Chase County High School High School will play Mission Valley High School today in the Flint Hills League Shoot Out Tournament’s third-place consolation game. The Bulldogs took the loss last night against Osage City High School, 56-43. The Bulldogs fall to 10-2.
Osage City and Lyndon High School will also play today for the FHL Shoot Out Tournament championship.
The Bulldogs and Indians faced off on Jan. 10, with Chase County prevailing 57-55. And yesterday evening’s rematch was a real opportunity to position themselves to win their first FHL Shoot Out Tournament. The Bulldogs finished seventh last season.
Initially, it was a close contest. The Bulldogs were running and gunning and playing a 3-2 zone defense, seeking to mitigate the offensive output of Osage City’s super scorer Landon Boss.
“It’s pretty tough to guard Boss one-on-one…we tried to match him, we knew he was going to be working high-post to low-post,” said Chase County head coach Cade Witte. “So, we tried to have someone in the high post kind of waiting for him and not use that person to get down into the low post.”
Witte’s plan was to get steals on skip passes and convert them into buckets. He realized Boss was going to accumulate baskets but the steals/points strategy could help equalize his scoring.
“Even though Boss was getting his touches and getting some points, I thought we were gaining extra possessions and could keep the score close,” he said.
However, the Bulldogs couldn’t consistently finish at the offensive end, enabling Osage City to maintain its lead.
A 9-0 run by the Indians, after a Chase County timeout during the first quarter, seemed to be the turning point. First, Bulldog starter Tag Groh collected his third foul early in the second quarter and had to park it on the bench for the remainder of the half. And Boss was fluid in the post, scoring often but also money from the perimeter. He finished with almost as many points as the Bulldogs, 42/43. Once the Indians amassed an 11-point lead, they transitioned into a slow tempo/pass heavy-perimeter offense chewing up minutes.
“They kind of pulled the ball out, and obviously we had to kind of extend our defense a little bit more,” Witte said. “It was puling us away farther from the basket and allowing them to get to the rim a little bit more.”
Chase County scrapped and scraped but couldn’t quite put together a comeback. Groh led the Bulldogs with 11 points.
It was a tough loss for Chase County, but Witte reminded his squad after the contest that there are still eight games left, and they’re in a much better spot this year than in 2022.
“At this point last season, we didn’t have a league win,” he said. “We have two losses, and both are to teams that compete at the state level.”
In other FHL Shoot Out action, Northern Heights High School was defeated by West Franklin High School, 66-46, Friday afternoon.
(1) comment
What? No information on more games. No build-up on the Championship game? If you are going to report on the tournament , report on it.
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