Pittsburg boys win in overtime against Coffeyville, 81-74

The Pittsburg boys scored the first eight points of overtime en route to a 81-74 Southeast Kansas League win over Coffeyville Tuesday night.

“I think our guys arose to the challenge and took it head on,” Pittsburg head coach Kiley Roelfs said. “That’s what we talked about after regulation, ‘We’re being tested right now and how are we going to react to it?’ The way we needed to react to it was toughness and I thought our guys went out there and played with toughness. We went out there and made our breaks. We didn’t wait around for it to happen. We were the aggressors.”

Earlier on, senior guard Jornell Fondren gave Pittsburg a 19-17 lead at the end of the first quarter, as he tipped in a missed shot, drew a personal foul and made his free throw for an old-fashioned three-point play.

Over a stretch of the second quarter, Fondren scored nine consecutive Pittsburg points — highlighted by three straight layups and three straight passes from senior guard Dillon O’Dell. His third layup gave Pittsburg a 30-21 lead, but Coffeyville made it 36-30 at halftime and played a back-and-forth second half that resulted in a 67-67 score at the end of regulation.

“Give Coffeyville a lot of credit,” Roelfs said. “They’re one heck of a basketball team and they can make you do a lot of things you’re not used to doing. You can’t simulate it in practice because of the quickness and the way they play. They can get you playing a 100 different ways in a small amount of time.

“That definitely happened there in stretches of the second half, but I was pleased that our guys never really let it get to them. They made their runs, but we never let it get to us and frustrate us. We hung in there and we were able to find a way to get it done.”

Pittsburg functioned at its best attacking the rim — on the drive, in transition and on follow shots.

“We talked about that coming into the game,” Roelfs said. “Against them, you have to really attack the rim. If you start settling for things and you get passive, that’s when their ballhawking and the way they play can get you in trouble. When you get passive against them, that’s when they’ll shoot a bunch of layups.”

Fondren led Pittsburg with 17 points, followed by FeDor Lomax and O’Dell in double figures with 15 and 13 points, respectively.

Coffeyville sophomore guard James Newton led all scorers with 30 points, including four points from two first-quarter slam dunks off Pittsburg turnovers. Newton scored 11 of his points in the first quarter.

Pittsburg won the JV boys game 64-55 behind 21 from Drew Lyons and the freshmen won 62-58 with 19 from Micah Hashman and 16 from Shane Moore.

Pittsburg improves to 9-6 overall and 2-1 in the SEK. Coffeyville drops to 11-5 and 2-2 in league play.

Pittsburg girls 46, Coffeyville 29

The Purple Dragons attacked the interior defense of the Coffeyville Golden Tornado on Tuesday over and over again early on courtesy the drive, transition opportunities, offensive rebounding and sharp entry passes, building a 16-6 lead after one quarter and 31-8 halftime lead en route to a 46-29 win.

“We were just trying to take what’s open,” Pittsburg head coach Kim Peterson said. “We knew that the back side might be open a little bit. We knew that our posts could hold their seals well, so if we could get them the ball inside, that’s what we wanted to do. Everybody was involved. We had good offense out of our posts, our guards, everybody. We were taking what they were giving us and we had some good looks.”

Junior forward Lizzy Willis scored 10 first-quarter points on a series of steals and scores and short-range shots. Mariah Forrest added four points on a basket and two free throws.

In the second quarter, Pittsburg extended its lead with a pair of 3-point shots from guards Mackenzie Spresser and Mercedes Vogel. Freshman guard Katy Short came off the bench and scored the last four points of the first half. The Purple Dragons held the Golden Tornado to only two points in the quarter and forced 13 first-half turnovers.

“That was definitely big for us,” Peterson said. “In the first half, we were playing really good defense and tipping a lot of balls. That allowed us to run and get out and get some easy buckets.”

Willis' third steal and score of the game made it 35-8 early in the second half, but Coffeyville outscored Pittsburg 21-11 the rest of the game. Pittsburg reverted back to its bad habits from last season and its three losses this season — turnovers and defensive lapses.

“We had way too many turnovers in the second half,” Peterson said. “We had five in the first half and then 11 or 12 in the second half. That obviously allowed to Coffeyville to get back into the game somewhat. We talked about how we can’t have a drop-off like that . . . fortunately, we had built up enough of a lead this game that it didn’t hurt us in the end, but we can’t continue to have drop-offs like (Tuesday night).”

However, two free throws by Forrest, a steal and score by Skyler Muff and a mid-range jumper by Willis extended the lead to 46-27 after Coffeyville had it down to 40-27.

Willis scored 15 points to lead all scorers. Forrest added nine, five on free throws, and Muff had eight points.
Sophomore slasher Devin Cosper led Coffeyville with 13 points, 11 after halftime as Pittsburg committed 12 second-half turnovers, which created several transition opportunities for Cosper and the Golden Tornado.

The JV girls beat Coffeyville 31-8, with eight points from Bethanne Elliott and seven from Jordan Dee.
Pittsburg (12-3, 2-1 SEK) hosts Chanute Friday night on Homecoming.

Pittsburg girls 46, Coffeyville 29
FKHS     6    2  9  12 — 29
PHS    16 15  7  8  — 46
COFFEYVILLE (29) — Devin Cosper 5 3-4 13, Kelsi Graham 1 3-4 6, Abbie Herkelman 2 0-0 4, Bailey Braschler 2 0-0 4, Alexus Johnson 1 0-0 2. Totals: 11 6-8 29.
PITTSBURG (46) — Lizzy Willis 7 1-1 15, Mariah Forrest 2 5-6 9, Skyler Muff 4 0-0 8, Mercedes Vogel 2 0-0 5, Katy Short 2 0-0 4, Mackenzie Spresser 1 0-0 3, Brianna Maxwell 0 2-4 2, Jordan Dee 0 0-2 0. Totals: 18 8-11 46.
Turnovers — Coffeyville 19, Pittsburg 17.

Pittsburg boys 81, Coffeyville 74 (OT)
FKHS    17  13  16  21  7  — 74
PHS    19  17  11  20 14 — 81
COFFEYVILLE (74) — James Newton 11 8-9 30, DeMarkco Carr 5 1-2 11, Devin Knight 2 3-4 7, Josh Mitchell 3 0-0 6, Nash Nelson 2 2-2 6, Jeromy Marshall 2 2-2 6, Darren Lewis 2 0-0 5, James Jones 0 1-2 1. Totals: 27 17-21 74.
PITTSBURG (81) — Jornell Fondren 8 3-4 19, FeDor Lomax 6 3-3 15, Dillon O’Dell 5 3-4 13, Joe Wimmer 3 3-4 9, Jalen King 3 2-4 8, Tanner Ellis 3 1-2 8, Stefon Rich 3 1-3 7, Dylan Gromer 1 0-2 2. Totals: 32 16-26 81.
Turnovers — Coffeyville 9, Pittsburg 19.