McPherson beats Free State to win its tournament for second straight year
More than six minutes remained in the championship game of the McPherson Invitational Tournament Saturday night when McPherson senior Jacob Loecker leaped in the air and tipped the basketball to teammate Ben Pyle for the offensive rebound.
His athletic play may have seemed innocuous, maybe even unimportant. But in a closely contested game, minutiae was crucial.
Shortly after coming down with the rebound, Pyle found his brother, Drew, who hit a jumper in the lane for a 10-point lead.
McPherson beat Lawrence Free State 63-54 to win its own tournament for the second straight year.
“Jacob Loecker tipped the ball out just to keep the possession alive when the tide was starting to turn,” McPherson coach Kurt Kinnamon said.
“It’s just hustle plays like (Loecker’s) that go unnoticed on the stat sheet that really make a difference in the game,” said senior Drew Pyle, who had 20 points and two three-pointers.
There were few details that separated the teams.
Free State shot 21 of 37 from the field (56.8 percent), 4 of 9 from three and 8 of 8 from the free-throw line. But the Firebirds had 16 turnovers.
McPherson made 21 of 46 shots (45.7 percent), 7 of 16 threes and 14 of 20 free throws, but only committed three turnovers.
“If you only turn the ball over three times against the kind of pressure they bring, I think that’s a huge key,” Kinnamon said.
The first half included 10 ties and eight lead changes. No team had held a lead longer than 90 seconds until early in the third quarter when Free State led for nearly four minutes.
Free State led 42-38 after a three-pointer by Drew Tachtrop with 1:34 to go in the third, but McPherson snatched the momentum on an answering three by Drew Pyle.
Free State responded with a field goal, but then McPherson sophomore guard Drew Labertew hit a three to tie the score at 44-all.
“When we hit shots, we kind of feed off each other,” McPherson sophomore Ben Pyle said. “The crowd was really into it. We got stops on the other end, and it kept building and building.”
Free State missed a three-pointer, Pyle got the rebound and, with two seconds remaining in the period, hit a three-pointer for the three-point lead.
At that point, McPherson’s student section got even louder.
“It was a lot of fun,” Kinnamon said. “When this place comes alive, it certainly energizes a bunch of tired kids, which we had.”
McPherson forward Spenser Wine scored inside early in the fourth, and then on the Bullpups’ next possession, Loecker kept it alive and Drew Pyle gave them a 10-point lead.
“It was obviously back and forth the first half,” said Free State senior Hunter Gudde, who scored a game-high 25 points on 9-of-14 shooting. “We came out strong in the first half, but in the second half, we kind of let them do what they’ve been doing this whole year.… Just running their two guys that they have. We kind of let them do whatever they want.”
Gudde got a three-point play with 3:47 to go to get within 53-49, but Ben Pyle made three of his next four free throws. He was 11 of 14 from the free-throw line and made nine straight in the second half.
Carroll 58, Junction City 45 — Carroll never trailed in the third-place game and got 20 points from Eric Scharping. Scharping’s three-point play and a three-pointer by Zach Goodman extended the lead to 14 with 5:18 to play.
BV West 53, Derby 46 — BV West took a 38-20 lead with 3:29 remaining in the third quarter when Derby mounted a furious comeback. A Nyjee Wright three-pointer started a 15-0 run during which Kenyon Tabor hit a three and Trevor Hall made two. Derby held BV West scoreless for nearly eight minutes.
Derby forward Trevor Hall blocked a shot and then hit a three from the top of the key to get within 38-35 with 3:56 to go. BV West forced three straight turnovers, though, and led 48-35 with 1:05 remaining.
Wright scored all 12 of his team-high points in the second half. Tabor added 11 points and Hall 10.
SM East 77, Wichita North 55 — Tiylar Cotton had 24 points, 22 in the second half, but the Redskins shot 28.6 percent and trailed 34-20 at halftime.
Lawrence Free State | 18 | 10 | 16 | 10 | — | 54 |
McPherson | 18 | 9 | 20 | 16 | — | 63 |
Free State: Rawls 4, Wilburn 6, Thomsen 6, Pavlyak 2, Gudde 25, Tochtrop 7, Lewis 2, Clark 2.
McPherson: McDaniel 5, D. Pyle 20, B. Pyle 23, Wine 7, Labertew 5, Alexander 3.
Junction City | 7 | 10 | 11 | 17 | — | 45 |
Carroll | 13 | 9 | 16 | 20 | — | 58 |
Junction City: Bell 3, Erans 13, Range 3, Poole 16, Topps 2, Ozores 2, Magee 2, Cason 4.
Carroll: Iseman 10, Carney 5, Goodman 3, Scharping 20, Kennedy 8, Allen 2, Theis 1, Demel 2, Biby 5, Evans 2.
Derby | 5 | 8 | 14 | 19 | — | 46 |
BV West | 14 | 16 | 8 | 15 | — | 53 |
Derby: Wright 12, Tabor 11, Packard 4, Gordon 4, Hall 10, Petrisor 5.
BV West: Lansford 3, Hailes 12, Chalupa 10, Lucas 16, Sok 3, Norris 2, Chase 7.
W. North | 10 | 10 | 17 | 18 | — | 55 |
SM East | 19 | 14 | 23 | 21 | — | 77 |
W. North: Johnson 4, Cotton 24, McCollum 8, Price 2, H. Shockley 7, Buckner 8, Carrasco 2.
SM East: Dornbusch 9, Morrison 24, Guastello 14, Ward 16, Thompson 4, Ehly 10.
Joanna Chadwick: 316-268-6270, @joannachadwick Contributing: Eagle staff
This story was originally published January 23, 2016 at 9:29 PM with the headline "McPherson beats Free State to win its tournament for second straight year."