Tigers survive to face Ottawa in semis

Fort Scott's Jonathan Stark and Paola's Brandon Goodman (20) dive for a loose ball during Sub-State play at the FSHS gymnasium Monday night. Stark was injured twice in the game and was one of at least four players to suffer some sort of injury during the contest. The Tigers managed to overcome the injuries to take a 53-40 victory.
(Kenny Felt/Captured Images)

Stark was injured not once but twice during play. He was already playing with a face mask to protect a broken nose. The first time he got hurt, he lost a tooth. The second time, he got knocked woozy.

And he wasn't the only one. Gary Floyd, Logan Fancher and Griffin Knopp -- at the very least -- also had to fight through injuries in order to help the third-seeded Tigers knock off sixth-seeded Paola, 53-40.

"Jay Jones (Mercy's trainer) really earned his money tonight," Fort Scott head coach Jeff DeLaTorre said. "It wasn't dirty. It was just a very physical game. There will be some contact in a fast-paced game and we just happened to be on the wrong end of it sometimes."

The Tigers (14-7) jumped out to an 11-2 lead in just over two minutes of play. Fort Scott connected on 7 of 10 shots from the field in the opening frame and held an 18-9 lead.

Paola (8-13), which had won five of its last nine games coming into the contest, fought back and got within 21-19 on Issac Cotton's layup with 4:22 left in the first half. But senior Jacob Ruhl came off the bench and hit a pair of big 3-point shots -- the second with two seconds remaining -- that helped boost the Tigers' lead to 29-20 at the half.

"He's come in lately and done a good job for us," DelaTorre said. "We got him in for the Parsons game and he played pretty well. He's been taking what the defense gives him. He hits the open shot. He's worked hard in practice and it's good to see him step up and hit some big shots."

Paola never got closer than seven points in the second half and that was very early on. The largest lead was 14 points when Stark hit a 3-point shot from the left wing to start the fourth quarter, making it 44-30.

Floyd led all scorers with 14 points. Knopp ended up with 9 and Ruhl and Cody Harper each finished with 8.

Nick Wilson led Paola with 12 points while Cotton and Travis Hayes finished with 10 each.

Fort Scott shot 53 percent from the field, making 16 of 30 field-goal tries. Paola shot 42 percent on 14 of 33.

The low number of shots led to a low number of rebounds. Fort Scott had 21 to Paola's 20. Jeremy Hull led the Tigers with 6.

Harper had 4 assists and 3 steals for the Tigers.

Fort Scott will play second-seeded Ottawa (18-3) in the first semifinal Friday at 6 p.m. in Osawatomie. The Cyclones beat Anderson County 73-29 Monday night.