The Kansas City Christian boys pulled off an upset Wednesday afternoon, ending Galena’s season with a 44-41 victory in the state quarterfinals.
The Class 3A No. 2 seed Bulldogs (21-3) rallied from a 10-point fourth quarter deficit to take the lead with 1:22 left at the Hutchinson Sports Arena. But a Colton Leet three-pointer bounced off the rim as time expired, giving the No. 7 seed Panthers (18-6) a ticket to the next round.
“I feel like the last four or five games, we’ve really played well,” said Adam Donyes, Kansas City Christian coach. “When you come to Hutch, you can throw the records out the window. We didn’t see this as a seven against a two.”
The Panthers led 36-26 early in the fourth quarter, and held a commanding 38-29 lead before the Bulldogs made their run. Leet hit a runner in the lane and was fouled. He completed the three-point play to make it 38-32. Troy Albright then stole the ball, got to the basket and put back his own miss to cut it to 38-34. When Zach Gougler hit a three pointer with less than three minutes left, the Bulldogs trailed by just one at 38-37.
When the Bulldogs earned a defensive stop, Albright beat his man for a lay-in that gave Galena a 39-38 lead. But on Kansas City Christian’s next possession, the Galena defense lost track of Blake Spencer. Gougler had to foul him to prevent an uncontested lay-up, and, in a 1-and-1 situation, Spencer hit both to lead 40-39 with 53.7 seconds left. Lenard Manuel added a lay-up.
The Bulldogs were stopped on their possession, and, when the Panthers threw up a deep pass off the inbounds, Albright tipped it. But the ball tipped to Garvin Haughey of KCC, who went in for a wide-open lay-up and a three-point lead at 44-41. That was the score when Leet launched his 25-footer.
“Most of the night, we had trouble shooting. We just couldn’t make any shots,” said Matt Meyr, Galena coach. “Some parts of it were just dumb luck.”
The poor shooting was evidenced by the Bulldogs’ 30 percent field goal percentage, and they missed several of what Meyr called “easy shots.” Galena also struggled late from the foul line, hitting just two of 10 in the second half after knocking in 10-12 in the first. The Bulldogs also struggled to keep the taller Panthers off the boards, losing the rebounding battle 34-28.
The Bulldogs seemed the superior team early, forcing the Panthers into fouling because of their superior quickness and taking a 9-4 lead. But Kansas City Christian came back and tied the game at nine a little bit into the second quarter. When Galena pressed and opened the lead back up at 16-9, the Panthers were able to use their superior size and hit the offensive glass to earn an 18-all halftime tie.
The stats told the story for the half — Galena earned 10 of its points via the free throw line, while Kansas City Christian grabbed as many offensive rebounds — six — as the Bulldogs did defensive rebounds.
The Panthers took their first lead on the first bucket in the second half, and after Galena tied it at 25-25, rattled off a 9-1 run to end the quarter. That run was punctuated by a play at the end of the quarter where two Bulldogs ran into each other, leaving a Panther player wide open for a layup just before the buzzer, making the score 34-26. The Panthers pounded the ball inside for much of the run.
“That’s what they were supposed to do from the beginning,” Donyes said. “They responded really well.
“Our last five games were all really close,” Donyes said. “I don’t think they panicked at all.”
The Bulldogs have now been knocked out in the first round of the state tournament in three consecutive years. Galena lost to Rossville last year and Northern Heights in 2008.
The Kansas City Christian will now play Minneapolis (20-4), who defeated Southwestern Heights by a 64-47 score Wednesday.
Kansas City Christian boys 44, Galena 41
KCC 6 12 16 10 — 44
Galena 9 9 8 15 — 41
KANSAS CITY CHRISTIAN (44) — Blake Spencer 4-8 6-7 14, Lenard Manuel 4-8 0-0 8, Garvin Haughey 3-7 0-1 7, Jordan Mehalic 3-9 0-0 6, Graham Shadwick 2-7 0-0 5, Christopher Sojka 1-2 0-0 2, Christian Kirby 1-2 0-0 2. Totals: 18-43 6-8 44.
GALENA (41) — Colton Leet 4-11 9-12 17, Troy Albright 4-10 2-3 10, Zach Gougler 2-4 1-4 7, Jonathan Clark 1-10 304 5, Jacoby Martin 1-5 0-0 2. Totals: 12-40 15-23 41.
HUTCHINSON —
