'Hound men get No. 2 seed, host game Tuesday

Fort Scott Community College's men escaped Kansas City with a 51-50 victory in Jayhawk Conference-Eastern Division II play here Wednesday night to conclude regular-season play.

According to Kansas City's website, the host Blue Devils had an open 3-point shot that missed. Marcus Allen got the rebound and drew a foul with four-tenths of a second left, only to miss the front end of the one-and-one opportunity and allow the Greyhounds (12-16) to escape with the victory.

Kansas City will be the No. 6 seed in the Region VI Division II Tournament, finishing 0-6 in the division, 0-10 in seeding games and 6-24 overall.

Also Wednesday night, Brown Mackie (19-11) beat Johnson County 70-56. That clinched the No. 1 seed and a first-round bye for Brown Mackie. That also dropped Johnson County into a tie in seeding record with the Greyhounds. The tie-breaker went Fort Scott's way and the Greyhounds were awarded the No. 2 seed and a first-round bye.

In the other region-seeding game of the night, Highland beat Hesston, 70-50, at Highland, which brought those two teams into a tie for region seeding. The tie-breaker went to Highland and the fourth-seeded Scotties (15-15) will host the Larks (10-19) in a first-round rematch Saturday.

Fort Scott awaits the winner of the first-round game between Kansas City and Johnson County (10-20) in a game that will be played at Arnold Arena at 7 p.m. Tuesday night. It will be the Greyhounds' first home playoff game since beating Dodge City in the first game of a best-of-three playoff series on March 4, 1967. Dodge City won the other two games played on its home court to win the series.

Last season, Fort Scott went on the road to beat Highland on the road for its first playoff victory since that 1967 game against Dodge City.

Fort Scott clinched the Jayhawk Conference-Eastern Division II title last Saturday, which is its first division championship since 1967, when it tied with Independence and Coffeyville.

Brown Mackie will host the Hesston-Highland winner Tuesday night. The semifinal winners face off for the right to advance to the NJCAA Division II National Tournament at 3 p.m. March 8 at Koch Arena in Wichita on the campus of Wichita State University.

Fort Scott's women lost to Kansas City Wednesday night, 57-52. As the No. 6 seed in the women's Division II tournament, the Greyhounds (9-21), who have lost 10 of their last 11 games, have to go back to Kansas City (23-7), the No. 3 seed for a first-round game that will be played at 2 p.m. Saturday.

Johnson County (29-1) and Highland (28-2) are the top two seeds. Though the Cavaliers and Scotties split their season series, Johnson County was awarded the No. 1 seed.

Brown Mackie (16-14) will go to Hesston (13-17) for Saturday's other first-round game. The winner will play at Johnson County Tuesday night while the Fort Scott-KCK winner will travel to Highland, also on Tuesday night.

The semifinal winners will play at Wichita State March 8 at 1 p.m. for the Region VI Division II title.

The women's tournament has three teams ranked in the NJCAA Division II Poll: Highland at No. 2, Johnson County at No. 4 and Kansas City at No. 20. North Iowa Area (26-2) is ranked No. 1.