MOUND CITY — The Marmaton Valley Wildcats’ will end the regular season 12-7 and 10-4 in the Three Rivers Conference following Friday’s 48-43 loss to conference rival Jayhawk-Linn. Despite being down by more than 15 points at multiple times Friday, the Wildcats gave Jayhawk-Linn a few heart palpitations in the waning minutes, but it was not enough as the Jayhawks held on for the win. “We came out too flat early on,” Marmaton Valley coach Curt Drake said. “We settled for outside shots that weren’t going and let them get away. We made a good comeback. We had a good effort in the second half. Nobody gave up. If we start putting four quarters together, then we’ll be alright.”Trailing 41-29 heading into the fourth quarter, the Wildcats made a game of it with a mixture of full-court, man-to-man press defense and attacking on offense in the paint. Seniors Brayden Lawson and Jaedon Granere got hot in the fourth, scoring 11 of the Wildcats’ 14 points. While Lawson scored six of his team-leading 23 points in the fourth, Granere pulled the Wildcats into contention with a 3-pointer, followed by a 3-pointer by junior guard Garrett Morrison and a Grenere drive to the basket to make it a one-score game 45-43. “That’s basketball. I don’t think we could have shot much worse (in the first half), then we had them by 2 points there at the end,” Drake said.That was as close to victory as Marmaton Valley would get. On the ensuing possession, Jayhawk-Linn broke through the Wildcats’ press and held on for the victory. With the win, Jayhawk-Linn improves to 8-11 and 7-4 in the Three Rivers League for sixth overall. The Wildcats finished the regular season 10-4 in the TRL for fourth overall. “As long as we hustle, we’re good. As long as we keep playing good defense, then we’re going to be fine,” Drake said. “We played good defense. We held them to less than 50 points on the scoreboard. I tell the kids, if we can score 50 points, then we can win a ballgame.”The Wildcats open the sub-state tournament at home against Sedan (8-12) Tuesday. “Sedan will be good. They play a lot of good schools out west. It will be a good game,” Drake said. “Their record is the opposite of ours, but that doesn’t show much. Records are about who you play and the competition you play.”
Jayhawk-Linn (12-19-10-6—47)
FG/3pt FT F TP
Boyles 3 0 2 6
Clark 1 0 1 2
T. Broyles 1 0 1 2
Nichols 2 0 3 4
Krull 4 3 3 11
Brownback 3/1 4 2 10
Nation 3/1 1 3 10
Totals 14/2 8 15 47
MV (5-11-13-14—43)
Smith 0 1 0 1
Granere 5/1 0 2 13
Stevenson0 3 0 3
Morrison 1 0 1 3
Lord 0 0 1 0
Lawson 9 5 2 23
Totals 14/2 9 6 43
