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Tigers fight hard but TMP takes State
SALINA -- Fort Scott High's boys were playing for the school's third Class 4A State championship in four years when they met Thomas More Prep of Hays in the finals at the Bicentennial Center here Saturday night.
Instead, 77-percent first-half field-goal shooting held up for the second-seeded Monarchs and they won their second State title in three years with a 58-44 victory over the Tigers.
TMP, 24-1, also won Class 3A in 2005 and its only loss of this season came in the third of three meetings with Mid-State League rival Scott City, last years 4A champs and this year's Class 3A runner-up after falling to Wichita Collegiate at Hutchinson Saturday night.
This was Fort Scott's sixth championship-game appearance in recorded history. It was also the first-ever loss in this building by a Tiger team, which had won eight straight tournament games here since moving down to Class 4A. Maybe only Pittsburg Colgan could claim a tournament streak as long in recent history.
The Tigers, 21-5, did cut the lead to two points late in the third quarter. But the Monarchs found their offensive groove again in the fourth quarter, outscoring Fort Scott 12-2 in the first five minutes of the period.
"It's disappointing right now and there's a lot of sad faces in that locker room, including mine," Fort Scott head coach Jeff DeLaTorre said. "When you worked as hard as those kids did and you accomplish so much to get to this point…we tried to talk before the game about (how) anything else is just the icing on the cake because we've had such a great season. But when you lose a game like this, it's real tough.
"I'm proud of those kids. I don't know if there's a whole lot of people who thought we'd be at this point at the beginning of the season after starting out 0-2. To make it to the State championship game is a great accomplishment and these kids are eventually going to realize that. But right now, it hurts."
TMP jumped out to a 6-0 lead early thanks to a pair of baskets by Kyle Hammerschmidt, who led the Monarchs with 18 points. Fort Scott began to get back into things after TMP's 6' 8" senior center, Trevor Ottley, drew his second personal foul with three minutes to go.
But while Ottley had to sit out most of the half, his replacement, six-foot senior Kyle Worth, provided an offensive boost, scoring a pair of baskets for Thomas More Prep after he came in.
Zach Quick drove to his left for a layup with two seconds to go to bring the Tigers within 14-13. TMP made six of its eight field-goal attempts in the period, hitting its first five shots. Fort Scott finished at five of 10 for the quarter despite missing its first three shots.
However, Nolan Hoffman scored on an inbound play and Greg Diehl hit a bank shot for TMP to start the second while the Tigers struggled to get their offense going again.
Quick converted a three-point play with 3:14 to go to being Fort Scott within 22-20. But TMP slowly pulled away with Scott Stramel's three-point goal making it a 31-24 halftime lead.
At the half, Fort Scott was a very respectable nine of 18 from the field. But TMP had connected on an astounding 13 of 17 fielders.
"They're athletic and they're fast and they're strong," DeLaTorre said of TMP. "They had several kids who stepped up tonight and made big shots in the first half. When you shoot 76 percent in the first half, you have a lot of guys stepping up and hitting shots. They created a lot of different problems for us and we had a hard time defending them."
But it's difficult to shoot 77 percent all night and TMP had its slump in the third quarter. But the Tigers also struggled and TMP was able to boost its lead to 36-26 on a Werth stickback with 3:22 to go.
Alex Barner scored on a transition layup, drew a foul and converted the free throw with 2:41 to go to get Fort Scott going. Chris Banks followed with a layup. After Kyle Hammerschmidt made only one of two free throws for TMP, Barner saved a loose ball from going out of bounds, which Tony Karleskint caught and turned into a basket with 1:49 to go.
Moments later, Banks took a steal in for a layup to close the deficit to 37-35 with a minute left in the period.
Hammerschmidt drove for a layup and then converted a free throw after drawing a foul to end the Tigers' run with 46 seconds to go. That put TMP up 40-35 going into the final stanza.
A Tiger basket to start the fourth quarter was called back due to a charging foul. Then the Monarchs, after making just three of 14 fielders in the third, started hitting again.
Hammerschmidt scored consecutive baskets to make it 44-35. Karleskint made two free throws for the Tigers but the Monarchs responded with eight straight points before Karleskint got a tip-in with 2:50 to go.
Quick converted a three-point play to cut the margin to 52-42 with 1:22 to go. But the Monarchs hit a few free throws and then Ottley put the finishing touches on TMP's championship with a dunk.
