HAYS – It was a tale of two halves for the St. John Tigers, who rolled past LeRoy-Southern Coffey County 49-35 in Wednesday’s 1A state basketball championship.
Tiger Chase Fisher scored 15 of his 20 points the first half. Mason Osborne scored 13 second-half points and 6-foot-7 Tanner Halling scored eight second-half points after playing four first-half minutes.
“Chase Fisher carried us the first half, and Mason Osborne and Tanner Halling really played well that second half,” said St. John coach Clint Kinnamon.
Senior sparkplug Quincy Smith played superbly with seven rebounds, five steals, four points and several defensive deflections.
“Eddy Calleros, Quincy Smith and Mason Osborne delivered a ton of deflections defensively,” Kinnamon said. “We were very active defensively.”
The Tigers put the game away after leading 31-30 with an 18-5 game-ending run. Osborne, Fisher and Halling combined for 25 second-half points.
“We finished the basketball game strong,” Kinnamon said.
Chonnor Ludolph led Southern Coffey (18-5) with 20 points. The Titans last qualified for 1963.
St. John (18-5) earns a showdown Friday against No. 1 ranked Montezuma-South Gray (23-0), which sports the best record coach Kinnamon has seen the past six postseasons. The Tigers have captured six state basketball championships and are 8-1 all-time in state semifinal games.
The Tigers have posted a 28-2 over the past six years in post-season play. A substate championship loss to Central Plains in 2016 is the only other time the Tigers have been such a heavy underdog.
“It’ll be nice to be the underdog for a change,” Kinnamon said. “We haven’t had that luxury too often in the past. We match up with South Gray. It’ll be a much faster pace than we played today.”

CC 10 6 14 5 – 35
SJ 10 12 12 15 – 49
COFFEY CO. (18-5)—Ludolph 9-14 1-1 20, Leimkuhler 3-6 4-5 10, Gibson 0-1 0-0 0, J. Borntreger 0-1 0-0 0, Gillis 1-5 0-0 3, Ohl 0-6 2-4 2, Harvey 0-3 0-0 0, Totals 13-36 7-10 35.
ST. JOHN (18-5)—Fisher 7-14 6-8 20, Osborne 4-4 6-6 15, Tanner Halling 3-6 2-4 8, Witt 0-1 0-4 0, Calleros 1-4 0-0 2, Smith 2-7 0-0 4, Ibarra 0-1 0-0 0, Totals 17-37 14-22 49.
3-point—CC 2-14 (Ludolph 1-4, Gillis 1-5, Gibson 0-1, J. Bontrager 0-1, Harvey 0-3), SJ 1-5 (Osborne 1-1, Calleros 0-2, Smith 0-2). Rebounds—CC 22 (Leimkuhler 7), SJ 25 (Smith 7). Assists—CC 4, SJ 5. Steals—CC 7 (Ludolph 3), SJ 9 (Smith 5).

1A-DIV. 1 —HAYS BOYS

FRIDAY’S SEMIFINALS

4:45 p.m.—Montezuma South Gray (23-0) vs. South John (18-5)

8:15 p.m.—Hanover (20-1) vs. Centralia (15-9)
WEDNESDAY

Montezuma South Gray 77, Hope Rural Vista 42

St. John 49, LeRoy So. Coffey Co. 35
Centralia 60, Osborne 59
Hanover 65, Atwood-Rawlins Co. 44