Area athletes provides plenty of highlights in All-Star game
By Michael Ashford
Monday, April 2, 2007
Three-point barrages, huge comebacks, buzzer-beating shots — Saturday night’s Flint Hills Optimist All-Star basketball games on both the boys and the girls sides had it all.
Both games came down to last-second layups to decide the winner, with the Black squad winning each time over the Gold after both the boys and girls Gold squads came back from double-digit deficits to take the lead late.
In the girls game, after Emporia High’s Rachael Bachman of the Gold squad missed a free throw with 4 seconds left, Olpe’s Kayla Krueger pulled down the rebound and passed it to mid-court to Santa Fe Trail’s Tori Rutter. Rutter had gotten behind the defense, and she dribbled uncontested to the basket, laying it up off the glass as the buzzer sounded to give the Black squad the victory, 75-74.
“For some of these girls, its their last game,” Krueger said, “so a lot of them felt really good about that. It’s a good way to end it.”
In the boys game, after Emporia High’s Kyle deBlonk calmly knocked down two free throws to give the Gold team a 98-97 lead with 10 seconds left, Northern Heights’ Derek Parks missed a layup on the other end, but Marion’s Jason Hett picked up the loose ball and laid it in as time expired to give the Black squad the 99-98 victory.
The greater satisfaction for most of the players on both teams, however, was playing with the area athletes they had played against for so many years.
“We go through the season and go through a lot of battles, but most of us are friends off the court,” Madison’s Jordan Stout said. “Coming up here and getting to be teammates with them, it’s definitely a lot of fun.”
Interestingly, it was a pair of future Emporia State basketball players that contributed in big ways in their teams’ victories. Krueger finished with 12 points and won the girls three-point shooting contest earlier in the day, while Stout poured in 19 points and hit four of the Black squad’s 13 3-pointers. Both will play basketball at ESU next year, and both enjoyed the experience of playing in White Auditorium for the last time as high schoolers.
“I’ve dreamt of playing here (White Auditorium),” Krueger said. “I love playing in this place. I am really excited to be up here.”
“I know it’s going to take a lot of work coming up here to play for coach (David) Moe,” Stout said, “but I’m glad I’m staying close to home, and it should be a lot of fun.”
Though Stout finished as the high scorer in the boys game, MVP honors went to deBlonk, who provided the highlight of the night in the second half of the boys game when he took the ball coast to coast and capped off his drive with a nifty spin move in the paint for a layup off the glass, which brought plenty of “oohs” and “ahs” from the crowd. He finished with 14 points.
“It was really relaxing, just being able to go out there and play without any of the pressure,” deBlonk said. “It was really enjoyable.”
Other top performances went to Northern Heights’ Rick Hobson (15 points), Burlingame’s Zach Dodson (13 points) and Olpe’s Seth Pargman (12 points, 4 blocks) for the Gold squad, while on the Black squad, Hett finished with 12 points, Northern Heights’ Derek Parks had 11 and Waverly’s Dentin Chapman finished with 12 points on four 3-pointers.
The MVP on the girls side was Osage City’s Katie Buenger of the Gold squad, who finished with 18 points. Allison Scott of Council Grove had 17 points and Lebo’s Nickole Presley had 14 points to help the Black squad to the win.
The third Emporia athlete to be selected to play in the games, Jessica Muckenthaler, had the busiest schedule of the day. Muckenthaler played two soccer games for EHS in Wichita earlier in the day on Saturday before making it back to Emporia in time to start the second half of the girls game. Muckenthaler finished with 5 points.
“It was a very busy day — I am tired,” she said. “It’s just so different going from one extreme to the other. It was cold and windy and rainy when we were playing soccer, and then I come in here, and it’s just different. It’s fun. I’m glad I got to do both.”