Koch scores 36 points in MVHS boys win against Piper

Angelique McNaughton

December 10, 2013

Sophomore Logan Koch made two clutch shots in the final 17 seconds of the second half, including a guarded three pointer with 6.5 seconds left in regulation, to send Mill Valley Hill into overtime and eventually past Piper High 79-77 on Friday.

Koch scored 25 of his 36 points in the second half and overtime to lead the Jaguars (1-0) to their first Kaw Valley League victory of the season. Drew Boatwright added 22 points, and Nick Friesner had 11, including an important basket in overtime to put the Jaguars ahead 78-77 with 3.5 seconds left.

“Wow,” Friesner said. “I think that was one of the best finishes I think I’ve ever seen at Mill Valley.

“Our student section really pushed us through the third and fourth quarters and we fed off of their energy,” he said.

The game stayed close throughout, with more than a dozen lead changes. The Jaguars and Pirates traded basket for basket in the first quarter, before Piper started to pad a lead in the second quarter when the Jaguars couldn’t get a shot to fall and were outrebounded.

“I thought we were looking for our shot to go down too quickly and then we would play defense for longer than we made them play defense,” MVHS coach Justin Bogart said. “We got critical rebounds when we needed to, but Piper really hurt us on the boards.”

The Jaguars went into the third quarter down eight, a lead they reduced to two at the end of the quarter following a Boatwright three pointer.

Boatwright opened the fourth quarter with an explosive three, to put the Jaguars ahead 47-46, before adding another two points off of a steal.

The Jaguars looked like a different team in the final period and were offensively and defensively more organized.

“After one of the timeouts, we told them to trust what we do and trust our preparation,” Bogart said. “We tried to put them in as many difficult situations as possible in practice and we just have to trust our stuff.

“We just reminded them of critical points on defense and that every rebound is a battle that we have to win,” he said.

Both the final minutes of regulation and overtime were wild, with each coming down to the last 15 seconds of play.

“It was a hard fought game and Logan definitely kept us in it,” Boatwright said. “We also had some younger players who stepped up and scored some baskets when we needed them to.”

Both Mill Valley and Piper students remained on their feet for the entirety of the game, vying for loudest student section, before Mill Valley students stormed the court following the win.

“I was just happy to see us overcome a little adversity and get ourselves a win in the first game of the season,” Bogart said. “We had a number of a players make a lot of significant contributions, but ultimately we had a real shift in the fourth quarter and we began to play more together than we had.”

Inexperienced Lady Jaguars commit 31 turnovers in loss

Carly Eaton has taken the helm this season for the lady Jaguars but was unable to compensate for the inexperience of her teammates in Friday’s 46-37 loss to Piper.

Although the Jaguars outrebounded Piper 32-16 — Catie Kaifes had 5 rebounds for the Jaguars — they committed 31 turnovers.

“We are very young in terms of varsity experience and we’ve been talking about taking care of the ball,“ MVHS coach John McFall said. “We were extremely sloppy and had way too many turnovers.

“We showed some toughness and we hung tough, but it seemed like every time we battled back and we would get it even, we turned it over,” he said.

The Jaguars went on an 8-0 run in the second quarter to take a 16-6 lead before the Pirates completely took over and ended the half on an 18-0 run.

“We couldn’t get it back and I think we got ahead and then got one stop and then we went three straight possessions where we didn’t even get the ball to half court,” McFall said.

While the Pirates never trailed in the second half, they led only 27-26 with four minutes remaining in the third quarter. But the Jaguars couldn’t grab a lead.

“You’ve got to give Piper credit because they were relentless on defense,” McFall said.

Eaton had 15 points and Kyle Lewis added seven. Both Whitney Hazlett and Savannah Rudicel scored five points apiece.

Freshman Courtney Carlson made her varsity debut at guard for the Jaguars but couldn’t seem to find her rhythm.

“As a freshman, she played like a freshman,” McFall said. “She has been much better than that in practice and she made a couple of mistakes that affected her.

“But it wasn’t just Courtney, it was player after player,” he said.

Carlson’s role this season, as most of the Lady Jaguars’ roles, is something that’s in the process of being worked out, McFall said. The Jaguars graduated all five starters from the 2012-2013 season.

“Right now, we just need to take care of us more than anything,” McFall said.

Thunder boys want to play best basketball in March

Angelique McNaughton

November 25, 2013

Run, run, run.

That’s going to be the focus of practice for the St. James Academy boy’s basketball team as it takes the court during the next couple of weeks in anticipation of the season opener Dec. 6 against Ottawa High.

“It’s going to be coming really fast and one of the biggest hurdles is going to be conditioning,” Thunder head basketball coach Stan Dohm said. “You only have 17 days to get them into basketball condition and then the games peck off pretty quick after that.”

