BY JIM MISUNAS
jmisunas@gbtribune.com
Welcome to the Ian Premer highlight show.
Premer checked all the boxes in Great Bend's rousing 70-51 rout of Liberal in Tuesday's Western Athletic Conference basketball game.
Premer delivered a pair of signature slam dunks, including a second-half hammer in traffic. He knocked down a pair of 3-pointers to start the second half.
"I want to attack," Premer said. "My 3-point shot is improving."
Defense?
Premer blocked several Liberal shot attempts.
Premer scored 26 points, split evenly with a 12-point first half and 14-point second half. Parker Dicks converted four 3-pointers for 14 points. Mid-range expert Maddox Spray scored 12 points. Jacob Hall scored eight points with several nifty assists.
Great Bend (13-5, 4-2 WAC) moves up to the No. 4 West seeding after Hutchinson lost Tuesday. The Panthers could clinch postseason home-court advantage with wins against Dodge City and WAC powerhouse Hays High to end the regular season.
The Panthers executed superbly for a 20-5 first-quarter lead keyed by alert defense and 9 of 18 shooting. Premer scored eight points, six players scored and the Panthers had six second-chance points.
The Panthers scored the first seven points of the second quarter for a 18-0 scoring run and a 27-5 lead.
"We kept the basketball out of the paint and rotated on the back side," said Great Bend coach Kyle Kriegh. "To score 70 points is impressive. Parker hit timely 3-pointers. Carter Coombs did a good job passing the ball. He's bringing energy. every day"
After a brilliant defensive start, the Panthers yielded 46 points in the final three quarters.
"Defensively, we've got to play better," Kriegh said. "We gave up a lot of open shots and drives to the basket. We didn't do our job on the help side. We gave up some layups."
Liberal (5-12, 0-5 WAC) was paced by James Fieser with 14 points and Brooks Kappelmann with 10 points. Zayden Martinez contributed 10 rebounds, four assists and three steals.
Liberal 5 13 22 11 — 51
Great Bend 20 17 15 18 — 70
LIBERAL (5-12, 0-5)—Fieser 7-18 1-5 16, Kappelmann 4-10 1-1 9, Martinez 3-12 3-5 9, Mata 2-3 0-0 5, Torres 1-5 0-0 3, Miramontes 1-1 0-1 2, Mein 2-3 0-0 4, Porras 1-2 1-1 3, Chamberlain 0-3 0-0 0, Totals 21-57 6-13 51.
GREAT BEND (13-5, 4-2)—Premer 12 0-1 26, Dicks 5 0-0 14, Spray 6 0-1 12, Hall 3 2-4 8, Ohnmacht 2 0-0 4, Nicholson 1 0-0 2, Coombs 1 0-0 2, Minton 0 2-2 2, Totals 30-61 4-7 70.
3-pointers—L 3-14 (Mata 1-2, Torres 1-5, Fieser 1-4, Kappelmann 0-1, Chamberlain 0-2); GB 6-19 (Dicks 4, Premer 2). Rebounds—L 27 (Martinez 10). Assists—L 11 (Fieser 4, Martinez 4). Steals—L 12 (Martinez 3)
