Eagle boys hold off late Lebo run
Ken Easthouse
Monday, January 29, 2007
The Olpe boys basketball team shot 80 percent from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter, stopping a late Lebo run to hold on and win the Lyon County League Tournament title, 50-45, Saturday night.
Olpe and Lebo met last year in the championship game as well, with Lebo taking that game, 47-43. Olpe coach Chris Schmidt said he didn’t emphasize last year’s game for a reason.
“We didn’t talk about it much from last year,” Schmidt said, “because this is this year and that was last year.”
However, Olpe senior Seth Pargman said it was tough for the team to forget about that loss.
“It’s kind of hard not to think about it (last year),” Pargman said. “We wanted to come out and get some revenge.”
Pargman led Olpe with 13 points, including five during a 7-0 run to open the second half that helped the Eagles get and maintain the lead.
However, Pargman quickly got into foul trouble and sat for most of the third quarter. Instead, reserve Aaron Hammond nailed back-to-back 3-pointers to lead a third-quarter charge that put the Eagles up, 37-28, by the fourth quarter.
“That kind of takes them out of what they wanted to do,” Schmidt said.
However, the Wolves refused to give up. Lebo continued to push the ball up the court at full speed throughout the fourth quarter, slowly chipping away at Olpe’s lead. With 5 seconds remaining, senior Aaron Gillespie hit his second 3-pointer to pull the Wolves to within five points, leaving a glimmer of hope. Gillespie, a 6-foot-8 center, doesn’t normally shoot from that distance, but received the green light from coach Matt Barrett earlier this week in practice.
“He can shoot the three,” Barrett said. “I don’t care if he shoots it from out there, because he might be one of the better three-point shooters we have.”
Olpe staved off the Wolves’ charge by shooting 8-for-10 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter, an area where Schmidt said the Eagles had not been traditionally strong.
“Fortunately, we did enough in the fourth quarter at the free-throw line to keep it at a margin where they couldn’t get too close to us,” Schmidt said.
Barrett, while happy with his team’s effort, said the final could have been much different if Lebo had eliminated “silly mistakes.”
“If we would just eliminate a few of the silly things we do and eliminate a few of their possessions it would be a different game,” Barrett said.
In the first half, Lebo’s 1-3-1 trap defense frustrated the Eagles, forcing shots and preventing Pargman from becoming too active in the post.
“We were settling for outside shots and they weren’t going,” Schmidt said. “We just needed to attack the basket more.”
LEBO boys 45, OLPE 50
Lebo 8 10 10 17 — 45
Olpe 12 4 21 13 — 50
Lebo (10-4 LCL) — Jones 3, Linsey 3, Smith 7, Laflin 4, Vannocker 3, Barker 6, Gillespie 19. Total 45.
Olpe (14-0 LCL) — Krueger 5, J. Pargman 5, Stueve 3, Hammond 9, S. Pargman 13, Schmidt 5, Burenheide 2, Coble 4, Pettijohn 4. Total 50.
Halftime — Lebo 18-16. Total fouls — Lebo 16, Olpe 12. Fouled out — S. Pargman.
Madison boys 57,
Burlingame 55
Three fourth-quarter 3-pointers by Hank Zerbe were not enough to lift Burlingame past Madison in the third-place game, as the Bulldogs hung on to win 57-55.
Burlingame only had four players score in the loss, as Zerbe had 14 to go along with 20 from Chris Patterson, 13 from Zach Dodson and six from Tim Thummel.
Madison, meanwhile, overcame seven Burlingame 3-pointers with a balanced scoring attack led by Kaleb Schankie’s 17 points and 16 points from Jordan Stout. Of the eight Madison players that scored in the game, six contributed points in the decicive fourth quarter that saw Madison outscore Burlingame, 21-18.
MADISON boys 57, BURLINGAME 55
Burlingame 13 12 12 18 — 55
Madison 12 13 11 21 — 57
Burlingame (7-5 LCL) — Dodson 13, Thummel 6, Zerbe 14, Patterson 20.
Madison (10-2 LCL) — Porter 7, Whitmore 7, Stout 16, Huber 2, James 2, Childers 4, Luthi 2, Schankie 17.
Halftime — Tied at 25. Total fouls — Burlingame 12, Madison 12. Fouled out — Burlingame: Thummel.
Waverly boys 49,
Hartford 38
The Waverly boys hit 13 free throws in the fourth quarter to ice a 49-38 win over Hartford in the consolation championship game.
Waverly center Heath Redding tossed in seven of those charity shots himself on his way to a game-high 17 points. The Bulldogs outscored the Jaguars 23-10 in the fourth period to turn a two-point deficit at the end of the into an 11-point victory.
Casey Church turned in an 11-point outing for Waverly, while Blake Edwards scored 14 points and Josh Dunn added 10 off the bench for the Jaguars before each fouled out.
WAVERLY boys 49, HARTFORD 38
Hartford 10 14 4 10 — 38
Waverly 3 13 10 23 — 49
Hartford (4-9 LCL) — Dunn 10, Gardner 4, Williams 8, Edwards 14, Farr 2.
Waverly (6-6 LCL) — Redding 17, Chapman 5, Coursen 5, Fleming 6, Hamm 5, Church 11.
Halftime — Hartford 24-16. Total fouls — Hartford 27, Waverly 16. Fouled out — Hartford: Dunn, Edwards, Gardner.
MdCV boys 56,
Chase County 47
Chisom Spencer scored 13 of his game-high 16 points in the second half to help lift the Marais des Cygnes Valley boys over Chase County, 56-47, in the seventh-place game.
Spencer hit just two field goals after halftime, but went 8-of-11 from the free-throw line to help the Trojans hold on to and extend their seven-point lead they had at the break.
Also in double figures for Marais des Cygnes Valley was Brandon Litch with 12 points and Drew Woodruff with 11. Joey Heathman led Chase County with 13 points.
MdCV boys 56, CHASE CO. 47
MdCV 11 16 13 14 — 56
Chase Co. 8 12 12 15 — 47
MdCV (2-9 LCL) — Schmidt 4, Spencer 16, Litch 12, Woodruff 11, De. Becker 8, Da. Becker 5.
Chase Co. (2-9 LCL) — S. Talkington 9, Heathman 13, Cole 8, B. Talkington 2, Johnson 9, Glenville 6.
Halftime — MdCV 27-20. Total fouls — MdCV 15, Chase Co. 16. Fouled out — MdCV: De. Becker. Chase Co.: Heathman.