Pair of Fort Scott rallies come up short

Wednesday, February 22, 2017

INDEPENDENCE -- Rallies fell short for both of Fort Scott High's basketball teams here Tuesday night as Independence came out on top of both games of a Southeast Kansas League doubleheader.

A 43-40 win for Independence's girls kept their hope of a tie for the SEK championship alive. In order to achieve that, the Bulldogs (9-2 SEK, 14-5 overall) will have to beat Labette County Friday night while current leader Pittsburg (10-1, 13-6) loses to Coffeyville. A Pittsburg win or an Independence loss will gave the title to the Purple Dragons outright.

Despite a hot start to the second half and a 20-of-23 performance at the free-throw line for the Tigers, Indy's boys held on to win 61-58 as freshman Davion Lewis came off the bench to score 25 points, 14 of them in the fourth quarter.

Girls: Independence 43, Fort Scott 40.

Indy's girls led 38-29 with 5:42 remaining in the game. But Madison Cook broke a 8 1/2-minute Tiger drought between field goals with 5:08 to go. Then after both teams were unable to score for about 3 1/2 minutes, Cook hit a 3-pointer with 1:30 left that brought Fort Scott (5-6, 7-12) within 4 points.

Skyelar Brown made two free throws with 11.1 seconds to go to bring Fort Scott within 41-40. But with time ticking down, they had to foul Lyssa Schabel, who made two free throws with nine seconds left.

Cook led Fort Scott with 16 points while Brown added 14. Morgan Mavers paced Independence with 12 points while Rindi Marquez had 10.

With the loss and Louisburg's 34-31 win over DeSoto, the Tigers became locked into the No. 4 seed at the Paola Class 4A-Division I Sub-State, to be held next week, and will face Paola (15-4) in the first round.

Boys: Independence 61, Fort Scott 58.

The Tigers' first four baskets of the second half were 3-pointers. One each by Jesse Jones, Alec Michaud, Ryan Thomas and Jessie Lawrence brought Fort Scott (2-9, 5-14) from 4 points down into a 37-31 lead with four minutes to go.

Independence (8-3, 11-8) scored the next 8 but the Tigers went ahead again, 42-39, on Grant Goldston's 3-point play with a minute to go.

Thomas gave the Tigers the lead for the last time, 44-43, with a jumper a minute into the fourth. Lewis scored 7 straight for the 'Dogs later in the period to make it 57-49.

Lawrence made 2 of 3 free throws with 3.1 seconds left to bring Fort Scott within 60-58. He led the Tigers with 12 points while Thomas added 10.

Both Fort Scott teams conclude the regular season Friday at Parsons.


GIRLS

FORT SCOTT: Torres 0 2-2 2, J.Allen 0 0-0 0, Brown 7 7-7 14, J.Denton 0 0-0 0, Hale 1 0-0 2, Dwyer 1 0-2 2, H.Denton 1 0-0 2, Humble 0 0-0 0, Cook 5 4-4 16, Nelson 0 2-4 2. TOTALS: 11 15-19 40.

INDEPENDENCE: Howland 0 0-0 0, Marquez 4 0-1 10, K.Smith 1 3-8 5, Lawrie 1 0-0 2, Schabel 1 4-4 6, Mavers 5 0-0 12, Keller 0 0-0 0, Ewing 0 0-0 0, J.Smith 4 0-1 8. TOTALS: 16 7-14 43.

Fort Scott........................ 6 16 5 13 -- 40

Independence............... 8 14 12 9 -- 43

Three-point field goals: Fort Scott 3 (Cook 2, Brown), Independence 4 (Marquez 2, Mavers 2).

Total fouls: Fort Scott 17, Independence 17. Fouled out: None.

BOYS

FORT SCOTT: J.Lawrence 4 3-4 12, Jones 3 1-1 8, Tourtillott 0 0-0 0, Michaud 1 3-4 6, Thomas 3 3-3 10, Campbell 1 0-1 2, Horton 0 4-4 4, G.Goldston 2 3-3 7, Hall 3 3-3 9. TOTALS: 17 20-23 58.

INDEPENDENCE: McGrath 1 0-0 2, Schroeder 1 4-4 6, Hayward 3 0-0 6, Pasternak 1 0-0 2, Pralle 1 0-0 2, Kemp 1 4-4 6, Kleiber 1 0-0 2, Lewis 7 9-11 25, Daniels 4 2-7 10. TOTALS: 20 19-26 61.

Fort Scott........................ 15 19 17 16 -- 58

Independence............... 12 17 14 18 -- 61

Three-point field goals: Fort Scott 4 (J.Lawrence, Jones, Michaud, Thomas), Independence 2 (Lewis 2).

Total fouls: Fort Scott 18, Independence 19. Fouled out: G.Goldston, Schroeder.