Despite a huge height disadvantage the Larned boys controlled the tempo of the basketball game in the first half at Pratt Thursday evening, limiting the Greenbacks to a 27-20 halftime advantage. The first quarter showed only one field goal by each team . Pratt would shoot 9 of 11 from the free throw line and Larned 9 of 12.
Pratt, however, increased the tempo in the second half and raced away to a 64-34 victory and moved into the Sub-State finals on Saturday evening against the Nickerson Panthers who defeated Haven 59-49.
Larned coach Jerrod Smith said, “We wanted to control the tempo, the pace of the game and take good shots. We didn’t want to get into a running game with Pratt. We did a good job of that in the first half but it got away from us in that second half.”
Pratt , behind the all-around play of senior Samson Kohman, outscored Larned 20-10 in the third stanza to grab a commanding 47-30 lead. They continued that dominance in the fourth quarter , outscoring Larned 17-4.
Pratt’s size advantage, featuring four players at 6’4” and one at 6’6”, keyed a huge rebounding advantage which ultimately led to a lot of second-chance points and runouts for fast break opportunities. Pratt blocked 10 Larned shots in the contest.
The Greenbacks were balanced in their scoring attack, keyed by Kohman’s 12 points. Travis Theis added 10 while Devan Stephens, Noah Meyers and Traik Peltier contributed 9 apiece. Pratt made 10 of 13 free throw attempts as they improved their season record to 16-5.
The struggling Larned offense was led by senior Mason Schartz with 20 while Dalton Bright added 6. The Indians were 13 of 16 from the charity stripe. Larned finishes the season with a 4-17 record with three of those losses coming at the hands of Pratt.
Larned 5 15 10 4 – 34
Pratt 10 17 20 17 – 64
LARNED—Mason Schartz 6 4-4 20; Jon Herter 1 0-2 3; Dalton Bright 0 6-8 6; Thomas Harmon 0 1-2 1; Perez 1 0-0 2; Damontay Phillips 0 2-2 2; Totals 8 13-18 34.
PRATT—Kohman 4 4-4 12; Theis 4 0-0 10; Stephens 3 3-5 9; Studer 2 0-0 5; Bolen 1 0-0 3; Roadhouse 1 0-0 3; Peltier 4 1-2 9; Stegman 2 0-0 4; Totals 24 10-13 64.
