Trinity Academy trips Kapaun to reach El Dorado title game

Many of Trinity Academy’s starters watched from the bench as their teammates rallied from a 22-9 first-quarter deficit Friday night.

Trinity reserves scored 19 of the Knights’ 25 second-quarter points, and they were able to withstand a late Kapaun Mount Carmel charge for a 63-61 victory in the semifinals of the Bluestem Classic. Trinity meets Collegiate in Saturday’s final.

“The comeback was really by the group off the bench,” Trinity coach Steve Miller said. “They kind of settled down, got in there and saw how to guard those guys. It was a 25-point second quarter with most of our second group in there.

“I was so proud of those guys that they came in and did that.”

Leading the charge were burly 6-foot junior Sam Draper, who scored eight points in the period, and 6-3 sophomore Michael Jones, who had a three-pointer and another basket.

Miller said his bench’s efforts didn’t surprise him.

“Sam came in off the bench, and we know he can do those things,” Miller said. “He works hard and he always has to kind of guard against Ben Adler (himself a stocky 6-4) in practice every day, so he’s kind of used to going against that, a big guy trying to move 300 pounds.”

Kapaun (8-2), which is atop the City League standings, didn’t have an answer for 6-7 senior Luke Prohaska, who had a team-high 13 in Trinity’s balanced scoring attack. He always seemed to be getting key baskets when the Knights needed them most.

“He’s worked hard,” Miller said. “He had a great summer for us. When he keeps it up high, it’s hard to block that shot.”

Kapaun players gave up at least two inches to Prohaska, but when he wasn’t hitting, Jones came up with a key hoop. He finished with 11.

The duo were part of an extremely balanced Trinity scoring line. Nine of the 10 Knights who played had at least two points.

Miller said he wouldn’t deny he wasn’t nervous as the Crusaders pulled close and took one-point leads three times in the final period.

Kapaun had an uncharacteristically cold three-point shooting night, hitting five but only one after halftime.

“That was the game plan going in,” Miller said. “We feel we’ve got two solid guards (Caden VanLandingham and Jarrett Counts) who can really defend. Both of them got into a little foul trouble, but they hung in there and just tried to contest every shot.”

Crusaders coach John Cherne said he wasn’t surprised his team came up short.

“If you’ve been looking at our defensive field-goal percentage, it’s been getting worse and worse and worse,” he said. “We’ve been giving up middle drives more and more, so statistically it was on an upward trend.

“So it was bound to catch up and get us. Lack of execution and just lack of attention to detail, not shuffling our feet on close-outs, not blocking out, just doing all those little things.”

Kapaun started hot, jumping to leads of 9-3, 19-7 and 22-9 on Keaton Eberhart’s three-point play with 1:06 remaining in the first quarter.

But Trinity’s Jacob Baker was fouled on a desperation shot behind the midcourt line as the first-quarter buzzer sounded, giving the Knights three free throws and allowing them to cut into Kapaun’s lead to 22-14. After Eberhart opened the second quarter with a three-pointer, Trinity began to chip away, tying the score on two Draper free throws, then taking its first lead of the game, 28-27, when Caden Williams sank the second of two free shots with 3:35 before halftime.

By halftime, Trinity (9-1) had a 39-34 lead, a lead that was safe until the final minutes of the final quarter.

Collegiate 62, Gardner-Edgerton 54 — The top-seeded Spartans (11-0) threatened to run away with the game early, but Gardner-Edgerton (6-3) battled back and kept the game tight until the final minute.

“We played a really good basketball team,” Collegiate coach Mitch Fiegel said, “and we knew it was going to take 32 minutes to beat them.

“Our emphasis for the week this week was team toughness, and that’s what I thought we showed at the end. We weren’t knocking our free throws down, (but) we didn’t let that bother us. We just kept scratching, clawing and digging, and doing the things that you have to do to take that next step that I’ve been begging them to take.”

This story was originally published January 20, 2017 at 10:47 PM with the headline "Trinity Academy trips Kapaun to reach El Dorado title game."