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'Hound men hold off Scotties in conference opener
Fort Scott Community College's men ran out to a 23-point lead at halftime but had to hold on as Highland rallied in the second half before finally earning a 76-72 victory at Arnold Arena Wednesday night in the Jayhawk Conference-Eastern Division II opener for both teams.
"It's a good start," Fort Scott head coach Michael Cook said. "We have to take care of things at home and we did that tonight."
The Greyhounds (7-12) shot lights out in the first half, especially from the 3-point line, and played intense, swarming defense as they broke out to a 19-2 lead in the first 7 1/2 minutes of play.
Fort Scott led 43-23 at halftime and was still up 17 points with just under 10 minutes to go.
Highland (10-11) began to rally and chipped away at the lead. Eight straight points, six of them off Fort Scott turnovers, brought the Scotties within 70-69 with 46 seconds to go.
Highland shot 6 free throws in a 13-second span but made only 3 and trailed by one point, 73-72, with 24 seconds to go.
Kevin House was fouled and made both free throws. Highland's Marc Ellis missed a 3-point shot and House was fouled after the rebound with 7 seconds to go.
House missed both of those free throws but the rebound was tipped right to him and he was fouled again with 5 seconds left. This time, he made the first of the two shots.
"When it got close, we could have folded," Cook said. "But we stayed focused on what we're doing."
Highland outscored Fort Scott 49-30 in the second half. A lot of other numbers in addition to scoring flipped in the Scotties' favor, such as 3-point shooting and turnovers.
"I think we got complacent. We're young," Cook said. "We only have C.J. (Hall), Prince (Samuels) and Kevin who played significant minutes last year. I think some of the guys took a breather, got complacent."
Khalid Rowe capped the game-opening 19-2 run with back-to-back 3-pointers off House assists. The defense held Highland to 1-of-9 field-goal shooting in that run.
Jaylynn McCormack hit back-to-back triples to push the lead to 41-16 with 3:41 left in the first half. Highland followed by making its first run of any kind in the half, six straight points capped by a reverse layup by Dominique Davis with 2:23 remaining.
Rowe scored on a drive and McCormack hit another 3-pointer to make it 46-22 with 40 seconds left.
The Greyhounds made 18 of 32 total field goals in the half and 8 of 14 3-point shots. Highland made only 9 of 26 fielders, including 2 of 10 3-pointers. Fort Scott also committed just 2 turnovers in the half.
C.J. Hall hit a jump shot to open the second half to create the game's biggest lead, 25 points at 48-23. Highland, in a sign of things to come, scored the next 8 points.
Torre Somerville's only basket of the game, a 3-point shot, brought Highland within 54-38 with 10:50 to go.
Martell Collins, the division's leading scorer coming into the game who was shut out in the first half, scored the first 7 points in a Scottie 13-1 run midway through the half that brought Highland within 59-52 with 5:45 to go.
Fort Scott scored 8 of the next 10 with a conventional 3-point play by House making it 67-54 with 4:39 left. But Highland hit back-to-back threes to spark a 15-3 run. The Scotties converted steals by Marc Ellis on consecutive possesions to cap the run. The first steal resulted in a Collins 3-pointer. The second ended with Davis converting a 3-point play to cut the lead to 70-69.
The key in the final 45 seconds was free-throw shooting. Although the 'Hounds didn't shoot well on the night as a team, House converted on 6 of 10 and that was enough.
"We fell in love with the 3, I think, because we were hitting them in the first half," Cook said. "We went right back to Mabor in the post and he got some big baskets. Overall, though, we have to keep focused for 40 minutes and we didn't tonight."
House finished with 18 points, 9 assists and 4 steals to lead Fort Scott in each of those areas. McCormack and Rowe each added 10, Hall 11 and Mabor Gabriel ended up with 10 points and a game-high 11 rebounds.
Davis led Highland with 20 points while Collins finished with 19 points and 10 rebounds.
Overall, Fort Scott shot 54 percent from the field on 27 of 50 but was only 13 of 26 at the free-throw line. Highland finished the night at 43 percent on 24 of 55.
Fort Scott won the battle of the boards, 37-28, and handed out 19 assists as a team.
The new division setup in the Jayhawk Conference this season gives the league's Division II teams -- Fort Scott, Highland, Kansas City and Johnson County --the chance to play only games that go toward post-season seeding in January and February. That will continue Saturday when the Greyhounds go to Salina to take on Brown Mackie, one of the region's two Division II independent teams. The Lions (12-8) beat the other independent, Hesston, by a score of 108-72 Wednesday night.
Saturday's game is set for a 3 p.m. tip-off.
HIGHLAND: Davis 7-16 6-8 20, Belfekih 0-1 0-0 0, Funderburke 1-4 3-4 5, Ellis 3-5 0-0 8, Collins 5-12 7-13 19, Melvin 0-1 0-0 0, Somerville 1-2 0-0 3, LaFond 2-3 0-0 4, Waterrman 1-2 0-0 3, Teckle 4-9 1-2 10. TOTALS: 24-55 17-27 72.
FORT SCOTT: House 4-6 10-16 18, Harrington 3-7 0-0 6, Johnson 2-10 2-2 7, Hall 5-7 0-0 11, Gabriel 5-7 0-4 10, McCormack 4-6 0-0 12, Knight 0-0 0-0 0, Rowe4-7 1-4 12, Stroman 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 27-50 13-26 76.
Halftime: Fort Scott, 46-23.
Three-point field goals: Highland 7-20 (Ellis 2-4, Collins 2-5, Waterman 1-1, Somerville 1-2, Teckle 1-4, Funderburke 0-1, Melvin 0-1), Fort Scott 9-18 (McCormack 4-6, Rowe 3-5, Johnson 1-3, Hall 1-2, House 0-1).
Total fouls: Highland 23, Fort Scott 26. Fouled out: Somerville, Johnson. Technical fouls: Davis, Hall.
Rebounds: Highland 28 (Collins 10), Fort Scott 37 (Gabriel 11). Assists: Highland 12 (Davis 3, LaFond 3), Fort Scott 19 (House 9). Turnovers: Highland 9, Fort Scott 15. Steals: Highland 11 (Ellis 3), Fort Scott 6 (House 4). Blocked shots: Highland none, Fort Scott 1 (Gabriel).