Drama fills 1st day of 6A basketball tourney
By The Emporia Gazette (Contact)
Thursday, March 8, 2007
The first round of the boys 6A State basketball tournament on Wednesday at White Auditorium was not without plenty of drama, as the first day of action saw the tournament’s No. 1 seed go down to defeat and another team hold off a furious comeback.
The biggest news of the day might have been the tournament’s top seed, Shawnee Mission West, falling to the eighth seed, Lawrence Free State, 53-35.
Free State stalled the entire second half by slowing the game down, and it worked to perfection. Free State (12-11) held West (18-5) to just 23 points in the second half, and it was no where near enough to overcome Free State’s 10-point halftime lead at 22-12.
Interestingly enough, Free State’s victory over West comes two years after West, then a No. 8 seed, defeated top-seeded Free State in the first round of the State tournament.
Free State’s Christian Ballard, who has signed to play football at Iowa as a tight end, led all scorers with 20 points and was joined in double figures by teammate Kyle Schreiner, who had 15.
Jared Witter led West with 13 points.
The second game of the day pitted No. 6-seeded Washburn Rural against No. 3-seeded Garden City, with Rural holding off a late Garden City rally thanks to a bucket in the closing seconds by Greg Schmidt to give Rural the victory, 73-69.
After Garden City rallied from a 12-point fourth-quarter deficit, it found itself with the ball trailing by two with just 10 seconds remaining.
However, Schmidt stole the ball back for Rural and laid it in with 8 seconds left to give Rural the final margin of victory.
Schmidt ended with 15 points and was one of four Junior Blues who scored in double figures. Tanner Speake led the way with 17 points, while Justin Werner added 16 and Jay Valerius had 14.
Garden City’s Drew Jones led all scorers with 21 points.
The tournament led off with Leavenworth defeating Wichita North, 65-60. No. 2-seeded Leavenworth’s victory was the only game of the day where the seeds held, as Wichita North was the tournament’s seventh seed.
Antoine Branch led the way for Leavenworth with 13 points, while Brandon Dougherty, Colin O’Neill and Olivé Palu had 10 points apiece. Andre Kahmeyer led North with 19 points.
In the nightcap, No. 5-seeded Blue Valley West, which played at White Auditorium earlier this season when it won the Paul Terry Classic, defeated No. 4-seeded Topeka High, 57-43.
The boys side of the tournament resumes on Friday when Leavenworth meets Washburn Rural at 4:45 p.m. followed by Lawrence Free State against Blue Valley West at 8:15 p.m.
Olpe edges past
Little River in 1A tourney
The top-seeded Olpe girls survived a scare in the opening round of the Class 1A State tournament in Hays with a nip-and-tuck 58-55 victory over Little River on Wednesday.
Olpe jumped out to a 17-10 lead by the end of the first quarter, but Little River fought back by outscoring the Lady Eagles, 20-15, in the second period to close the halftime score to 32-30.
It was close the rest of the way, as the two teams fought to a 14-all draw in the third period before Olpe edged Little River, 12-11, in the fourth quarter to leave with the win.
Kayle Krueger led Olpe with 19 points, while Megan Woods chipped in 17 on 8-of-11 shooting.
Olpe will meet No.4-seeded Centralia, which defeated fifth-seeded Claflin, 43-30, at 6:30 p.m. on Friday.
OLPE 58, LITTLE RIVER 55
Little River 10 20 14 11 — 55
Olpe 17 15 14 12 — 58
LITTLE RIVER (17-9) — A. Nelson 1-5 0-0 2, C. Nelson 1-3 1-3 3, Wright 3-5 0-0 6, Teeters 6-13 0-1 15, Johnson 0-0 0-0 0, Galyon 1-3 4-4 6, R. Nelson 1-2 0-0 2, Cordell 9-14 1-1 21. Totals 22-45 6-9 55.
OLPE (26-0) — Krueger 7-14 4-4 19, Maley 3-6 0-0 6, Haag 1-4 0-1 2, Meza 0-3 0-0 0, Cole 2-2 0-0 5, Moyer 3-7 0-0 9, Brinkman 0-0 0-0 0, Woods 8-11 1-4 17. Totals 24-47 7-11 58.
3-point goals — LR 5-15 (A. Nelson 0-4, Teeters 3-7, Cordell 2-4), Olpe 5-12 (Krueger 1-4, Meza 0-1, Cole 1-1, Moyer 3-6). Fouled out — none. Rebounds — LR 23 (Wright, Cordell 5), Olpe 28 (Haag 9). Assists — LR 12 (Galyon 5), Olpe 14 (Krueger, Maley, Cole 3). Total fouls — LR 13, Olpe 13.