Olpe boys avoid late collapse, defeat Northern Heights, 72-65
By Michael Ashford
Friday, February 8, 2008
Olpe — Bradley Argabright admitted to thinking about it.
Olpe boys basketball coach Chris Schmidt did, too.
With every turnover by Olpe and every made basket by Northern Heights in the fourth quarter of Thursday night’s game, one couldn’t help but have flashbacks to Dec. 4, when Olpe came back from a 24-point deficit to stun Madison. Only this time, almost the exact reverse was taking place.
Olpe led by 23 points over Heights at one point in the fourth quarter, but committed nine turnovers in the final period and had to stave off a frantic Northern Heights rally — the Wildcats cut the deficit to seven points with less than a minute remaining — before holding on to win, 72-65.
“I told the guys, ‘Let’s not let this happen,’” Argabright said. “We can have it when it happens our way, but not when it happens to us. We had a little letdown in the fourth quarter, but we pulled it out.”
Olpe (15-1) was good enough down the stretch to avoid having to swallow a dose of its own medicine after playing lights-out for the first three quarters.
The Eagles led, 14-10, after the first quarter and outscored Northern Heights by six points in the second period to go into halftime leading by 10 at 34-24.
Olpe continued to stretch out its lead after halftime, continually beating Heights’ press to get easy layups. In the third quarter, Olpe hit 8 of 11 shots, with Josh Klumpe going 3-for-3 from the field to score six of his eventual 14 points in the frame.
“I thought we executed really well in the third quarter,” Schmidt said. “We got the ball where we wanted to, and people were passing the ball to the open man.”
After leading 54-36 to start the final frame, Olpe got five points from Agrabright and a layup by Klumpe during a 7-2 run that ballooned the Eagles’ advantage to 23 points at 61-38 with 6 1/2 minutes left, and the rout was on.
Or so it seemed.
Over the game’s next 5 minutes, 45 seconds, Heights (13-2) came roaring back with a 23-7 run that was capped by a Levi Hizar 3-pointer from the right corner that made it 68-61 with 47 seconds left. The Wildcats used a full-court trapping defense to finally fluster the Eagles, who had been nearly flawless at handling Heights’ pressure up to that point.
It was during that stretch that the Eagles committed all nine of their turnovers in the frame after only giving the ball away nine times the rest of the game.
Olpe’s only points during the stretch came from two free throws and a jumper from Cole Krueger, who finished with a game-high 26 points, and three free throws by Alex Medenciy.
“The first three quarters, we did really well against their press. We broke it,” Argabright said. “In the last quarter, they trapped really hard, and we stopped getting it done. We didn’t play with the lead tonight.”
From his view on the sideline, Schmidt said thoughts of his team’s remarkable comeback over Madison two months ago crept into his mind, though it was a much different feeling this time around.
“You definitely sit there and think about it,” Schmidt said. “I never brought that up to the kids, but I just kept telling them, ‘We’ve got the points. Let’s just make sure we get the possessions and let them come chase us.’”
After drawing to within seven points, Heights had to foul, and Krueger closed out the game by going 4-for-6 from the charity stripe in the last 39 seconds. Krueger attempted 22 free throws, hitting 14.
“I’m real proud of the way our kids fought back,” Heights coach Lanny Massey said. “It would have been real easy to give up and just go home. If we could have gotten 32 minutes like the last 4, I think we’d have been real tough to beat tonight.”
Heights, the No. 10 team in Class 3A, never looked in sync offensively, committing 25 turnovers and going 3-for-19 from three-point range.
Haydon Parks paced the Wildcats with 16 points and 12 rebounds.
Krueger also grabbed a game-high 14 rebounds. Argabright (16), Klumpe (14) and Medenciy (12) joined Krueger in double figures.
Olpe boys 72, Northern Heights 65
Thursday at Olpe
No. Heights 10 14 12 29 — 65
Olpe 14 20 20 18 — 72
Northern Heights (13-2) — Michael Glass 5-10 2-2 14, Kenneth Bronson 0-3 0-0 0, Pete Symmonds 4-6 2-3 10, Levi Hizar 6-19 0-1 13, Haydon Parks 7-9 2-5 16, Roman Murray 1-5 0-0 2, Tyler McClellan 2-3 0-2 4, David Hanks 2-3 2-2 6. Totals 27-58 8-15 65.
