Menu
Survive and advance: 'Hounds going to Nationals
WICHITA -- It's said that it's difficult to beat a good team three times in the same season.
If that's true, Fort Scott Community College's men must be a good team.
Brown Mackie had won seven straight games against Fort Scott, including both meetings this season, going into the Region VI Division II championship game at Koch Arena here Saturday afternoon. But the Greyhounds came away with a 68-66 victory and, according to all the records the Tribune has been able to find, advanced to a national tournament for the first time since 1948.
"I don't think it's sunk in yet," Fort Scott head coach Michael Cook, who beat Brown Mackie for the first time in five meetings, said. "I knew we could play with them. But it feels to great to hug those guys (the sophomores) and keep them on the path to where we're tying to get."
That year, 1948, according to information the Tribune has found, was just the fourth year the NJCAA held a national basketball tournament.
"It feels awesome. Two long years. Finally, we made it," sophomore forward C.J. Hall said. "We made it."
The Greyhounds have an overall losing record, 14-16, so they may not get a good seed in the national tournament unless the committee recognizes their strength of schedule. But they're 9-5 against Division II competition and winners of six of their last seven games.
The 'Hounds countered Brown Mackie's best effort on both sides of the ball. The Lions (20-11), the defending region champion who finished third in the national tourney last season, had some success with full-court pressure early in the second half. But Fort Scott was eventually able to get past that.
"Our counter every time to a press is to put Kevin (House) in the middle and I thought Prince (Samuels) handled some of the pressure pretty well, too,' Cook said. "Will (Harrington) attacked the press.
"We got out of character a couple of times. We had Dalton (Rose) up where he shouldn't have been; he should have been back. But we counter with Kevin every time."
On the other side, Brown Mackie shot just 35 percent from the field and made only 2 of 22 three-point field-goal attempts. The Lions came into the game as the best team in the region in field-goal percentage (51.6) and 3-point percentage (36.3).
Fort Scott, however, was the best team in the region on defense, holding opponents to 43 percent from the field overall and 26 percent from 3-point range. Brown Mackie, which scored 83 and 91 points in it's regular-season wins over the 'Hounds, was held 22 points below it's season average.
"You have to hit a few outside shots in order to dissolve a zone, and we couldn't do it," Brown Mackie coach Francis Flax told the Salina Journal's Bob Davidson. "Our perimeter game was awful shooting-wise."
Fort Scott led 58-50 with 8:17 left in the game following a 13-4 run. Brown Mackie chipped away with William Sams hitting a 3-point shot from the top of the key to tie the score at 61-61 with 4:28 to go.
Rose hit a 16-footer to put Fort Scott ahead again. Ahasuerus McDonald made one of two free throws for BMC with 3:17 left and Rico Spiked scored a layup with 2:43 left.
Samuels laid a shot in with 2:07 to go to put Fort Scott back in front, 65-64.
Spikes made the first of two free throws with 1:12 to go. He missed the second but Sams got the rebound for the Lions. DeMarien Smith was fouled with 40 seconds to go. He missed the first free throw but made the second to put the Lions head, 66-65.
Samuels made two free throws with 31.4 seconds left to put Fort Scott up by one. At the other end, Sams missed a shot and the contested rebound glanced off several hands before going out of bounds.
The officials went to a monitor to watch the rebound on replay and ruled that Brown Mackie had touched it last. The Lions fouled Hall with 4.1 seconds left. He missed the first show but made the second to make it a 2-point game.
Brown Mackie called time out. On the inbound play, Jason Jordan drove the length of the court, taking a 12-foot shot from the left side of the lane. It hit the rim and bounced away as the final horn sounded.
"Don't foul," Cook said he told his players in the huddle. "If we need to go to overtime, go to overtime. But don't foul.
"We wanted to keep them in front of us, not let anything go long. Challenge the shot the correct way. C.J. did a good job on that."
House led the 'Hounds with 24 points as he made 8 of 15 field-goal attempts. Samuels followed with 22 as he went 8 for 16 from the field.
Samuels was an X factor for the 'Hounds, appropriate for a game played in the house where the "X-Man," Xavier McDaniel, once played. Samuels missed the first Brown Mackie game on January 25 with an injury. Foul trouble limited his effectiveness in the return match at Arnold Arena on February 15, although he did have 15 points that night.
"I stayed focused," Samuels said. "I didn't let anyone take me out of the game.
"There was a never a doubt. This game was never supposed to be ours so we played like we always do and we came out on top."
Fort Scott shot 51 percent from the field, making 25 of 49 field-goal attempts and going 12 for 18 in the second half, which was enough to cancel out Brown Mackie's 45-31 rebounding advantage.
The 'Hounds jumped out to a 7-2 lead after three minutes. The Lions scored 11 of the next 14 to tale their first lead, 13-10, with 13:30 to go in the first half.
House's spot-up 3-pointer from the left wing followed by Samuels' 3-point play made it 22-17 for Fort Scott with 7:12 to go.
Later, Samuels took a steal in for a dunk and Rose followed with a 3-point shot from the left side to make it 27-21 with 4:52 to go.
Samuels scored a layup with 58 seconds to go and House made 2 free throws with 32 seconds left to make it 37-30. Dionte Forney closed the gap to 5 for Brown Mackie on a stickback with 9 seconds left.
Fort Scott scored 6 of the first 9 of the second half with Harrington's fast-break layup making it 43-35 with 18:03 to go.
Brown Mackie scored 11 of the next 13 with Jordan's 3-point play putting the Lions up, 46-45, with 14:40 left.
Fort Scott went on a 13-4 run, scoring the last 7 in a row with Dontae' Johnson's jumper making it 58-50 with 8:17 to go.
Smith finished with 12 points for Brown Mackie while Forney added 10.
