Junior High Boys Win NWKL Championship!
Launch the media gallery 1 playerPhoto by Rob Schiltz
On Thursday and Saturday, December 13th and 15th, the Northwest Kansas League Junior High Basketball Tournament was held in Atwood. Nine teams competed in the tournament in each of the two divisions; A team and B team. The St. Francis B team boys placed 3rd, and the A team boys won the NWKL championship.
B-Team
On December 13th, the B team boys defeated Quinter to advance to the championship semifinals. St. Francis jumped out to a 15-4 lead after one quarter of action and were ahead 24-5 at halftime. The lead grew to 34-8 after three periods, and the Indians went on to win 40-15.
Scoring for St. Francis were: Trayton Doyle 19, Martin Beikman 8, Dalton Straub 5, Sayed Fierro 4, Nick Paulsen 2, and Luke Lampe 2.
Coach Morrow made the following comments on the game, "The B-team opened tournament play in dominating fashion. All season, we’ve been trying to become a team that executes better, and in this game, we proved that we made some progress toward that goal. The boys were able to find Trayton Doyle a lot in the post area, which put the game out of reach very early. Though Luke Lampe and Dalton Straub handled the majority of the ball handling duties, Doyle was allowed to try his hand late in the game at the point guard position. All of the guys coming off the bench played well when their time came. This first-round win set us up for a re-match with Oberlin in the second round."
On Saturday, the B team lost a heart-breaker to Decatur Community. St. Francis led 10-8 after one quarter, but fell behind 12-20 by halftime. St. Francis cut the lead to four, 21-25, after three periods, but lost the contest, 32-33. Trayton Doyle scored 15 points for the Indians, Dalton Straub added 10, Logan Lampe 5, and Sayed Fierro 1. Bretz scored 25 to lead the Red Devils.
Coach Morrow commented: "This was a game that we should never have lost, but as I mentioned to the guys after it was over, the contest illustrates the nature of the game of basketball. If you’re having a hard time shooting the game, you can lose to opponents you should beat.
The score was tight all through the game. It was apparent early in the first quarter that our main scoring threat on the team, Trayton Doyle, was having a cold morning shooting the ball. Shots he’d made many times throughout the season simply didn’t fall through the ring. Dalton Straub and Luke Lampe were pressured from beginning to end in the backcourt, but took care of the ball pretty well considering the difficulty of their task.
By the end of the game, we were trying to regain the lead that we had lost and were down by three point. Unable to get a good three-point shot, we took a lay-up from Dalton Straub but had too little time left to try for anything more.
I was very disappointed for these guys. All through the season they have been winning games when we haven’t played that great. The first time we played the Red Devils, in Oberlin, we won by two points, but in that game, Trayton Doyle had a great game. In this semi-final game, we just had some tough breaks and couldn’t overcome them. This loss put us in the consolation finals, playing for third place against the Rawlins County Buffaloes."
In the third place contest, the B team Indians defeated Rawlins County 37-29 to earn third place. St. Francis led 10-8 after one period, and extended the led to 19-13 at halftime. The third period score was St. Francis 27, Rawlins County 19. Scoring for St. Francis in the contest were: Dalton Straub 16, Trayton Doyle 13, Logan Lampe 4, Martin Beikman 3, and Sayed Fierro 1. The B team completed the season with a record of 8-2.
Coach Morrow shared the following comments, "Though we were disappointed to be playing for 3rd place instead of 1st, the guys gave a great performance and were in control of this game from the beginning. Trayton got back on track, as did Dalton Straub, who was able to connect on some of the shots that he was making in the beginning of the season. Defensively, our Indians played great. Luke Lampe and Nick Paulsen applied good pressure on the Buffalo guards throughout the game, causing a few turnovers that led directly to scores for us. Though we had a some trouble executing against Atwood’s defensive pressure, we were just sharp enough to find the opportunities we needed to feed the post. All of the players on the team were able to contribute meaningfully to this win. Jake Faulkender, Coy Cassaw, and Sayed Fierro all played very well defensively, which was important since this was a fairly fast-paced game. Jonathan Salazar came in and got some important rebounds.
As the game continued into the second half, Atwood was able to make some shots and keep hope alive for a comeback, but once again, the guards took care of the ball to salt away the game.
It was apparent from this game how much this team grew throughout the season. We’ve had communication issues at times, and execution of our offenses and defense hasn’t always been easy to achieve. On Saturday, however, we showed signs of being a team that has the potential to play for the A-team championship next season. The players improved throughout the year and learned more about the game."
CLICK HERE to view/print the B TEAM tournament bracket
A-Team
The A team opened the tournament with at 37-13 win over Rawlins County on December 13th. St. Francis was in full control in this contest, leading 12-1 after one period and 20-3 by halftime. Taylor Rogers scored 19 points. Joel Hill added 8, Tate Busse 6, Quinton Cravens 2, and Jeremiah Neitzel 2.
David Morrow, coach, shared these comments about the game, "For the first round of the tournament, we drew the 7-seed, Rawlins County. Ten days prior to this game, the Buffaloes played a very tough game against us, making us work hard all the way to the final buzzer. We anticipated that same effort from the Buffs on Thursday, knowing that if we didn’t play well, we could possible be upset.
