Tuesday’s games (Jan. 26)
Girls
Santa Fe Trail 52, Jefferson West 32
• West fell to 4-8. Senior BriAnna Ploude led the Tigers with 12 points.
JCN Tourney
First round
JCN 64, Atchison 33
• The Chargers improved to 9-1 as they built a 29-7 lead after a quarter and coasted from there. Sophomore Jordan Kramer led JCN with 18 points while seniors Mallory GrandPre and Sara Navinskey scored 16 points each.
Perry-Lecompton 38, McLouth 37
• The Kaws had a 6-point halftime lead and held on to take a narrow win and move to 7-1. McLouth fell to 6-5. Senior Katie Volle led the Kaws with 18 points while the Bulldogs were led by 12 points from senior Kylie Shufflebarger.
Oskaloosa 56, Maranatha 40
• The Bears took a 20-point halftime lead and didn’t look back in moving to 7-2. Sophomore Haley Pfau led the Bears with 18 points as 10 different Bears logged points.
ACCHS 43, Valley Falls 29
• The Dragons fell to 4-5. Junior Abbey Kearney led Valley Falls with 16 points.
Boys
Perry-Lecompton 67, Oskaloosa 51
• The Kaws built a 7-point halftime lead and pulled away in the second half to improve to 2-8. Oskaloosa fell to 6-6. Senior Shelby Politte scored 24 for the Kaws while senior Logan Hurd scored 16 and senior Brad Phillips added 11. The Bears were led by 22 points from junior Adam Bowser and 11 points each from senior Brandon Barnes and junior Levi Wade.
Santa Fe Trail 65, Jefferson West 50
• West fell to 4-8. Freshman Cory Brown scored 12 points and junior Dillon Roy added 11 for West.
Thursday’s games (Jan. 28)
Boys
ACCHS 50, JCN 46
• North suffered its second loss in six days to the Tigers but made this one close before falling to 7-4. Junior Jeff Hale and senior Nick Clark led JCN with 10 points each.
Friday’s games (Jan. 29)
Boys
Bishop Ward 44, Perry-Lecompton 42
• The Kaws fell to 2-9.
McLouth 55, KC East Christian 26
• The Bulldogs led by 15 at the half and put the game away in the third quarter to improve to 3-11. Sophomore Shawn Dailey led the way with 14 points while junior Trevor Roberts scored 12 and senior Cole Batman scored 11.
Girls
JCN Tourney
Semifinals
JCN 47, ACCHS 40
• The Chargers defeated the Tigers for the second time in eight days as they pulled away in the fourth quarter to improve to 10-1. Kramer scored 15 for North while junior Katie Noll scored 12 points and Navinsky added 10 points.
Perry-Lecompton 37, Oskaloosa 35
• The Kaws defeated Oskaloosa for the second time this season as they built a 7-point halftime lead and then held on in the second half to move to 8-1. Oskaloosa dropped to 7-3. Senior Jessica Christman led the Kaws with 13 points. Junior Hailey Kelly led Oskaloosa with 12 points.
Consolation semis
McLouth 37, Maranatha 35
• McLouth led, 10-2, after a quarter and had to hold on the rest of the way to improve to 7-5. Shufflebarger and senior Missy Rome scored 14 points each to lead the Bulldogs.
Atchison 44, Valley Falls 42
• The Dragons led by 4 at the half but couldn’t hold on in the fourth quarter to fall to 4-6. Kearney scored 14 points and senior Bethany Myers scored 12 points in the loss for Valley Falls.
Saturday’s games (Jan. 30)
Girls
JCN Tourney
Championship
JCN 49, Perry-Lecompton 44 (OT)
• North didn’t lead in the game until overtime after coming back from a 9-point deficit entering the fourth quarter to force the extra period. The Chargers improved to 11-1 while the Kaws fell to 8-2 on the season. Kramer scored 17 points and Navinskey scored 11, including the game-tying basket with only seconds left in regulation. Christman led the Kaws with 15 points while junior Abbey Bays and Volle scored 9 each.
Third place
ACCHS 44, Oskaloosa 34
• The Bears were down by 10 after one quarter and couldn’t come back in the second half to fall to 7-4. Kelly led the Bears with 11 points while Pfau and sophomore Rachel Schmanke scored 9 each.