The 16-team NJCAA Division II National Tournament will be held in Danville, Ill., March 18-22. Of the eight highest-placing teams last year, only one, South Suburban, Ill., which finished sixth, will return.
As he held the Region VI Championship plaque, Cook was asked what the win says about the Fort Scott program he's overseen through some rough times over the past six seasons.
"Right now, it says we're Region VI champs," he said. "Other than that, we won the fight. It says we're a good defensive team. It also says we're hard workers. We believe in our system and we believe in each other.
"So if anything, it says, 'We believe.'"
(2) FORT SCOTT: House 8-15 7-9 24, Harrington 3-3 0-2 6, Johnson 1-4 0-4 2, Samuels 8-16 6-8 22, Knight 0-1 0-0 0, Rose 4-7 0-0 11, Rowe 0-0 0-0 0, Hall 1-3 1-2 3. TOTALS: 25-49 14-25 68.
(1) BROWN MACKIE: Booker 2-5 1-2 5, McDonald 2-16 5-6 9, Sams 2-9 0-0 5, Jordan 2-9 3-4 8, Hooker-Harris 4-10 0-1 8, Smith 3-4 6-7 12, Spikes 3-6 3-4 9, Forney 5-7 0-0 10, Moore 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 23-66 18-24 66.
Halftime: Fort Scott, 37-32.
Three-point field goals: Fort Scott 4-10 (Rose 3-5, House 1-2, Johnson 0-1, Knight 0-1, Hall 0-1), Brown Mackie 2-22 (Sams 1-4, Jordan 1-6, Spikes 0-1, Hooker-Harris 0-5, McDonald 0-6).
Total fouls: Fort Scott 18, Brown Mackie 21. Fouled out: McDonald.
0Rebounds: Fort Scott 31 (Samuels 8), Brown Mackie 45 (Spikes 7, Forney 7). Assists: Fort Scott 14 (Johnson 4), Brown Mackie 12 (Jordan 5). Turnovers: Fort Scott 15, Brown Mackie 13. Steals: Fort Scott 5 (Samuels 3), Brown Mackie 10 (Hooker-Harris 8). Blocked shots: Fort Scott 3 (Rose 3), Brown Mackie 6 (Jordan 2).
TOURNAMENT NOTES
* -- The Division II women's and Division I men's and women's championship games were also played at Koch Arena Saturday. Three of the four games were decided by two points, including the Division II men's championship game between Fort Scott and Brown Mackie.
* -- Highland's women beat Johnson County for the Division II women's title, 54-52. The Scotties' only losses came against Johnson County during the regular season and to Division I Cowley. Ryann Bowser led Highland with 17 points and Krystal Corhn added 15. The Scotties (30-2) finished fifth in last season's national tournament.
* -- Jayhawk Conference-Western Division champion Hutchinson defeated Eastern Division champ Butler in the Division I women's final, 54-52. Je'Von'Ta Hill led the Blue Dragons (32-0) with 19 points. Butler (32-2), whose only other loss was against Murray State (Okla.) in November, also qualifies for the national tournament with an at-large bid. It's the third consecutive Region VI title for Hutchinson, which finished third in last year's national tourney and second in 2012. The Dragons have 30 or more victories each of the last four seasons and have won 134 of their last 140 games.
* -- Pratt (22-12) advanced to the Division I National Tournament for the first time since 2005 by beating Hutchinson, 77-69, Saturday night. Robert Davis led the Beavers, who finished sixth in the Western Division, with 22 points.
* -- Fort Scott won region titles in 1947 and also advanced to nationals in 1948. In 1947, they defeated Hutchinson in a best-of-three series 2 games to none, winning by scores of 55-54 and 41-35. The next year, they lost a best-of-three series to Dodge City, 2-0, but got a second chance. They defeated McCook (Neb.) in a playoff game, 45-44, to qualify for nationals along with Dodge City. How the Greyhounds fared -- or why they got their apparent second chance in 1948 -- is not in the Tribune's records. Although Dodge City won the 1948 playoff series, some records list Fort Scott as the regional champion.
*-- Fort Scott's last appearance in a region final was 1967, when they lost a best-of-three series to Dodge City, 2 games to 1. The 'Hounds beat the Conquistadors, 77-66, in the first game at Fort Scott --which was its last home playoff game until this year, when FSCC beat Kansas City in the Division II semifinals on March 4. Dodge City won the last two games of the series on its home court, 79-69 and 59-50.
* -- Prior to the March 4 game with Kansas City, Fort Scott's last playoff victory was against Neosho County in a Sub-Regional game at Chanute, 59-58, in overtime, on March 4, 1969. The next day, the Greyhounds lost to Coffeyville in the final, 61-54.
* -- Fort Scott is listed in records as region champs in 1929, co-champs in 1937, finalists in 1939, champions in 1947, at least as runner-up in 1948, runner-up in 1952, runner-up in 1958 and runner-up in 1967. The first national tournament was held in 1945.
* -- Fourth-seeded Rend Lake, Ill. defeated No. 7 seed Moraine Valley, Ill., 87-69, in last year's Division II Men's national championship game. Neither team qualified this year.
* -- Brown Mackie finished third in the national tournament last year with an 80-66 win over Owens, Ohio. Monroe (N.Y.) took fifth place over South Suburban, Ill. and third-seeded Louisburg, N.C., won the seventh-place game from top seed Mott, Mich. Of those teams, only South Suburban returns to the tournament this season.
* --The only other returning qualifiers from last year's D-II nationals are Phoenix, Ariz., Central Nebraska, and Essex County, N.J.
* -- Brown Mackie and Johnson County have each won two Division II national men's titles. Brown Mackie won the championship in 1999 and 2005. Johnson County won the title in 2001 and 2009.