BY BUDDY TABLER
Special to the Tribune
LARNED — In a defense-dominated game the Larned Indians handcuffed the St. John Tigers to win the Keady Basketball Classic over St. John 36-32.
It was Larned’s first Gene Keady title since 2006. St. John won it in 2018 and had won six of the last seven tournaments. Larned’s full-court defense on the Tigers resulted in 22 turnovers.
Larned broke away from a 4-3 deficit in the first quarter and never trailed again as they posted a 12-4 first quarter lead and a 19-12 halftime advantage.
The two teams traded points in the third, ending 25-18, setting up a nail-biting finish that was in doubt until Larned’s Melo Bryant nailed two free throws with 55 seconds remaining for a five-point lead.
After a Tanner Halling basket for St.John, Larned’s Chance Sanger closed out the scoring with two more free throws and t he Larned crowd began their celebration.
At 5:55 of the third quarter St.John’s Joel Ortiz was fouled and injured under the St. John basket and play was held up for ten minutes as he was attended to and eventually transported to Pawnee Valley Community Hospital. It took both teams a while to regain their momentum and enthusiasm after that stoppage.
Larned coach Jerrod Smith was happy with the win.
“We hung in there when St. John made their run. I knew they would make a run at us even though we had that ten point lead at 30-20, I didn’t feel comfortable. You never feel comfortable with a lead against St. John.”
St. John’s Tanner Halling dominated the inside game and finished with 18 points but it was Larned’s quickness that was the story of the game. The Tigers made 14 of 40 field goal attempts but only 2 of 8 free throws in the low-scoring affair.
Larned finished 13 of 36 for 36% and 5 of 9 from the charity stripe. The Indians were paced in scoring by Mason Perez and Chance Sanger with 13 points each. Coach Smith said, “We used a zone defense more than normal tonight and I thought we did a good job with it. St. John also played a lot of zone so you saw two predominantly man-to-man teams play a lot of zone just due to the matchup problems both teams experienced.”
Larned’s next game is Tuesday as they will host the Cimarron Bluejays while St. John travels to Hesston for a game of state-ranked teams on Friday.
BOYS ALL TOURNAMENT—Larned’s Mason Perez was picked as the Boys Most Valuable Player of the Keady Basketball Classic here on Saturday evening after the Larned Indians won the championship trophy. Larned’s Chance Sanger was included on the All Tournament Team.
Other picks for the team were St. John’s Tanner Halling and Joel Ortiz. Hoisington placed Mason Haxton and Bralen Thompson on the team. Carson Rich and Joshua Cox were picked from Spearville and Cooper Zenger and Brandon Boyles made it for Kiowa County. Simon Acosta was the lone representative from Macksville.
LARNED 36, ST. JOHN 32
St. John 4 8 6 14 – 32
Larned 12 7 6 11 – 36
ST. JOHN (3-1)—Tanner Halling 9 0-0 18; Fisher 2 0-0 4; Marshall Woolf 3 2-2 8, Delp 1 0-2 2; Totals 15 2-4 32.
LARNED (4-0)—Perez 6 0-0 13; Sanger 4 2-2 13; Skelton 2 0-2 4; Smith 0 1-2 1; Bryant 1 2-3 5; Totals 13 5-9 36.
3-pointers—L 5 (Sanger 3, Bryant 1, Perez 1).
HOISINGTON BOYS 56, SPEARVILLE 22 (3RD) – Braden Mooney scored 16 points and Mason Haxton
added 12 points as the Cardinals beat Spearville 56-22 for third place.
Hoisington 10 12 20 14 – 56
Spearville 2 4 8 8 – 22
HOISINGTON (3-1)—Mooney 7-8 0-0 16; Mason Haxton 3-11 5-5 12; Hanzlick 2-3 1-2 5; Dolezal 3-6 0-0 6; Blackwell 1-1 0-0 2; Specht 1-5 0-0 2; Thompson 1-3 0-0 2; Woydziak 1-2 1-2 3; Brewer 3-6 0-0 8; Layton Haxton 0-2 0-0 0; Richards 0-5 0-0 0; Totals 22-52 7-9 56.
SPEARVILLE—Cox 3 2-2 8; Mettling 3 0-0 6; Bennett 0 0-1 0; Hubbell 0 1-2 1; Carson 2 2-2 7; Totals 8 5-7 22.
3-pointers—H 5-18 (Brewer 2-5, Mooney 2-2, M. Haxton 1-2, Hanzlick 0-1, Thompson 0-2, L. Haxton 0-2, Specht 0-1), S 1 (Carson 1). Rebounds—H 34 (Brewer 6, Blackwell 6). Assists—H 19 (Brewer 5). Steals--H 7 (Mooney 2).
