'Hound men nip Cardinals in key region game

PARSONS --Labette's men led by 14 points late in the first half, but a second half collapse saw the Cardinals drop their fifth straight game, this time falling to the Fort Scott Community College's men, 71-69, Saturday in Jayhawk Conference-Eastern Division play.

Labette's Tevis Foster led all scorers with 27 points -- 18 coming off 3-pointers -- but he couldn't get enough help from his teammates to pull out the victory.

As for Fort Scott, both Will Harrington and Xavier Hunter led the Greyhounds with 19 points apiece.

The loss dropped Labette's record to 8-14 overall and 2-5 in Kansas Jayhawk Conference play, while the Greyhounds improved to 9-13 overall and 3-4 in league competition.

"We came out flat at first, but we came out and answered the challenge to starting out flat," Fort Scott head coach Michael Cook said. "They came out and shot the ball well early, but when they started missing we started chipping away. In the end, we got guys that made some big shots."

This was also a key game for Region VI Division II post-season tournament seeding. The 'Hounds improved to 3-3 in the region and moved ahead of Labette, 2-4, into the No. 4 position.

Labette controlled the game early. With just five minutes off the clock, a long 3-pointer from Foster -- who is battling a lingering ankle injury -- from five feet behind the line gave the Cards a 13-7 advantage.

A minute later, another trey from Foster swelled Labette's lead to 19-9 over Fort Scott.

The narrative didn't change following the 10-minute media timeout, as Foster drilled his third shot from behind the arc -- again from way downtown -- to give the Cardinals a 27-13 lead.

However, Fort Scott responded with a 15-6 run over the next six minutes to close the gap to 33-28.

By halftime, Labette's 14-point advantage was dwindled down to six as they led the Greyhounds 38-32.

Through the early part of the first half, Fort Scott battled to knot the game up, but Labette refused to give up that oh-so precious lead.

It wasn't until 9:30 left in the second half that a 3-pointer from Dalton Rose -- who scored 11 points on the night -- brought the deficit down to 53-52.

It took another five minutes for Fort Scott to finally take the lead, trey from Tyler Owens -- who was 2-of-2 from behind the arc -- that gave the Greyhounds a 62-61 lead.

With under a minute-and-a-half to play the score, a bucket from Xavier Smith -- who was playing his first game back on the roster after leaving the team in the fall for personal reasons -- put Labette up 66-64.

Just 30 seconds later, Fort Scott responded with yet another 3-pointer, this time from Evan Brull in the corner, to reclaim the lead.

Labette was called for a charge the next possession, and the Cardinals were forced to foul the Greyhounds.

Fort Scott got its best foul shooter to the line twice, Harrington, who sank all four of his chances from the charity stripe to bury the Cardinals.

"The fact that we shot 83 percent from the free-throw line, that's what you have to do to win on the road," Cook said. "We had one of our best free-throw shooters on the line, he hit the shots to make them shoot tougher shots."

As for Labette head coach Adrian Jackson, he was critical of his team's effort on the defensive end, and pointed to that as the reason for why his squad coughed up a 14-point lead.

"We don't have good IQ," Jackson said. "We can't guard. Defensively, we have no pride on the defensive end. They didn't do anything spectacular."

Fort Scott comes back home to face Division I Cowley in a Jayhawk Conference-Eastern Division game at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday night in Arnold Arena. The 'Hounds beat the Tigers (5-2 East, 9-15 overall), 69-64, in a non-conference game --also played at Arnold Arena -- on November 12.

FORT SCOTT: Harrington 5-17 9-11 19, Russell 3-6 0-0 6, Hunter 4-18 9-10 19, Rose 3-11 2-3 11, Owens 2-3 1-2 7, Santiago 0-1 0-0 0, Knight 2-2 0-0 4, Brull 1-2 0-0 3, Criddle 0-2 2-2 2. TOTALS: 20-62 23-28 71.

LABETTE: Nolan 5-9 1-5 11, Carter 4-12 0-1 9, Williams 4-14 3-3 11, Smith 3-11 1-2 9, Foster 9-17 3-4 27, Carter 0-0 0-0 0, Archer 1-5 0-0 2. TOTALS: 26-68 8-15 69.

Halftime: Labette, 38-32.

Three-point field goals: Fort Scott 8-18 (Rose 3-10, Owens 2-2, Hunter 2-3, Brull 1-2, Santiago 0-1), Labette 9-30 (Foster 6-11, Smith 2-4, Carter 1-8, Archer 0-2, Williams 0-5).

Total fouls: Fort Scott 14, Labette 21. Fouled out: Williams.

Rebounds: Fort Scott 48 (Harrington 11, Russell 10), Labette 38 (Williams 9). Assists: Fort Scott 10 (Harrington 3, Hunter 3), Labette 12 (3 with 3 each). Turnovers: Fort Scott 16, Labette 10. Steals; Fort Scott 4 (Harrington 2), Labette 9 (Carter 3). Blocked shots: Fort Scott 5 (Russell 3), Labette 2 (Nolan 2).