3A girls: Cheney advances, Independent falls
In watching film of Class 3A state quarterfinal foe Council Grove, Cheney coach Rod Scheer hoped his team could at least slow down a Braves offense that hadn’t hit many speed bumps all season.
So when his Cardinals went out and threw up a road block, well, Scheer couldn’t have been any happier.
“To hold that team — they’re averaging 50 points a game — to 29?” Scheer said. “I told them that’s a great defensive effort because that’s a really good team.”
Indeed, it was a stifling effort. Cheney took away Council Grove guard and leading scorer Faith Brintle and rode a big first-half from Haley Albers to a 44-29 victory in Wednesday’s last quarterfinal at the Hutchinson Sports Arena. The victory moved the Cardinals (20-4) into Friday’s 6:30 p.m. semifinal where they will take on No. 2 seed Thomas More Prep, which routed Independent 61-29.
It might take an even bigger defensive effort to upset the Monarchs, but the way Cheney got after the Braves it just might be in the Cards. Aside from an early stretch where turnovers against the Council Grove press led to some quick runouts, Cheney was smothering.
Brintle, averaging 15 points per game, didn’t score until she converted a breakaway layup with 7:12 left. In the game. And by that point, the seven points the Brave senior logged mattered little.
Instead, Cheney had this one effectively put away by halftime. A match-up problem for the smaller Braves, Albers took advantage of her inside-outside game to log five points during a 7-0 run to end the first quarter after the Braves had gotten out to an 8-6 lead.
After Council Grove cut it to 15-12 on buckets by Adree Honas and Jordan Carlson, Cheney responded with a 13-6 spurt to finish the half with Madison Freund coming off the bench for six points to spark the run.
Freund finished with 12 points and Emily Monson added six points as Cheney got good production from the two reserves to back Albers, who scored all 13 of her points in the first half.
Albers went scoreless in the second half, but Cheney never let the lead get below six. Council Grove scored the first four points of the second half to get within 28-22, but Cheney held the Braves scoreless the rest of the period and took an 11-point lead into the fourth.
For a team making its first state trip in six years, the Cardinals showed their tough schedule had prepared them for the challenge of the state tournament.
“We play a great schedule and our league, the Haven tournament and our sub-state — there are no nights off,” Scheer said. “Hopefully we can keep this rolling.”
TMP 62, Independent 29 — Independent got the perfect start. What the Panthers needed was the perfect game.
Facing second-seeded and one-loss Thomas More Prep in the first Class 3A state tournament appearance in program history, Independent came out loose and did exactly what coach Chris Porter wanted to see his team do. The Panthers hardly looked intimidated by the situation or the Monarchs and hung right with them for a quarter.
But things unraveled for Independent in the second quarter and the Panthers never could regroup. TMP outscored Independent 23-7 in the second quarter to lead 34-13 at halftime on its way to the blowout.
Independent finished the season 16-8 while TMP (23-1) moved on to Friday’s 6:30 p.m. semifinal against Cheney.
If Independent was nervous, it didn’t show early. The Panthers worked easily to get Beets Petrakis a quick basket 15 seconds in for the lead and though the rhythm was sporadic the rest of the quarter, they didn’t let TMP find much of one either as the Monarchs led just 11-6 at the end of the period.
“It was an unbelievable start — never been here and get out 2-0 and get three stops,” Independent coach Chris Porter said. “We just couldn’t throw it in and then we started fouling a little and they got it going.”
The second quarter was a different story altogether. At least on TMP’s part.
Megan Koenigsman buried a pair of 3-pointers, Deonna Wellbrock scored all eight of her points in a 12-2 run to start the quarter and the Monarchs repeatedly got breakaway buckets in putting Independent away.
While TMP was finding its stride, Independent was almost completely out of sorts with six-footer Janell Douvier having picked up her second foul late in the first quarter. The Panthers finished the half with 10 turnovers and made just 6 of 20 shots.
“(Douvier) got into foul trouble and we like to run a four-out where nobody can guard all three of our six-footers,” Porter said. “I’m not blaming her at all, but when she’s out, that changes the whole offensive scheme.”
TMP carried the momentum over to the second half, opening with a 16-2 burst for a 50-15 lead before emptying the bench.
Lea Coccetella scored 15 points to lead Independent and Douvier had six.
Despite the blowout loss, Porter said the experience was huge for a program which lost leading scorer Anna Riedmiller to an injury late in the season and will return two starters next season.
“We’ve got two key components coming back and we’ll build some pieces around them,” Porter said. “Getting here, the seed these seniors planted is huge for the rest of the program.”
Koenigsman and Kayla Vitztum each scored 14 to pace TMP.
This story was originally published March 8, 2017 at 8:27 PM with the headline "3A girls: Cheney advances, Independent falls."