Indians Defeated by Hill City
The 2009-2010 Indian basketball season came to an close Friday night in WaKeeney. The Hill City Ringnecks proved to be too good for the Indian team. Hill City (20-2) jumped all over the Indians early. The Ringnecks led 1-8 with 4:14 remaining in the first quarter and 3-14 when the first period closed.
Hill City's 2-2-1 press and active 1-3-1 zone defense gave the Indians trouble all evening. The Ringneck's defense combined with sluggish offensive execution by St. Francis kept the Indians from ever really being in the game. The Ringnecks took advantage of numerous Indian turnovers and converted many of them into baskets. Hill City led 3-19 with more than six minutes left in the second and cruised to a 3-27 lead with three plus minutes left in the half before the Indians would score again. The Indians trailed 8-31 at halftime.
The Ringnecks led 8-39 less than two minutes into the second half. St. Francis made a nice run and trimmed the lead to 19-41 with 2:21 left in the third period but trailed 19-43 after three. The fourth quarter was played with a running clock. The Indians were defeated by a good Hill City team 29-54.
Matt Raile led the Indians in scoring with 14 points. Trent Raile added 8. Reggie Jordan scored 15 for the Ringnecks and Anthony McDonald chipped in 15.
The 2009-2010 team ended the season with a 12 wins and 9 losses. Four seniors, Matt Raile, Trent Raile, Drew Zweygardt, and Erick Estrada saw their high school careers come to a close in WaKeeney.
Coach Beims had the following
comments on the WaKeeney game. "This was a tough way to end the
season. We had two or three games like this over the season
where we were ice cold to start the game, and sort of lost our
composure and panicked as a result. In the first half we
couldn’t have hit ice had we fallen off a polar bear, shooting only
15% from the field. The second half was better, but way too
little, way too late.
We have an ugly habit of throwing everything out the window when we
get behind, throwing up 3 pointers, expecting them to count for 20
points, when if we would refocus on the little things like running
offensive sets, rebounding, and defense we would have a far better
chance of getting back in the ball game. Another glaring
weakness we’ve had all year is scoring when Trent and or Matt are
having off nights. We relied too much on them throughout the
year to provide our points, and it concerns me that they will no
longer be with us. It is time for the underclassmen to grab a
ball and get to work over the next few months.
Needless to say, we are going to miss our seniors. Basketball
is such a long season that when it ends I feel like I’ve lost my
family (seeing as how I spend more time with them than my family.)
Our team will not be the same without Matt, Trent, Drew and
Erick. Each of them contributed in their own way. I’m
honored to have coached each of them, and am thankful for the
opportunity to get to know them. It is a testament to our
community that you continually produce fine young men such as
these. They will be missed, but will always be considered a
part of the 'family.’"
Hill City defeated Ellis in overtime on Saturday evening to win the substate championship and advance to the state tournament.
