Harding, Barnes lead Southeast into Valley Center semifinals
Southeast’s dynamic duo of sophomore Israel Barnes and senior Jerrick Harding gave the Kansas City Turner defense fits all evening in a 73-47 win Thursday in the first round of the Valley Center January Jam.
The duo combined for 55 points, making 24 of 39 shots (61.5 percent).
“It’s crazy, anytime you get the ball to us, we know it’s going to be a bucket,” Barnes said. “It felt good to finally get going after we started out slow, we turned it on from there.”
Harding scored the Buffaloes’ first five points for a 5-2 lead, but a 16-12 run by Turner found Southeast trailing 18-17 after the first quarter. Harding finished the first quarter with 12 points.
“We’ve started slow like this in games this season,” Southeast coach Melvin Herring said. “I knew our guys were capable of playing much better than that, we were just slow and we played a sloppy first eight minutes.”
The Buffaloes tried to take the lead in the second quarter, but couldn’t maintain it as they missed 5 of 6 free throws in the quarter. Turner led 30-29 at halftime.
Southeast owned the third quarter, outscoring Turner 26-9 thanks to 12 points from Harding and six from Barnes. Juan Manns also made two threes.
“That third quarter was all ours,” Harding said. “We knew we had to make a run and get our momentum going and we did just that. Israel and myself got hot and that’s how we’ve been all season long. It’s a blessing to play with one another.”
Southeast continued its dominance in the final eight minutes. Barnes scored the first seven points in the quarter, and finished with nine without a miss.
Harding led all scorers with 32 points. Barnes had 23 with nine rebounds.
“We know we’ll have to play our best tomorrow,” Herring said. “We can’t start out slow like we did today against a good team like Olathe Northwest, they’ve got size and are coached well.”
Maize South 70, Garden City 49 – The Mavericks reached the semifinals for the second straight year, outscoring Garden City in the second quarter 17-9 to take a 32-23 lead at halftime.
Seth Jennings led all scorers with 23 points and eight rebounds for the Mavs. Payten Ricks added 19, while Bryce Wiedemann added nine points and 10 rebounds. The Mavs will play Topeka Seaman for a spot in the finals.
Topeka Seaman 77, Valley Center 66 – Seaman’s 18-8 in the third quarter was too much for Valley Center. Valley Center led 23-20 after the first quarter, but Seaman’s Ryan Zeferjahn used his 6-foot-4 frame to score 20 points.
Valley Center was led by Tyler Brown with 21 points. Valley Center will play Garden City in the losers bracket.
KC Turner | 18 | 11 | 9 | 9 | — | 47 |
Southeast | 17 | 13 | 26 | 17 | — | 73 |
KC Turner: Prosser 2, Jackson 10, Boose 3, Rinne 9, Reed 5, Thomas 15, Poe 3.
Southeast: Barnes 23, Manns 11, Franklin 3, Harding 32, Cobbins 4.
Garden City | 14 | 9 | 11 | 15 | — | 49 |
Maize South | 15 | 17 | 18 | 20 | — | 70 |
Garden City: Doll 12, Koster 20, Carlin 5, Aguilar 4, Ortiz 2, Schmidt 4, Tanner 2.
Maize South: White 3, Maxson 2, Ricks 19, Jennings 23, Caldwell 9, Richardson 3, Seiler 2, Wiedemann 9.
Valley Ctr | 20 | 25 | 8 | 17 | — | 66 |
T. Seaman | 20 | 25 | 18 | 14 | — | 77 |
Valley Center: N. Brown 8, T. Brown 21, Terwillinger 5, Florestdet 7, Lange 7, Garcia 18.
Seaman: Cobb 4, Hazim 8, Jensen 14, Sparks 2, Zeferjahn 20, Lynn 11, Schafer 18.
Olathe NW | 15 | 15 | 8 | 15 | — | 53 |
Ulysses | 5 | 12 | 10 | 14 | — | 41 |
Olathe NW: Owens 1, Nicodemu 14, Kline 6, Holmgren 4, Parks 4, Vanderslice 8, Goertzen 2, Walters 14.
Ulysses: Zerr 18, Ballesteros 4, Romero 6, Pauda 2, Garcia 11.
This story was originally published January 21, 2016 at 10:15 PM with the headline "Harding, Barnes lead Southeast into Valley Center semifinals."