Tiger boys to play for tourney title

Fort Scott's AJ Smith (5) looks to get by Nevada's Ben Sommer during a semifinal contest at the Frontenac Kansas Army National Guard Tournament Friday evening. The Tigers went to beat Nevada, 71-57, and will play for the tournament championship tonight at 7 p.m. (Courtesy photo/Brian Wade)

FRONTENAC -- Fifth-seeded Fort Scott's boys shot 58 percent from the field here Friday evening as they defeated eighth-seed Nevada, 71-57, in the semifinals of the Kansas Army National Guard Tournament.

Fort Scott (7-3) will play No. 3 seed Pacific, Mo. in the championship game at 7 p.m. tonight. Nevada (4-9) will face Riverton for third place at 2:30 p.m. Both games will take place in the new gym at Frontenac High School.

Pacific defeated Riverton, 52-47, in Friday's late semifinal. The Indians (11-3) led just 48-47 with 33 seconds remaining in the contest.

This will be the first title game appearance for the Tigers, who have played in this tournament all three seasons of its existence.

Fort Scott scored 15 of the game's first 17 points in establishing control of the contest from the start. They scored the first 10 with the aid of a pair of 3-point goals by Jacob Bradbury.

"I liked the way we started the game," Fort Scott head coach Jeff DeLaTorre said. "Our offense was clicking and we hit some shots."

The lead grew to 19-4 on a pair of Wyatt Reehl free throws with seven seconds left. Nevada's Myles McNeley scored a layup at the buzzer for Nevada.

Matt Sommer got his game going early in the second for Nevada, scoring 4 of his team's first six points. But Reehl hit a 3-point shot to get Fort Scott on another roll, outscoring Nevada 12-3 to make it 34-15 with 2:12 left in the half.

DeLaTorre felt the second quarter performance of his team was similar to that of the second period of Thursday night's opening-round victory over Winfield.

"(Thursday) night, I thought we played very good half-court defense and we continued that tonight," he said. "We had an emphasis in that we had some guys we needed to focus on. Last night, (Winfield) had a couple of scorers who were capable of taking things over and we had to make sure we took them away. And I thought we did a good job of that."

Fort Scott's margin was 40-21 at the half and it increased quickly as Alex Fink stuck back a teammate's missed shot and Mason Knopp scored in transition.

Sommer scored for Nevada, then Andy Heathman hit a 3-pointer to bring Nevada within 44-26 with 6:26 to go. The Missourians saw Brandon Barker and Sommers score back-to-back hoops to close the gap to 48-30 with 3:33 to go.

But while Nevada was making some inroads, the deficit it found itself in early in the game was too much to overcome. Fort Scott led 52-33 going into the final stanza and while Nevada did outscore their foes from Kansas in the fourth quarter, it just wasn't enough.

Fink led Fort Scott with 19 points on 8-of-11 field-goal shooting and has scored 41 in the tournament's first two games. Knopp finished with 13 points and Reehl finished the night with 12 points and a team-high 7 rebounds.

"I think we've got the type of team capable of doing that," DeLaTorre said about the recent trend of having two or three double-digit scorers with some others in the 7-to-9-point range. "When you're able to spread it around a little bit, that makes it tough (on opponents).

Sommer made 9 of 15 field-goal tries as he led Nevada with 22 points. Barker made four 3-pointers on his way to a 14-point night but no other Tiger scored more than 5 points.

Fort Scott connected on 23 of 40 field-goal attempts on the night, including 7 of 12 3-point shots. Nevada finished at 45 percent on 22 of 49 and went 7 of 22 from 3-point range.

Fort Scott outrebounded Nevada, 26-23. Reehl had 7 boards for the Tigers.

(8) NEVADA: Smith 0-0 2-2 2, B.Sommer 0-0 0-0 0, M.Sommer 9-15 3-4 22, Barker 5-13 0-0 14, Mason 2-4 0-2 5, Eador 0-0 0-0 0, Heathman 2-6 0-0 5, Gayman 2-4 1-2 5, Ferry 0-1 0-0 0, O'Dell 1-2 0-1 2, McNeley 1-4 0-0 2. TOTALS: 22-49 6-11 57.

(5) FORT SCOTT: DeLaTorre 2-6 1-4 7, Smith 0-0 1-2 1, Brown 2-5 2-4 6, Bradbury 2-4 3-4 9, Fink 8-11 2-2 19, Knopp 5-9 3-5 13, Martin 0-0 0-0 0, Reehl 3-4 4-4 12, Labbe 1-1 2-3 4. TOTALS: 23-40 18-28 71.

Fort Scott......... 19 21 12 19 -- 71

Three-point field goals: Nevada 7-22 (Barker 4-9, Mason 1-2, M.Sommer 1-4, Heathman 1-4, McNeley 0-3), Fort Scott 7-12 (Bradbury 2-3, Reehl 2-3, DeLaTorre 2-4, Fink 1-1, Knopp 0-1).

Total fouls: Nevada 21, Fort Scott 12. Fouled out: Gayman.

Rebounds: Nevada 23 (3 with 4 each), Fort Scott 26 (Reehl 7). Assists: Nevada 8 (Smith 2), Fort Scott 6 (DeLaTorre 2, Fink 2). Turnovers: Nevada 14, Fort Scott 12. Steals: Nevada 7 (Gayman 2), Fort Scott 9 (Brown 2, Bradbury 2, Knopp 2). Blocked shots: Nevada none, Fort Scott 1 (Knopp).