Scott City girls dim Lady Stars; boys slow down Meteors

Colby, Kan. (westernkansasnews.com)–You could say for Scott City it was “Astrology Friday” for the Scott City basketball teams in day two of the 33rd Annual Paul Wintz/Tom Bowen Orange & Black Classic. The girls found themselves up against the defending champion Kearney Catholic Lady Stars in the championship semi-finals, while the boys against a seven-win Lotus School For Excellence Meteors in the consolation semi-finals. At the end of the day, you could say they learned some good lessons along the way and the final outcomes were positive for Scott City. The Lady Beavers won their semi-final game over a talented Lady Star squad 54-45, while the Beaver boys needed just 26 minutes, and 36 seconds to defeat the Meteors 52-33.

Girls
Scott City found themselves playing in their first championship semi-final game in the Orange & Black since 2004, and they seized the opportunity. Kearney Catholic won their tournament in their first-ever appearance last season, just like Scott City did in 1995, and found themselves trailing to the Lady Beavers all afternoon. The Lady Beavers trailed early 8-6 with 3:21 left in the opening quarter, before they closed out the period with five straight to lead 11-8 after the opening period. Kearney Catholic (11-5) hit a three pointer to begin the second quarter to tie the game at 11. After that, it was an 11-2 Scott City run to push the lead to 22-13 with 1:41 left before halftime. The Lady Stars did close the gap to four at intermission at 22-18.

Scott City (9-1) would slowly pull away in the third quarter. It took a while but they used little spurts to build a seven-point lead going into the fourth quarter at 34-27. In the final period, the Lady Beavers showed they were the better team on the day, pushing their lead to as big as 12 at 39-27 just under a minute into the final frame, thanks to Kaitlyn Roberts’ first two shots. She would score the first 11 points of the period, as Scott City never led by fewer than seven in the final eight minutes of play. Fellow senior Emily Smith would drain seven of nine free throws down the stretch, as the Lady Beavers won their sixth straight game.

Emily Smith led the way with a game-high 13 points, Kaitlyn Roberts had 12, all in the fourth quarter, and Emily Weathers added 11. The Lady Beavers were 17-31 at the free throw line and had 19 turnovers. Kearney Catholic was led by Annie Trettel with 10 points. They were 6-8 at the free throw line. With the win, Scott City advanced to their first Orange & Black championship game since 2002, and are now 4-3 in championship semi-final games and are now 28-40 in the tournament all-time.

Coach Sarah McCormick Postgame

Boys
It wasn’t easy early on for Scott City, who was trying to find a way to snap a three-game losing streak. On Friday, it wasn’t easy for the Beavers, but they found a way to divert the Meteors coming at them. Lotus School For Excellence was coming off their second loss of the year on Thursday, and put a scare into Scott City for much of the afternoon. This game, the Beavers were able to finish when they needed to. After trailing 8-6 midway through the first quarter, Scott City never trailed, closing the final 3:49 of the opening frame with an 8-0 run to lead 14-6 heading into the second quarter. The Meteors went on a nearly six-minute drought, but over a two and a half minute stretch, strung together six straight when the Beavers weren’t scoring, to tie the game at 14 with 3:44 left in the half. Scott City (4-6) never trailed the rest of the night, using a 9-0 run to lead 23-14 with 2:15 left in the first half, on bookend three-point plays by Jordan Horn and Reid Brunswig. The teams would trade baskets before the Beavers took a 27-19 halftime lead.

Lotus (7-3) scored the first five points of the second half to get to within 27-24 a little over a minute into the half. After that, Scott City finally pulled away, and things would start to get a little heated. Over the final 4:33 of the third frame, Scott City used a 13-5 run to lead 43-21 heading into the fourth quarter. The Beavers scored the final seven points of the quarter, with all but two points coming at the foul line, which included an intentional foul free throws. The 7-0 run at the end of the third quarter quickly turned into a 14-0 run for Scott City at 50-33 with 6:13 left. Both teams would trade baskets in a 15-second span, as the Beavers led 52-33 with 5:47 left. That’s when things would escalate.

Jordan Horn would draw a charging call, which drew the ire of the Lotus players and coaches. Players from the Meteor squad would start talking trash, some profane, to not only Scott City players, but appeared to include jawing to be the officials as well. Lotus would call timeout and seconds later send their team to the locker room, ending the game with 5:24 left in the fourth quarter at 52-33.

Scott City was led by Jordan Horn with 22 points and Reid Brunswig with 11. The Beavers had 15 turnovers and were 15-21 at the line. Lotus was led by Daniel Horra with eight points, as they had 23 turnovers and were 4-8 at the line.

Coach Brian Gentry Postgame

Saturday’s schedule on the girls side features Colby and Lotus for seventh place at 12 pm at the High School, Pine Creek against Falcon at 2 in the Community Building for fourth place, Kearney Catholic and Fountain Ft. Carson at 4 pm in the High School for third place, and Scott City facing an 8-4 Pueblo East team in the championship game in the Community Building at 6. The second championship semi-final game saw Pueblo East win 43-30 over Fountain Ft. Carson. On the consolation side, it was Pine Creek over Lotus 58-2, and Falcon holding off Colby 50-47.

The boys schedule for Saturday has Pine Creek matching up with Lotus at 12 pm in the Community Building for seventh place, Scott City and Hutchinson at 2 pm in the fourth place game in the High School, Colby facing Fountain Ft. Carson in the third place game at 4, and Far Northeast taking on Falcon for the championship at 8:15. The championship semi-final games on Friday saw Far Northeast defeat Fountain Ft. Carson 44-37 and Falcon defeat Colby 59-37, while Hutchinson in the other consolation semi-final game knock off Pine Creek 60-52.