KIOWA CO. 63, MACKSVILLE 51 (5TH) –Macksville’s Simon Acosta scored 18 points in a 63-51 loss to Kiowa County, led by Cooper Zenger with 21 points.
Macksville 12 8 11 20 — 51
Kiowa Co. 15 15 21 12 — 63
MACKSVILLE (1-3)—Acosta 7 0-0 18; Blaske 2 2-3 6; Barron 3 3-4 11; Huggins 3 2-2 8; Kuckelman 2 0-1 4; Johnson 1 0-2 2; Ibarra 1 0-0 2; Totals 19 7-12 51.
KIOWA CO—.Boyles 5 1-2 11; Deterding 1 0-0 2; Pore 3 0-0 6; Brack 2 1-2 5; Zenger 7 1-2 21; Tedder 0 1-2 1; Ballard 2 0-1 6; Lingafelter 4 0-3 8; Deterding 1 0-0 2; Totals 25 5-13 63.
3-pointers—KC 8 (Zenger 6, Ballard 2); M 6 (Acosta 4, Barron 2).
BUCKLIN 79, KINSLEY 51
Bucklin 18 15 33 15 — 79
Kinsley 12 17 13 9 — 51
BUCKLIN—Scott Price 14 5-6 42; Stout 5 1-3 13; Green 3 3-4 11; Bowman 3 0-2 8; Lindsay 1 1-3 3; Ellis 1 0-0 2; Stein 0 0-2 0; Totals 27 13-23 79.
KINSLEY—Haynes 5 3-4 15; Gleason 5 0-0 13; Sexton 3 1-2 7; Schmidt 3 1-4 7; Taylor 2 1-5 5; Bowman 1 0-0 2; Habiger 1 0-0 2; Rodriguez 0 0-2 0; Totals 20 6-17 51.
3-pointers—B 15 (Price 9, Stout 2, Bowman 2, Green 2); K 5 (Gleason 3, Haynes 2).
LARNED KEADY CLASSIC
GIRLS—1ST—Spearville 52, Bucklin 43; 3RD—St. John 49, Macksville 25; 5TH—Kiowa County 49, Kinsley 37; 7TH—Hoisington 54, Larned 28
SEMIFINALS—Bucklin 41, St. John 36; Spearville 67, Macksville 13; Kiowa County 56, Hoisington 31; Kinsley 47. Larned 31
FIRST ROUND—St. John 40, Kiowa County 34; Bucklin 46, Hoisington 28; Spearville 54, Kinsley 32; Macksville 57, Larned 48
BOYS—1ST—Larned 36, St. John 32; 3RD—Hoisington 56, Spearville 22; 5TH—Kiowa County 63, Macksville 51; 7TH—Bucklin 79, Kinsley 51
SEMIFINALS—St. John 58, Hoisington 38; Larned 60, Spearville 31; Kiowa County 64, Bucklin 52; Macksville 48, Kinsley 39
FIRST ROUND—St. John 54, Kiowa County 38; Hoisington 81, Bucklin 62; Spearville 71, Kinsley 54; Larned 54, Macksville 31
GIRLS FREE THROWS—1—Mackinzie Birney, Bucklin, 30-40; 2—Suzanna Schneider, Hoisington, 29-40; 3—Sabrina Thomas, Kiowa County, 24-35
BOYS FREE THROWS—1—Bralen Thompson, Hoisington, 39-40; 2—Luke Ballard, Kiowa Co. 34-40; 3—Gabe Ellis, Bucklin, 33-40
GIRLS 3-POINTERS—1—Ehlaina Hartman, Spearville, 16-30; 2—Bree Meyer, St. John, 16-30; 3—Josena Frame, Kinsley, 13-30
BOYS 3-POINTERS—1—Koleten Bennett, Spearville, 19-30; 2—Levi Haynes, Kinsley, 18-30; 3—Avery Brewer, Hoisington, 17-30
BOYS ALL TOURNAMENT—MVP Mason Perez; Chance Sanger, Larned; Tanner Halling, St. John; Joel Ortiz, St. John; Mason Haxton, Hoisington; Bralen Thompson, Hoisington; Carson Rich, Spearville; Joshua Cox, Spearville; Brandon Boyles, Kiowa Co.; Cooper Zenger, Kiowa Co.; Simon Acosta, Macksville
GIRLS ALL TOURNAMENT—Ehlaina Hartman, Spearville; Brianna Ede, Spearville; Alissa Heskamp, Spearville; Mackenzie Birney, Bucklin; Catherine Bowman, Bucklin; Darby Smith, St. John; Erin Crissman, St. John; Kimber Duncan, Macksville; Addison Sherer, Kiowa Co.; Sabrina Thomas, Macksville; Josena Frame, Kinsley