Fifth place
McLouth 43, Atchison 26
• The Bulldogs built a 10-point halftime lead and withstood an early Atchison run in the second half before pulling away to move to 8-5. Rome scored 15 points, sophomore Terri Stewart scored 12 points and Shufflebarger scored 11 in the win.
Seventh place
Valley Falls 46, Maranatha 37
• The Dragons led by 3 at the half and pulled away in the fourth quarter to improve to 5-6. Sophomore Macie Herrig led the way for the Dragons with 13 points.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
North defeats Kaws in epic tourney finale
It took Jefferson County North more than 32 minutes of gameplay to finally grab the lead in the title game of the Chargers’ own tournament Saturday in Winchester and it took a couple clutch plays to help North hold off a feisty Perry-Lecompton squad for a 49-44 overtime victory.
The win was more proof of a Charger team that, as coach Steve Noll put it, has a never-say-die mentality. Meanwhile on the other side, the Kaws continued the best basketball story in the county this season in a turnaround under second-year coach Justin Mayer. Despite the loss, the Kaws sat at 8-2 after the game. The Kaw girls last won 8 games in the 2000-01 season when they finished 8-13. They have only won 7 games one time since that season.
JCN earned a trip to the title game with wins over Atchison and ACCHS in the quarterfinals and semifinals. Perry-Lecompton took down McLouth and Oskaloosa in narrow wins to qualify for the tourney title game.
The Kaws held the momentum for the vast majority of the game with the Chargers but the keys to the Charger win were a resurgence of rebounding by North after the Chargers were outrebounded, 18-13, in the first half, and 22 Kaw turnovers compared to only 12 for the Chargers. At game’s end the Chargers had 37 rebounds to Perry-Lecompton’s 38. A big shot by North senior Sara Navinskey to force overtime also helped the Chargers’ cause.
Perry-Lecompton took control from the opening tip as junior guard Abbey Bays scored off an offensive rebound and the Kaws built a 7-1 lead midway through the quarter. North got its first field goal of the game on a Navinskey jumper with 3:40 to play in the opening quarter and got the game tied at 7 with just over a minute left in the period. A free throw by Kaws junior Taylor Akagi gave the Kaws an 8-7 edge entering the second quarter.
The game was tied at three points in the second quarter until Perry-Lecompton regained control with a 7-point run to force a North timeout with 2:31 left in the half. The Kaws had the ball and a chance to extend the lead but North sophomore guard Jordan Kramer came up with two key steals that were converted into a layup and then two free throws by senior forward Mallory GrandPre to cut the lead to 3 at 19-16 Kaws with 51 seconds left in the half. Kaws senior Katherine Frye added a free throw to give Perry-Lecompton a 20-16 halftime lead.
The Chargers cut the lead to 2 early in the third quarter but the Kaws churned out another 7-point run in a 90-second stretch of game time. Sophomore guard Natasha Carver got it started with a 3-pointer, senior forward Katie Volle added two free throws and Bays hit a jumper to make it 31-22 Kaws, which would be the score entering the fourth quarter.
JCN scored the first 5 points of the final quarter to get back in the game. Kramer scored off an offensive rebound on a missed GrandPre free throw and then hit a jumper on North’s next possession to cut the lead to 31-27. Kaws senior Jessica Christman scored on a short jumper but a Kramer 3 would cut the lead to 33-31 Kaws with 5:07 to go in the game. The Kaws were up 4 and had a couple chances to stretch the lead but were unable. Another Christman jumper with 2:10 to play kept the lead at 4 and the Kaws again got multiple chances to extend the lead but could not.
The Kaws still held the 4-point lead with 1:02 to play, however. GrandPre hit 1 of 2 free throws with 44 seconds to play but, for a third consecutive time, the Kaws missed the front end of a 1-and-1 free throw set and GrandPre pulled down the rebound. Kaws senior guard Katie Hirsch got a key steal with 33 seconds left and hit 1 of 2 free throws to make it 38-34 Kaws. JCN junior Katie Noll scored off an offensive rebound and the Chargers took a timeout with 23 seconds left.
The Kaws made a key turnover on their next possession and, after another North timeout, Kramer and Navinskey executed a well-timed inbounds play with Navinskey scoring on a layup of Kramer’s inbounds pass. Kramer fouled Bays with 15 seconds left and the Perry-Lecompton junior hit both free throws to give the Kaws a 40-38 lead. From there, North had one more chance and, with time winding down, Navinskey threw up a shot from near the top of the key and it hit its mark to tie the game and force overtime.
