BY JIM MISUNAS
jmisunas@gbtribune.com

ROZEL — The state-ranked Pawnee Heights boys basketball team is a sight to behold. The fast-paced Tigers built a 20-point lead with spectacular team play for a 53-33 lead.
But the Tigers (6-1, 2-1 SPIAA) are still learning how to play a complete game. Bucklin played superbly down the stretch as the Tigers held off the Red Aces 62-54 in a Southern Plains Iroquois basketball game.
Tiger Kade Scott shot the ball poorly to start, but still found a way for 25 points while spotting teammates for open shots. Spencer VanMeter (14 points), Caleb Karst (13) and freshman Harrison VanMeter (7 points) played key roles to help the Tigers start with a 6-1 record.
Karst scored seven points and Kade Scott scored six points in the decisive third period that left the Tigers ahead 50-33 after three periods.
Harrison VanMeter drew the key defensive assignment, slowing down high-scoring Daulton Warden, who scored 18 points, but shot two of 10 after halftime.
“Harrison has shown in practice he’s our best defender,” said Pawnee Heights coach Gustavo Flores. “Harrison has good intensity and strong ball defense. Warden really hurt us the first half. Harrison did a nice job and we got better help defense. The guys started to believe in themselves that second half.”
The Red Aces turned up their defensive intensity and the Tigers shot the ball quickly and threw the ball away several times in the final quarter.
“When you have a 20-point lead, you can’t relax, but we will learn from this,” Flores said. “We wanted to look for easy shots. But we tossed a few shots up and they beat us in transition. We got sped up.”

TIGERS 62, BUCKLIN 54
Bucklin 12 11 10 21 — 54
PH 16 15 19 12 — 62
B—Warden 7-23 0-2 18, White 5-16 2-4 12, Ellis 4-7 2-3 10, Birney 3-9 1-4 7, Stimpert 2-5 1-1 5, Scott 0-1 2-6 2; Estes 0-2 0-0 0; Totals 21-47 8-18 54.
PH—Scott 8-17 6-9 25, S. VanMeter 6-15 1-4 14, Karst 2-7 8-12 13, H. VanMeter 3-10 1-2 7, Hamby 1-4 0-0 3; McCoy 0-4 0-0 0; Totals 22-57 17-25 62.

SO. PLAINS IROQUOIS BOYS
Kiowa County 3-0 6-1
Spearville 3-0 5-1
Minneola 2-0 5-1
Pawnee Heights 2-1 6-1
South Gray 2-1 5-1
Hodgeman Co. 1-1 3-4
Satanta 1-1 3-3
Ingalls 1-1 1-5
Fowler 1-2 2-5
Ashland 0-3 3-4
South Central 0-3 1-5
Bucklin 0-3 0-6
FRIDAY’S GAMES
Hodgeman Co. 36, So. Central 35
Ingalls 61, Ashland 51
Kiowa County 65, Bucklin 27
Minneola 73, Pawnee Heights 52
Satanta 52, Sublette 39
Spearville 60, South Gray 54
Skyline 49, Fowler 29
MONDAY’S GAME
Fowler 49, Hodgeman County 38
TUESDAY’S GAMES
Pawnee Heights 62, Bucklin 54
Kiowa County 49, Ashland 47
Satanta at Deerfield