CHEROKEE — Marmaton Valley High’s Wildcat girls and boys had a tough go of it Thursday in Southeast High Lancer Classic play. Both were playing on the consolation side of the brackets.
The Wildcat girls dropped a 55-31 decision to Baxter Springs High’s Lions. Host Southeast High’s Lancers chalked up a 62-43 win over the Wildcat boys.
Marmaton Valley’s teams play for seventh place on Saturday in Cherokee. The Wildcat girls play Southeast at 2 p.m in the west gym followed by the Wildcat boys taking on Frontenac at 3:30 p.m.
Marmaton Valley’s girls have faced similar uphill battles in many of their games this season — they fall behind early before mounting their comeback attempt too late to threaten the lead.
Sure enough, the Wildcats trailed 19-5 to Baxter Springs High after one quarter in a Lancer Classic consolation game. The Lions increased their lead to 20 points, 30-10, by halftime.
The Wildcats started clicking on offense in the third and fourth quarters, scoring 15 points in the final period alone. But it was not enough to catch Baxter Springs.
The game was decided early, Marmaton Valley girls’ head coach Kent Houk said, when the Wildcats were careless with the basketball.
“They went to a press, and we’d get the ball up court to where all we’d have to do is complete another pass and we’d have an easy layup,” Houk said.
But on at least six such occasions, that final pass usually went out of bounds. The Wildcats committed 14 first half turnovers, but only six after intermission.
“They went to a zone after that, and we weren’t getting the looks we should have. We reacted too slowly at times to get the shots we wanted,” Houk said.
Alysha Westhoff led the way for Marmaton Valley with 14 points, two steals and three assists. Jamee McEndree had two steals. Maggie Meiwes and Morgan Henry chipped in with 11 and eight rebounds, re-spectively.
Baxter Springs freshman Lanina Spence drained four three-pointers en route to a game-high 26 points. Alexis Haase added 11.
THE MVHS BOYS recovered from a 24-9 first-quarter blitz by Southeast to trail by six, 39-33, after three quarters.
The Lancers sank 13 of 17 free throw attempts in the fourth period as they outscored the Wildcats 23-10 to pull away.
Marmaton Valley was just 1 of 6 at the free-throw line. The Wildcats had balanced scoring but no player reached double figures. Kurtis LaRue had nine points while Dalton Houk had eight. Tanner McNutt and Tanner Lewis each had seven.
Southeast was led by Jake Thompson with 19 points, Dalton Powell with 14 and Josh Thompson and Andy Brennon with 10 apiece. The Lancers cashed in on 19 of 25 free throw attempts.
Marmaton Valley girls (5-5-6-15—31) (FG/3-pt): McNutt 0-0-1-0, Boyd 2-0-2-4, McEndree 1/2-0-4-8, Westhoff 4/2-0-4-14, Meiwes 1-2-0-4, Ford 0-0-2-0, Henry 0-1-0-1. TOTALS: 8/4-3-13-31.
Baxter Springs girls (19-11-13-12—55) (FG/3-pt): Spence 4/4-6-0-26, Leffley 0-0-1-0, K. Von Moss 0-0-2-0, Bingham 1-0-4-2, Haase 5-1-0-11, Wampler 2-4-1-8, A. Von Moss 2-0-1-4, Frazier 0-2-0-2, Grimes 1-0-0-2. TOTALS: 15/4-13-9-55.
Marmaton Valley boys (9-13-11-10—43) (FG/3-pt): McNutt 2/1-0-4-7, Louk 1-0-2-2, Lewis 2/1-0-2-7, Houk 1/2-0-4-8, Ericson 0/2-0-2-6, Becker 2-0-4-4, LaRue 4-1-3-9. TOTALS: 12/6-1-21-43.
Southeast (24-9-6-23—62) (FG/3-pt): Burdette 0/1-0-0-3, Powell 5-4-1-14, T. Thompson 1-4-2-6, Josh Thompson 2/1-3-2-10, Brennon 3-4-0-10, Peak 0-0-1-0, Jake Thompson 6/1-4-2-19. TOTALS: 17/3-19-8-62.
