Ojeleye, Ottawa advance past Fort Scott

Fort Scott's Daniel Durbin (55) scored a basket and drew a foul from Ottawa's Semi Ojeleye (33) on this third-quarter play in a Kansas Class 4A State Tournament semifinal game Friday night at Salina, Kan. Durbin led the Tigers in scoring with 9 points but Ojeleye scored 32 for the Cyclones in a 60-31 victory. The Tigers will play for third place at 2 p.m. this afternoon. (Scott Nuzum/Herald-Tribune)

SALINA, Kan. -- Semilore Ojeleye scored 32 points Friday night as third-seeded Ottawa defeated No. 7 Fort Scott, 60-31, in a semifinal of the Class 4A State Basketball Tournament.

Ojeleye made 13 of 23 shots from the field and also had 14 rebounds. The 6' 7" junior proved to be difficult to defend, which is just about how every other team that's had to deal with him found him to be.

While a lot of things didn't go right for the Tigers, this game was more about what Ottawa did well. This was just Fort Scott's second loss in 11 tournament games as a Class 4A school.

The Tigers (19-5) will play for third place at 2 p.m. this afternoon against Pratt, which lost for the first time this season in the first semifinal, 55-49 in overtime, to Basehor-Linwood.

Ottawa's Kaden Shaffer and Fort Scott's Kyle Altic (42) and Johnathan Stark fight for a rebound while Ottawa's Semi Ojeleye (33) and James Peoples look on during the third quarter of Friday night's Class 4A State Tournament semifinal in Salina, Kan. Ottawa went on to a 60-31 victory. (Scott Nuzum/Herald-Tribune)

Ojeleye scored Ottawa's first 7 points as he showed off his range, sticking back a teammate's miss for a layup, hitting a 3-pointer from the right wing and driving in for another layup.

It was 12-3, with Tyler Adams' 3-pointer accounting for the Tigers' only points, after 4 1/2 minutes of play.

Fort Scott's only basket of the second period was Johnathan Starks' 3-point basket from up top with 5:07 on the clock. Ottawa scored the last 13 of the half without an answer as they increased the margin to 34-9.

The Tigers had just three field goals on 21 first-half shots while the Cyclones had 14 on 24 attempts.

Daniel Durbin finished with 9 points to lead the Tigers in scoring and drew a couple of fouls against Ojeleye to give himself 3-point play opportunities. Cameron Woodring and Johnathan Stark added 7 points each.

Dallas Natt added 13 points for Ottawa (24-1), which will face Basehor-Linwood at 6:15 p.m. tonight for the state title in a rematch of a regular-season game that Ottawa won 56-49 -- the Cyclones' only victory over the Bobcats in the past four seasons.

Fort Scott center Kyle Altic was injured while going up for a breakaway layup in the fourth quarter. The extent of his injury was not known at press time.

Basehor-Linwood 55, Pratt 49, OT

Basehor-Linwood scored the first 6 points of overtime to take control. Colin Murphy scored the first 4 points of the extra session for the Bobcats (22-3) And Ryan Murphy added a pair of free throws to give Basehor-Linwood a 51-45 advantage with 31 seconds to go.

Pratt (24-1) led 29-20 at halftime but Basehor-Linwood rallied to tie the score 39-39 after three on Ryan Murphy 3-point goal at the buzzer.

The Greenbacks forced overtime on a 3-point goal by B.J. Dean from the top of the key with 1:13 left. Murphy put up a 3-point shot that missed. Ben Johnson got the rebound and put in what looked to be the game-winning shot. But he was called for traveling with 1.6 seconds left.

Ryan Murphy finished with 17 points and 11 rebounds for the Bobcats, who outrebouned the Greenbacks 35-20. Colin Murphy added 11 points.

Swank, who set a Class 4A State tourney record with 41 points in a Thursday victory over Coffeyville, scored 25 points for Pratt. He made all 12 of his free-throw attempts but was held to 6 of 23 from the field, including 1 of 12 on 3-point tries.

(3) OTTAWA: Maxwell 0-0 0-0 0, Graf 0-1 0-0 0, Boch 0-0 0-0 0, Shaffer 1-3 0-0 3, Hasty 0-0 0-0 0, Goedert 1-3 0-0 2, Natt 6-11 1-2 13, Blaue 0-0 0-0 0, Peters 1-1 0-0 2, Markley 0-1 0-0 0, Peoples 4-6 0-0 8, Ojeleye 13-23 2-2 32. TOTALS: 26-49 3-4 60.

(7) FORT SCOTT: Stark 2-7 1-2 7, Denton 0-0 0-0 0, Sather 0-0 0-0 0, Adams 1-9 0-0 3, Wright 1-3 0-0 2, Fink 0-1 1-2 1, Woodring 2-10 1-2 7, Floyd 0-0 0-0 0, Pytlowany 0-2 0-0 0, Altic 1-1 0-0 2, Davenport 0-0 0-0 0, Durbin 4-8 1-5 9. TOTALS: 11-43 4-11 31.

Fort Scott.......... 6 3 13 9 -- 31

Three-point field goals: Ottawa 5-18 (Ojeleye 4-11, Shaffer 1-3, Goedert 0-1, Natt 0-3), Fort Scott 5-25 (Stark 2-5, Woodring 2-8, Adams 1-8, Denton 0-2, Pytlowany 0-2).

Total fouls: Ottawa 11, Fort Scott 13. Fouled out: none. Technical fouls: none.

Rebounds: Ottawa 36 (Ojeleye 14), Fort Scott 23 (Wright 4, Durbin 4). Assists: Ottawa 8 (Hasty 2, People 2, Ojeleye 2), Fort Scott 6 (Stark 3). Turnovers: Ottawa 9, Fort Scott 12. Steals: Ottawa 5 (Natt 2, Peters 2), Fort Scott 4 (4 with 1 each). Blocked shots: Ottawa 3 (Ojeleye 2), Fort Scott 1 (Woodring).