From the beginning of this game, however, the guys executed pretty well. Atwood applied both full-court and half-court pressure all 24 minutes of the contest, making our guys work hard with not a lot of rest. The guys did a great job of staying out of foul trouble, which was especially important considering we only had one viable substitute on the bench (our other sub had sprained his ankle earlier in the day). This win set us up for two very tough contests on Saturday against Wallace County and Dighton.
In preparation for the tournament, Ward Cassidy graciously donated some time to the team and attended practice in the days leading up to the tournament, helping to prepare our guys for the games ahead. That allowed me to spend more time helping to prepare the B-team for their games. His presence was helpful in developing a viable game plan for the second and third rounds of the tournament. As a contracted employee of the high school, he was able to serve in this capacity."
In the championship semi-final contest, the A team matched up with a good Wallace County team. St. Francis defeated Wallace County in a close contest, 47-42, to advance to the championship game. Dighton advanced into the championship contest with wins over Hoxie and Wichita County.
Against, Wallace County, the Indians trailed 11-12 after one quarter and 22-23 at halftime. St. Francis took a 39-37 after an excellent third period of action, and went on to win 47-42. Taylor Rogers scored 21 points to lead the Indians. Joel Hill chipped in 9 points, Tate Busse 8, Quinton Cravens 6, and Jeremiah Neitzel 3.
Coach Morrow added these comments, "This was one of the best junior high basketball games I’ve seen played by an Indian team. Coming into the contest, we knew it was going to be difficult to beat the Wildcats for the second time. They have a tough, well coached team that is used to winning games. In fact, when we beat them in November, that defeat was the first for those boys in something like 40 athletic contests.
Early in the game, Wallace County was able to take the lead and keep it for a good portion of the first half. At one point in the second quarter, we were even down by 7 points. Defensively, the Wildcats were playing a 2-3 and pressuring our two most reliable shooting guards, Taylor Rogers and Tate Busse. Both of those players had hit a couple of perimeter shots against the Wallace County in our first meeting. Who they didn’t pressure was Joel Hill, who was essentially being challenged to shoot the ball. When he did shoot, he hit two 3-pointers and a long 2-point shot that helped to spread that defense out.
In the second half, the guys did a great job of taking care of the ball and executing a defensive game plan. The Wildcats had one tall player who was responsible for the bulk of their scoring in the November game. Jeremiah Neitzel and Quinton Cravens did very well in keeping the ball out of his hands as much as possible. J.R. Landenberger played some good defense when he came in. Toward the end of the game, the guys were able to run over a minute off the clock by passing the ball around and making wise decisions about passing up shots. Winning this game placed us in the championship against an undefeated Dighton."
St. Francis narrowly defeated Dighton in an exciting championship game 31-29. The win avenged an earlier loss to Dighton, the only defeat suffered by the Indians during the season. The Indians got off to a small advantage early, leading 7-2 after one period. Neither team scored much in the second period, but the Indians still led 11-7 at halftime. The Indians held a six point advantage, 19-13, after three periods, and held back a determined Dighton team to win the championship. In the championship contest, Taylor Rogers scored 16 points to pace the Indians. Joel Hill added 7, Quinton Cravens 6, and Jeremiah Neitzel 2. The A team finished the season with season record of 10-1.
Coach Morrow commented, "We knew from the first game against Dighton that they were going to be tough to match up against. Their tallest player is their best player, and is capable of playing both in the post area and on the perimeter. It was primarily Taylor Rogers’s responsibility to keep the ball out of that player’s hands, especially when we were playing zone. Jeremiah Neitzel and Quinton Cravens were also important to that aspect of the strategy and both performed very well. Tate Busse and Joel Hill were charged with defending the guards, one of which was a good shooter from the perimeter.
Throughout most of the first half, the strategy worked very well. Our guys were very deliberate on offense, but exploited some opportunities when they came to attack Dighton’s defense. Late in the second quarter, Dighton adjusted their offense, which forced us to play man-to-man defense and created some match-up issues that we had wanted to avoid.
In the second half, the guys executed very well. They were patient but still managed to put enough pressure on the Dighton defense to create some lanes through which the guards could penetrate. As the game was approaching its conclusion, the guys played with very impressive poise. On a couple of occasions, the guards were bringing up the ball as the set play was being changed. They executed the plays nonetheless and were able to score some baskets at critical points.
Winning the league championship was a great achievement for these guys, one they had worked hard for since winning the B-team championship last year. All through this basketball season, these young men have provided the leadership and drive it takes to have good practices and good performances during games. The intensity of these players, as they were sitting on the bench moments before the start of the championship, was something you seldom see at this level. The eighth graders have been great players for the last two years (losing only two games in two seasons) and deserve to have their last junior high game be a championship. The 7th graders will have a shot to repeat as champions next year if they work hard in the off-season and in practice."
CLICK HERE to view/print the A TEAM tournament bracket
Congratulations to the team members and Coach David Morrow for very successful season!
Below are five video clips from the championship game.
More information will be added to this article when it becomes available.
