Olpe boys, girls both fall to Centralia in State semis
By The Emporia Gazette (Contact)
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Centralia was not kind to either the Olpe boys or girls squads on Friday night, as the Eagles and Lady Eagles lost their matchups with Centralia in the semifinal round of the Class 1A Tournament in Hays.
The Olpe girls saw an 11-point lead after three quarters evaporate late, as Centralia used a fourth-quarter offensive explosion that was capped by a buzzer-beating, bank-shot 3-pointer to upset the top-seeded Lady Eagles, 48-45.
Olpe held what appeared to be a comfortable 39-28 lead after three quarters of play, but No. 4-seeded Centralia outscored Olpe by an astounding 20-6 margin in the fourth quarter to pull off the come-from-behind victory.
Senior Kayla Krueger had a somewhat average night for the Lady Eagles, as she was held to just 12 points on 4-of-18 shooting from the field. Krueger didn’t get much help though, as no other player scored in double figures for Olpe, which suffered its first loss of the season.
The Lady Eagles also were ice cold from the outside, hitting just 4 of 23 three-point attempts, while Centralia made 8 of 19, including Maggie Hasenkamp’s desperation shot to win it.
Hasenkamp led the way for Centralia with 19 points.
Centralia will play second-seeded South Haven in the title game at 4 p.m. today, while Olpe will meet Blue Valley Randolph in the third-place game at noon today.
As for the Olpe boys (25-2), they made a comeback bid of their own only to lose it late in a 65-64 loss to Centralia (25-1).
Trailing, 49-43, at the end of the third period, Olpe worked its way back into the game by outscoring Centralia 21-8 over the first 7 minutes of the final period to take a 64-57 lead with less than a minute left.
But Centralia hit consecutive 3-pointers and forced a critical Olpe turnover to get the ball back, and Ben Steinlage hit a shot with less than 5 seconds left to lift Centralia to the one-point victory.
Seth Pargman led Olpe with 21 points on 9-of-14 shooting from the field and a 3-for-4 performance from the free-throw line. Cole Krueger added 14 points for the Eagles, who fell to the third-place game, where they will meet fifth-seeded Goessel at 2 p.m. today.