Neither Marmaton Valley team emerged from Tuesday nights action with a win, but youd be hard-pressed to find two teams in southeast Kansas that performed with more heart.
ON THE BOYS SIDE, it looked like a blowout was in the offing. The visiting squad from Jayhawk-Linn, led by six-one junior Brance Ware, jumped out to a quick 9-0 lead in the first two and a half minutes of play. But Wildcat head coach Jason Bauer was having none of it.
With 5:37 left in the first quarter, the third-year head coach called a timeout. Bauer reflected on that moment after the game. I just wasnt going to watch another game like the last three, said the coach, who took advantage of the huddle to whisper a few useful ultimatums into the ears of his players before sending them back into the fray. After that point, though, they responded.
And holy Marma-Cat, did they! Seconds out of the timeout, Wildcat senior Caiden Elliott hit a big three-pointer from the top of the key his first of four on the night giving Marmaton Valley their first points of the game. The next trip downcourt, classmate Isaac Heskett ducked his shoulder and drove the lane for a tough lay-in. A few ticks later, a third Wildcat senior, Gage Griffith, scored on his own drive, bringing the home-team Cats within two. And, then, like that, Elliott connected on another three and the Wildcats were in the lead, 10-9. Elliot would go on to drain still another three-pointer before the end of the first quarter, his third in less than three minutes, sending the Wildcats into the second period on top 17-15.
It was never anything but a dogfight from this point on. Griffith got his mojo back in the second quarter, scoring seven of his teams 11 second-period points. But Ware matched him bucket for bucket and successfully enlisted the point-scoring aid of his lanky, mop-headed teammates, who helped propel the Jayhawks back into the lead, 34-28, as they entered halftime.
The third quarter was The Isaac Heskett Show. The nimble big-man put the Wildcat team on his shoulders, scoring 10 of the squads 11 third-quarter points, largely on the strength of a series of improbable drives that ended with Heskett either a) finding a gap between two defenders and laying the ball in or b) rejecting the idea of finding a gap and instead choosing to barrel through the unlucky Jayhawk defender, and then laying the ball in. Either way, Marmaton Valley evened the score and the two teams entered the final period tied 39-39.
Tuesdays game which started as a sure Jayhawk romp came down to one play. The Wildcats, down 52-50, inbounded the ball under their own basket with a few seconds left in the contest. They got it to Gage Griffith. The Jayhawks closed in on him, but the senior found an opening and let fly. He missed, and that spelled another Wildcat loss: 52-50, Jayhawks.
But that wasnt the story of the game. The past three games Ive questioned their heart, said Coach Bauer. But I cant do that tonight. They came out and played all four quarters. They gave themselves a chance to win, and thats all I asked for before the game. … I told them not to hang their heads. They can be proud. They fought.
Griffith led his team with 17 points on the night; Heskett added 16; all of Elliots 12 points came from beyond the arc.
The contest on the girls side was just as wrenching. Too many sleepy passes in the second half ruined for the Marmaton Valley Wildcats what could have been a convincing win over the visiting Jayhawks from Jayhawk-Linn. Instead, the Jayhawks eked out a 38-34 win over the home team.
But Wildcat Head Coach Sherri Bagshaw* wasnt in the mood to dwell on what her team didnt do: I hate that we lost. We should have won that game, sure, but there were a bunch of positives. Responding to the suggestion that her team succumbed to too many ill-begotten cross-court passes in the third quarter, Bagshaw conceded that, while in a couple of instances that might have been true, it was only the case because the Wildcats remained so intent on passing the ball from player to player without settling for the early, unwise shot. Marmaton Valley, in the last few years, has never moved the ball like that, said Bagshaw. So Im pleased. I would not at all want to discourage that sort of play.
The Wildcats maintained the lead for the duration of the first half, entering the locker room up 19-13. But we had a letdown in the third quarter, said Bagshaw. We came out pretty tentative and were flatfooted defensively. The lapse gave the Jayhawks enough room to commandeer a 28-26 lead going into the fourth quarter. Marmaton Valley regained control of their offense in the final period, but it was too late. I thought that at the end of the game our effort was really good, said Bagshaw. I liked our intensity. We just had that bad third quarter.
A main steward of the Wildcats fourth-quarter intensity? Bailey Griffith. The five-eight junior scored seven of her game-high 20 points in the final minutes and applied a clamp-down defense on the Jayhawks wiliest scorer. Bailey really had great effort both defensively and offensively, said Bagshaw. But Mykayla Ard really battled, too. They had some big girls and I thought she really did well. And at one time I had three freshman in the game, and they all did great. Top to bottom, I really thought all the girls did well. Shailee Woods had some very good passes, too. I dont know if theres one player I can point out. It really was a team effort.
*Coach Bagshaw was very gracious in pointing out after Tuesdays game that I had referred to her multiple times in a previous story as Sherri Bagwell when her name is in fact Sherri Bagshaw. There is no such thing as being half-right when it comes to names. Shes a Bagshaw, not a Bagwell. Im sorry. I mixed it up. ??Bagwell is the name of my favorite grocer. ??I regret the error.
