, for Rock Creek.


Oskaloosa coach LeeAnn Tufte said she was proud of her team’s efforts both this season and in Saturday’s loss.


“Our shots just weren’t going in, and they’re a good team that plays strong defense,” Tufte said. “They slowed down the game and we weren’t able to transition like we’re used to doing. To think about it, we’re losing one senior that was healthy at the end of the year, and we’ve got a lot coming back for us. I’m proud of how we did.”


JCN’s girls entered substate play in Marysville as the undefeated number one seed and coasted past Pleasant Ridge in the first round but ran into Riley County of the MEL in the semifinals, where the Chargers lost a heartbreaker March 5 in double overtime, 46-43.


North trailed by 6 at the half, 18-12, but outscored Riley County, 9-0, in the third quarter to take the lead. Riley County answered to force overtime and, after both teams scored 10 points in the first extra period, Riley County outscored North, 7-4, in the second overtime to end JCN’s season at 21-1. JCN freshman Jordan Kramer led the Chargers with 10 points in the loss while senior Amelia Noll scored 9 and senior Lisa Weishaar scored 8 in their final high school game.


The Perry-Lecompton Kaw boys got the benefit of playing on their home court in substate play but fell to top-seeded Basehor-Linwood, 60-57, in the March 5 semifinals to end the season at 12-10. The Kaws trailed by 7 after a quarter but trimmed the lead to 1 at 46-45 entering the fourth quarter before the Bobcats pulled out the win. Senior Andy Bowman scored 23 points for the Kaws while senior Shane Gimzo scored 13 points and junior Riley Shafer scored 11 in the loss.