Holton basketball boys fall to 2 out of 3 at Tonganoxie tourney
The Holton Wildcat boys’ visit to the annual Tonganoxie Basketball Invitational didn’t get off to a good start, but they did come away with a win against league foe Jefferson West, it was reported.
Head coach Ryan Noel said that while the opening loss against Eudora and a closely-played overtime loss to host team Tonganoxie were disheartening, the Wildcats bounced back with a different strategy against Jeff West, thanks to assistant coach Don Brees, and closed out their tournament appearance with a 41-28 win against the Tigers.
“Don doesn’t get much glory,” Noel said.
Tournament play for the Wildcats began on Thursday against eventual tournament champion Eudora, who exploded for 46 first-half points against Holton’s 15 and held on to win by a lopsided score of 68-28. Noel said that in addition to Eudora being “a really good basketball team with some athleticism and size,” the Wildcats just “didn’t come ready to play” in that first game.
On the other hand, Noel said, the Cardinals came out strong against everyone they played that week.
“They also held Wamego to 28 points in the championship game, so as frustrated as I was after that game, just with our inability to control our stuff, it sounds like they did that to everybody throughout the tournament,” he said.
Bryson Patch led the Wildcats in scoring against Eudora, with a pair of three-pointers contributing to his 11-point total. Mason Chanay contributed four points, and Austin Frakes, Kaden Brandt and Ralf Maleska added three points each.
The Wildcats had a better night on Friday against Tonganoxie despite walking away from the game with a 49-45 overtime loss to the Chieftains. The Cats got off to a good start in the first quarter and bounced back from a mid-game deficit to knot the score at 41 at the end of regulation, but came up short in the sudden death period.
Noel said he believed the game “should have been over in regulation, if we would have controlled the controllables and taken care of our end.”
“We did some silly things, as far as fouling late in the quarters and improbable made shots,” he said. “Tonganoxie was kind of a guard-dominant team, with a bunch of small guards and shooting the three, and we did a nice job of guarding the arch. We just weren’t able to put them away when we had a chance.”
Again, Patch led the team in scoring, with three treys contributing to a total of 17 points on the night, followed by AJ Haussler with 12, including a couple from behind the arch.
The Wildcats came back the next day with the win against Jeff West, which Noel said was due to a game plan developed by Brees and hashed out by the team on the way to the game.
“He had developed our game plan, and we talked about it on the bus on the way there,” Noel said of Brees. “We were going to come out in a 3-2 zone and see what we had.”
Noel said that with Jeff West leading the Big Seven League in three-point baskets, Brees’ plan to start with the “3-2 zone” worked beautifully against the Tigers, who were 3-for-30 from behind the arch. As a result, the Wildcats kept up the strategy all through the game and got the win.
“All credit to Don Brees,” Noel said.
In scoring, two Wildcat players contributed 11 points each — Haussler and Mason Strader, whose scoring, Noel said, was especially impressive following a scoring drought.
“Mason said he’d been 34 days without scoring, but he hit some shots and he got 80 percent from the field,” Noel said.
Noel also pointed out the work of Brandt and Frakes on the inside throughout the tournament, as well as Brandt Rose’s ability “to bounce people around in the paint.”
The Wildcat boys (3-9) now prepare to take on Sabetha at home on Friday, looking for a home court win against the Blue Jays after a loss to them on the road in early December. Noel said his team will look at multiple strategies against Sabetha, because “you can’t use anything too long against them, they’re so well-coached.”
“I really want to see our boys compete and show us how many strides they’ve made since that first game,” Noel said. “I’m looking for how hard we’re going to compete and where we’re really at, because Sabetha, I think, is the best team in the league.”
Friday’s games, starting at 4:30 p.m., are part of Holton’s winter courtwarming event.
