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Barner Burner: Fort Scott junior scores 28 in SEK victory
FORT SCOTT, Kan. -- Alex Barner established a new career high in points for the second time in eight days as he made 12 of 14 field-goal attempts and scored 28 points in Fort Scott High's 56-42 victory over Labette County in Southeast Kansas League play Friday night.
Barner, who scored 24 points a week ago in a win over Willard (Mo.) at the Willard Tri-State Classic, scored the fourth-most points by a Tiger in the last five seasons, tied for that total with Zach Quick, who scored 28 against Parsons last Jan. 1, and Adam Goltra, who had 28 against Coffeyville in February of 2005.
Barner's game turned out to be needed as Tony Karleskint had some early foul trouble and Jeff Johnson didn't get many chances to shoot the ball as LCHS seemed bent on making sure he didn't get anything, either.
"He's a very prolific scorer when he gets going," Fort Scott head coach Jeff DeLaTorre said of Barner. "He's a very tough match-up for people. We talked about focusing on trying to get it inside. And when Alex has one-on-one in the post, he's going to score more often than not. And then when they started to collapse on him, he started finding open guys. He did a good job of taking what the defense gave him tonight."
Barner took over midway through the first quarter, scoring all but the last two points of a 12-3 run that brought the Tigers from a one-point deficit to a 17-9 lead with 30 seconds to go in the first quarter. Most of the shots were layups as the long-armed lanky forward didn't have much trouble reaching over his defenders to receive passes and take shots.
It also didn't hurt that Barner stepped up as a floor leader in the absence of senior point guard Matt Wheeler, who broke his arm in an accident in gym class earlier in the week and could miss six weeks while recovering.
"Matt's a big part of our team and he was doing a good job," DeLaTorre said. "Other guys are going to have to step up. We got some younger guys in a little tonight and they're going to get more time as it goes on."
Up 17-12 after one period, the Tigers, 1-1 in the SEK and 3-2 overall, boosted the lead to 10 points after a 6-1 run to open the second. Johnson stuck back a teammate's miss, Barner made another inside shot and Kolby Allen scored a layup off the bench.
The Grizzlies, 1-1 in the league and overall, got within four after Luke Hartman converted a three-point play with 3:28 remaining. But some more young players came in and contributed for Fort Scott. Gary Floyd took a pass from Mikey Karleskint and hit an 18-foot jumper. Then Jake Clements took a pass from Allen in transition for a layup, making it a 27-19 lead with 2:48 left in the half. Each team traded a free throw before going into the locker room.
Labette County was just six of 24 from the field in the first half. The Tigers' zone defense was denying the same kind of easy inside shots LCHS couldn't seem to keep Barner from getting.
The zone was effective enough that Fort Scott never went into man-to-man.
"We felt like, between (guards) Hartman and (Jacob) Bierbrodt, those were two guys we wanted to contain," DeLaTorre said. "They were really capable of hurting us off the dribble, so we felt like zone was our best bet. We wanted to extend on those guys but the low post guys were down with their post guys. And I felt like we challenged shots and made it tough for them most of the game."
Labette County did finally make some headway late in the third quarter. The Grizzlies scored the last six points of the period to get within 38-35. Jordan Lambkins drew a foul on a three-point attempt at the start of the fourth but missed all three shots.
Although Collin New's jumper brought LCHS within one moments later, those missed free throws hurt the Grizzlies greatly. Moments later, Tony Karleskint hit two free throws. Then Drew Messer, starting for Wheeler, scored a transition layup and Barner converted a three-point play to make it 45-37.
Hartman hit another three pointer with 3:12 left to bring LCHS within 48-42. But the Grizzlies never scored again.
Tony Karleskint followed in scoring for the Tigers with seven points. Hartman was Labette County's only double-figure scorer as he finished with 14 points.
Barner also had 10 rebounds but LCHS has a 30-29 rebounding edge.
Fort Scott converted 14 of 19 free-throw attempts while Labette County made only six of 14 charity tosses. In the fourth quarter, the Tigers went eight for eight there.
"The second half, that's when you have to make them," DeLaTorre said. "When you've got the lead and you're trying to preserve it, you have to keep making them. We've watched our opponents making them the last two games. It was nice for us to step up there and make some tonight."
JUNIOR VARSITY -- Brian Gorman scored 10 points for the Tigers as they defeated Labette County, 45-43. Fort Scott held on despite being outscored 11-7 in the fourth quarter.
The junior varsity was to play two games in their own junior varsity tournament Saturday. They will join the varsity and freshmen teams at Independence Tuesday night. The varsity game is an SEK contest.
LABETTE COUNTY: Hartman 5-13 1-1 14, Bierbrodt 1-9 0-2 2, New 1-3 0-0 2, Lambkins 3-9 0-3 7, Carter 0-1 1-2 1, Smith 1-5 0-0 2, Green 3-6 0-0 6, Braden 1-6 2-4 4, Daniels 1-2 2-2 4. TOTALS: 16-54 6-14 42.
FORT SCOTT: Leek 1-7 3-3 5, M.Karleskint 0-1 0-0 0, Clements 1-2 0-0 2, T.Karleskint 2-5 3-3 7, Floyd 1-3 0-0 2, Messer 2-2 0-1 4, Johnson 1-2 3-4 5, Allen 1-1 1-2 3, Barner 12-14 4-6 28. TOTALS: 21-37 14-19 56.
Labette County........... 12 8 15 7 -- 42
Fort Scott.................... 17 11 10 18 -- 56
Three-point field goals: Labette County 4-23 (Hartman 3-9, Lambkins 1-5, Carter 0-1, Smith 0-2, Bierbrodt 0-6), Fort Scott 0-8 (Leek 0-5, M.Karleskint 0-1, Clements 0-1, Floyd 0-1).
Total fouls: Labette County 18, Fort Scott 11. Fouled out: none. Technical fouls: none.
Rebounds: Labette County 30 (five with 4 each), Fort Scott 29 (Barner 10). Assists: Labette County 6 (Bierbrodt 3), Fort Scott 10 (Johnson 3). Turnovers: Labette County 12, Fort Scott 14. Steals: Labette County 10 (four with 2 each), Fort Scott 7 (Leek 3). Blocked shots: Labette County 1 (Braden), Fort Scott none.