3A boys: Cheney, Belle Plaine win quarterfinal games

In the big picture of Thursday’s Class 3A boys quarterfinal between Cheney and Norton, the play meant very little.

But when 5-foot-10 Cheney guard Trent Scheer climbed the ladder to block a third-quarter shot of 6-foot-2 Norton forward Carson Wallace, well, it was just symbolic.

The little guys in the meeting of the tourney’s No. 1 and 8 seeds just had a little more fire — the spark provided by Cardinals coach Lee Baldwin.

“I’ve been telling them all week we don’t have a chance to win,” Baldwin said. “Eight seeds just don’t win very often at state tournaments. They’re the top-ranked team left and we were 14-9. I was trying to get under their skin all week and tell them we’re not very good. They’ve been pretty mad at me and took it out on somebody else.”

Cheney (15-9) not only looked good, but hardly looked like an underdog at all. The Cardinals got out to a fast start and never looked back in a 54-44 upset of top-seeded to advance to Friday’s 8:15 p.m. semifinal.

“Coach does that all the time,” Scheer said of Baldwin’s motivational ploy. “He’s been doing that for weeks and it’s definitely gotten under our skin. We’ve used that as motivation. We definitely felt like we had nothing to lose and we came in confident after winning our sub-state with Conway (Springs) and Hesston.”

While Scheer’s late block meant little, his early shooting was a big factor. The junior guard buried three-pointers for Cheney’s first two buckets of the game to jump start the upset bid.

The quick start, which also included a three-pointer from Hunter Adolph, was key, but Cheney’s ability to withstand Norton’s answer was even bigger. After the Cardinals bolted to a 9-3 lead, the Bluejays came back to forge ties at 9-9 and 11-11 before Cheney took the lead for good on back-to-back buckets from Lakin Petz and Trey Patterson early in the second quarter. The Cardinals stretched the lead to 26-19 by halftime and 40-30 after three quarters and every time Norton came up with a run to make a dent in the lead, Cheney came right back to keep the Bluejays at arm’s length.

“I can’t explain that,” Baldwin said. “If you’d seen us play six weeks ago, we re-invented different ways to lose. We were in so many close games and it just was getting more playing time together and being more comfortable with each other. We didn’t panic in any of their runs.”

Scheer finished with 12 points to lead a balanced Cheney attack in which five players finished with seven or more points. Petz added 11 and Lane Grace had 10.

Landon Porter led Norton (21-3) with 16 points, but teammates Tyus Henson and Jace Ruder spent most of the night in foul trouble and combined for 16 points with Ruder getting 11 of those.

The victory was the first at state for Cheney since 1990.

“Cheney doesn’t win state tournament games very often,” Baldwin said. “I told the guys, ‘Every time you’re playing now, you’ve got a chance to make history at our school.’ They’ve bought in and it’s rolling now.”

Belle Plaine 63, Galena 62 — Slump or not, Caleb Sturgeon was prepared for the moment.

“Shots in pressure situations are something we practice almost every day,” Belle Plaine coach Joe Newman said. “We put a couple kids on them and tell them a close game is going to come down to a shot.… It’s great to see when it comes down to it, it pays off.”

So when Sturgeon got the ball alone in the corner with less than a minute to go in a tie game with Galena, he didn’t hesitate. The Dragon senior guard checked his feet to make sure he beyond the three-point arc and then calmly swished what proved to be the game-winner.

“I was waiting for the kick out,” Sturgeon said. “The last couple of games, I didn’t make any so I figured why not let it fly? If I’m open in a game, I’ll keep shooting no matter if I’m making or missing them.

“It’s crazy. I’ll never forget that.”

Neither will the Dragons, who won their first state tournament game since 2006 when Belle Plaine finished runner-up in Class 4A. Belle Plaine (16-8) advanced to Friday’s 4:45 p.m. semifinal where it will face Marysville (20-4), a 62-44 winner over Silver Lake.

A big as Sturgeon’s game-winning three-pointer was, it was preceded by a barrage of three-pointers which helped the Dragons erase a 49-42 Galena lead early in the fourth quarter. Cullen Reynolds, Cole Osgood and then Strugeon all connected from deep with Sturgeon’s at the 3:32 mark giving the Dragons their first lead since early in the second quarter, 55-53.

After ties at 55 and 57, Sturgeon delivered the magical points for the Dragons with his go-ahead three-pointer. The shot gave the Dragons their 60th point and whenever they’ve hit that number this season, they haven’t lost, a perfect 11-0.

“When he hit that three, I thought we had a pretty good chance,” Newman said. “I didn’t really know that stat until it was in the paper. We’re 11-0 when we do it and 8-1 when in games decided by six points or less, now 9-1 I guess. I’m not a big believer in numbers, but they worked out for us and we’ll take it.”

Galena had a chance to tie on its next trip but Garrett Hall couldn’t connect on a three-pointer and Belle Plaine’s Payton Nolan grabbed the rebound, was fouled and made 1 of 2 free throws. After Galena missed on its next possession, Bo Gooch sealed the win with two free throws.

Gooch finished with 17 points to lead four Dragons in double figures. Nolan added 16, Osgood had 11 and Caleb Stover posted a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Galena (20-4) was led by PJ Sarwinski’s 22 points, 11 coming in the first quarter. Hall and JC Shelton added 12 each with Shelton hitting four 3-pointers, including a meaningless one at the buzzer to cut the final deficit to one.

This story was originally published March 9, 2017 at 8:40 PM with the headline "3A boys: Cheney, Belle Plaine win quarterfinal games."