North was still looking for its first lead of the game entering the extra stanza and got it as Kramer scored on a layup off the tip and was fouled. Hirsch hit 1 of 2 free throws on Perry-Lecompton’s next possession to cut the lead to 1 and, after a GrandPre short jumper for her first field goal of the game, Bays hit a clutch 3-pointer to tie the game at 44. North was able to take a 1-point lead on a GrandPre free throw and a traveling call on the Kaws gave the Chargers an opening. Navinskey hit 2 free throws to make the lead 3, but then missed both free throws after pulling down a defensive rebound and getting fouled. Kramer came down with a big offensive rebound on the second missed free throw but traveled, and then GrandPre made a key steal with time running under 20 seconds. Kramer missed 2 free throws with 10 seconds left but GrandPre got perhaps the biggest rebound of the game and put it back in for 2 points to secure the 49-44 North win.
North improved to 11-1 with the win as Kramer scored 17 points with 7 rebounds and 5 steals and Navinskey scored 11 points with 7 rebounds. GrandPre scored 9 points with 9 rebounds and 7 steals and Katie Noll grabbed 7 rebounds.
Perry-Lecompton fell to 8-2 and was led by 15 points and 11 rebounds from Christman and 9 points each from Bays and Volle. Bays added 6 rebounds and 3 steals while Volle grabbed 5 rebounds. Two Kaw starters fouled out late in the game to help North’s chances.
North coach Noll said he would take the win and tourney title, although he credited Perry-Lecompton for giving the Chargers all they could handle.
“They played well,” a relieved Noll said after the game. “They really gave us a heck of a game. We weren’t able to do what we wanted to do. I think Sara’s shot there at the end was maybe 10 feet, 1 inch, it was that close to the rim. The girls just kept plugging away.”
Noll credited the team’s full-court pressure with helping fuel the fourth-quarter comeback.
“We did go with a little more full court man-to-man defense, and we haven’t been able to run a lot of man defense recently,” he said. “Every time it looked like shots were there, they were in our face. We finally got to where we could move the ball and got fouled a couple times there. The girls have faced a lot of adversity at times this season and they keep plugging away. Hopefully we can build on this. We’ve got to work on shooting free throws better and pick it up on defense. We need to have offense that runs based on initiating it by good defense.”
ACCHS 44,
Oskaloosa 34 (third)
The third-place game of the JCN tourney went to ACCHS as the Tigers took control in the first quarter and fended the Bears off the rest of the game to drop Oskaloosa to 7-4.
The Bears had defeated Maranatha in the opening round before falling to Perry-Lecompton in Friday’s semifinals. ACCHS had defeated Valley Falls and then lost to JCN in the tourney semifinals.
The game was tied at 3 midway through the first quarter before ACCHS ended the period on a 12-2 run, including scoring the last 9 points of the quarter. Sophomore forward Tara Ellerman and sophomore guard Megan Vanderweide fueled the run as Ellerman scored 4 points and Vanderweide drilled two 3-pointers to help ACCHS to a 15-5 lead entering the second quarter.
Ellerman would continue to be a problem for the Bears as ACCHS spent most of the quarter holding off the Bears before extending the lead to 11 at the half. Ellerman finished the half with 11 points as a 3-point play midway through the quarter stretched the lead back to 9 and Ellerman scored the Tigers’ final 7 points of the half to make it 26-15 ACCHS.
Oskaloosa came out of the locker room firing in the second half as sophomore Haley Pfau started the scoring with a 3-pointer and would score the first 7 points of the half to cut the Tiger lead to 26-22. Ellerman notched another 3-point play to get ACCHS on the board and stymie the run. Oskaloosa wouldn’t go away, however, as junior guard Hailey Kelly scored the final 3 points of the quarter to trim the Tiger lead to 33-28 entering the fourth quarter.
The Tigers held Oskaloosa off the board in a key stretch of the final period as ACCHS went on a 6-0 run that extended the lead back to 11 points with 6:05 to play. Oskaloosa sophomore forward Rachel Schmanke got the Bears back on the board with 5:57 to play but the ACCHS lead would be too big to surmount. The Tiger bench salted away a 44-34 win.
