Boys Earn Nice Win!
Girls Lose to Strong Hoxie Team
Hoxie High School brought two good varsity basketball teams to St. Francis for competition on Friday, January 6th. They left with with one win and one loss. The Hoxie boys entered the contest 6-1 on the season. Their only loss occurred in the Castle Rock Classic Tournament. Hoxie lost to a very strong team from Word of Life Academy (Wichita) 74-28. Hoxie had defeated all other opponents by 16 or more points. The St. Francis Indians defeated the Hoxie Indians in a well-played contest.
The Indians jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead when Dylan Peter drained a three from the top of the key early in the contest. With 6:15 left in the first quarter, Hoxie tied the game at five-all and continued on a 13-point run to take a 5-13 lead. Isaac Schiltz stopped the bleeding with a basket at the 2:24 mark. The first quarter closed with Hoxie leading 14-22.
With good offensive execution, the Indians closed the gap early in the second period. Isaac Schiltz made a trey with 6:23 left in the second to cut the lead to 19-22. Mason Schiltz tied the game at 22 with another trey at the 5:42 mark. The home-standing Indians regained the lead on a basket by Matt Tygart off a nice pass from Mason Schiltz with 4:45 left in the half. Matt was fouled on the basket and made the free throw to complete the old-fashioned three point play (25-22). St. Francis extended the lead to six (32-26) on a trey by Isaac Schiltz at the 2:05 mark. Dylan Peter then scored consecutive baskets, the last on a nice high-low pass by Matt Tygart with 1:29 to go (36-29). Matt Tygart scored the next Indian basket on a high-low post pass from Peter. The first half ended with the score 38-33 in favor of St. Francis.
The two Indian teams played hard throughout the third period exchanging baskets and defensive intensity. The quarter closed with St. Francis leading by three (46-43).
Hoxie tied the contest with fourteen seconds gone in the fourth period (46-46) with a trey. Shortly thereafter, Hoxie took the lead using a nice transition game to gain some easier baskets. St. Francis trailed 48-52 with 4:48 left. Matt Tygart earned a stick-back basket to cut the lead to two with 4:05 left. Jonathan Butler drained a trey at 3:23 to give St. Francis their first lead (53-52) since early in the period. J.B. followed with another basket at 2:53 to regain the lead again (55-54). With 1:50 left, Matt Tygart was fouled and made one of two. A Hoxie trey at the 1:28 mark gave them the lead again (56-57). Isaac Schiltz was fouled with 1:19 left and calmly sank both throws (58-57). With 1:13 to go, Coach Beims was called for a technical foul for stepping out of the coach's box. Hoxie made one free throw to tie the contest and called time out. After the time out, Mason Schiltz stole the ball from a Hoxie player and took it to the goal for a two-point advantage (60-58). After a Hoxie miss, Isaac Schiltz was fouled and again. Isaac sank both free throws (62-58). Hoxie followed with a trey to cut the Indian lead to one (62-61) with 41 seconds left. Hoxie fouled Mason Schiltz with 37 seconds remaining. Mason connected on both chances from the stripe (64-61). Matt Tygart grabbed the rebound after the next Hoxie miss. Hoxie then fouled Jonathan Butler with 23 ticks left. J.B. made one of two (65-61). Hoxie called a time-out with 17 seconds left to set up a scoring attempt. Hoxie missed two shots, but Mason Schiltz gathered in the second rebound. Again, Hoxie fouled. Mason calmly sank both free throws for a 67-61 St. Francis win.
St. Francis had five players score 8 or more points in the contest: Isaac Schiltz 23, Matt Tygart 16, Dylan Peter 11, Mason Schitlz 9, and Jonathan Butler 8. The Indians were 13 of 15 from the charity stripe and sealed the win at the line.
The visiting Indians also had good scoring balance. The Hoxie Indians received 24 points from Moss. Pope added 12, Kennedy 11, and Spresser 10 to the Hoxie point total. Hoxie was 1 of 2 from the free throw line.
The junior varsity boys trailed Hoxie by 22 points at halftime. The Indians cut into the Hoxie lead in the second half but could not overcome the large advantage. The Indians were defeated by Hoxie 44-52.
The Hoxie girls brought an 6-1 record into the contest, losing to Word of Life Academy (Wichita) in the finals of the Castle Rock Classic 61-50. The closest any other team had played the Hoxie girls was a 25 point margin. The Hoxie girls had an easy time with the Lady Indians using their superior skills and quickness to score easily in transition and constant defensive pressure to cause difficulty for St. Francis on offense.
Hoxie led 3-6 with two minutes gone in the contest and were up 3-12 with 2:52 left in the first period. The Hoxie girls then scored several unanswered baskets off St. Francis turnovers, quickly turning them into baskets in transition. The Lady Indians trailed Hoxie 5-22 at the first quarter break.
Kyla Bandel scored for the Lady Indians with 6:52 left in the second to move the score to 7-24. With 4:59 left in the half, the Lady Indians trailed 10-38. The first half closed with the score 16-42 in favor of Hoxie.
The point spread widened a bit more in the third period to 24-60. With 3:34 remaining in the contest, the Lady Indians trailed by 40 (28-68). Hoxie cruised to a 30-70 victory.
Kaitlin Figgins led the Lady Indians in scoring with eight points. Clarice Neitzel scored seven. The Lady Indians were 11 of 17 from the free throw line.
Hoxie had six girls score 7 or more points: S. Heim 15, D. Stithem 15, C Heim 11, L Schamberger 8, G. Spresser 7, and S. Farber 7. Hoxie was 9 of 15 from the charity stripe.
The junior varsity girls game was also won by Hoxie. The game was played as three straight quarters due to the limited number of players. The score was 1-2 Hoxie at the 4:45 mark in quarter one, but Hoxie took advantage of many Lady Indian turnovers and capitalized on offensive rebounding to earn a 1-14 lead by the first quarter break. The St. Francis Lady Indians trailed 7-38 after two quarters of play. The Lady Indians lost the junoir varsity contest to Hoxie 17-52.
The basketball teams will travel to Idalia, Colorado, on Tuesday January 10th to play the Wolves. The game will begin at 6:00 PM CT (5:00 MT). There will be NO junior varsity contests.
Between the varsity games, Hannah Bracelin and Draven Houtman were awarded basketballs for their participation in the youth basketball program. Awarding the basketballs were senior athletes Kaitlin Figgins and Matt Tygart.
On Monday, January 9th, the St. Francis Schools received a "Report of Unusual Situations" from the officiating crew who worked the varsity games with Hoxie. The crew, (Brian Reuber-Tribune, Daniel Jacobus-Tribune, and Bill Luebbers-Leoti) was represented in the report by Brian Reuber who stated, "The sportsmanship we encountered from both schools was the best we have had all year for our crew. It was a pleasure to work these games for these two schools."
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