FORT KEARNY CONFERENCE BASKETBALL
Ansley-Litchfield and Sumner-Eddyville- Miller (S-E-M) met on the hardwood at Kearney High School for the Fort Kearny Conference Tournament’s third place game last Saturday afternoon, and, thanks to some tough defense and a standout performance from Luke Bailey, the Spartans came out on top 47-37.
“I thought we played really good defense,” Ansley- Litchfield Head Coach Matt Drew said following the game. “They ran a totally different offense than they did the first time we played them and I thought we were able to match it and figure things out on the fly.”
That defensive effort resulted in the Mustangs finding the bottom of the net only twice in the opening frame while Bailey was aggressive early on, scoring eleven first-quarter points and helping his team to a comfortable 13-4 advantage.
S-E-M started to find their footing over the course of the following eight minutes as Preston Beattie and Chance Daake poured in five points apiece. After more than doubling their first quarter scoring total, the Mustangs entered the halftime intermission trailing 23-15.
After the break, S-E-M came out of the gate on fire. Beattie and Isaac O’Neill combined to score seven straight points and suddenly Ansley-Litchfield’s lead was cut down to three. The Spartans struggled against the lengthy Mustang defense and after a pair of late foul shots from O’Neill, only two points separated the Spartans and Mustangs going into the final period.
“I’m glad that we weren’t pouting about yesterday,” Drew said of his team’s response following their quarterfinal loss to Elm Creek. “That was a tough loss after being up big in the third quarter and not being able to finish. These kids have resiliency, and I like how hard we played. We have come a long way and we just have to keep getting better.”
Staring in the face of another big lead slipping away from them, Ansley-Litchfield’s leading scorer on the season, Bailey, took over in the fourth frame.
Alongside five points from Owen Cunningham and four from Lane Slocum, Bailey poured in eleven points to help seal the deal on a 20-12 run and the tenpoint victory for the Spartans.
Bailey led all scorers with thirty points, while Cunningham joined him in double figures with eleven. Other Ansley-Litchfield scoring leaders were Slocum with four points and Chayton Jensen with two.
The S-E-M offense was led by O’Neill, who scored ten of his team-best twelve points in the second half. Daake and Beattie finished with nine points apiece and Jayce Boteo came away with four.