"Thomas More Prep is a great team and they presented a lot of match-up problems for us," DeLaTorre said. "We battled and tried to hang in there but every time we made a little bit of a run, they answered. We just couldn't find a way to shut them down tonight."
TMP made five of eight shots from the field to finish the night at 54 percent on 21 of 39. It also made 15 of 23 free throws, shoring up an area in which it had been having some trouble.
"First, we played excellent defense but we added a little offense to it," Thomas More head coach Joe Hertel said. "We struggled shooting foul shots all year. But tonight…did you guys see a few free throws go in tonight?
"Our third, fourth, fifth, sixth guys were better tonight. That's not a diss on them and Jeff is a friend of mine. I want to give props to Fort Scott and to Jeff. I hate to see him lose but we did about what we really had to do all 32 minutes."
Quick led the Tigers with 16 points while Karleskint, bad ankle and all, followed with eight. Fort Scott finished the night 15 of 34 from the floor for 44 percent.
Because there were so few missed shots, there weren't a lot of rebounds. TMP held a 26-19 rebounding advantage with Werth and Hammerschmidt each grabbing five. Quick led Fort Scott with five.
Fort Scott finished the night with 16 turnovers to TMP's 10. The Tigers turned it over 11 times in the second half to just five for the Monarchs.
"In the second half, we turned the ball over a little bit and (TMP) caused a lot of that," DeLaTorre said. "And we couldn't get shots to fall. It was just a tough night for us both offensively and defensively."
The Tigers had won 15 in a row and 18 of 19 after a 3-3 start to the season, but the loss still stung. However, DeLaTorre feels the players will realize how special their season was in the long run.
"There's 62 other teams that would have gladly traded places with our guys," DeLaTorre said. "But whatever I said in the locker room wasn't going to change their emotions right now.
"I'm so proud of how far we came this year. The kids battled and worked hard. They made a great run this week. There are a lot of great moments, lot of great memories. It'll take a few days for the guys to realize what they've accomplished, being a State runner-up. Yeah, we won in '04 and we won in '05 and I wanted these kids to experience that so much. At the same time, in the history of our school, even getting a State runner-up doesn't happen very often and no one will be able to take that away from them."
This was the last game for seniors Quick, Banks, Zach Smith and Kevin Gray.
"They're just an outstanding group of kids," DeLaTorre said. "They get along so well together. They've been good leaders for us. I've really enjoyed working for them and they've accomplished so much. As sophomores, they got to see those guys who came out here. They worked hard, had a good season last year and then topped it off this year. They'll be proud of this season the rest of their lives."
POST-SEASON NOTES -- Girard took third place with a 66-56 win over Kansas City-Piper. Darian Kelly had 26 points in the win for the Trojans, 24-2....
Colby won its first-ever 4A girls championship by beating Augusta, 58-46. Lissa Mazanec led the Eagles, 24-2, with 18 points while Ashley Barnes followed with 17....
Willard, whom the Tigers lost to in December, finished third in Missouri Class 4 with a 60-49 win over St. Charles Saturday night. The Tigers finished the season with a 24-8 record....
Also, Shiloh Christian, Ark., which also beat Fort Scott at Willard in December, made it to the Arkansas Class 3A semifinals before falling to Hughes, 56-53, Saturday.
There aren't any third-place games in Arkansas, so the boys' season at Shiloh Christian is over....
Webb City, Mo., which the Tigers lost to by one point in the final game before the holiday break, went on to Missouri's Class 4 quarterfinals, where it was eliminated by Willard. The Cardinals finished 20-8....
Although neither Tiger team got to play them at the Basehor-Linwood Invitational this season, both teams from St. Joseph-Benton fared well in the playoffs. The boys reached the Class 4 quarterfinals before losing to finish at 24-4. The girls won the Class 4 championship and finished 30-0....
Shiloh Christian's girls will play Marshall for the Arkansas Class 3A championship Thursday night at 7 p.m. The Saints made it to the finals by beating Bergman, 52-41, Saturday night.
Also in Arkansas, Greenwood's girls made it to the Class 5A quarterfinals before losing to Greene County Tech on its home floor, 47-37....
Continuing on the girls' side of things, three teams Fort Scott played in the regular season made it to the Class 4A State Tournament. All three, Holton, Paola and Columbus, lost in the first round. Also, Nevada made it to the Class 4 Sectional round in Missouri, which is the round of 16. The Tigers finished 21-5....
Put all the playoff teams together and you have at least eight teams on Fort Scott's girls' schedule that finished with at least 20 victories....