Step One: Step Up

Fort Scott's Jolee Sharp (4) moves around Osawatomie's Kortney Bailey during play in an Ottawa Class 4A Sub-State Tournament first-round game at the FSHS gymnasium Tuesday night. Sharp finished with 22 points and eight rebounds in the Tigers' 43-27 victory over the Trojans. Fort Scott will play Ottawa Friday night in Ottawa. (Kenny Felt/Captured Images)

This is the time of year when the best players have to become even better. Fort Scott junior Jolee Sharp was ready for the challenge and handled it in her usual cool manner, scoring 22 points and grabbing eight rebounds in helping the second-seeded Tigers take a 43-27 win over Osawatomie in a first-round Ottawa Class 4A Sub-State Tournament game at the FSHS gymnasium Tuesday night.

"Jo did a great job and when you get to this part of the season, you gotta have that," Fort Scott head coach Jeff Armstrong said. "Our bench will do its best and the role players are going to be there but you have to have your exceptional players step up during these times and that's the only way you're really going to move on. Tonight was no exception."

Sharp connected on nine of 12 shots from the field. She also picked up three steals and blocked two shots.

Fort Scott's Megan McDermed (33) looks to get by Bailey in second-half action. (Kenny Felt/Captured Images)

The Tigers (18-3) have taken the first step toward what will hopefully be a Sub-State championship and another State Tournament appearance. But in order to take the next step, they'll have to face the tournament host, Ottawa, on its home court Friday night.

"You have to take care of step one before you can take step two and the girls did that tonight," Armstrong said.

Ottawa (17-4), the No. 3 seed, advanced Monday night by beating Iola, 78-51. The Cyclones played Monday as Iola and Ottawa happened to be seeded to face each other in both the boys' and girls' brackets and agreed to play a doubleheader.

The Tigers scored the game's first six points on layups by Sharp, Jamie Collins and Kori Page Rienbolt. By the end of the period, the lead was 13-2.

Sammi Therwhanger, Sharp and Brittany Bingesser scored the first three baskets of the second period to make it 19-4. Osawatomie didn't score its second field goal of the night until Rachel Fisher hit a jumper with 3:29 left in the half.

The halftime score was 22-11. Fort Scott scored the last eight points of the third -- baskets by Rienbolt, Sharp, Monica Dikeman and Megan McDermed -- to make it 32-15 going into the fourth quarter.

The only real concern on the night was that Rebecca Fisher found herself open enough to score 10 of her team-high 15 points in the final 3:06 for Osawatomie.

"That's not going to cut it when we play Friday because these teams progressively get better," Armstrong said, "So we've got to play better on Friday to give ourselves a chance to move on to Saturday's game. But I was real proud of the effort defensively."

Fort Scott committed a season-low nine turnovers and also crashed the boards for a 30-16 advantage.

The Tigers made five of their first six shots from the field but finished the night at 39 percent on 18 of 46. Osawatomie was only five of 17 from the field in the first three periods -- indeed, there were times when the Trojans were quite hesitant to shoot -- and finished at 36 percent overall on nine of 25.

Rienbolt and Bingesser each had four of Fort Scott's 11 assists.

NOTES -- With the result of the Prairie View-Paola game unavailable at press time, it is not yet certain what time Friday's game will be held.

(That score arrived after the Tribune went to press. Paola, 20-1, took a 69-24 win over the eighth-seeded Buffalos.)

The formula used to determine the schedule is to add the total distance from the host site of the schools facing each other. Since Fort Scott is the farthest from Ottawa by far, it's most likely that the Tigers will play first (6 p.m.) Friday night.

Fort Scott is 81 miles from Ottawa. Even with Ottawa's zero miles, the combined distance of Louisburg and Paola (62 miles)is still less....

Freshman Jordan Baldwin scored 23 points and had 10 steals in Ottawa's win over Iola on Monday night.

"She thrives on games like this," Cyclone head coach Cliff McCullough told Greg Mast of the Ottawa Herald. "Do-or-die atmosphere. She came to play. She is a natural point guard. She makes other players better."

Senior Kristen Hendrickson added 15 points for Ottawa, 13 of those in the second half. Kearson Peoples had 13 in the game and Jori Graff put in 11 points....

(7) OSAWATOMIE: Maring 0-3 0-0 0, Re.Fisher 5-8 1-2 15, Booe 0-2 0-0 0, Needham 0-0 0-2 0, Ra.Fisher 2-4 0-0 4, Madden 1-1 2-2 4, Bailey 0-2 2-2 2, Ritch 1-2 0-0 2, Geiger 0-1 0-0 0, Baker 0-2 0-0 0. TOTALS: 9-25 5-8 27.

(2) FORT SCOTT: Sharp 9-12 2-2 22, Therwhanger 0-1 3-4 3, Rienbolt 4-15 0-0 8, Bingesser 1-4 0-0 2, Collins 2-3 0-0 4, Dikeman 1-3 0-0 2, McDermed 1-5 0-0 2, Campbell 0-0 0-0 0, Coffman 0-2 0-0 0, Shelton 0-1 0-0 0, Allen 0-0 0-0 0, Harper 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 18-46 5-6 43.

Fort Scott........ 13 9 10 11 -- 43

Three-point field goals: Osawatomie 4-8 (Re.Fisher 4-5, Maring 0-1, Booe 0-2), Fort Scott 2-11 (Sharp 2-3, Dikeman 0-2, Coffman 0-2, Rienbolt 0-5).

Total fouls: Osawatomie 9, Fort Scott 6. Fouled out: none. Technical fouls: none.

Rebounds: Osawatomie 16 (Madden, Baker 3 each), Fort Scott 30 (Sharp 8). Assists: Osawatomie 6 (Booe, Bailey 2 each), Fort Scott 11 (Rienbolt, Bingesser 4 each). Turnovers: Osawatomie 19, Fort Scott 9. Steals: Osawatomie 5 (five with 1 each), Fort Scott 9 (Sharp, Bingesser 3 each). Blocked shots: Osawatomie 1 (Geiger), Fort Scott 2 (Sharp 2)