Scott City boys capture Colby Orange & Black title, girls fall to Colby

Colby, Kan. (westernkansasnews.com)–A new mark has been set in the Orange & Black’s 30-year history was set on Saturday night. Going into the boys championship game, no boys team had ever repeated as tournament champions. Scott City rewrote the books with a 62-57 victory over the Hays Indians to win the Paul Wintz/Tom Bowen Orange & Black Classic. The Lady Beavers played in the fourth place game earlier in the day at the Colby Community Building against the Lady Eagles, and fell 57-26.

In the fourth place girls game, Scott City faced Colby in that same game for the first time since 2010. Bailey Latta’s early three pointer gave the Lady Beavers a 3-2 lead early on. Unfortunately for Scott City (3-8) that would be their only lead of the game. Colby (5-7) would force six straight turnovers, and use a 17-0 run in about a seven minute span to lead 19-3 nearly a minute into the second quarter. The Lady Eagles would eventually take a 25-10 halftime lead, as both teams settled in in the second quarter. In the third period, Colby would jump out on Scott City early, with the first six points of the half to push their lead to 31-10. The Lady Beavers would have one final surge, using a 7-0 run to cut it to 14 in the middle of the third quarter, only to see Colby use a 9-2 run to end the third period and lead 40-20 going into the final quarter. In the final frame, the Lady Eagles scored the first seven points and never looked back, taking the fourth place game 57-26. Colby was led by Brenly Terrell with 22 points, and was named to the All-Tournament Team. Scott City got 14 from Bailey Latta, who left the game late in the third quarter with an injury after taking a charge. Colby has now won eight straight over Scott City in the Orange & Black Classic.

Coach Shelby Crawford Postgame

The game of the tournament was the boys championship game between Scott City and Hays. Coming into the game, there was a buzz in the community about this possible matchup that came to fruition, and it lived up to its hype. The Beavers and Indians saw the score tied six times and the lead exchanged eight times in the first half. Hays (9-3) led 18-16 after the first period, and took their biggest lead of the game with 3:51 left before intermission at 28-24. That would be their last points of the half. Scott City (10-1) would respond with the half’s final 12 points to take a 36-28 lead at the break. On four occasions in the third quarter, the Beavers led by as many as 10 points, with the last coming with 2:17 left in the third quarter at 49-39. Hays would make a big push, using an 9-0 run in a four-minute stretch of the third and fourth quarters to pull to within 49-48 with 6:16 left in the game. Scott City never surrendered the lead, after the Indians pulled to within a point on two other occasions. In the final five minutes of the game, the Beavers lead would be between three and five points. Despite Scott City missing two straight one and one’s in the final minute of the game, Trey O’Neil would close the door on the Indians with a pair of free throws with 1.3 seconds remaining, to give the Beavers their third straight Orange & Black championship in as many appearances, and their 11th straight tournament win, dating back to 2010, which is second-best in tournament history. Kansas City Schlagle had a run of 13 straight wins from 1990 to Friday, when the Beavers defeated them. Scott City was led by Trey O’Neil with a game-high 29 points and was not only named to the All-Tournament Team, but was named the tournament’s MVP for the second straight season. Brett Meyer, an All-Tournament Team selection, finished with 11 points. Sloan Baker was the third All-Tournament Team pick for the Beavers, and finished with nine. Hays was led by future Ft. Hays State Tiger Brady Werth and Isaiah Nunnery with 19 points, also All-Tournament selections, and Shane Berens with 12.

Coach Glenn O’Neil Postgame

All-Academic Tournament Team Selections were announced through the day on Saturday. Taylor Goodman was named to the team for the girls, Chantz Yager for the boys, and Addie Price was named for the cheerleaders.

Scott City will travel to Lakin on Tuesday to face the Broncs at Lakin Middle School, starting at 6:30 for the girls, with the boys to follow.