’It’s by far the best’: Small town tournament has Division I talent, title contenders
.JPG "Halstead’s Karenna Gerber and Haven’s Faith Paramore")
When the bracket was released, the eight teams in the Haven Wildcat Classic had a combined 57-15 record.
For reference, the Mid America Classic in McPherson is regarded as one of the best girls basketball midseason tournaments in Kansas. Since 2016, the champion of the tournament has gone on to at least the state semifinals.
This year, the eight teams in McPherson have a combined 40-35 record, including undefeated McPherson and unbeaten Shawnee Mission Northwest.
The depth in Haven this year has been unbelievable, and as the tournament hit its semifinal stage Friday night, each coach was sure to make that known.
“There’s no free rides,” Haven coach Dwight Roper said. “I OK the teams that come in this tournament. I know those teams are good. We do it right here.”
When the bracket was released, Roper’s team was a one-loss sixth seed set to play No. 3 Garden Plain, who has won back-to-back state championships.
Haven pulled an upset, if you could call it that, in the first round, and all other top seeds moved on to set up a star-studded semifinal round.
First, Nickerson beat Cheney 55-53 behind an emotional performance out of senior Morgan Stout, who is signed to play Division I volleyball at Wichita State.
Stout tore her ACL last season against Andale in the game before the Wildcat Classic began. She said she was excited to get back on the court.
Many people have asked why she even wanted to come back with her college career laid out and paid for at WSU. Stout said she loves basketball and had Division I universities asking whether she wanted to hoop instead of spike.
“It’s a blessing how I have athletic ability and being able to have confidence, too,” Stout said. “Some people when they get injured don’t want to play anymore. The love of the game and my teammates kept me here.”
But Stout might not have even been the best basketball player in Friday’s semifinal.
Cheney junior Kylee Scheer scored 36 points, two away from a career-high, in the loss. Scheer is verbally pledged to Division II Emporia State upon her graduation, and she took over against Nickerson, especially late as she hit a deep 3-pointer to tie the game with 20.9 seconds left.
A couple of free throws from Nickerson freshman Ava Jones sealed the Panthers’ first trip to the Wildcat Classic final in decades.
“I absolutely love coming up here,” Cheney coach Rod Scheer said. “For a small tournament, it’s by far the best. ... That game brought us to a level of intensity we need to have the rest of the way.”
In the second semifinal, a pair of posts with Division I ability faced off as Haven senior Faith Paramore battled with Halstead’s Karenna Gerber.
Paramore is already signed to play at Division I Oral Roberts. Gerber is still getting looks from D-I universities at 6-foot-2.
Paramore and Gerber were monsters in the paint defensively as Haven edged out a 34-27 win to reach its second straight Wildcat Classic final. Haven will play Nickerson at 3:30 p.m. Saturday.
“This is cool because we all kind of know each other,” Paramore said. “Stout and I played together in AAU for several years. We played Karenna this summer in AAU. We have a lot of talented players in Reno County. It’s good to get some love for the small schools.”
Stout, Scheer, Paramore and Gerber are four of the best players in Kansas at any classification. Add in players like Central Plains’ Emily Ryan, who is verbally pledged to Iowa State, and Kansas’ smaller high schools are starting to produce real talent.
In Stout, Paramore and Gerber’s case, they all compete in the same league and each play twice a year in the Central Kansas League. For Paramore and Gerber, they could meet up to four times this season as they compete in the same sub-state.
“This is unique,” Roper said. “Every team has that individual that can take over a game.”
Six of the eight teams in this year’s Wildcat Classic entered ranked in the top 10 of their respective classification, according to the latest Kansas Basketball Coaches Association poll. After Saturday, two of them will go 1-2 at the midseason tournament.
Nickerson coach Jon McLean said in his three seasons with the Panthers, all three of the Wildcat Classics have been loaded with good teams. He said that is serving as a blessing as Nickerson gears up to make a run at its first girls basketball title in school history.
“If you don’t play well, you’ve got the month of February to work on things and get ready for the postseason,” McLean said. “Right now, when we’re playing hard and playing smart, like all these teams, we’re hard to beat.”
This story was originally published February 1, 2020 at 5:00 AM.