Print edition: 
McPHERSON — Derby coach Ryan Herrs is convinced he has the nicest team in Kansas. And he's not saying that as a compliment.
"We don't have a killer instinct," he said. "Look at the games we've lost. We've had our chances to put teams away, get up on them a little bit, but we refuse to keep the pedal down. We're easily satisfied.
"It's not that our kids don't play hard. I think they lack the discipline to put teams away."
It took Derby until the final two minutes of Thursday's McPherson Invitational quarterfinal game to put away Buhler for good in the Panthers' 58-50 win. Derby advances to tonight's semifinal game against McPherson, which defeated Blue Valley West 64-46.
"We knew it was (Herrs') hometown, and we wanted to come out and play well and show what we could do," said Derby forward Jabril Richardson, who finished with 23 points and nine rebounds. "We started out slow, sloppy."
Too often, Derby got a lead only to allow Buhler to come back.
With Derby leading 10-8, Buhler went on a 10-0 run that prompted a Herrs timeout. He told his team in a quiet voice that they were playing like garbage.
Later in the second quarter, Derby went on a 12-0 run for the 26-20 lead, but that disappeared when Buhler went on a 12-2 run to take a 36-35 lead in the third thanks to two three-pointers by sophomore Trevor Torgerson. He hit three threes in the period and finished with 11 points. A.J. Temel led Buhler with 23 points.
Up four late in the period, Derby watched Buhler tie the score. Even a nine-point lead wasn't completely safe in the fourth.
"We've kind of done that all year where we've gotten punched in the mouth and then — I don't know why we can't be the puncher instead of the receiver," Buhler coach Jon McLean said.
That Buhler was up and down can be attributed to its age. McLean's top eight players are six sophomores and two juniors.
"We have a great future," McLean said. "We just need to play a little better now."
Derby dominated on the boards, outrebounding Buhler 46-28, including 19-11 on the offensive end.
"We gave up 19 offensive rebounds," McLean said. "That just killed us."
Derby12 14 17 15 — 58 Buhler14 8 19 9 — 50
DERBY: Tucker 3, Z. Steadman 7, K. Steadman 11, Richardson 23, Cornelius 8, Cornejo 4, Harrison 2. Totals 23 (4) 8-13 58.
BUHLER: Torgerson 11, Massey 2, Pankratz 3, Lohrentz 6, Temel 23, Givens 2, Allen 3. Totals 17 (4) 12-15 50.
Maize 55, Lawrence Free State 49 — Maize may have won its quarterfinal game, may have advanced to today's semifinals against Blue Valley Northwest, but coach Chris Grill was not too pleased with his team's play.
Especially late in the game when Free state cut into Derby's double-digit lead, getting to within three in the final 20 seconds
"We made mistakes," Grill said. "They took advantage of the mistakes that we made. It's very evident we were letting guys wide open. You can't leave good shooters open like we're playing horse out there. They're going to make shots.
"We didn't have all five guys in the right defense. We shouldn't have those mistakes this late in the season."
Junior Ryan McCarthy added: "We got a little too fast and had too many turnovers. We'll learn from that."
Maize led 40-28 early in the fourth quarter, but defensive lapses allowed Free State to chip away at that lead. Two straight Free State three-pointers got the Firebirds to within 46-39. Another two threes in the final 1:05 and Free State trailed 52-49 with 20 seconds to go.
Maize hit three free throws in the final 15.4 seconds to pull away for good.
Maize had four players in double figures _ Blake Sturgeon (13), Luke Langley (12) and Ryan Schultz (10), while McCarthy came off the bench to score a team-high 14.
Lawrence Free State's Evan Manning had 17 points, hitting five of seven three-pointers.
Lawrence Free State6 11 11 21 — 49 Maize8 18 13 16 — 55
LAWRENCE FREE STATE: Hassig 4, Schneider 6, Watson 5, Scott 4, Allen 2, Manning 17, Ruder 6, May 5. Totals 18 (8) 5-13 49.
MAIZE: Sturgeon 13, Langley 12, McCarthy 14, Davis 3, Schultz 10, Lee 1, Hosman 2. Totals 21 (0) 13-24 55.
McPherson 64, BV West 46 _ Blue Valley West kept the game close through the first three periods, but McPherson pulled away with a 22-point fourth quarter. Jack Pyle led McPherson with 19 points, while Christian Ulsaker had 17 and Treg Fawl had 13.
BV West, which outrebounded McPherson 35-25, was led by Johnny Dee's 21 points.
BV West11 13 9 13 — 46 McPherson13 15 14 22 — 64
BV WEST: Warren 5, Morris 2, Visk 8, Haden 6, Dee 21, Epps 4. Totals 19 (3) 5-8 46.
MCPHERSON: Fawl 13, Miller 4, Hart 2, Pyle 19, Hambley 7, Robinson 2, Ulsaker 17. Totals 21 (1) 21-26 64.
BV Northwest 54, Wichita North 50 — Heading into the fourth quarter, North trailed by 14 points.
"We just could not get that ball in the hole," North coach Gary Squires said."... We just didn't get the shots to fall."
North shot 25 percent in the first half and was 0 for 4 from three-point range. The Redskins missed layups, jumpers in the lane — all the things they do usually do well.
Three minutes into the fourth period, though, North clawed its way back into the game with 11 unanswered points.
With North down 52-47 in the final 30 seconds, Chekiel Wright (16 points) hit a three-pointer to get the Redskins within two.
"The second half we came out in a press and that threw them off a little bit," Squires said. "We got a couple turnovers, forced them to hurry their shot a little bit."
North forced 21 turnovers, 10 blocked shots, 12 steals.
That defense was key in the fourth quarter when North held BV Northwest to six points.
BV Northwest took a 54-50 lead after two Tyler Brashears free throws with 16.2 seconds remaining, but North failed to get a three-point attempt. North senior Briston White drove inside and was fouled, but he missed the front end of a one- and-one.
"We were right there, with two minutes to go," Squires said. "We were right there with about a minute to go."
But it wasn't enough.
Brison White finished with 11 points, while Conner Frankamp had 11 and Briston White had five blocked shots.
Shane Hooks led BV Northwest with 15 points, while George Bugarinovic had 15 rebounds.
Wichita North (4-5) 8 12 14 16 — 50 BV Northwest (7-2) 11 21 16 6 — 54
WICHITA NORTH: Briston White 2 2-6 6, Tolliver 1 0-0 2, Frankamp 4 2-2 11, Brison White 5 2-2 11, Wright 5 4-5 16, Robertson 1 2-2 4. Totals 18 (3) 11-17 50.
BV NORTHWEST: Brashears 4 4-4 12, Hatchett 1 0-0 2, Smith 3 3-4 10, Fisher 2 0-0 6, Bugarinovic 1 2-2- 4, Hooks 4 6-6 15, Bond 2 1-2 5, Lang 0 0-2 0. Totals 17 (4) 16-20 54.
