BY KEVIN PRICE

kprice@gbtribune.com

HOISINGTON — The Hoisington High School boys’ basketball team, ranked No. 8 in Class 3A in the latest Kansas Basketball Coaches Association poll, took control of the game against Ellinwood after one quarter and never let go of the lead, winning 62-48.
After the game, it wasn’t the matchup between the rival Mid-Central Activities Association opponents that the coaches were talking about, but a matchup that was missing.
The Eagles leading scorer, 6-foot-5 senior Brett Whelan, was set to square off against Hoisington’s dominating big man, Cody Stetler, a 6-8 sophomore.
However, Whelan aggravated his knee injury that held him out of the start of the season, forcing him to sit the game out.
Ellinwood’s head coach Shane Duncan said that he hoped that Whelan would be back for the Hoisington Winter Jam, which begins on Monday.
Hoisington’s head coach Kyle Haxton said that he wanted to see the two post players compete.
“We needed that, too,” Haxton said of the missing matchup between Whelan and Stetler. “We wanted that, too. Cody (Stetler) needs to be seeing some guys his size. Hopefully he’ll step up when he starts to see some guys his size.”
Hoisington spread out its scoring among all five players on the court in the first eight minutes, having no player over four points in a 15-point quarter.
In the second quarter, Stetler and Derrick Kaiser began to rise above the rest, combining for 17 of the team’s 21 points in the quarter.
Stetler ended the game with 19 points, only to be topped by Kaiser, who rang up a game-high 21.
“Our corners offense is what we call it,” Kyle Haxton said. “It really gives us a chance to attack with our guards and our bigs (post players) get to find openings in the seams. Our bigs finish contested shots really well.”
The Eagles struggled against Hoisington’s full-court pressure, turning the ball over 10 times in the first quarter alone.
“We usually start out just showing some token pressure,” Haxton said. “Hopefully make their guards relax a bit and then all of a sudden, here the pressure is. It collapses on them, and hopefully they don’t understand and don’t know how to react because it is more extreme than what they see on film, I think.”
Ellinwood’s best quarter was the third, in which the Eagles outscored Hoisington 16-12 led by senior guard Kyle Corbett.
Corbett scored eight in the third quarter alone to finish the game with a team-high 17 points.
“The last couple of games, Corbett’s offensive game has really come around,” Duncan said. “He’s started hitting some shots. He’s our senior leader, a three-year starter and it was great to see him kind of take the team on his back there in the third quarter.”
Duncan said that he was proud of his team’s effort.
“Three men out tonight, three seniors, and I thought we gave a great effort,” Duncan said of missing Whelan as well as Chantz Clawson and Tanner Osborn. “Hoisington’s a great team. We played extremely hard against them being undermanned, playing only seven players.
“We had a number of opportunities when they went on their runs to quit and give up, but I thought that we fought for 32 minutes.”
Hoisington hosts its Winter Jam starting Monday. Ellinwood will meet No. 2 in Class 3A Minneapolis on Monday night to open the tournament. Hoisington will entertain Russell on Tuesday.

HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL
at Hoisington

Hoisington 62, Ellinwood 48

ELLINWOOD (3-6)
     Kyle Corbett 5 4-6 17, Kyle Blakeslee 2 5-6 10, Pat Ringering 1 0-0 2, Garrett Hayes 0 0-0 0, Kale Clawson 3 0-0 6, Ian Goering 4 1-2 9. Totals 17 10-14 48.

HOISINGTON (8-0)
     Ryan Bieberle 6 0-1 12, Cody Stetler 8 3-5 19, Brady Demel 1 0-0 2, Anthony Broeder 0 0-0 0, Jordan Mooney 0 0-0 0, Derrick Kaiser 9 0-1 21, Luke Becker 1 2-2 4, Taylor Crawford 0 0-0 0. Dustin Broeder 2 0-0 4. Totals 27 5-9 62.
Hoisington    15    21    12    14    —    62
Ellinwood     6    14    16    12    —    48
     Three-point goals — Hoisington 3 (Kaiser 3); Ellinwood 4 (Corbett 3, Blakeslee 1).