BY BRENT MAYCOCK
KSHSAA COVERED
It wasn’t the first time Luke McGuire had stood among a throng of Cunningham well-wishers clutching a state championship trophy.
Two falls ago, he helped lead the Wildcat football team to the school’s first-ever state championship of any kind when Cunningham captured the inaugural 6-Man state championship.
At the time, he thought there was no better feeling.
On Saturday, however, it got some serious competition. There McGuire stood in the auxiliary gym at Barton Community College once again surrounded by Cunningham fans holding a championship trophy tightly in his hands after the Wildcats added a Class IA Division 2 basketball state title as well.
“Oh man, I can’t even describe either one of them,” McGuire said. “They’re both just the best. They both mean so much to me. First one for both in Cunningham history. It’s just wonderful to be a part of them.”
Cunningham followed its state tournament modus operandi, falling behind in the first quarter of Saturday’s championship game against Lebo. And just as the Wildcats did in the quarterfinals against Bucklin and semifinals against Dighton, they shrugged off the slow start and stormed back to win.
The 60-55 win over the Wolves delivered Cunningham its first state title in its first-ever championship game appearance.
“It was relief as much as anything,” said Cunningham coach Bob Stackhouse, an assistant when Cunningham's girls finished runner-up in 2021 to Central Plains. “The kids handled it way better than I did. The community was really behind us wanting us to do well and I felt that pressure a bit. I was relieved that these kids had the success they deserved.”
There’s nothing like digging an early hole to ramp up that pressure a notch or two.
It happened in the quarterfinals when the Wildcats got down 17 points to Bucklin before rallying for a 70-66 win. In the semifinals against top-seeded Dighton, Cunningham gave up 23 first-quarter points and trailed by as much as seven in the period before taking a 61-58 win.
So when Lebo raced out to a 9-0 lead and held the Wildcats scoreless for the first five-plus minutes, Cunningham didn’t bat an eye.
“We just work though it all the time,” junior guard Luke Albers said. “Stuff happens and we make plays and get over it. We know we’re never out of a game. It’s just how it is. Unfortunately, we’re always down in the first half, so I guess we’re not a first-half team. But it works.”
While it took awhile for the Wildcats to erase their quarterfinal and semifinal deficits, their response to Lebo’s opening run was immediate. Cunningham answered the Wolves’ 9-0 spurt with a 10-0 run over its own and actually led 12-10 at the end of the quarter.
Not surprisingly, it was Albers and junior teammate Will Wegerer that got the Wildcats going. Bottled up by Lebo’s swarming defense early, the duo finally found some openings and took advantage. Each converted an-one three-point plays to start Cunningham’s run.
“They were on us really tight and we decided to set a few screens and get some space and make plays happen,” Albers said. “Once you get that shot to go down, there’s more coming.”
Cunningham's Luke Albers holds the pose on a 3-pointer on his way to 23 points in Saturday's Class 1A Division 2 championship game.
Indeed there was. By halftime, Wegerer had 12 points and Albers had nine as Cunningham led 28-21. They never slowed down in the second half as Wegerer finished with a game-high 27 points and Albers was right behind with 23, each going 9 of 17 from the field.
Albers hit 3 of 5 3-pointers and Wegerer went 8 of 10 at the free throw line.
“I can’t say enough good things about them,” said McGuire, the senior point guard who racked up six assists in setting up his junior teammates. “If we had a Hall of Fame at Cunningham, first ballot right there. They’re so much fun to play with and they can make a bucket at any time.”
Grayson Shoemaker has been that guy for Lebo most of the season and it was his huge second half that sparked the Wolves’ semifinal win over Axtell. But when the senior guard struggled to find his perimeter shot (0 of 5 beyond the arc for the game), the Wolves turned to junior post Zach Oswald and leaned on him hard.
Oswald was unstoppable in the second half, helping Lebo come all the way back to take a 39-38 lead with a 3-pointer by Andrew Konrade putting the Wolves on top on a 3-pointer with 10 seconds left in the period.
“He was killing and we were trying to keep him from getting the ball and didn’t do a good job of that,” Stackhouse said of Oswald, who hit 6 of 7 field goals in the second half and 8 of 11 for the game along with going 6 of 8 at the free throw line for 22 points. “Part of the problem was they were running (Shoemaker) to the middle and we had to account for him, too. Between the two of them, it was just difficult.”
Lebo's Zach Oswald was unstoppable in the second half, but couldn't quite carry the Wolves to the state championship.
But just when it appeared the Wolves had all the momentum, they fouled Wegerer on a 3-pointer at the third-quarter buzzer and he made all three free throws to put Cunningham back on top.
The teams traded ties at 41, 43 and 45 before Wegerer put Cunningham up for good with a layup and Albers followed with a 3-pointer. After Konrade halted the min-run, Albers and Wegerer again scored on back-to-back possessions to put Cunningham up seven with 2:12 left.
The duo combined for 17 of Cunningham’s 19 fourth-quarter points and Wegerer’s two free throws with three seconds left sealed the win after Lebo had pulled within three on a Dominic Risner 3-pointer with six seconds left.
“They’re definitely a handful and hats off to them, they’re both great players,” Lebo coach Dennis Becker said of Wegerer and Albers. “They figured it out before we could figure out their zone. We made too many mistakes down the stretch late. There in the fourth they found a way and we struggled to find buckets and find stops.”
Oswald added eight rebounds to his 22 points while Konrade finished with 16 points and Shoemaker had 12.
Lebo (17-8) finished runner-up for the second straight year, coming into the tournament as a bit of an underdog, this year as the tourney’s No. 6 seed before taking out No. 3 Northern Valley and No. 2 Axtell. While the Wolves fell short of their first state title since 1988, Becker was nothing but pleased with how his team has showed out at state the past two seasons.
“It’s all about the kids,” Becker said. “This group that we have, they’re ones who are going to step up and go to work and do whatever you ask. I just feel bad we came up one win short.”
Cunningham had never reached a championship game before Saturday, the previous best a third in 2004. But after making history in football in 2022, McGuire said the Wildcats were ready for the moment this season.
“We knew from the get-go that we had the athletes to do it,” McGuire said. “The way our program was going, we knew it was coming.”
With both Albers and Wegerer returning next year, Cunningham (22-3) could very well do it again.
“It is crazy and an honor for sure to be a part of this team with the teammates and coaches we have,” Albers said. “We’re losing two seniors and gaining some good talent that maybe can step up. But we’re looking to be back and do this again next year.”
