Roundhouse rocks as McPherson moves on to tournament final
With about six minutes left in the fourth quarter at the Roundhouse in McPherson, a referee leaned over to a couple of reporters on the baseline.
“This is crazy,” he said. “You would think it was the last minute of the game.”
McPherson trailed by as many as nine in the third quarter before charging back to a 61-49 victory over Shawnee-Mission East. Bullpups coach Kurt Kinnamon said when the three-point shot went in to edge the Lancers’ lead to three, “the roof about came off.”
“That’s as close to what you would call, a perfect team win from an effort standpoint,” Kinnamon said. “... This is as good a win as we’ve had.”
The Bullpups relied on their defense late. In the second half, the Lancers shot just 45 percent from the floor and went 1-of-8 from the three-point line. Although they calmed the McPherson crowd a couple of times with momentum-killing shots, they didn’t have enough juice, missing at least four straight threes to close the game.
Alexander said he knew the ending was going to be tough and wasn’t going to look pretty.
“We just dug in,” he said. “It’s amazing. This whole town is behind us. We’re brothers on the court, and we just knew we had to step it up. The crowd just gave us so much energy.”
Alexander and Ben Pyle led the charge offensively after what Kinnamon called a poor shooting night Thursday. The duo combined for 40 points, 15 rebounds and seven assists, and it could have been more.
McPherson started to milk the clock with under four minutes to play. After an Alexander steal, he delivered a pass to Pyle in the corner. He was open and could have shot an uncontested three, but he didn’t. He pulled the shot back down, pulled it out and passed it off.
He calmed the screaming crowd.
About a minute later, the Bullpups (11-1) still had the ball and finished off the possession with a two-point tip-in from Cody Stufflebean that put the game on ice and sent the student section into cheers of “I believe we will win.”
“It’s the best; our town really loves basketball,” Pyle said. “It’s so humbling. This is the best time of the year besides state.”
With the victory, top-seeded McPherson goes on to face sixth-seeded Carroll (7-4) in the tournament final at 7 p.m. Saturday. Before the gym was empty, one fan said there was more to come.
“If you think this was loud,” he said. “Just wait until tomorrow.”
This story was originally published January 20, 2018 at 2:00 PM with the headline "Roundhouse rocks as McPherson moves on to tournament final."