McPherson seniors finish careers perfect in home tournament

Early in the third quarter, McPherson’s Ben Pyle drove to the basket and hammered down the game’s only dunk.

Pyle used the same ferocity with which the Bullpup seniors put a stamp on their careers in their home tournament. McPherson beat Carroll 61-51 and clinched an undefeated four-year stretch.

Pyle, the tournament MVP, said his group of seniors has been on quite a ride.

“It’s just a great group of guys,” he said. “We play so hard together, and we don’t want to let each other down. So we will do whatever it takes.”

The Roundhouse was characteristically loud, with the top-seeded Bullpups playing in their 35th championship game in 54 tries. Carroll held tough through three quarters, tying the score at 40 heading into the final frame.

But Pyle and senior guard Mason Alexander said they didn’t feel pressure.

“You guys say pressure, we just say, ‘expectations,’ ” Alexander said. “We just come to play. We know each other. We pick each other up. It looks like there might be pressure, but we handle it really well.

“And we just plan on winning it.”

Bullpup coach Kurt Kinnamon is in his 23rd season. He is only one of four coaches at McPherson in the past 60 years, and one of the four only held the title for one season, Kinnamon said.

He counts himself lucky every day, he said; there aren’t many other high school basketball programs in Kansas or elsehwere that can compare to the environment he has inherited. He said he fully anticipated to be in McPherson for 20 years.

“Unless I took a college job, why would you do anything else?” Kinnamon said. “This is the best high school job there is, and I don’t have the personality to be a recruiter.”

The Eagles presented McPherson with a unique challenge. Before Saturday’s title game, Kinnamon said Carroll was going to be a tough out because of the similar play styles both teams use. Both are physical on the boards, cut to the basket with purpose and shoot well from three.

Experience was the decider, Carroll coach Mike Domnick said. The sixth-seeded Eagles played one senior in the title game to McPherson’s five.

Two years ago when Carroll (7-5) was rotated into the McPherson tournament, the Eagles were run out of the Roundhouse, losing by 30. Domnick said though his team didn’t feel the pressure of playing in such a historically lopsided championship game, inexperience caught up with them.

“Did you see us get fazed? I just saw weakness of the physical body,” he said. “That led to some turnovers at crucial times in the game.… No one has success here, but they embraced the opportunity to come out and play.

“I think our kids are kinda wired the same way as the McPherson kids. They expect to win now.”

Pyle finished the title game with a game-high 23 points, 18 of which came in the second half. The Bullpups (12-1) finished 13 percentage points higher on their field goal shooting in the second half compared to the first.

They found pockets in the Eagles’ defense, which led to easy shots and finishes around the basket, like Pyle’s dunk in the third.

Domnick said he warned his team about McPherson’s late-streak ability, but senior Luke Evans said the barrage still snuck up on him.

“When I was playing, I didn’t really realize it, but there was a time when I got my fourth foul with roughly four minutes left,” Evans said. “I came out on the bench and we were down by six, and I was like, ‘I swear we were only down by two.’ ”

McPherson’s title game victory marked its 24th in the tournament’s history and only the Bullpups’ second run of at least four-straight.

Kinnamon said the work ethic and competitiveness makes this year’s group of seniors special.

“They’re just winners in what they do,” he said.

This story was originally published January 20, 2018 at 10:05 PM with the headline "McPherson seniors finish careers perfect in home tournament."