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Uniontown's late rally falls short
UNIONTOWN, Kan. -- Uniontown erased an 11-point deficit in the fourth quarter, but ran out of steam late, as Northeast-Arma held on for a 41-38 victory in a Kansas Class 2A Sub-State semifinal on Friday night.
With the win, the Vikings advance to tonight's title game against Madison, a 75-44 winner over Sedan in the other semifinal.
Uniontown's boys saw the season end with the close loss.
Northeast's Vikings led 32-21 early in the fourth quarter. But the Eagles picked up the intensity and went on a 13-2 run to tie the game at 34 with just under three minutes to play.
But the Vikings settled down and scored five-straight, and the Eagles seemed to run out of gas late in the fourth quarter.
"We dug ourselves such a big hole, it left us with such a small margin for error at the end," Uniontown Coach Nate Hinrichs said. "We played really well to tie it up. But digging ourselves that kind of hole put us in a tough spot."
The Eagles still had their chances late in the contest. Down 39-37 with 32 seconds left, Uniontown forced a Northeast turnover with its full-court press. But Uniontown's Brenton Esslinger missed from in close, Northeast grabbed the rebound and drew a foul with eight seconds left.
Northeast's Noah Popejoy hit two free throws to put his team up four. Uniontown's Esslinger hit one of two free throws with 1.5 seconds left for the final margin.
On the previous possession, Hinrichs was clearly unhappy a foul was not called as Esslinger went up inside.
"That's basketball," he said. "You get some and you don't get some."
The game was close throughout, as the score was tied at nine after one quarter. Northeast took a 17-16 lead into the locker-room at halftime.
Uniontown's Zach Travis drained a three-pointer early in the third period to give the Eagles a 19-17 lead. But the Vikings pulled away by finishing the third quarter on a 14-2 run. Northeast's 6-4 senior Chase Cleland scored seven during the spurt.
At the same time, Uniontown got into foul trouble, as Travis picked up his third foul, Seth Sympson went to the bench with his fourth, and Dakota Wiley had to sit with his fourth.
Hinrichs admitted his team committed some silly fouls, too.
"You have to walk that line between playing hard and playing smart," Hinrichs said. "We stepped over that line a couple times with silly fouls. And that stopped our momentum."
Northeast led 31-21 entering the fourth quarter and JT Richardson's free throw made it 32-21.
But Uniontown rallied, as Esslinger, Domonic Robinson and Sympson all scored. Next, Travis hit a jumper, Northeast turned it over, and Sympson scored in the paint. Just like that, Northeast's lead was down to 33-30. After a timeout, Northeast turned it over again and Uniontown's Sympson scored inside, making it a one-point game. Richardson hit one free throw for the Vikings, but Esslinger hit two of his own to tie the game at 34 with 2:50 to play.
Northeast got two free throws from Jonathan Baker, Uniontown missed on the other end and then fouled. Cleland hit one foul shot, Uniontown missed again, while Popejoy got free for a hoop inside, making it 39-34 with only 1:16 left.
Uniontown once again didn't quit, and the Eagles forced consecutive turnovers. But the Eagles got only one free throw from Robinson before Esslinger missed inside with time running out.
Hinrichs said he was proud of his team's effort.
"That's our kids," Hinrichs said. "They're high-character kids. They weren't going to lay down. I knew they would battle. We're going to miss these seniors. We had a lot of fun this year."
Third-seeded Uniontown ends the season at 16-5. Second-seeded Northeast improves to 18-4.
A junior, Esslinger scored 12 to lead the Eagles. A senior, Travis added 10 and classmate Sympson chipped in nine.
Northeast got 13 points from Richardson and 11 from Cleland.
Tonight's sub-state title game between top seed Madison and Northeast is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. in Uniontown. The girls title game is at 6 p.m. and features number-one seed Oswego vs. second-seeded Madison.
(3) UNIONTOWN: Travis 4 0-0 10, Esslinger 4 4-6 12, Kuns 1 0-0 2, Sympson 2 5-6 9, Robinson 1 2-4 4. TOTALS: 12 11-16 38.
(2) NORTHEAST: Robinson 1 0-0 2, Richardson 5 2-6 13, Baker 3 3-4 9, Cleland 4 3-6 11, Popejoy 1 3-5 5. TOTALS: 14 11-21 41
Uniontown..... 9 7 5 17 -- 38
Northeast..... 9 8 14 10 -- 41
Three-point field goals: Uniontown 2 (Travis 2), Northeast 1 (Richardson).