3A girls: TMP’s 27-point run too much for Garden Plain

You can’t judge a book by its cover and apparently you can’t judge Thomas More Prep’s girls by game film.

When Garden Plain coach Kody Kasselman knew the Monarchs were good before he studied them in preparation for Thursday’s Class 3A quarterfinal. And after watching some film, Kasselman saw a long team that could shoot three-pointers extremely well.

“The film we watched didn’t do justice to their athleticism,” Kasselman said.

Thursday’s result did. Even without a six-footer on its roster, TMP length and athleticism caused Garden Plain fits from start to finish. The Monarchs only blocked five shots, but altered more than twice that many and blocked the Owls path to the semifinals with a stunning 51-29 victory.

Garden Plain’s season ended with a 21-3 record.

“We didn’t underestimate them by any means,” Kasselman said. “We didn’t get many open looks. I didn’t think they would stay in front of us as well as they did. Our girls played hard and it wasn’t an effort thing. They were just the better team.”

TMP (22-2) will take on No. 1-seed Silver Lake (24-0) in Friday’s 3 p.m. semifinal. Silver Lake blasted West Franklin 77-22 in Thursday’s first quarterfinal.

Garden Plain effectively executed a big part of its game plan, containing the Monarchs’ three-point shooters. TMP connected on 4 of 13 three-point attempts, three of the makes coming in the first half as the Monarchs grabbed a 29-18 halftime lead.

When the Owls opened the second half with points on four of its first five possessions to get within 33-25, Kasselman felt pretty good about his team’s position. But after Daylynn Doyle’s bucket at the 4:30 mark, TMP clamped down defensively and Garden Plain went nine-plus minutes without scoring and the Monarchs took advantage, scoring 27 straight points to open up a 50-25 lead.

“They were getting frustrated and we just took advantage of our size,” TMP’s Kayla Vitztum said. “We just wanted this so bad. Last year at sub-state, we got shut down and we weren’t going to let that happen again once we got here.”

Vitztum was a major problem for Garden Plain, the 5-foot-11 sophomore scoring 23 points and grabbing 14 rebounds. Katelyn Zimmerman also posted 11 points and 13 rebounds as TMP out-rebounded Garden Plain 44-20, grabbing nearly as many offensive rebounds (17) as the Owls had overall.

No Owl reached double figures with Madi Schmelzer scoring eight points on 3-of-12 shooting to lead the way. Garden Plain shot 34.6 percent (13 of 47) and missed all nine of its three-point attempts.

“They’re a good team and they helped off really well and we just didn’t get the open looks we normally get,” Kasselman said. “Hats off to them.”

Sterling 70, Caney Valley 40 – When standout guard Kylah Comley picked up her second foul less than four minutes into Sterling’s quarterfinal against Caney Valley, it could have spelled big-time trouble for the Black Bears.

Well, it might have been problematic if not for the fact Sterling already had taken command of the game, leading 19-3 when Comley was whistled for her second personal. Comley had done a bulk of the damage, too, getting four steals and 10 points before sitting the rest of the quarter on the bench, setting the tone with a layup five seconds into the game.

“When I got my second foul, (Sterling coach Jill Rowland) looked at me and said, ‘Smart,’ ” Comley said. “I kind of laid off a little bit until the second quarter was over.”

With or without Comley on the floor, Sterling was simply way too much for the Bullpups. The Black Bears’ full-court and half-court pressure forced 23 first-half turnovers and Sterling (23-1) led 48-20 at halftime on its way to Friday’s 6:30 p.m. semifinal against Sabetha (23-1).

“We focused on defense a lot in practice,” Comley said. “That was our main goal coming in, to just shut them down defensively.”

By halftime, Comley already had 19 points and eight steals and when she added nine more points early in the third quarter, she was within reach of hitting the 3A single-game mark of 37 set by Silver Lake’s Rhonda Matzke in 1988 and tied by Rossville’s Jennifer Perine in 1995. But with Sterling up 61-28 after a Comley free throw, the senior guard headed to the bench and only returned briefly in the third before sitting the entire fourth, finishing with 28 points, nine steals, five rebounds and two assists.

Emma Lambert (11 points) and Sydney Wilson (10 points) also reached double figures for the Black Bears, who have won 20 straight since their only loss of the season, 56-52 to 4A unbeaten semifinalist Wellington.

Caney Valley (18-6) was led by Breanna Buoy’s 12 points.

This story was originally published March 10, 2016 at 7:23 PM with the headline "3A girls: TMP’s 27-point run too much for Garden Plain."