Tiger girls beat the buzzer, escape with win

PARSONS -- The measure of great teams isn't so much what they can do when everything is going right. It's what they can do when things aren't quite as should be and they're struggling for every little thing.

Fort Scott High's girls had their fast-breaking, full-court pressing style taken away from them for the most part Monday night and found themselves instead playing the type of game host Parsons wanted.

So the Tigers adjusted and won with that style as six-foot post Elizabeth Meech scored all eight of Fort Scott's fourth-quarter points, including the game-winning layup as the final horn sounded, giving the redclads a 40-39 victory in a Southeast Kansas League make-up game at Harold C. Johnson Gymnasium.

"I don't know if we got any fast-break points and that's our cup of tea," Fort Scott head coach Jeff Armstrong said. "If we end up playing half-court games with people, it's always going to be close."

Unlike the first meeting -- a 54-36 Fort Scott victory on Jan. 4 -- in which the Tigers (13-2 SEK, 14-5 overall) were the stronger team on the boards and were able to force almost 30 turnovers to fuel the transition game, Parsons was stronger on the boards, outrebounding the Tigers 31-23, and significantly lowered its turnover count.

The Vikings (4-10, 5-13) were able to keep themselves in the game -- sometimes despite themselves, such as an instance in the middle of the third quarter where Keyandra Kendrick drew a foul and kept complaining about it to the point where she drew two technical fouls -- and took a one-point lead twice in the final 1:18.

The game came down to the final 10 seconds. Parsons' Marlee Cares, who led her team with 13 points, made two free throws to put the Vikings ahead 39-38. Fort Scott brought the ball upcourt and the Parsons managed to tip the ball out of bounds with 3.2 seconds remaining.

Joce Allen set to throw the inbound pass to the right of the Tiger goal. The way things had been going, the logical thing to do was get the ball in to Meech. And that was the first option.

"I told the girls, 'We're going to win it with one shot'," Armstrong said. "I didn't know who exactly it was going to come from. We drew up a play and Elizabeth was actually the first option, coming off a screen."

But that play wasn't open and Allen had to go through the other options.

"Kori Page (Rienbolt) was going to come off a double screen to get her the ball on the wing," Armstrong explained, "And then Jolee Sharp was going to roll into the middle of the lane for our third option. Parsons did a pretty good job of taking those away."

There's only five seconds to get the ball inbounds. Allen was able to come back to Meech at about 4 1/2 seconds. Parsons' switching resulted in a guard covering Meech and she took the pass on the left of the goal, dribbled a couple of times and kissed the ball off the glass just as the horn sounded.

"Any time you win on a buzzer-beater, it's exciting and I'm glad they got to experience a win like that," Armstrong said.

Both teams played well early and Fort Scott led 12-9 after one period.

But the Tigers struggled in the second period, making just one field goal on 10 shots. They missed their first nine before Allen's three-point goal gave them a 20-17 lead with 1:58 left in the half.

Christiana Taylor -- who led the Vikings with 17 points in the first meeting but was just one of 11 Monday night -- scored her only field goal of the night with 1:03 to go, a three-pointer that gave Parsons a 21-20 lead. Rienbolt put the Tigers ahead at halftime with a pair of free throws with one second left.

Cares and Jackson scored consecutive layup to put Parsons ahead, 23-22, early in the second half. Hannah Hawkins scored consecutive baskets -- her only ones of the night -- to put the Tiger back in front moments later.

Jackson converted a three-point play with 35 seconds left to put Parsons up 33-32 going into the final stanza. She made it a three-point game on a stickback to start the fourth.

The lead swayed several times as the clock wound down. The Tigers tied it at 36-36 when Afton Gray found Meech for a layup with exactly three minutes to go. Milan Piva made one of two free throws for Parsons with 1:18 remaining. Meech scored a layup on a pass from Rienbolt with 46 seconds left.

Meech and Gray led the Tigers with eight points each. Jackson added 11 points for Parsons as well as bringing down 12 rebounds.

Fort Scott made 12 of 33 field-goal attempts (36 percent) while Parsons was 13 of 39 (33 percent). The Tigers were 13 of 24 at the free-throw line, a number that Armstrong was concerned about, while the Vikes were 11 of 15.

"Making just five more free throws would mean the game's not that close," Armstrong said. "We really need to focus on that because when you get to shoot 24 of them, you have to have make more than 13."

Parsons outrebounded Fort Scott, 31-23. Meech, Allen and Sharp each had four boards for the Tigers. Allen dished four assists while Sharp picked up five steals.

Because the Tigers are idle tonight, this was the last game that will count toward Sub-State seeding. Although we don't have the records of all eight teams in the field as this is written, it looks like the Tigers should have no worse than the No. 2 seed.

"We're still not sure who we're going to play," Armstrong said. "Paola and Anderson County have similar records. It could come down to a tie-breaker depending on what happens (tonight). We're going to host that first-round game, no matter who we play."

Fort Scott hosts Coffeyville in SEK play in the final regular-season game of the year Thursday night. Their first-round Sub-State game will be played Monday night.

JUNIOR VARSITY -- Jamie Collins scored 16 points for the Tigers as they defeated Parsons, 47-21. Brieanna Jones added 13 points.

There wasn't a freshmen game here as they played the first round of the annual season-ending tournament.

NOTES -- The lead was more than three points for either team just once the entire game: When Allen's bank shot made it a 10-6 game halfway through the first quarter. Neither team scored again for over three minutes....

Meech was three for three from the floor Monday night and went five for five in Friday night's overtime win against Iola. She's made 11 of her last 12 field-goal attempts....

FORT SCOTT: Gray 2-10 2-4 8, J.Allen 2-5 1-2 7, Sharp 2-4 3-4 7, Simpson 0-1 0-0 0, Rienbolt 1-8 4-7 6, Hawkins 2-2 0-1 4, Bingesser 0-0 0-0 0, Dikeman 0-0 0-0 0, Allen 0-0 0-0 0, Meech 3-3 2-4 8. TOTALS: 12-33 13-24 40.

PARSONS: K.Jackson 0-0 0-0 0, Cares 4-5 4-4 13, Taylor 1-11 1-2 4, Piva 3-7 1-2 7, Forbes 1-9 0-0 2, K.Kendrick 0-1 2-4 2, T.Jackson 4-6 3-3 11. TOTALS: 13-39 11-15 39.

Parsons............. 9 12 12 6 -- 39

Three-point field goals: Fort Scott 3-10 (Gray 2-7, J.Allen 1-1, Rienbolt 0-1), Parsons 2-14 (Cares 1-1, Taylor 1-7, Piva 0-2, Forbes 0-4).

Total fouls: Fort Scott 16, Parsons 20. Fouled out: K.Kendrick. Technical fouls: K.Kendrick 2.

Rebounds: Fort Scott 23 (J.Allen 4, Sharp 4, Meech 4), Parsons 31 (T.Jackson 12). Assists: Fort Scott 10 (J.Allen 4), Parsons 6 (Piva 3). Turnovers: Fort Scott 13, Parsons 17. Steals: Fort Scott 10 (Sharp 5), Parsons 8 (Piva 3). Blocked shots: Fort Scott 3 (Bingesser 2), Parsons 1 (Cares).