Oskaloosa was led by 11 points from Kelly and 9 points each from Pfau and Schmanke. Pfau led the Bears with 4 rebounds. The Tigers controlled the boards with a 29-15 advantage.
ACCHS was led by Ellerman’s 18 points and 11 rebounds while Vanderweide scored 11 points.
In other tourney action, McLouth defeated Atchison, 43-26, for fifth and Valley Falls defeated Maranatha, 46-37, for seventh.
The win was more proof of a Charger team that, as coach Steve Noll put it, has a never-say-die mentality. Meanwhile on the other side, the Kaws continued the best basketball story in the county this season in a turnaround under second-year coach Justin Mayer. Despite the loss, the Kaws sat at 8-2 after the game. The Kaw girls last won 8 games in the 2000-01 season when they finished 8-13. They have only won 7 games one time since that season.
JCN earned a trip to the title game with wins over Atchison and ACCHS in the quarterfinals and semifinals. Perry-Lecompton took down McLouth and Oskaloosa in narrow wins to qualify for the tourney title game.
The Kaws held the momentum for the vast majority of the game with the Chargers but the keys to the Charger win were a resurgence of rebounding by North after the Chargers were outrebounded, 18-13, in the first half, and 22 Kaw turnovers compared to only 12 for the Chargers. At game’s end the Chargers had 37 rebounds to Perry-Lecompton’s 38. A big shot by North senior Sara Navinskey to force overtime also helped the Chargers’ cause.
Perry-Lecompton took control from the opening tip as junior guard Abbey Bays scored off an offensive rebound and the Kaws built a 7-1 lead midway through the quarter. North got its first field goal of the game on a Navinskey jumper with 3:40 to play in the opening quarter and got the game tied at 7 with just over a minute left in the period. A free throw by Kaws junior Taylor Akagi gave the Kaws an 8-7 edge entering the second quarter.
The game was tied at three points in the second quarter until Perry-Lecompton regained control with a 7-point run to force a North timeout with 2:31 left in the half. The Kaws had the ball and a chance to extend the lead but North sophomore guard Jordan Kramer came up with two key steals that were converted into a layup and then two free throws by senior forward Mallory GrandPre to cut the lead to 3 at 19-16 Kaws with 51 seconds left in the half. Kaws senior Katherine Frye added a free throw to give Perry-Lecompton a 20-16 halftime lead.
The Chargers cut the lead to 2 early in the third quarter but the Kaws churned out another 7-point run in a 90-second stretch of game time. Sophomore guard Natasha Carver got it started with a 3-pointer, senior forward Katie Volle added two free throws and Bays hit a jumper to make it 31-22 Kaws, which would be the score entering the fourth quarter.
JCN scored the first 5 points of the final quarter to get back in the game. Kramer scored off an offensive rebound on a missed GrandPre free throw and then hit a jumper on North’s next possession to cut the lead to 31-27. Kaws senior Jessica Christman scored on a short jumper but a Kramer 3 would cut the lead to 33-31 Kaws with 5:07 to go in the game. The Kaws were up 4 and had a couple chances to stretch the lead but were unable. Another Christman jumper with 2:10 to play kept the lead at 4 and the Kaws again got multiple chances to extend the lead but could not.
The Kaws still held the 4-point lead with 1:02 to play, however. GrandPre hit 1 of 2 free throws with 44 seconds to play but, for a third consecutive time, the Kaws missed the front end of a 1-and-1 free throw set and GrandPre pulled down the rebound. Kaws senior guard Katie Hirsch got a key steal with 33 seconds left and hit 1 of 2 free throws to make it 38-34 Kaws. JCN junior Katie Noll scored off an offensive rebound and the Chargers took a timeout with 23 seconds left.
The Kaws made a key turnover on their next possession and, after another North timeout, Kramer and Navinskey executed a well-timed inbounds play with Navinskey scoring on a layup of Kramer’s inbounds pass. Kramer fouled Bays with 15 seconds left and the Perry-Lecompton junior hit both free throws to give the Kaws a 40-38 lead. From there, North had one more chance and, with time winding down, Navinskey threw up a shot from near the top of the key and it hit its mark to tie the game and force overtime.
