PLEASANTON — Crest High found itself down early to Prairie View High’s Buffalos Tuesday.
“I hate to say this, but we were overlooking Prairie View, and they came to play,” Lancer head coach Travis Hermreck said.
But the Lancers received key contributions from freshmen Kyle Hammond and Jordan Morton, “who gave us some great leadership, which was big,” Hermreck said.
The pair helped keep the Lancers with a slight lead. Crest then responded at the free throw line down the stretch to seal a 50-43 win.
The victory, in the first round of Pleasanton High’s Blu-Jay Mid-Season Classic, lifts Crest’s record to 8-2. The Lancers will take on Jayhawk-Linn at 5:30 p.m. in the north gym in the semifinal round on Thursday.
Jayhawk-Linn High’s Jayhawks got past Uniontown High’s Eagles 28-26. Uniontown plays Prairie View Thursday at 8:30 p.m. in the south gym on the consolation side of the bracket.
Two other reserves, Kenny Vencel and Pete Stoneking, also came up big for the Lancers, Hermreck said.
Crest trailed 13-9 before a 15-10 run in the second quarter gave the Lancers a slim 24-23 lead at the break. The margin stood at two, 27-25, by the end of the third quarter.
“We hit a couple of shots to start the fourth quarter, and the guys really responded at the line,” Hermreck said.
After hitting only 5 of their first 9 free throws, the Lancers went 11 of 14 from the stripe in the game’s final three minutes.
Hammond led the way with 15 points, followed by Bryan Newton with 13. Stoneking hit 5 of 6 charities for seven points.
Ryan Welker scored 13 to pace the Buffalos. Tyler Brown scored 10.
Jayhawk-Linn 28, Uniontown 26.
The Eagles fell behind the Jayhawks 10-5 after one quarter but forged a 14-14 tie by halftime. Each team tossed in five points in the third quarter. Jayhawk-Linn outscored Uniontown 9-7 in the final eight minutes to win.
Uniontown was led by Zach Travis with eight points. Jayhawk-Linn got 12 points from Clayton Dierksen and 10 from Steven Mann.
Prairie View (13-10-5-15—43) (FG/3-pt): Brown 2/1-3-2-10, Hoyt 2-0-4-4, Watson 3-0-2-6, Kees 2-2-2-6, Welker 5-3-4-13, Phillips 2-0-5-4. TOTALS: 16/1-8-19-43.
Crest (9-15-6-20—50) (FG/3-pt): Wiley 2-2-5-6, Stinnett 1-3-5-5, Morton 0-1-1-1, Hammond 5/1-2-1-15, Decker 0-0-1-0, Newton 4/1-2-2-13, Stoneking 1-5-1-7, Ramsey 1-1-2-3. TOTALS: 14/2-16-18-50.
Uniontown (5-9-5-7—26) (FG/-3-pt): Travis 2/1-1-0-8, Wiley 0-0-2-0, Hall 0-0-1-0, Kuns 1-3-0-5, Dixon 3-0-2-6, Labbe 1-0-0-2, Esslinger 0-1-1-1, Johnson 0-0-3-0, Robinson 1-2-5-4. TOTALS: 8/1-7-14-26.
Jayhawk-Linn (10-4-5-9—28) (FG/3-pt): J. Rowe 1-0-2-2, Sunderland 0-0-2-0, Kellerman 2-0-2-4, Mann 2/1-3-1-10, Gabbert 0-0-4-0, Dierksen 6-0-3-12, Thompson 0-0-1-0. TOTALS: 11/1-3-15-28.
Lancers out to defend title; Eagles lose low-scoring game
