Greyhound women eliminated from playoffs with loss

HESSTON -- Fort Scott Community College's women's basketball team was eliminated from the post-season here Tuesday night following a 51-45 loss to Hesston in the final game of the regular season.

As the No. 7 seed in Region VI-Division II, the Greyhounds (2-10 region, 13-17 overall) missed out on the playoffs, which begin with two first-round games Saturday.

Hesston (3-9, 14-16) won the game at the free-throw line, making 20 of 38 shots from the charity stripe. Fort Scott went to the free-throw line just 20 times, making 10.

Scoring was not easy to come by in this game. Hesston led 22-16 at the half and neither team scored 30 points in the second half.

Kayleigh Haggard came off the bench to lead the Greyhounds with 13 points on 6-of-12 field-goal shooting. Bret McGuire added 10 points.

Brittany Kramer was the only Lark with double figures, scoring 12 points, most of that at the free-throw line.

Both teams shot just 25 percent from the field. Fort Scott was 16 of 63 while Hesston went 15 of 61.

As the No. 6 seed, the Larks will travel to take on third-seeded Highland (7-5, 23-6) Saturday afternoon. The other semifinal sees Labette (5-7, 15-15) hosting Brown Mackie (3-9, 8-21) in Parsons.

Top-seeded Johnson County (11-1, 28-2) and second-seeded Kansas City (11-1, 27-3) dres first-round byes. Johnson awaits the BMC-Labette winner. KCK will take on the Hesston-Highland victory. Both games will take place Tuesday night.

The championship game will be at Wichita State University on March 7. The Region VI champion advances to the NJCAA Division II National Tournament, which will be held in Overland Park.

(Editor's note: Previous articles stated that all seven teams in the region qualified for the playoffs. This was due to a misunderstanding of the playoff format. The Tribune regrets the error.)

FORT SCOTT: White 0-6 0-0 0, McAdams 2-10 0-2 4, Luptak 1-7 3-8 6, McGuire 3-8 3-3 10, Valadez 1-5 0-0 4, Copeland 2-3 0-0 4, Shoulders 0-7 2-2 2, Haggard 6-12 1-1 13, Cicero 0-0 0-0 0, Thorp 0-2 0-2 0, Wilhelmi 1-3 1-2 3. TOTALS: 16-63 10-20 45.

HESSTON: Carter 0-8 0-0 0, Drew 1-1 5-7 8, Snow 3-7 1-5 7, Richer 2-3 0-0 4, Tillmann 1-5 1-4 3, Thompson 0-3 0-0 0, E.Coffman 0-0 0-0 0, Graber 0-0 0-0 0, Cockrell 4-8 1-1 9, M.Coffman 2-7 3-4 7, Needham 0-0 0-2 0, McClellan 0-2 1-2 1, Kramer 2-17 8-13 12. TOTALS: 15-61 20-38 51.

Halftime: Hesston, 22-16.

Three-point field goals: Fort Scott 3-18 (McGuire 1-3, Luptak 1-4, Valadez 1-4, Haggard 0-1, Shoulders 0-6), Hesston 1-7 (Drew 1-1, Carter 0-1, Tillman 0-1, Thompson 0-1, Kramer 0-3).

Total fouls: Fort Scott 28, Hesston n/a. Fouled out: None.

Only Fort Scott statistics provided.

Rebounds: Fort Scott 42 (Luptak 10). Assists: Fort Scott 8 (Copeland 3). Turnovers: Fort Scott 21. Steals: Fort Scott 7 (McGuire 2). Blocked shots: Fort Scott 5 (5 with 1 each).