North was still looking for its first lead of the game entering the extra stanza and got it as Kramer scored on a layup off the tip and was fouled. Hirsch hit 1 of 2 free throws on Perry-Lecompton’s next possession to cut the lead to 1 and, after a GrandPre short jumper for her first field goal of the game, Bays hit a clutch 3-pointer to tie the game at 44. North was able to take a 1-point lead on a GrandPre free throw and a traveling call on the Kaws gave the Chargers an opening. Navinskey hit 2 free throws to make the lead 3, but then missed both free throws after pulling down a defensive rebound and getting fouled. Kramer came down with a big offensive rebound on the second missed free throw but traveled, and then GrandPre made a key steal with time running under 20 seconds. Kramer missed 2 free throws with 10 seconds left but GrandPre got perhaps the biggest rebound of the game and put it back in for 2 points to secure the 49-44 North win.
North improved to 11-1 with the win as Kramer scored 17 points with 7 rebounds and 5 steals and Navinskey scored 11 points with 7 rebounds. GrandPre scored 9 points with 9 rebounds and 7 steals and Katie Noll grabbed 7 rebounds.
Perry-Lecompton fell to 8-2 and was led by 15 points and 11 rebounds from Christman and 9 points each from Bays and Volle. Bays added 6 rebounds and 3 steals while Volle grabbed 5 rebounds. Two Kaw starters fouled out late in the game to help North’s chances.
North coach Noll said he would take the win and tourney title, although he credited Perry-Lecompton for giving the Chargers all they could handle.
“They played well,” a relieved Noll said after the game. “They really gave us a heck of a game. We weren’t able to do what we wanted to do. I think Sara’s shot there at the end was maybe 10 feet, 1 inch, it was that close to the rim. The girls just kept plugging away.”
Noll credited the team’s full-court pressure with helping fuel the fourth-quarter comeback.
“We did go with a little more full court man-to-man defense, and we haven’t been able to run a lot of man defense recently,” he said. “Every time it looked like shots were there, they were in our face. We finally got to where we could move the ball and got fouled a couple times there. The girls have faced a lot of adversity at times this season and they keep plugging away. Hopefully we can build on this. We’ve got to work on shooting free throws better and pick it up on defense. We need to have offense that runs based on initiating it by good defense.”
ACCHS 44,
Oskaloosa 34 (third)
The third-place game of the JCN tourney went to ACCHS as the Tigers took control in the first quarter and fended the Bears off the rest of the game to drop Oskaloosa to 7-4.
The Bears had defeated Maranatha in the opening round before falling to Perry-Lecompton in Friday’s semifinals. ACCHS had defeated Valley Falls and then lost to JCN in the tourney semifinals.
The game was tied at 3 midway through the first quarter before ACCHS ended the period on a 12-2 run, including scoring the last 9 points of the quarter. Sophomore forward Tara Ellerman and sophomore guard Megan Vanderweide fueled the run as Ellerman scored 4 points and Vanderweide drilled two 3-pointers to help ACCHS to a 15-5 lead entering the second quarter.
Ellerman would continue to be a problem for the Bears as ACCHS spent most of the quarter holding off the Bears before extending the lead to 11 at the half. Ellerman finished the half with 11 points as a 3-point play midway through the quarter stretched the lead back to 9 and Ellerman scored the Tigers’ final 7 points of the half to make it 26-15 ACCHS.
Oskaloosa came out of the locker room firing in the second half as sophomore Haley Pfau started the scoring with a 3-pointer and would score the first 7 points of the half to cut the Tiger lead to 26-22. Ellerman notched another 3-point play to get ACCHS on the board and stymie the run. Oskaloosa wouldn’t go away, however, as junior guard Hailey Kelly scored the final 3 points of the quarter to trim the Tiger lead to 33-28 entering the fourth quarter.
The Tigers held Oskaloosa off the board in a key stretch of the final period as ACCHS went on a 6-0 run that extended the lead back to 11 points with 6:05 to play. Oskaloosa sophomore forward Rachel Schmanke got the Bears back on the board with 5:57 to play but the ACCHS lead would be too big to surmount. The Tiger bench salted away a 44-34 win.
Oskaloosa was led by 11 points from Kelly and 9 points each from Pfau and Schmanke. Pfau led the Bears with 4 rebounds. The Tigers controlled the boards with a 29-15 advantage.
ACCHS was led by Ellerman’s 18 points and 11 rebounds while Vanderweide scored 11 points.
In other tourney action, McLouth defeated Atchison, 43-26, for fifth and Valley Falls defeated Maranatha, 46-37, for seventh.
