The Northern Heights boys expected to get Herington’s best shot when the two met Saturday night for the Flint Hills Shootout title.
What might have been unexpected, however, was who stepped up and hit the game’s biggest shots with the Wildcats and Railers locked in a back-and-forth battle.
Heights’ Roman Murray, who went scoreless in the game’s first 22 minutes, went on a personal 11-0 run to close out the third quarter, turning what had been a tie game into an 11-point lead for the Wildcats heading into the fourth quarter, giving Heights all the breathing room it would need for a 60-40 victory and the Flint Hills Shootout title.
“It was a little bit unexpected,” Murray said. “I just got hot and I kept shooting. My teammates gave me great opportunities to get open, and I had to knock the shots down for them.”
The unbeaten and top-seeded Wildcats were struggling to put away third-seeded Herington in the latter stages of the third quarter, as a basket by Haydon Parks drew Heights even with the Railers at 33-all with 3 minutes, 2 seconds left in the third period.
About a minute later, after missing his first four shots of the game, Murray took a pass from Levi Hizar on the right wing, squared up and fired. His three-point shot found nothing but the bottom of the net, giving Murray his first points of the game and giving Heights the lead at 36-33.
Heights would never trail again, but Murray wasn’t finished.
One minute after that, Murray took a pass from Kenneth Bronson and drained a 3-pointer from the left wing, pushing Heights’ lead to 39-33. With 29 seconds left in the frame, and after two missed shots by Herington, Bronson found Murray again on the right wing, and Murray knocked down his third three-point shot in a row.
Murray capped his scoring spurt with a layup at the buzzer — his own 11-0 run giving Heights a 44-33 lead at the end of the quarter.
The lead would only get below 10 points once more, as Heights outscored Herington 16-7 in the fourth quarter on the way to the 20-point victory.
“Not only did it boost my confidence,” Murray said, “but it also gave my teammates confidence that we could actually make a serious run and do some damage in the second half. It sparked a run for us that sealed the game.”
Though the end result was a convincing victory for the Wildcats, it did not tell the story of how Herington actually outplayed Heights for most of the game.
Herington, after digging itself in an early 6-0 hole, battled back to go toe-to-toe with the Wildcats. Herington used an 11-2 run to burst past the Wildcats for a 13-8 lead — a lead that the Railers kept for most of the rest of the half on their way to a 27-25 halftime lead.
“We let them get out and run on us instead of us running on them,” Heights coach Lanny Massey said, “and they were able to get the easy baskets and were able to stay with us early.”
Out of halftime, Herington refused to get pushed around by the Wildcats, as a layup by Tyler Barber with 3 1/2 minutes left in the third quarter gave the lead back to the Railers at 33-31.
But Parks tied the game on Heights’ next possession, and then Murray went off to finally give Heights some separation.
Murray finished with 13 points, as did Hizar. The two served as complementary bookends to the game the 6-foot-6 Parks put together.
Parks finished with a game-high 19 points and went 9-for-14 from the field, at times scoring at will. He also pulled down a game-high 15 rebounds and dished out three assists.
“That’s the one thing we’ve been able to count on all year — the one constant — is that Haydon’s going to show up to play,” Heights coach Lanny Massey said. “Whether we get him 12 shots or 20 shots, he’s going to score, he’s going to get boards, he’s going to be a man among boys.
“When we can get somebody else to get hot to go along with him, it makes us a pretty good basketball team.”
In the other boys games Saturday, Osage City defeated Mission Valley, 52-23, in the third-place game while West Franklin defeated Eureka, 53-26, in the fifth-place game.
Heights improved to 11-0 with its victory and will get back into regular-season play on Friday when it travels to Osage City.
No. Heights boys 60, Herington 40
Flint Hills Shootout — Championship Game
Saturday at White Auditorium
Herington 13 14 6 7 — 40
No. Heights 12 13 19 16 — 60
Herington (4-4) — Scott 2-13 6-6 11, Geissert 2-11 0-0 4, Barber 3-11 1-2 7, Meyer 2-5 0-0 4, Mueller 3-9 2-2 8, Knopp 0-1 2-2 2, Byrd 2-4 0-0 4. Totals 14-54 11-12 40.
