By Joanna Chadwick
It was standing-room only at Friends University on Monday night for the Kapaun vs. Collegiate boys basketball game.
“It reminded me when I was back at Wichita South in the late ’80s and ’90s, when we played Heights and East and Southeast, and the gym would be packed,” Kapaun coach Steve Eck said.
Back then the biggest games were often played at Friends or Wichita State.
Friends hosted Monday’s game, which was a make-up date for the championship of the El Dorado midseason tournament.
Well before the introductions, the stands were packed — and not just with Kapaun and Collegiate fans. There were high school basketball fans, there to see a good game.
And Kapaun and Collegiate did not disappoint, as Kapaun won 79-55.
Rocco Keller scored 22 and Blaise Dalian 20, while Jude Porter had 13 and Cole Rapp 10.
Collegiate’s Sebastian Hines-Turner scored a game-high 23 points, hitting three threes. AJ Batiste scored 15.
With the scored tied at 7-all midway through the first, Kapaun got consecutive three-pointers from DAlian and Keller to start a 14-2 run. By the 2:12 mark of the second quarter, Kapaun led 39-21.
But Hines-Turner had a huge third quarter, scoring 12 points, including a three-point play with 1:11 to go in the period to get within 52-47.
“I was proud of them third quarter — a lot of kids would quit. They battled,” Collegiate coach Nate Schmitt said.
Braylon Jones answered, though, scoring twice in the final 45 seconds, including an and-one, to put Kapaun up 57-47.
Hines-Turner fouled out with 2:53 to go in the game as Kapaun outscored Collegiate 22-7 in the fourth.
“I told the guys, ‘don’t let the stage be too big for you,'” Eck said. “We gathered ourself in the fourth quarter and righted the ship.”
It was a tough first loss for Collegiate, but Schmitt found the positive.
“We’re going to learn from this,” he said. “We’ve been beating everybody. It’s tough to tell a 16-, 17-year old kid we need to get better in this. They’re like, ‘right, coach.’
“Tonight was great for us. It was a win-win for us. I wish we would have won…. We’ll be able to tell them, ‘we need to be more physical, we need to rebound the basketball, we can’t just go one-on-one every time.’ We were telling them those things before, but now they’re going to see it.”
Boys scores
Kapaun 79, Collegiate 55
Moundridge 50, Hesston 49 — Moundridge trailed Hesston 40-35 after three quarters but outscored the Swathers 15-9 in the final period. Heath Churchill scored 17 and Easton Shahan 15 in the win. Unruh led Hesston with 14, Landes had 13 and Humphries 10.
