Herington’s Coty Miller goes off for 35 to lead Railers to win over Solomon
By The Emporia Gazette (Contact)
Wednesday, January 3, 2007
The Solomon Gorillas decided to play zone against the Herington Railers Tuesday night, and Coty Miller made them wish they didn’t.
Miller hit seven 3-pointers en route to scoring a game-high 35 points to lead Herington to a 77-66 home victory over Solomon.
“He shot the ball very well,” Herington coach Tony Hoops said. “He had open looks all over the place. He wasn’t forcing his shots. Solomon didn’t get out of their zone, and if you leave him (Miller) open, he’s generally going to knock it down.”
Herington came out of the gates shooting, building a 21-12 lead after the first quarter. But Solomon did not go away, outscoring the Railers 18-6 in the second to close the gap to 32-31 at halftime.
“In the first half, and really for the whole game, we played well in terms of offense,” he said, “but in the first half, our defense was atrocious. We would build a 10-12 point lead, and then were only up one at halftime because of poor defense.”
However, an 18-6 third-quarter scoring spurt gave the Railers control of the game, and they held Solomon at bay from there.
Also scoring in double figures for Herington were Anthony Scott with 11 and Eli Mitchell with 16. The win moved Herington closer to the .500 mark at 2-3.
MdCV boys 52,
Hamilton 39
The Marais des Cygnes Valleyboys overcame a first-quarter deficit to take the 13-point win.
Hamilton led 17-16 after the first quarter before MdCV rallied to take a 26-25 halftime advantage.
The second half was all Trojans. MdCV outscored Hamilton 26-14 in the final 16 minutes to secure the victory.
“It looked like we hadn’t played in a couple weeks,” MdCV coach Thad Thurston said, “but I thought we played a better second half, and that was important to us.”
Dennis Becker led MdCV, scoring a game-high 14 points. Drew Woodruff added 12 and David Becker contributed nine.
Shane Ashlock paced Hamilton with 11 points, while Charlie Schlotterbeck had 10.
Hamilton lost despite making 5 of its 13 three-point attempts (38 percent).
S. Coff. County boys 61, Flinthills 58
Southern Coffey County rallied from a 12-point first-quarter hole to take the three-point victory over Flinthills.
The Titans outscored the Mustangs in each of the final three frames to take the come-from-behind win. SCC trailed 33-23 at halftime before going on a 38-25 run after the intermission.
“We were outplayed in the second half,” Flinthills coach Don Wedel said. “Southern Coffey County wanted the game more than we did.”
Dane Birk had 16 points to lead SCC, while Matt Harmon added 14. John Kraft (13) and Justin Meyer (11) both hit double figures.
Flinthills’ Grant Vogt was the game’s high scorer, contributing 18 points that included a 10-of-14 showing from the free-throw line. Keil Reimann notched 11 points, while Jeremy Jackson chipped in 10.
Both Meyer and Kraft made three three-point attempts each in the win.
Meanwhile, Flinthills suffered from a tough shooting night. The Mustangs finished 1-for-14 from three-point range and 17 of 31 from the free-throw line (55 percent).
Herington girls 54,
Solomon 38
Herington girls coach Jason Emig was worried about how his team might perform coming off Christmas break, but Kristin Kleinschmidt — Herington’s only senior — and the rest of the Lady Railers eased his worries Tuesday night with a 54-38 home victory over Solomon.
Kleinschmidt scored 23 points to lead the way for the Lady Railers, who jumped out to a 19-9 first-quarter lead thanks to 9 points in the period from Kleinschmidt.
“I was really pleased with Kleinschmidt’s play,” Emig said. “She really held us together, being our only senior, and did a great job with the younger girls on the team.”
Herington earned the victory thanks to fundamental play, as the Lady Railers only committed 10 turnovers for the game. Emig was concerned that Solomon’s inside game got too many open looks, but overall, the coach said he was happy with his team’s first game back from the long layoff.
“I am pleased with the win,” he said. “I was pleased with how we shot the ball. I think we played, overall, a good game.”
Flinthills girls 65,
So. Coffey County 46
Flinthills pulled away with a 25-point second quarter, taking control in the 19-point victory.
Southern Coffey County was held to just three points in the third quarter as Flinthills pushed its lead to 27.
“I was very pleased with our execution for the most part,” Flinthills coach Mark Womacks said. “We had a few breakdowns, but in areas that can definitely be corrected.”
The Lady Titans did win the fourth quarter, 20-11, but it was too little, too late.
“We had too many turnovers and didn’t get back on defense quick enough,” SCC coach Jeff True said. “It led to a lot of easy baskets for Flinthills.”
Lacey Breech led Flinthills with 19 points, while Caley Onek contributed 11. Erin Dragoo (9) and Alexa Cuskelly (8) just missed out on double figures.
Casie Combs paced SCC, scoring 16 points. Hannah Brooks added 10 rebounds and nine steals.
“I was pleased with our girls’ overall effort,” True said. “They didn’t quit playing for the entire 32 minutes.”
SCC (4-2) will play host to Pleasanton on Friday, while Flinthills travels to Waverly.
Gazette sports reporter Jesse Newell and sports editor Michael Ashford contributed to this report.