Boys Lose to Wallace County
The St. Francis Indians scored 69 points in a losing effort against the Wallace County Wildcats in St. Francis on Tuesday, February 19th. The Indians could not score enough to keep pace with the fast-paced Wildcats. Wallace County won the varsity game in a high-scoring contest, 69-91.
An assist from Keegan Sherlock leading to a Dylan Peter basket put St. Francis on the scoreboard early, but the Indians still trailed 2-5. A beautiful drive by Steven Nelson moved St. Francis within one point. At 6:20, a nice pass from Joey McCormick to Dylan Peter put the Indians ahead 6-5. A long outlet pass from Peter to Dillion Straub gave the Indians an 8-5 lead at 5:26. Sharon Springs tied the contest at 5:04. The Indians would not lead again. Wallace County led 12-8 before Steven Nelson scored for the Indians at 3:05. The deficit ballooned to 10-21, after a Wildcat trey with 58 seconds left in the first period. Keegan Sherlock drained a buzzer-beating trey to make the first quarter score 15-23 in favor of the Wildcats.
Cade Bracelin opened the second period with a trey from the left corner, but by 6:35 the Indians were down 18-30. With 4:27 left in the second period, the Indians trailed by a 15-point margin (21-36), largely due to the aggressive rebounding of the Wildcats. The Wildcats often earned additional shots due to their tenacity on the boards. The Indians were committing some turnovers against the Wildcats changing defenses (1-3-1 trap, 1-2-2 press, 2-2-1 press, and man-to-man) but the turnovers were not excessive. The Indians made several nice plays in the quarter, but he margin remained about the same. Mason Schiltz and Dylan Peter each scored on offensive rebounds before a trey by Keegan Sherlock moved the Indians within twelve (28-40) at 2:36. Schiltz scored two more baskets before halftime, one on an offensive rebound and one set up by an outlet pass from Dylan Peter, but the Indians were not gaining much on the pesky Wildcats. St. Francis trailed 33-50 at the half.
Less than a minute into the third quarter, the Indians trailed by more than twenty points (33-54). A trey by Wyatt Landenberger, at 4:41, moved the margin to less than twenty (39-58). St. Francis received another trey from Landenberger, a deuce from Cade Bracelin, and baskets from Mason Schiltz and Steven Nelson to close out the quarter, but the margin had only decreased to 51-68 after three quarters of play.
The Indians had possession to open the final period and scored on a set play. Wallace County returned the favor on their first possession. Mason Schiltz had a nice tip-in basket to move the score to 57-75. At 5:30, Jacob Baxter scored (59-75). Jacob then sank consecutive free throws to make the score 63-81. Wallace County led 65-91 before Mason Schiltz scored twice. Wallace County, ranked #8 in Class A-Division II, defeated the Indians 69-91, to move their record to 14-5. The Indians fell to 8-13.
Head Coach Jeff Beims shared the following comments on the game, “Sharon Springs is a good team. They have a couple seniors who are prolific scorers, and several others that can pour it in as well. I thought we did a better job containing them in the second half, but it’s difficult to keep guys like that from putting points on the board. We didn’t help ourselves by allowing them to control the boards most of the night. When explaining the importance of rebounding to our team, I tell them that if you give a bad team 2 or 3 opportunities to score every time down the floor, they will hang with you. If you give those extra opportunities to a good shooting team, they will beat you. We were not very aggressive on the boards and it cost us. We are doing better protecting the ball, but we gave them some extra opportunities with turnovers. I don’t mind the turnovers that are the result of trying to make something happen. It’s the unforced errors that kill us. We need to continue to cut down on those.”
St. Francis had four players score nine or more points in the contest: Mason Schiltz 22, Cade Bracelin 12, Wyatt Landenberger 9, and Keegan Sherlock 9. The Indians were 9 of 14 from the free throw line. The Indians shot 48% from the field and committed 20 turnovers. Dylan Peter grabbed 12 rebounds and Mason Schiltz 9.
Wallace County had three athletes in double figures: Eli Kuhlman 26 (13 each half), Gavin Mote 23 (12 in 2nd quarter), and Cayden Daily 19. The Wildcats were 14-18 from the free throw line.
In junior varsity action, the Indians had trouble running the floor with the fast-paced Wildcats. The Indians also committed numerous turnovers against the 1-2-2 and 2-2-1 presses applied by the Wildcats. The Wildcats led throughout the contest. Baskets by Cade Bracelin, Dillion Straub (assist Caleb Frink), and Jacob Baxter kept the Indians close (6-8), but it was obvious that the pace was too quick for the Indians. Joey McCormick made two nice assists, to Jacob Baxter and Cade Bracelin, to keep the Indians within five (10-15) at the 2:35 mark. Unfortunately, the Indians would slip to a 13-21 deficit after one period.
The Wilcats earned at ten-point lead (13-23) on a well executed out-of-bounds play at 7:19. A few moments later, the Wildcats were up 13-28. Jacob Baxter scored on a driving basket, at 2:29, for the Indians first points of the quarter. An assist by Baxter, led to a Caleb Frink score, but the Indians trailed 18-31 at halftime.
The Indians played hard, but just could not keep pace with the Wildcats. The Indians trailed by twenty (26-46) with 1:21 left in the third period. Cade Bracelin made a trey near the end of the third quarter, but St. Francis was in trouble, trailing 29-50 after three periods. The Indians lost to Wallace County 35-66.
Jacob Baxter scored 12 points in the game. Cade Bracelin added 9 (in two quarters). The Indians were only 3 of 9 from the free throw line. Wallace County was a dismal 3 of 10 from the stripe. Luke Schemm led the Wildcats with 14 points. Ivan Montes and RJ Dewees each added 12.
The Indians will play in the Sub-State Tournament on Friday, March 1, in WaKeeney, Kansas, at 6:00 PM.. The Indians will play the winner of the Quinter/Logan game, held on Tuesday, February 26th.
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