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Furious rally falls short, 67-64
Fort Scott High’s boys have this way of somehow not being out of a game lately. Down 11 after one period in which nothing looked like it was going to go their way and by 20 early in the second in Friday night’s Southeast Kansas League game against Parsons, the Tigers came back steadily until Alec Michaud tied the score, 57-57, on a 3-pointer with 1:41 to go.
However, a 7-point run in about 25 seconds, while not putting the game away quite yet, gave Parsons a two-possession lead, 64-60, and the Vikings were able to hold on for a 67-64 victory.
Fort Scott (4-8 SEK, 8-12 overall) trailed 13-2 a little over four minutes into the game. It was 19-8 after one for Parsons (8-4, 14-6), ranked No. 6 in Class 4A-Division II by the Kansas Basketball Coaches Association.
The Vikings scored 12 of the first 15 points of the second quarter to make it 31-11 with 5:41 remaining. At this point, the Tigers had made only 4 of 17 field-goal attempts.
But Nick Lawrence scored just before the five-minute mark, sparking Fort Scott on a 11-2 run of its own capped by Michaud’s 3-pointer from the right side with 1:42 on the clock.
Michaud found Jordan Hall in the paint for a buzzer-beating jumper that brought the Tigers within 37-26 at the break. They duplicated the feat to start the second half, then Jesse Jones connected on a 3-pointer from the right wing and Michaud scored in transition to close the deficit to 4 points.
Parsons pushed the lead back up to 8 points with 1:44 to go. But the Tigers scored 6 of the last 7 with Michaud finding Hall once more as the third period ended to cut the deficit to 46-43.
Jessie Lawrence’s 3-pointer from the top of the key cut the margin to 49-48 with 6:55 to go. But Parsons scored the next 6, four of those by DaQuan Johnson in transition.
Johnson scored on a fast-break opportunity with 2:05 to go to make it 57-54 for Parsons. Hall was injured attempting to defend the play and was unable to return. Michaud’s game-tying triple came 24 seconds later.
Dariq Williams scored his only basket of the night with 1:05 to go to break the tie, then Johnson stole the inbound pass and scored. Luke Wolgamott made two free throws with 50 seconds left and Williams made one of two with :41 to go, making it 64-57.
Jones hit from the top of the key with 33 seconds to go to close the gap to 4 and making the place sometimes called the “Tigerdome” explode. Johnson was fouled with 22 seconds to go, missed the first free throw but made the second to make it 65-60.
Jones connected again from the right wing to cut the lead to 2. Ezekiel Lyons was fouled and made one of two charity tosses with 12 seconds left to make it 66-63.
J.Lawrence was fouled on a drive with five seconds left but was only able to make one of his two free throws. The Tigers fouled Yates, who made one of two free throws to make it 67-64.
Parsons benefited from a turnover with 1.7 seconds to go in front of its own bench and was able to inbound the ball and avoid a foul.
The Vikings were able to salvage a split of the season series, having been a victim of another rally in the January 30 meeting at Parsons. That night, the Tigers rallied from a 33-28 halftime deficit to win in overtime, 70-69, on J.Lawrence’s buzzer-beating 16-foot shot.
Parsons finished tied for second place in the SEK with Labette County after the Grizzlies lost in overtime to Independence, 59-51. Fort Scott finished fifth.
Johnson led Parsons with 21 points while Lyons finished with 15, Yates with 12 and Wolgamott with 10. The Vikings shot 43 percent from the field, making 23 of 53 field-goal attempts.
Hall made 8 of 13 shots from the field in leading the Tigers with 17 points. Michaud finished with 12 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists. Jones added 11 points and N. Lawrence scored 10. The Tigers shot 50 percent for the game on 24 of 48. They went 21 for 34 over the final three quarters..
JUNIOR VARSITY — The junior varsity concluded its season with a 44-31 win over Parsons led by 12 points each from C.J. Horton and Teagan Southwell.
FRESHMEN — Gavin Pytlowany hit a mid-court 3-point shot to send the freshmen game into a second overtime and made the game-winning free throws with no time on the clock to lead the Tigers to a 57-56 win in their final game of the season. Pytlowany finished with 19 points.
NOTES — The Fort Scott Class 4A-Division I Sub-State Tournament won’t be officially seeded until later today but the host Tigers will be the No. 2 seed and face Chanute (5-15) at 7:30 p.m. Friday night. The Blue Comets finished with the same record as Independence but won both meetings with the Bulldogs, who will take on top-seeded Labette County (13-7) at 6 p.m. Friday night....
PARSONS: Williams 1-4 1-3 3, Lyons 5-10 3-4 15, Johnson 8-12 5-6 21, Yates 4-11 4-6 12, Loadholtz 1-3 0-0 2, Schibi 1-6 2-3 4, Thomas 0-0 0-0 0, Wolgamott 3-7 4-4 10. TOTALS: 23-53 19-26 67.
FORT SCOTT: J.Lawrence 1-6 3-4 6, Jones 4-7 0-0 11, N.Lawrence 4-8 2-3 10, Miuchaud 3-7 4-5 12, Campbell 2-2 0-0 4, Horton 0-0 0-0 0, Goldston 2-4 0-0 4, Hall 8-13 1-3 17, Martin 0-1 0-0 0. TOTALS: 24-48 10-15 64.
Parsons....................... 19 18 9 21 — 67
Fort Scott................... 8 18 17 21 — 64
Three-point field goals: Parsons 2-13 (Lyons 2-7, Johnson 0-1, Williams 0-2, Schibi 0-3), Fort Scott 6-17 (Jones 3-6, Michaud 2-6, J.Lawrence 1-3, Goldston 0-2).
Total fouls: Parsons 17, Fort Scott 22. Fouled out: Campbell.
Rebounds: Parsons 28 (Yates 6), Fort Scott 31 (Michaud 7). Assists: Parsons 12 (Williams 4), Fort Scott 8 (Michaud 5). Turnovers: Parsons 10, Fort Scott 21. Steals: Parsons 15 (Johnson 5), Fort Scott 5 (Jones 3). Blocked shots: Parsons 2 (Loadholtz, Thomas), Fort Scott 1 (Campbell).