Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Monday’s games (March 1)
Girls

2A substate quarterfinals

Oskaloosa 43, Lyndon 38
• The Bears outscored Lyndon, 12-4, in the fourth quarter to win and improve to 14-7. Sophomore Haley Pfau scored 23 and junior Hailey Kelly scored 14 in the win. They were set to play Lebo in Thursday’s semifinals in Lebo.

Lebo 59, Valley Falls 37

• The Dragons finished 8-13. Junior Abbey Kearney led the way with 12 points in the loss.

4A substate quarterfinals

Perry-Lecompton 59, Atchison 30
• The Kaws improved to 11-9 and moved into the semifinals versus Royal Valley Thursday on their home court in Hoyt. Junior Abbey Bays led the Kaws with 14 points, sophomore Natasha Carver scored 13 and senior Jessica Christman scored 10 in the win.

Hiawatha 46, Jefferson West 43

• A 15-4 third quarter gave West a lead they couldn’t hold as the Tigers’ season ended at 7-14. Senior BriAnna Ploude led the Tigers with 12 points.

Boys

3A substate quarterfinals

KC Christian 56, McLouth 18

• The Bulldogs finished the season 4-19. Sophomore Shawn Dailey led McLouth with 8 points.

Kaw varsity swept by Santa Fe Trail

by Kenneth Lassiter
For one Perry-Lecompton varsity basketball team, it was a rough end to a good season. For the other, it was just another rough ending, as the Kaw varsities were swept by Santa Fe Trail on the final night of the regular season Friday in Perry.

The Kaw girls started the season 8-1 but finished with a 10-9 record after Friday’s 32-24 loss to Trail. Despite the late-season swoon, the record marks the first winning Kaw campaign and first 10-win campaign since the 1990s. The Kaw boys, on the flip side, have taken their lumps this season. A good effort went for naught Friday with a 60-57 loss to Trail to drop the Kaws to 2-18 to end the regular season.


The girls’ varsity game was a struggle for both teams at times. Perry-Lecompton would pull close only to see the Chargers stretch the lead out, until Trail finally came away with the 8-point win.


The game was tied at 3 more than halfway through the first quarter when SFT senior Korbynn Stallbaumer hit a 3-pointer and senior Megan Fischer hit a jumper to give the Chargers an 8-3 lead entering the second quarter.


The Kaws went nearly five minutes of game play before senior Emma Gantz broke their scoring drought with a jumper at the 6:02 mark of the second quarter. The Perry-Lecompton offense started to show some signs of life thereafter as two more Gantz scores cut the Trail lead to 12-11 with 3:24 left in the half. That was all the scoring they’d get, though, as the Chargers took a 14-11 lead into the locker room at halftime.


Trail started the second half with a 3-pointer from senior Shara Luther but Gantz and senior Jessica Christman hit shots to end another long Kaw scoring drought and cut the lead to 2 at 17-15 Trail. The Kaws cut the lead to 1 twice but Santa Fe Trail scored the final 4 points of the third quarter to take a 24-19 lead into the final period.


Frustrated with his team’s play, Kaws coach Justin Mayer would pull the starters with 5:30 left in the game only to send them back into the game less than a minute of gameplay later as Trail held a 6-point lead. The Kaw offense couldn’t score, however, as Trail’s lead reached 9 points at its pinnacle. The Kaws would only have 2 points in the final 3:08 as Trail took home the 32-24 victory.


Gantz led the Kaws in scoring with 8 points. Mayer said after the game he was glad to have a home game Monday for the first round of substate but the late part of the season hasn’t gone well for his team.


“It’s pretty cool that we get a home game in the first round of substate,” he said. “I don’t know if we’ve had one of those in a long time. We’ll try to make the most of it. The second half of our season has been pretty tough. I thought we looked sleepy out there tonight. We just can’t knock down shots right now. It’s become frustrating for us. We’ve got to have people who are confident enough to take good shots and make something happen.


“It’s been our best season in a while but I hope the girls aren’t satisfied with that. We’ve had six of our losses at 5 points or less. We have to figure out how to pull out these close games.”


The Kaws are the second seed in the Royal Valley 4A substate and were set to play host to Atchison on Monday.


Trail boys 60,

Perry-Lecompton 57

A frustrating regular season ended with a good effort Friday for the Kaw boys as they surged back from a big halftime deficit to have the ball with a chance to tie the game at the final buzzer.


The game was even through the early few minutes until Trail started to edge away on the scoreboard. A baseline 3-pointer by Kaw senior Kameron Hurd gave the Kaws the lead at 8-5 but Charger junior Dalton Abel hit a jumper and then converted a 3-point play to swing the lead to Trail. The Chargers ended the quarter on a 13-2 run as junior Anthony Perry hit a putback at the buzzer to make the score 18-10 Trail entering the second quarter.


Trail would stretch the lead in the second quarter thanks in part to a stifling press defense. Senior Logan Hurd hit an early 3-pointer for the Kaws to cut the lead to 7 but an 11-3 run increased the Chargers’ lead to 15. The lead eventually reached 19 as Trail senior Jason Lee got a steal on the press and hit a short jumper to make it 37-18 SFT. Kameron Hurd hit a 3-pointer with 1:35 left in the half but the Chargers would go to the locker room with a 39-21 lead at the half.


The Kaws began to chip away at the lead in the third quarter. Kameron Hurd hit another 3-pointer to start the scoring and senior Brad Phillips hit a 3-pointer to cut the lead to 10 at one point. Senior Shelby Politte scored off an offensive rebound with 3:19 left in the quarter to cut the lead to single digits at 44-35 but Trail would stretch it back to 13 at 48-35 entering the fourth quarter.


The Kaws kept on the offensive pressure as they started to beat the Trail press consistently. Politte scored off a Phillips pass on the Kaws’ first possession of the fourth quarter and it took more than two minutes of game time before Kameron Hurd drilled another 3-pointer to cut the lead to 10 with 5:41 left in the game. Another trifecta from Kameron Hurd cut the lead to 7 with 4:40 to play and, after a jumpball gave the ball back to Perry-Lecompton, senior Riley Shafer hit a baseline jumper to cut the lead to 5 at 55-50.


Trail began to stall on offense as Perry-Lecompton didn’t get the ball back until the 1:48 mark after two free throws from Trail senior Jesse Bahner. Politte scored with 1:02 left after a missed free throw by Chargers senior Stuart Kraus, and Shafer and Logan Hurd teamed up for a steal and Shafer lay-in to cut the lead to 3 at 57-54 with 44 seconds left in the game. Bahner hit 2 more free throws with 39 seconds left and the Kaws missed a chance to cut back into the lead as Lee pulled down a defensive rebound. He would hit only 1 of 2 free throws after being fouled and Politte nailed a 3-pointer with 7 seconds left to cut the lead to 60-57.


The Kaws got a key stroke of fortune on the ensuing inbounds play as the Trail inbounds pass sailed out of bounds to give the Kaws the ball on their offensive end with 2.1 seconds left. Shafer was fouled on an inbounds play with 1 second left, and Kameron Hurd took the ensuing inbounds pass but his desperation 3-pointer missed the mark as Trail escaped, 60-57.


Kameron Hurd finished his final home game as a Kaw with 17 points while Politte scored 16 points in the losing effort.


The loss brought the Kaws’ regular season to an end at 2-18. They entered substate play at Hoyt as the eighth seed and were set to play top seed Pleasant Ridge Tuesday in Easton.