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'Hound men roll Hesston, 92-59
Fort Scott Community College's men rolled over Hesston, 92-59, in a Region VI Division II seeding game at Arnold Arena Wednesday night, pushing them a bit closer to their goal of hosting a first-round playoff game.
Brown Mackie helped out the Greyhounds by beating Highland on the road, 64-63. The results gave Fort Scott, Hesston and Highland the same record in region play, 4-4.
The Greyhounds (10-16 overall) swept Highland (14-14) in the season series while Wednesday's win over Hesston (9-18) salvaged a series split. Hesston and Highland will face each other at Highland on the final night of the regular season February 26. If Hesston wins that game, the Larks will have a season sweep over the Scotties.
Each team has two games remaining in region play but both Hesston and Highland have wins over the teams tied for the No. 1 seed, Brown Mackie and Johnson County. The Greyhounds face Johnson County at Overland Park Saturday looking for a season split as the Cavaliers won at Fort Scott in January.
The 'Hounds conclude the regular season February 26 at Kansas City, which is winless in the region.
"This will definitely give us some momentum to win these next two games," Greyhound sophomore forward C.J. Hall said. "We owe Johnson County because they got us here, so we have to take it to them on Saturday."
The top two seeds earn first-round bye in the six-team post-season tournament. The second- and third-place finishers get first-round home games. Right now, Fort Scott, Hesston and Highland are tied for third.
Hesston scored 6 of the game's first 8 points. But Fort Scott went on a 13-3 run to take control and never trailed again.
"We came out flat, first thing," sophomore Prince Samuels said. "But we ended with a lot of energy, so it felt pretty good to end that way."
Greyhound head coach Michael Cook started his five sophomores in their final regular-season home game: Hall, Samuels, Kevin House, Jaylynn McCormack and Wes Brantley. Hall had one of the best games of his junior-college career, going 4-for-5 from 3-point range and finishing with 16 points. Samuels led all scorers with 18 points. House, who is second in program history in assists, scored 12 points, handed out 9 dimes and picked up 4 steals.
It was 39-30 at the half. The Larks tried to make some head way at the beginning of the second half, getting within 41-35.
But the 'Hounds got another streak going with Hall's stickback of a teammate's miss finishing a 15-2 run that made it 56-37 with 13:30 remaining.
Fort Scott shot 50 percent from the field for the game, making 35 of 70 field-goal attempts. The Greyhounds connected on 8 of 17 3-point shots.
"We've been waiting for a night like that," Cook said. "I thought our defense was pretty solid and it carried us with the momentum we needed to get out and run."
Freshman post Mabor Gabriel contributed 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting and grabbed 6 rebounds. This performance was a good example of how much he has matured as a player in his first college season, showing the ability to move around in the paint and get past his defender for layups."
"He went outside, then went inside and he made some moves," Cook said of the 6' 8" post from New Hampshire. "The drop step with the left hand shows how much he's grown. It used to be drop step and lay it in. Now, he can make some moves, facing up, finishing around the basket. He's maturing and we need that if we're going to go on the road and win these two games."
Hesston shot 38 percent from the field on 22 of 58. Beau Palmer had a double-double for the Larks with 13 points and 11 rebounds. Darron Martin added 12 points.
HESSTON: Johnson 3-5 2-2 8, Cardenas 0-0 1-2 1, Roth 1-4 0-0 3, Tanner 3-8 3-4 9, Mann 2-5 1-2 5, Walker 0-1 0-0 0, Larkin 1-2 0-0 3, Schilling 2-5 0-0 5, Martin 4-10 2-3 12, Ammons 0-0 0-0 0, Palmer 6-12 1-2 14, Davis 0-2 0-0 0, Hiebert 0-1 0-0 0, Cook 0-3 0-0 0. TOTALS: 22-58 10-15 59.
FORT SCOTT: House 4-10 4-7 12, Harrington 2-4 1-2 5, Johnson 0-1 0-0 0 Samuels 6-14 6-9 18, McCormack 2-5 0-0 5, Knight 2-3 0-0 4, Rose 4-8 1-1 11, Rowe 2-4 0-1 5, Stroman 0-0 0-0 0, Hall 6-8 0-0 16, Brantley 1-4 0-1 2, Gabriel 6-9 2-2 14. TOTALS: 35-70 14-23 92.
Halftime: Fort Scott, 39-30.
Three-point field goals: Hesston 5-21 (Martin 2-3, Larkin 1-1, Roth 1-4, Schilling 1-4, Walker 0-1, Hiebert 0-1, Cook 0-2, Mann 0-2, Palmer 0-2, Davis 0-2), Fort Scott 8-17 (Hall 4-5, Rose 2-4, McCormack 1-3, Rowe 1-3, Johnson 0-1, Gabriel 0-1).
Total fouls: Hesston 18, Fort Scott 10. Fouled out: None.
Rebounds: Hesston 40 (Palmer 11), Fort Scott 40 (Harrington 6, Gabriel 6). Assists: Hesston 8 (Martin 3), Fort Scott 18 (House 9). Turnovers: Hesston 18, Fort Scott 12. Steals: Hesston 8 (3 with 2 each), Fort Scott 13 (House 4). Blocked shots: Hesston 2 (Schilling), Fort Scott 3 (Gabriel 2).