ACCHS torches JCN for MIT title
Atchison County Community High School came out firing on all cylinders Saturday and it was much to the misfortune of Jefferson County North as the Tigers took home a 71-38 win in the title game of the McLouth Invitational Tournament.
ACCHS had advanced to the title game with double-digit victories over Valley Falls and Cair Paravel while JCN had made it an all-acronym final with a narrow win over Maranatha and then an 18-point win over Bishop Seabury in the varsity boys’ tourney.
The first quarter would set the tone for the game as the Tigers’ offense and misfiring North offense all but put the game out of reach. Two 3-pointers by ACCHS sophomore Austin Eckert gave the Tigers a 6-0 lead and forced North’s first timeout with 5:32 to play in the quarter. North sophomore Dominic Kingman got the Chargers on the board shortly thereafter but it would be North’s only score of the quarter. Eckert added two more 3-pointers before the dust settled on the quarter with an 18-2 Tigers lead.
Eckert answered a score by North sophomore Billy Noll with another 3-pointer to start the second quarter and ACCHS picked up where it left off after the first quarter. The lead reached 20 points a couple minutes of game time later and the Tigers finished the half on a 12-3 run to take a 39-10 lead into halftime.
A North comeback was highly improbable at that point, but the Chargers scored the first 4 points of the second half before the ACCHS offense kicked back into gear to stretch the lead to 34 at 50-16 midway through the quarter. The lead was 36 going into the fourth quarter as Tigers coach John Wetig cleared his bench for the fourth quarter as ACCHS won, 71-38.
After the early onslaught, Eckert, who was later named tourney most valuable player, finished with 17 points as he only scored 2 in the second half. Junior Ryan Martin also led the way for the Tigers with 19 points and 5 rebounds.
North was led by 10 points from junior Jeff Hale. Kingman scored 8 points and junior Spencer Wentz pulled down 8 rebounds in the loss. Both teams had 27 rebounds while North had 21 turnovers to only 14 for ACCHS.
JCN coach Jim Brickell said the result wasn’t what his team had hoped for after good wins in the quarterfinals and semifinals. One key blow to the Chargers’ chances came when sophomore Dalton Minor suffered a leg injury in the win over Bishop Seabury.
“It was a good week,” Brickell said. “We just didn’t come to play tonight, and they did. I thought it’d be a ball game, but we didn’t do what I had planned to do. We wanted to shut (Martin and Eckert) off, and obviously that didn’t happen. And we didn’t do our offensive game plan either. We’ve got to learn to be a lot more patient and not take so many treys. Things just snowballed on us tonight. But I give credit to them, Effingham played a heck of a ball game. We don’t see quality basketball teams like that enough. You learn a whole different kind of basketball playing good teams. ACCHS played hard and we got outhustled. Usually the team that hustles harder gets the win.”
Valley Falls fifth,
Oskaloosa seventh
The best any other county team could do after JCN’s second place finish was fifth, and Valley Falls got the job done with a double-digit win over Maranatha.
The Dragons had defeated county rival Oskaloosa in Friday’s consolation semifinals while Maranatha defeated McLouth to move into the fifth-place game.
Maranatha actually took early control of the game with a 5-0 lead before Valley Falls surged back with a 9-2 run to end the quarter. Senior Mitchell Streeter nailed a 3-pointer to cut the lead to 1 and senior Chase Lederer and junior Brooks Glassel scored the last 4 points of the quarter to give the Dragons a 12-9 lead.
The Dragons stretched the lead to 6 at halftime and then scored the first 6 points of the second half to extend the lead to 12 at 26-14. The lead held at 32-22 entering the final quarter.
Maranatha was able to get back within 7 points in the early fourth quarter but Glassel hit a 3-pointer to stretch it back to a 10-point Dragon lead. That was as close as Maranatha would get as the Dragons finished off the 43-31 victory.
Nottingham scored 15 points and Glassel scored 12 for the Dragons in the win. Valley Falls improved to 5-6 with the win.
After falling in the consolation semis Friday, Oskaloosa and McLouth were left to duel for seventh place on Saturday and the Bears came away with a 41-35 win.
Oskaloosa was led by 14 points from junior Adam Bowser while McLouth was led by 10 points each from junior Trevor Roberts and sophomore Gavin Swearngin. Oskaloosa improved to 6-5 while McLouth fell to 2-11.