Fresh off of losing in the final minutes of the first round of the 5A regional tournament last season, the Thunder are returning four of their top 10 players to a team that has the hopes of making the school’s first state appearance.

After graduating its starting five seniors, the Thunder will be anchored by those four players, two of which regularly saw playing time: Nick Frank, Dylan and Colin McKee, and Pete Feiden. Colin McKee and Feiden’s roles will be limited early in the season while both recover from injuries.

One of Dohm’s realizations at this point is that some younger players will have to play some extended minutes on varsity in order to fill the void.

The lack of depth early on will determine how fast of a game the Thunder, who went 13-8 last season, can run.

“Everybody likes to play a fast paced game and we will try to play as fast as we can,” he said. “But early on, we will be able to determine if some of our younger kids will be able to handle some of the physicality of the varsity games.”

With at least five players 6-foot-2 or taller, Dohm is going to have some flexibility with what he can do on the court.

Senior Jimmy Dekraai will likely see more minutes this season, and Mitchell Zubradt will fill in as a hybrid four-man, he said.

The eight-week contact period during the summer gave his players the chance to get acclimated to their new roles and the Thunder probably “won half and lost half” of their games during summer basketball, he said.

Healthy, returning senior starting guards Dylan McKee and Frank are encouraged with the prospect of leading their team in a potentially historic season.

“We run well and we are a really smart team,” Frank said. “We definitely think we can use that and carry on to the state tournament.”

Dylan said the state championship is a “huge thing” and that just going to state would be a “fantastic goal” to reach.

“We are looking really good and we have seven seniors,” Dylan said. “We’ve played with each other for a while and I think we will be successful.”

How a player gauges success can differ from how a coach does, but ultimately Dohm wants the same thing as his seniors.

“We talk about goals and how many wins we want, but our biggest goal is to play our best basketball in March.” Dohm said.

“A successful year for me as a coach is to be playing our best basketball at the end to give us the chance to win those two games in sub-state to get to Topeka. Whether that is good enough, we want our best game to be our last game.”

The way to achieve all that, he said, is by getting better everyday, starting with Ottawa.

“You’ve got to look at the next day and the next game — those are the most important,” Dohm said.

MVHS boys have new look after losing seven from a season ago

Angelique McNaughton

November 25, 2013

The players who were a part of Mill Valley High’s boys basketball program for the past four seasons will be remembered fondly, but it’s not about them anymore head coach Justin Bogart said.

“It’s about these (seniors) guys now,” Bogart said. “And the guys who are juniors, sophomores and freshmen.”

This year’s five seniors — Ben Carroll, Nick Friesner, Davis Cantwell, Wyatt Voorhes and Drew Boatwright — will join fellow letter-winner, sophomore point guard and returning starter Logan Koch, who is currently recovering from a concussion, in leading the Jaguars this season. Bogart said Clayton Holberg can also be expected to put in some minutes off of the bench.

“A couple of other guys, just by who we are, will have to step up and give us some more,“ Bogart said. “What I’ve seen in practice is that they are up to the challenge and I think they look forward to leaving their own mark on our program.”

The somewhat young team that graduated six seniors and lost junior-to-be Pat Muldoon, who transferred to Kaw Valley League foe Basehor-Linwood High, will be following an impressive 2012-13 season, that included a third place finish in the 5A state tournament, and a 20-4 record.

“It was a good season overall, but we are looking to do better than what we did last year,” said Voorhes, who transferred from Bishop Miege High as a junior and averaged around 13 points as a combo-guard. “I think we are fast this year and people can just expect the same exciting, fun, energetic games that we had last year.”

With the loss of their starting lineup, though, the Jaguars’ play will reasonably look different as they adapt to their new roles.

“I think with who we are, we can play a little different style than we did last year to create some real problems for people in the full-court offensively and defensively,” Bogart said.

“We’re going to be jam packed with some new looks and if you got a bunch of guys who are six-feet tall and can move pretty well, you’re looking at some full-court pressure and some things on defense that we haven’t broken out in a year or two.”

The Jaguars’ season opens Dec. 6 at home against Piper and then a tough Kaw Valley League schedule follows. But also a strong out-of-league schedule that will include Raytown South (Mo.), Gardner-Edgerton and Olathe Northwest.

“I would like to win a KVL Championship because we haven’t had one of those in a couple of years and also (win) the tournament that we play in at Coffeyville,” said Friesner, referring to the mid-season tournament that the Jaguars are the defending champions.

But until then, it’s going to be a “long two weeks” of practice, Friesner said.

“We are going to be playing against each other everyday and getting really annoyed with it,“ he said. “But it will just get us excited and pumped up for our first game.“

Which is the only game that’s on Bogart’s mind.

“That is the one that is on my mind and just like football, we want to be 1-0,” he said. “But we do believe in getting better every day and if we worry about ways to win and which means getting better every day, then we don’t have to worry about wins and losses because those things will take care of themselves.”