Basketball recap: Maize splits with Derby; Ark City and Circle win thrillers
Drama in Derby
Clayton Hood scored 11 of his 17 points in the fourth quarter, including a trio of three-pointers that gave Derby life, but the Panthers never got a shot at the end.
With seven seconds to go, Maize’s Caleb Grill, the main target of the Derby student section’s banter all night, was at the free throw line with a chance to make it a three-point game. He missed both free throws, but his teammate Brandle Easter Jr. snared an offensive rebound that helped secure a 58-57 win Tuesday.
After Easter’s board, he threw a pass to Grill who threw the ball in the air to run out the clock. He celebrated by holding an ‘L’ over his forehead directed at the Derby students. He finished with a game-high 24 points. Coach Chris Grill said Tuesday was an emotional, hard fought road win in one of the deepest leagues in Kansas.
“Many times throughout the game, we got caught up in some things that were happening,” he said. “Hopefully we can learn from that and stay focused and stay locked in throughout the whole game. That was a tough environment. It always is when we play here.”
Preceding the boys game, the Derby girls made it 365 days without a loss. The Panthers doused Maize 50-40 in a matchup of the defending 6A champions and 5A semifinalists.
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Derby senior Kennedy Brown finished with a game-high 16 points, but more important, she was game-changing defensively nearing a triple-double with rebounds and blocks. Her coach Jodie Karsak said Brown’s intelligence was a major difference in the meeting of league rivals.
“She’s so smart,” she said. “She reads the shot so well. Even when someone’s driving behind, she’s good at coming from behind and getting the block. That’s what makes Kennedy so special. I think that’s what the average fan doesn’t see necessarily. They look at the box scores, and it’s always, ‘Why didn’t she score 25?’ But defensively, she just changes the game for us.”
(Blue) Aced
A year ago Wednesday, the East boys handed Bishop Carroll a 1-4 record before the Golden Eagles turned it around and went on to win their first state championship in school history.
Tuesday, the Blue Aces put Carroll in a hole again with a 75-63 win, sending the Eagles to 2-2. Since winning 15 straight stretching to last season, Carroll has lost two straight.
East coach Joe Jackson and the Aces were in danger of losing two straight two heading into Tuesday after losing a three-point game to Southeast a week earlier. He said he needed his group to get back to East basketball.
“We had the longest film session I had ever done in my life after the Southeast game,” Jackson said. “That was more of a focus on things we had to be doing better. We played hard, but I didn’t feel like we played up to our standards.”
East hit 15 three-pointers Tuesday, including four in the third quarter alone from senior guard Jaylen Randle.
“We talked to our guys about, ‘We don’t want them to buy in, because that means that we’re selling something’ — we don’t want to sell them anything,” Jackson said. “We want them to believe in what we do.”
Letting the dogs eat
Including a couple of scrimmages over the summer, Arkansas City hasn’t lost to Eisenhower in their past five meetings.
That stat was secured in overtime Tuesday with a 72-67 win over the Tigers. Arkansas City hasn’t lost a regular season game since last year’s GWAL/AVCTL challenge defeat to Bishop Carroll on Jan. 12.
Ark City led for most of regulation until about four minutes left in the fourth when the Tigers hit a go-ahead three-pointer. After a back-and-forth finish, Bulldog senior Cevin Clark was fouled on a three and hit all three free throws to tie the score.
With about 20 seconds left, Eisenhower’s Jordan Vincent drove to the hoop, but Clark met him at the rim and got a game-saving block. In overtime, Vincent fouled out, and Ark City coach CJ Jennings said his guys took over.
“We have to bring it every night to beat a team like that,” he said. “But I think (Eisenhower) came in with a bit of a chip on their shoulder due to last year and some of the things that happened there.”
The Bulldogs haven’t been ranked in any of the three Kansas Basketball Coaches Association’s state rankings but are off to their first 4-0 start in more than a decade. That’s OK, Jennings said.
“There’s nothing wrong with flying under the radar,” he said. “It keeps our kids hungry.”
Sending East south
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With a road win over South in hand, the Bishop Carroll girls faced one of their largest remaining City League tests.
The Golden Eagles beat East 56-26 on the road. Senior forward Britney Ho had 26 alone, one of the highest marks in Kansas on Tuesday night.
The Blue Aces came in with question marks. They beat South by 25 on opening night but lost to Southeast by 23 five nights later. A win over Carroll would have quelled the waters, but Ho and the Golden Eagles were too dominant.
With wins over South, Southeast and East, the Eagles’ last tough game of the first round of City League play will likely come Jan. 8 at Heights. The Falcons finished fourth in the City League last year.
Thunder before the buzzer
With a few seconds left, Circle’s Jude Warren drove the length of the floor and drilled a turnaround jumper from about 15 feet that stunned the Augusta crowd.
Warren’s shot helped give the Thunderbirds a 52-51 win over their league rival Tuesday. At one point, they were down 10 late in the third quarter. More important, it helped Circle to its first win in regulation heading into a promising 2018-19 season.
“We’ve had some close ones up to this point,” coach Bo Hornya said. “We’ve played some good teams that we just couldn’t quite get over the hump against. We were talking before the game, ‘This is our opportunity.’ “
It was Circle’s first win over Augusta since March 5, 2015, and the first on the road since Jan. 16, 2009.
Berry hits 1,000 ... already
Newton’s Ty Berry has almost two full years of basketball left in high school before he makes his highly anticipated Division I debut, but he already hit a career milestone Tuesday.
With 20 points in the Railers’ 58-51 win over Salina South, Berry eclipsed 1,000 career points. It was Newton’s first win of the 2018-19 season after starting 0-3.
Berry is considered one of the top players in Kansas this season. He holds offers from the likes of Wichita State, Oklahoma State and others.
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This story was originally published December 12, 2018 at 5:13 AM.