Indians capture Mid-Winter Classic
BY BUDDY TABLER
Special to the Tribune
ST. JOHN — The Larned boys raced to a convincing 64-50 championship game victory over the Nickerson Panthers Saturday, grabbing a Lions Club trophy for the very last time.
Brock Skelton enjoyed a big night with 29 points while Chance Sanger added 15 and Layton Crosby eight.
Larned (10-2) swept all of the honors. Brock Skelton, Mason Perez and Chance Sanger were named to the 6-man All-Tournament team. Sanger was tabbed as the Most Valuable Player.
Layton Crosby, Larned junior enjoyed a “coming out party” at the St. John tournament scoring 8, 16 and 27 points. Crosby’s father, Jason Crosby, was Most Valuable Player in 1993 and 1994.
The victory earned Larned its 10th overall tournament championship, tying them with St. John. Larned had last won the tournament in 2008.
Larned won the Sportsmanship Award in the final Lions Club Classic. The St. John Lions Club will not sponsor the tournament next year. St. John High School plans to shift into a boys and girls tournament.
It was all Larned from the opening tipoff as a full-court pressure defense forced numerous Nickerson turnovers and the Indians grabbed a 12-7 first quarter lead. The suffocating defense continued and the Indians built a 28-12 halftime advantage as the Panthers attempted 14 first-half field goals with 14 turnovers.
“We got off to a good start and it dictated how the game was played," said Larned coach Jerrod Smith. "We need to play that way every game to be successful. We feed off our defense and we were good at that tonight.”
Larned extended their lead to 44-24 after three quarters after having had the margin as high as 27 points. Nickerson battled back within 12 points in the fourth quarter. Nickerson exploited effective full-court pressure, but Larned attacked it for free throws to hold off the rallying Panthers.
Nickerson made 17 of 39 field goal attempts for 43% and converted 10 of 20 free throw attempts. Nickerson’s 6-9 Connor MacDonald scored 16 points on close-in shots and putbacks.
Logan Broomfield-Tate added 10 and Carson Linn posted nine as Nickerson (5-7) earned the second-place trophy. Cristian Peterson earned all-tournament honors.
The energetic Indians made 24 of 52 field goal attempts for 46% and converted 13 of 22 free throws.
Nickerson 7 5 13 25 – 50
Larned 12 16 16 20 – 64
NICKERSON (5-7)—MacDonald 6 4-6 16, Broomfield-Tate 3 4-10 10, Carson Linn 3 0-0 9, Tatro 2 2-2 7, Peterson 2 0-2 4, Crossman 2 0-0 4, Totals 18 10-20 50.
LARNED (10-2)—Skelton 13 1-5, 29, Sanger4 6-9 15, Crosby 4 0-0 8, Perez 0 4-4 4, Smith 1 2-2 4, Tucker 1 0-0 2, Stelter 1 0-2 2, Totals 24 13-22 64.
3-pointers—N 4 (Linn 3, Tatro 1); L 3 (Skelton 2, Sanger 1)
ST. JOHN 52, NESS CITY 29 (3RD) — St. John’s Tanner Halling returned from an illness for 17 points and all-tournament Marshall Woolf chipped in eight points and Joel Ortiz seven points.
Ness City 10 5 2 12 — 29
St. John 16 17 10 9 – 52
NESS CITY (8-5)—Cable 4 2-2 10, Delaney 3 0-0 6, Easton Seib 2 0-0 5, Guzman 2 0-0 4, Jackson Seib 1 0-0 2, Fehrenbach 1 0-0 2, Totals 13 2-2 29.
ST. JOHN (9-3)—Tanner Halling 8 1-1 17, Marshall Woolf 3 0-0 8, Ortiz 2 1-2 7, Toby Woolf 3 0-0 6, Delp 1 2-2 4, Dunn 1 0-0 3, Fernandez 1 0-0 3, Fisher 1 0-0 2, Calleros 1 0-0 2, Totals 21 4-5 52.
3-pointers—NC 1 (E. Seib 1), SJ 6 (M. Woolf 2, Ortiz 2, Dunn 1, Fernandez 1).
CENTRAL PLAINS 49, MACKSVILLE 36 (5TH) — Red-hot Central Plains Oiler Lawson Oeser kept firing with 22 points and Tyler Holmes added 10 points. Oeser converted nine free throws and a trio of 3-pointers.
Macksville’s Cleven Huggins scored 10 points and Ryan Kuckelman, Alex Barron and Rogelio Ibarra each added eight points.
Macksville 4 7 10 15 – 36
C. Plains 9 14 12 14 – 49
MACKSVILLE (4-6)—Huggins 1-1 8-8 10, Barron 3-8 0-0 8, Rogelio Ibarra 3-10 1-1 8, Kuckelman 3-6 2-3 8, Blaske 1-3 0-0 2, Johnson 0-2 0-0 0, Alvaro Ibarra 0-1 0-0 0, Totals 11-31 11-12 36.
CENTRAL PLAINS (4-7)—Oeser 6 9-10 22; Holmes 3 4-4 10, Heredia 2 0-0 6, Kitchen 1 1-2 4, Hurley 1 0-3 3, Bieberle 1 0-0 2, Totals 14 14-19 49.
3-pointers—M 3-16 (Barron 2-7, R. Ibarra 1-8, A. Ibarra 0-1), CP 7 (Oeser 3, Heredia 2, Hurley 1, Kitchen 1). Rebounds—M 22 (Kuckelman 9). Assists—M 10 (Kuckelman 3). Steals—M 5 (Kuckelman 2, Barron 2).
ST. JOHN MID-WINTER CLASSIC
SATURDAY—1st—Larned 64, Nickerson 50; 3rd—St. John 52, Ness City 29; 5th—Central Plains 49, Macksville 36
FRIDAY—Central Plains 48, KC Christian 18; Nickerson 58, St. John 46; Larned 75, Ness City 42
THURSDAY—St. John 50, Macksville 36; Larned 40, Central Plains 31; Ness City 58, KC Christian 44
TUESDAY—Nickerson 42, Macksville 33
