Tigers tame tough Titans in Tuesday tussle

If you really feel that there is an easy mark in the Southeast Kansas League, you might want to remind the last-place Columbus Titans.

Why? Because once again, the Titans gave Fort Scott High's boys about as much as they could handle before the Tigers finally began to pull away in the fourth quarter of what ended up a 61-47 league victory at the FSHS gymnasium.

"We tell the kids, in this league -- and this year, especially -- there's no layup, cupcake, whatever you want to call it on the schedule," Fort Scott head coach Jeff DeLaTorre said. "It's be ready to play or you're going to be in a for a dogfight. At their place (in December), we were down at halftime. We had to kind of turn it on and beat them down there. So we felt like this was going to be a battle."

Gary Floyd was back on the court after recovering from the blow he had to his injured right elbow in Friday's game against Independence and dropped in a 3-point shot right off the bat to help the Tigers (8-4 SEK, 10-6 overall) take an early lead.

But the Titans (1-11, 4-12) used a 10-2 run to take a 15-8 lead before Jaret Thorpe's tip-in of a teammate's miss at the buzzer cut the deficit to 5 points at the end of the first quarter.

"They do a good job defensively and that made it tough on us," DeLaTorre said. "Our shots weren't falling and we kind of struggled. You have to hand it to them because they played well and I'm proud of how we battled."

Battle the Tigers did, chipping away at the Titans' lead until Gabe Quick hit a 3-point shot from the top of the key to give Fort Scott a 19-16 lead with 2:30 left in the first half as part of a 12-2 quarter-opening run.

Joe Holman brought Columbus within 23-22 when he hit a 3-point shot with 40 seconds remaining. But Hull tipped in a missed 3-point shot for the Tigers to extend the lead to 3 points at the break.

Fort Scott made just 9 of 27 field-goal attempts in the first half. But the Tigers were able to improve their accuracy significantly in the second half. Floyd came out and scored the first four points of the half to give them their biggest lead up to that point, 29-22.

Columbus fought back again, tying it at 31-31 with 3:03 to go on another Holman triple. Quick responded with a 3-pointer of his own moments later and Floyd went coast to coast with a defensive rebound to put the Tigers up 5.

Columbus beat the buzzer at the end of the third quarter as Taylor Spear's layup brought the Titans within 38-35.

Early in the fourth quarter, three consecutive Columbus transition baskets tied the score at 41-41 with 5:40 left in the game, forcing DeLaTorre to use a time out.

The Titans continued to hang tough with Matt Crain bringing them within one point one last time, 46-45, with 4:30 remaining.

Griffin Knopp's layoff from a Mikey Karleskint assist with 3:44 remaining sparked a game-ending 15-2 run. The Tigers, who had made only 6 of 17 free throws in the first 28 minutes, connected on 9 of 10 down the stretch.

"We made some adjustments in the second half and I think we attacked a little bit more," DeLaTorre said. "We've seen the zone they run and we knew what we wanted to do. But I think we were tentative early on and settled for jump shots."

Floyd led the Tigers with 26 points, 6 rebounds and 4 steals. He made 8 of 13 shots from the field but struggled at the free-throw line early. He finished 9 of 17 from the charity stripe but went 6 of 8 in the fourth quarter when it mattered most.

Quick added 14 points off the bench in his second game coming in as sixth man after starting most of the season. He also had 5 rebounds.

"I was proud to see Gabe step up tonight," DeLaTorre said. "He played really well. He came in and gave us a lift offensively and it was good to see."

Crain was Columbus' only double-figure scorer, putting in 18 points -- he was also 8 of 13 from the floor -- before fouling out.

The Tigers made 12 of 16 field-goal attempts in the second half to finish the night 21 of 52 overall for 40 percent. Columbus made 20 of 47 fielders for 43 percent but hit on only 2 of 16 3-point shots.

The Tigers will travel to Chanute Friday night for another SEK battle. The Blue Comets (5-6, 6-9) knocked off league leader Coffeyville in a make-up game Saturday night, 50-48, and beat Iola Tuesday night, 60-55.

"If (Chanute) can beat the team that's proven they're the best team in the league on (Chanute's) floor, then they're going to have some confidence and we're going to have to play well," DeLaTorre says. "We beat them the first time but they had a shot at the buzzer that went in and out, so it could have gone either way. We'll be ready to go and we'll see what happens."

JUNIOR VARSITY -- The Tiger JV rolled by Columbus, 73-22. Kyle Altic scored 17 points for the Tigers followed by Cameron Woodring and Daniel Durbin with 12 each and Brady Fink with 10.

COLUMBUS: Crain 8-13 2-3 18, Tillman 4-7 0-0- 8, Spear 3-11 2-2 8, Holman 3-10 0-0 8, Kellogg 1-2 1-2 3, Grant 1-2 0-0 2, Stanley 0-2 0-0 0. TOTALS: 20-47 5-9 47.

FORT SCOTT: 0 2, Ruhl 0-0 0-0 0, Thorpe 1-1 0-0 2, Wright 0-0 0-0 0, Karleskint 3-5 1-4 7, Floyd 8-13 9-17 26, Woodring 0-0 0-0 0, Knopp 3-4 1-2 7, Harper 1-6 0-0 3, Fancher 0-1 0-0 0. TOTALS: 21-52 15-27 61.

Three-point field goals: Columbus 2-16 (Holman 2-6, Crain 0-1, Stanley 0-2, Tillman 0-3, Spear 0-4), Fort Scott 4-14 (Quick 2-3, Floyd 1-4, Harper 1-5, Stark 0-2).

Total fouls: Columbus 20, Fort Scott 11. Fouled out: Crain. Technical fouls: None.

Rebounds: Columbus 32 (Crain 8), Fort Scott 29 (Floyd 6). Assists: Columbus 6 (Holman 2, Stanley 2), Fort Scott 13 (Harper 3). Turnovers: Columbus 19, Fort Scott 10. Steals: Columbus 9 (Spear 4), Fort Scott 9 (Floyd 4). Blocked shots: Columbus 2 (Crain 2), Fort Scott 1 (Fancher).