Lancers survive to play for title

Some games are just about surviving and advancing.
Crest High’s Lancers had one of those games here Friday night. The Lancers won in double overtime 43-41 against St. Paul Highs Indians.
That means the Lancers advance to tonight’s Kansas Class 1A, Division I Substate Basketball Tournament championship game. The substate is hosted by Southern Coffey County High School at Allen County Community College.
The Lancers meet Olpe High’s Eagles in a No. 1 seed versus No. 2 seed in tonight’s title contest. Tipoff is at 7:30 p.m.
Olpe pulled away from Hartford High’s Jaguars after a close first half Friday night. The Eagles won 52-31.
“We’re going to have to take care of the ball much better than we did tonight,” said Travis Hermreck, Crest head coach. “Olpe is a very physical team. We have to rebound well.”
Olpe High’s girls, undefeated and ranked No. 1 in Class 1, Division I, play Southern Coffey County High’s Lady Titans at 6 o’clock for the girls’ championship. On the line in both games are berths in the 2011 Kansas Class 1A, Division I State Basketball Tournaments next week in Emporia.
The Lancers led most of the second half until  the Indians’ Tyler Coomes put his team up 41-39 on a follow shot off a teammate’s missed free throw.
There was 1:05 left in the second overtime period. Crest sophomore Jordan Morton buried a three-pointer from the corner at the 46-second mark.
The Lancers were back on top 42-41. Crest sophomore Kyle Hammond had a defensive rebound but threw the ball away.
St. Paul had the basketball, took a timeout with 18.1 seconds on the clock and down one point.
The Indians worked the ball and made an entry pass to the lane. Crest senior guard Dexter Wiley got the steal and was fouled with 6.8 seconds on the clock.
Crest scored 16 of its 43 points at the free-throw line in the game. In the first overtime, the Lancers were 9 of 12 on foul shots.
Wiley missed the first attempt but netted the second for a two-point advantage. Following a timeout, the Indians had their plan.
Willie Westhoff drove the ball into the lane. He was fouled with 2.1 seconds on the clock. Westhoff had the opportunity to tie the game and force a third four-minute overtime period.
Westhoff missed the first then intentionally missed the second but in doing so did not hit the rim. The ball went to Crest and despite a fumbled inbounds play, time ran out.
“Jordan’s three was a big shot for us. At halftime, we felt if we had hit shots we’d have a pretty good lead,” Hermreck said.
“St. Paul is a team you cannot allow to hang around. They are scrappy and will come back on you. That’s what happened.”
It was Morton’s first three of the night that pulled the Lancers to within one, 8-7, at the close of the first quarter. Crest outscored St. Paul 8-6 in the second period but it took a basket by Jayden Bowen to put Crest up 15-14 at the break.
St. Paul’s Brett Hutcherson broke the ice in the third quarter. His basket at the 5:59 mark had the Indians up 16-15.
Hammond drained a three and Luke Decker hit one of two foul shots to give the Lancers a 19-16 lead at the midway mark. Hammond sank two free throws with 22 seconds left and Crest led 21-16.
Morton scored with 6:21 left but missed a free throw attempt as the Lancers held a 23-16 lead. St. Paul had back-to-back baskets but Hammond had a three-point play handing the Lancers a six-point lead.
“We thought we had them down in the fourth quarter and they came back. We thought we had them in the first overtime,” Hermreck said.
“The fun thing about this time of the season is to look past the technical way we played and they played and to appreciate the effort both teams made tonight.”
St. Paul scored six unanswered points to tie the game at 26-26 at the 2:02 mark.
Hammond went in and scored for the Lancers and Commes did the same for the Indians. Hammond had the chance to win the game in regulation. He missed two free throw attempts with 22 seconds left then a shot with four seconds left.
In the first overtime, the Lancers pushed to a 35-30 lead from the free-throw line with 1:08 left. Riley O’Brien hit the only three of the night for the Indians.
Wiley hit 2 of 4 attempts at the foul line. Those were countered by baskets by Westhoff and the equalizer by Commes with seven seconds left.
Taking the tip to start the second overtime, St. Paul worked the ball against Crest’s zone defense. The Indians ran off almost half of the time before turning the ball over.
Hammond paced the Lancers with 11 points and Morton chipped in with 10.
Commes fired in 14 points for the Indians and Westhoff had 10. The Indians were 0 of 3 at the foul line.
In the first semifinal of the night, Hartford led Olpe 13-8 after one quarter but Olpe turned it around by halftime, leading 22-19.
The Eagles pushed out to a 32-22 lead with just over three minutes left in the third quarter. They extended it from there for the final 52-31 win.
Olpe got 12 points Austin Bass and 10 from Tyler Hogan. Hartford was led by Michael Wilson with eight points plus six points each from Ralstin Wilkerson and Matt Troyer.
Crest (7-8-6-7-9 (OT)-6 (OT) —43) (FG/3-pt): Wiley 2-5-1-9, Morton 1/2-2-2-10, Hammond 3-5-0-11, Brallier 0-0-1-0, Decker 0/1-1-2-4, J. Bowen 2-2-0-6, Ramsey 1-1-2-3. TOTALS: 9/3-16-8-42.
St. Paul (8-6-1-12-9 (OT)-4 (OT)—41) (FG/3-pt): Westhoff 5-0-2-10, R. O’Brien 2/1-0-2-7, Hutcherson 4-0-4-8, Vitt 1-0-4-2, D. Smith 0-0-1-0, Commes 7-0-4-14, Schibi 0-0-2-0. TOTALS: 19/1-0-19-41.