Basehor-Linwood carries the flag for KC, will play defending state champ in Kansas Class 5A semifinals
The emotion sprawls off the court with the Basehor-Linwood boys basketball team.
After every point, at least one player claps to the other end of the floor, and after every foul, at least one Bobcat puts his hands on his head in disbelief. Thursday night it was more of the former as Basehor-Linwood beat defending 5A runner-up Salina Central 60-46 to reach its first semifinal since 2015.
The Bobcats are rewarded with Bishop Carroll, the defending 5A state champion, in the final four. Basehor-Linwood is used to heartbreak, but another in the state quarterfinals could have been a killer, coach Mike McBride said.
The Bobcats have lost in the sub-state championship game to the same opponent, Piper, in overtime each of the past two years. McBride said it would have been easy for his group to be content after just getting to Emporia.
“I don’t know if we have anything left in the tank,” he said. “I know these guys are going to come and compete, but they made us play tonight.”
Basehor-Linwood reached the Class 4A-Division I title game in 2015 but lost to McPherson. Now the Bobcats are the only Class 5A team left that can bring a title trophy back to the Kansas City area.
St. James Academy and Bonner Springs lost their respective state quarterfinals to teams in the Wichita area, leaving the emotional Bobcats behind. Senior Jacob Coleman-Goodrich said this year’s group has been playing basketball with one another since they started as kids. To be in this spot is an amazing feeling, he said.
Coleman-Goodrich finished with a game-high 19 points in the win. He was 7 of 8 shooting, including 3 of 4 from three-point range and perfect from the free-throw line. He also eclipsed 1,000 career points on Thursday.
Coleman-Goodrich has started for the Bobcats since he was a sophomore. He was on the floor each of the past two years, suffering overtime losses. He said that is why this group wears its emotions on its sleeve.
They will again at 8:15 p.m. Friday against Bishop Carroll.
“We’ve just got to play us,” he said. “We can’t play down to other teams’ levels. If we do us, we’re good.”
Senior Nolan Ford finished second on the team with 12 points in the victory. The 6-foot-1, 190-pound point guard gave Salina Central problems all night in and out of the paint, snagging 11 rebounds for a double-double and getting to the free-throw line three times.
Ford and the Bobcats locked down defensively in the fourth quarter, holding Salina Central to just a free throw in the final eight minutes. Basehor-Linwood outscored the Mustangs 18-1 in the fourth.
“We wanted it more,” Ford said.
McBride said Salina Central is one of the toughest teams his group has seen this season. The Mustangs entered with a wealth of experience and motivation ahead of coach Doug Finch’s retirement.
McBride gave a message to his team mid-game that seemed to light a fire within them.
“Are their seven seniors going to be tough or are our five seniors going to be tough?” he said.
This story was originally published March 7, 2019 at 10:39 PM.