Olpe (15-1) — Cole Krueger 6-10 14-22 26, Bradley Argabright 6-11 2-2 16, Alex Medenciy 3-11 4-7 12, Josh Klumpe 7-12 0-2 14, Ethan Schneider 1-7 0-0 2, Nathan Hammond 0-0 0-0 0, Bryant Duenas 0-0 0-0 0, Matt Redeker 1-2 0-0 2. Totals 24-53 20-33 72.
3-point goals — NH 3-19 (Glass 2-6, Bronson 0-2, Hizar 1-10, Murray 0-1), Olpe 4-16 (Argabright 2-5, Medenciy 2-9, Schneider 0-1, Redeker 0-1). Rebounds — NH 36 (Parks 12), Olpe 34 (Krueger 14). Assists — NH 4 (4 tied at 1), Olpe 12 (Argabright 4). Turnovers — NH 25, Olpe 18. Total fouls — NH 25, Olpe 15.
Olpe girls 60, Northern Heights 47
With a clear height advantage, the Olpe girls were more than content to sit back in a zone defense and dare the Northern Heights shooters to try and beat them Thursday night.
Though the game got sloppy in the fourth quarter, which allowed Heights to make a late push, the strategy worked well for the Lady Eagles in a 60-47 victory, as they out-rebounded the Ladycats by 14 and forced Heights into shooting just 27 percent (16-for-60).
“We’re a pretty good defensive team,” Olpe coach Jesse Nelson said. “I think we didn’t do as good a job of taking advantage of our size as we should have ... but defensively we were OK tonight.”
Olpe ran out to a 21-10 lead after the first quarter, as the Lady Eagles (16-0) made their first four shots of the game and went 10-for-18 from the field in the first period.
Olpe took a 33-17 lead into halftime — led by 12 points from freshman Kathryn Flott — but Heights still was able to hang around thanks to an unusually high number of turnovers by the Lady Eagles. Olpe finished with 26 turnovers, committing 13 in each half.
“We just got sloppy,” Nelson said. “There was absolutely no reason for it. We’re a much better ball-handling team than that.”
The Lady Eagles stretched their lead to 21 points by the start of the fourth quarter, but Northern Heights managed to make things interesting in the last 8 minutes by scoring on a variety of fast-break opportunities off Olpe turnovers, led by Sarah Boline, who scored 11 points in the final frame. Two free throws from Boline made the score 57-47 with just more than a minute left, but Heights could never get any closer.
“I think we came out a lot harder in the second half,” Heights coach Tim Riemann said. “We had some fight. But when you give a team like Olpe that kind of lead, it’s hard to beat them.”
Flott finished with a game-high 20 points. She also grabbed 15 rebounds, helping the Lady Eagles out-rebound the Ladycats, 43-29.
“If we didn’t have all those rebounds,” Flott said, “the game would have been a lot closer.”
Kylie Haag added 13 points and Megan Woods chipped in 12 for the Lady Eagles, while Amy Lee led Heights with 16 points. Sarah Boline finished with 15 points.
Olpe girls 60, Northern Heights 47
Thursday at Olpe
No. Heights 10 7 7 23 — 47
Olpe 21 12 12 15 — 60
Northern Heights (9-6) — Amy Lee 6-15 1-2 16, Andrea Miller 2-6 2-2 6, Amy Boline 0-4 2-2 2, Alex DeLong 1-11 0-0 3, Sarah Boline 6-14 2-4 15, Tess Hobson 1-6 0-0 2, Leann Baird 0-2 3-4 3, Sky Linsey 0-0 0-0 0, Danielle Dreier 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 16-60 10-14 47.
Olpe (16-0) — Kylie Haag 6-14 0-2 13, Katie Moyer 3-9 1-2 9, Kathryn Flott 8-14 4-4 20, Erica Brinkman 3-3 0-0 6, Megan Woods 6-9 0-0 12, Jill Cole 0-0 0-1 0, Brianne Davis 0-0 0-1 0. Totals 26-49 5-10 60.
3-point goals — NH 5-15 (Lee 3-9, DeLong 1-3, S. Boline 1-1, Hobson 0-2), Olpe 3-8 (Haag 1-1, Moyer 2-7). Rebounds — NH 29 (S. Boline 7), Olpe 43 (Flott 15). Assists — NH 7 (A. Boline, DeLong 2), Olpe 11 (Haag, Flott 3). Turnovers — NH 17, Olpe 26. Total fouls — NH 16, Olpe 9.