3A boys: Cheney tops rival Conway Springs to advance

GARDEN PLAIN – Despite a few nervous moments toward the end Saturday night, the Cheney boys held on for a 69-60 victory over Central Plains League rival Conway Springs in a Class 3A sub-state final.

The boys team (13-9) completed a Cheney sweep of the sub-state. Cheney’s girls held on for a 51-42 victory over Garden Plain and will be joining the boys at the state tournament in Hutchinson.

“With the girls going, the whole town of Cheney’s going to be there,” Cheney boys coach Lee Baldwin said. “We’re going to bring it. I don’t know the last time the girls and the guys both went, but our town’s going to be on Cloud Nine for a while, I know that.”

Given a third shot against Conway Springs (18-5), Cheney probably got the victory that meant the most, what with a state berth on the line.

“I don’t know if it’s sunk in yet, really,” Baldwin said.

Cheney took a 50-38 lead into the fourth quarter, but made just seven of 17 free throws, allowing Conway Springs to pull closer.

This time, Cheney was able to maintain the lead. In the earlier losses, it couldn’t.

“(We led) every game,” Baldwin said. “The last time, at their place, we had a seven-point lead with a minute left and lost.

“We haven’t been a good free-throw shooting team all year. I can’t believe it didn’t bite us in the butt. We work on it all the time, and it has cost us three or four games this year.”

But Cheney then hit five of eight in the final 2:02 to maintain some distance.

Baldwin said once one goes in, it seemed to help his team’s confidence.

“I think that’s been kind of a microcosm of our season,” he said. “We have really good spurts, and there are other spurts where we don’t look very good. Every game we’ve played against them has been close, so we knew we were going to have to gut it out at the end. Fortunately, we had some guys step up and do that.”

Having the big lead helped, he said.

“We shot it very well (in the third quarter) and got some good ball movement and did some really good things offensively, did just enough to hold on,” Baldwin said.

Cheney had a balanced attack, getting four players in double figures – led by junior Hunter Adolph and sophomore Trey Patterson with 14 points each. Juniors Trent Scheer and Lakin Petz had 13 apiece.

Baldwin said it just seems to happen that way.

“This week, we’ve been very balanced,” he said. “Throughout the year, we’ve struggled to find that balance. We’re clicking at the right time now, and that balance makes it hard to guard.”

Conway Springs was led by 6-foot-4 senior Josh Dugan’s 20 points.

About those earlier losses: Does this victory make up for it.

“I think I’d trade it for those, yeah,” Baldwin said. “Fate was in our hands (Saturday night).

“We knew we were good enough. No one was going to blow us out. It was just whether we played smart and executed in the fourth quarter. We’ve lost so many games in the fourth quarter this year, and this week we haven’t.

“There’s a real fine line between winning and losing, and this week, we’ve found that fine line.”

Conway Springs 13 13 12 22 – 60

Cheney 17 13 20 19 – 69

CONWAY SPRINGS – Winter 13, Denney 10, Finstad 11, Hedrick 6, Dugan 20.

CHENEY – Adolph 14, Patterson 14, Scheer 13, Petz 13, Dewey 5, Grace 4, White 2, Grover 4.

This story was originally published March 6, 2017 at 3:36 PM with the headline "3A boys: Cheney tops rival Conway Springs to advance."