In Saturday’s other game, Bishop Seabury defeated Cair Paravel, 61-46, for third place.
ACCHS had advanced to the title game with double-digit victories over Valley Falls and Cair Paravel while JCN had made it an all-acronym final with a narrow win over Maranatha and then an 18-point win over Bishop Seabury in the varsity boys’ tourney.
The first quarter would set the tone for the game as the Tigers’ offense and misfiring North offense all but put the game out of reach. Two 3-pointers by ACCHS sophomore Austin Eckert gave the Tigers a 6-0 lead and forced North’s first timeout with 5:32 to play in the quarter. North sophomore Dominic Kingman got the Chargers on the board shortly thereafter but it would be North’s only score of the quarter. Eckert added two more 3-pointers before the dust settled on the quarter with an 18-2 Tigers lead.
Eckert answered a score by North sophomore Billy Noll with another 3-pointer to start the second quarter and ACCHS picked up where it left off after the first quarter. The lead reached 20 points a couple minutes of game time later and the Tigers finished the half on a 12-3 run to take a 39-10 lead into halftime.
A North comeback was highly improbable at that point, but the Chargers scored the first 4 points of the second half before the ACCHS offense kicked back into gear to stretch the lead to 34 at 50-16 midway through the quarter. The lead was 36 going into the fourth quarter as Tigers coach John Wetig cleared his bench for the fourth quarter as ACCHS won, 71-38.
After the early onslaught, Eckert, who was later named tourney most valuable player, finished with 17 points as he only scored 2 in the second half. Junior Ryan Martin also led the way for the Tigers with 19 points and 5 rebounds.
North was led by 10 points from junior Jeff Hale. Kingman scored 8 points and junior Spencer Wentz pulled down 8 rebounds in the loss. Both teams had 27 rebounds while North had 21 turnovers to only 14 for ACCHS.
JCN coach Jim Brickell said the result wasn’t what his team had hoped for after good wins in the quarterfinals and semifinals. One key blow to the Chargers’ chances came when sophomore Dalton Minor suffered a leg injury in the win over Bishop Seabury.
“It was a good week,” Brickell said. “We just didn’t come to play tonight, and they did. I thought it’d be a ball game, but we didn’t do what I had planned to do. We wanted to shut (Martin and Eckert) off, and obviously that didn’t happen. And we didn’t do our offensive game plan either. We’ve got to learn to be a lot more patient and not take so many treys. Things just snowballed on us tonight. But I give credit to them, Effingham played a heck of a ball game. We don’t see quality basketball teams like that enough. You learn a whole different kind of basketball playing good teams. ACCHS played hard and we got outhustled. Usually the team that hustles harder gets the win.”
Valley Falls fifth,
Oskaloosa seventh
The best any other county team could do after JCN’s second place finish was fifth, and Valley Falls got the job done with a double-digit win over Maranatha.
The Dragons had defeated county rival Oskaloosa in Friday’s consolation semifinals while Maranatha defeated McLouth to move into the fifth-place game.
Maranatha actually took early control of the game with a 5-0 lead before Valley Falls surged back with a 9-2 run to end the quarter. Senior Mitchell Streeter nailed a 3-pointer to cut the lead to 1 and senior Chase Lederer and junior Brooks Glassel scored the last 4 points of the quarter to give the Dragons a 12-9 lead.
The Dragons stretched the lead to 6 at halftime and then scored the first 6 points of the second half to extend the lead to 12 at 26-14. The lead held at 32-22 entering the final quarter.
Maranatha was able to get back within 7 points in the early fourth quarter but Glassel hit a 3-pointer to stretch it back to a 10-point Dragon lead. That was as close as Maranatha would get as the Dragons finished off the 43-31 victory.
Nottingham scored 15 points and Glassel scored 12 for the Dragons in the win. Valley Falls improved to 5-6 with the win.
After falling in the consolation semis Friday, Oskaloosa and McLouth were left to duel for seventh place on Saturday and the Bears came away with a 41-35 win.
Oskaloosa was led by 14 points from junior Adam Bowser while McLouth was led by 10 points each from junior Trevor Roberts and sophomore Gavin Swearngin. Oskaloosa improved to 6-5 while McLouth fell to 2-11.
In Saturday’s other game, Bishop Seabury defeated Cair Paravel, 61-46, for third place.
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