Northern Heights (11-0) — Bronson 1-6 0-0 2, Symmonds 3-5 1-2 7, McClellan 2-7 0-2 4, Hizar 5-19 2-3 13, Parks 9-14 1-3 19, Hanks 1-6 0-0 2, Murray 5-10 0-2 13, Glass 0-0 0-2 0, D. Swanson 0-1 0-0 0, Seematter 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 26-69 4-14 60.
3-point goals — Herington 1-12 (Scott 1-6, Geissert 0-3, Meyer 0-3), NH 4-12 (Hizar 1-7, Murray 3-5). Rebounds — Herington 41 (Mueller 11), NH 46 (Parks 15). Assists — Herington 10 (Geissert 4), NH 10 (Bronson, Parks 3). Turnovers — Herington 24, NH 15. Total fouls — Herington 11, NH 14.
No. Heights girls 39, West Franklin 27
Through three quarters of the third-place game of the Flint Hills Shootout between the Northern Heights girls and West Franklin, about the most exciting thing that had happened were the fire alarms going off twice during the first quarter.
But in the final period, the Northern Heights girls finally turned the heat up enough to get past the Lady Falcons, 39-27.
The third-seeded Ladycats outscored West Franklin, 18-5, in the fourth quarter, which included a 14-for-18 performance from the free-throw line, which turned out to be the difference in the game.
“The best thing we can take from this game is we had a good performance from the free-throw line, because a lot of the other things really didn’t go our way,” Heights coach Tim Riemann said. “This was just an ugly game. We found a way to hang around and found a way to win at the end, and that’s the mark of a good team.”
Sixth-seeded West Franklin led, 22-21, at the end of the third quarter, as neither team had had much success offensively. The two teams had combined to commit almost as many turnovers (38) as points scored (43), and neither team had held a lead of more than three points.
So when West Franklin went on a mini 4-0 run to open the fourth quarter and grab a five-point lead at 26-21, it appeared that it might be the clincher for the Lady Falcons.
However, two free throws from Sarah Boline — which drew Heights to within three at 26-23 — began an 18-0 run for the Ladycats that gave Heights the lead and the victory. The only points during the run that didn’t come from the foul line came on a layup by Leann Baird that pulled Heights even with West Franklin at 26. It was the first Heights field goal in nearly 11 minutes, but the Ladycats were good enough from the free-throw line that it didn’t matter.
Heights finished 21-for-25 (84 percent) at the free-throw line.
“The free throws won us the game,” Boline said. “I think this is the best we’ve ever shot free throws. Usually, we’re around 65 percent. We did pretty good today.”
Amy Lee led Heights with nine points, while Boline and Baird each had eight. West Franklin’s Sam Schaffer led all scorers with 10 points.
In the other girls games Saturday, Mission Valley topped Eureka, 54-35, in the third-place game while Osage City took down Herington in the championship game, 42-31.
No. Heights girls 39, West Franklin 27
Flint Hills Shootout — Third-Place game
Saturday at White Auditorium
West Franklin 7 9 6 5 — 27
No. Heights 8 9 4 18 — 39
West Franklin (2-6) — Griffin 0-2 0-0 0, Shaffer 3-8 2-3 10, Milton 1-7 2-2 4, Reed 2-11 2-4 6, C. Rockhold 1-5 1-2 3, Slichter 0-1 1-2 1, L. Rockhold 1-3 1-2 3, Boor 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 8-38 9-15 27.
Northern Heights (7-4) — Lee 1-9 7-7 9, Miller 0-8 4-6 4, A. Boline 2-6 0-0 4, DeLong 0-4 0-0 0, S. Boline 2-10 4-6 8, Hobson 1-6 4-4 6, Baird 3-7 2-2 8, Linsey 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 9-51 21-25 39.
3-point goals — WF 2-4 (Shaffer 2-4), NH 0-4 (Lee 0-2, Hobson 0-2). Rebounds — WF 33 (Milton, Reed 6), NH 43 (DeLong, S. Boline 7). Assists — WF 1 (Reed 1), NH 5 (Lee 2). Turnovers — WF 26, NH 24. Total fouls — WF 20, NH 17. Fouled out — WF: Shaffer. Technical fouls — NH: Bench.