Tag: East Newton Patriots basketball

GRANBY, Mo. — Sadly, all good things must come to an end, as East Newton boys basketball found out on Friday.

The Patriots’ memorable season drew to a close after falling to Blair Oaks 44-40 in the Class 4 quarterfinal round.

East Newton and Blair Oaks took a 34-34 tie into the fourth quarter when the Falcons gained the early edge with the first two baskets before the Patriots answered with four straight points to keep things tied midway through the period. 

Blair Oak’s Jake Closser knocked down a corner 3-pointer to break the tie with less than three minutes to play before East Newton’s Gabe Bergen found room inside for a score to cut the lead to 41-40 with two minutes to play.

Quinn Kusgen converted both free throws for the Falcons with 54.8 seconds left to push the lead to 43-40. The Patriots missed a 3-point attempt at the other end, but Blair Oaks missed the front end of a one-and-one trip to the line after the ensuing foul to keep the deficit at 3.

East Newton was unable to convert on the offensive end in the waning seconds and were forced to foul Closser with two seconds left. Closser made his first free throw to put the game out of reach while sending his team to the semifinal round for the second straight season.

“I thought we played with a lot of heart and a lot of guts,” East Newton coach Kyle Fields said. “We played fearless against (a team with a kid who is) 6-9, and I thought we played extremely tough, especially in the first half. You have to make shots late. I thought we had some live-ball turnovers that really hurt us and gave them some chances for baskets. But, I am proud of them.”

A SEASON TO REMEMBER

East Newton ends the season with a 26-3 record, making the school’s first ever appearance in the Class 4 quarterfinal round.

“It’s special,” Fields said when asked his thoughts on the season his team put together. “This is a special group of kids. They’re extremely intelligent, they love one another and they love to come to practice everyday to work. We had our 70th practice the other day and they’re not tired of it. It’s been a lot of fun. The wins are icing. They are the results of all of that.”

SAYING GOODBYE

The Patriots graduate seniors Kyson Lahman, Tanner Youngblood, Connor Killion and Lucas Kimbrough.

“They’ve been playing this game together for a long time and it shows on the court,” Fields said of his graduating class. “The nuances and details of the game are what they’re really good at. That is really hard to teach. That speaks a lot to them and their work, and I think that’s why we’ve had the success we’ve had.”

HOW THEY GOT THERE

East Newton got the raucous, standing-room home crowd involved early after Kimbrough scored in the opening seconds on a runout following the tip from Killion. After an empty possession by Blair Oaks, the Patriots went up 5-0 off a 3-pointer in the corner by Lahman, forcing the Falcons to call the game’s first timeout inside the first minute of play.

“It was great execution against 6-9 on the tip by Killion,” Fields said when talking about his team’s start to the game that ignited the crowd. “What a controlled tip it was, and a good pass. Then, Lahman hitting that 3—it gave us the confidence that we can play, we belong and we can hit some shots tonight.”

The Patriots took that five-point cushion all the way through to the intermission, leading the Falcons 28-23 at the half. Blair Oaks trimmed the lead to one several times but never gained the advantage on the scoreboard through the first two quarters. East Newton’s biggest lead of the first half was eight points—when Killion buried a 3-ball from the wing to make the score 28-20 with 1:42 to play in the second period.

“Our defense is our constant,” Fields said about his team’s play in the first half. “That is our foundation and we lean on that just like we did against Ava. We just didn’t make enough shots late.”

The game’s only real momentum swing came to open the second half when Blair Oaks scored the first six points out of the gate to take its first lead of the game. After two free throws by the Falcons, 6-foot-9 forward Luke Northweather scored inside to trim the lead to one before Kusgen made a floater with 3:18 on the clock to put Blair Oaks up 29-28.

“I thought our offensive execution was really poor,” Fields said of the Patriots’ start to the second half. “We were trying to be patient and look for something we could take advantage of. We ended up turning it over and they got a runout and some easy baskets. It just wasn’t very good execution to start.”

Kelton Sorrell answered with a 3-pointer from the corner to give East Newton the lead back, 31-29, but Closser drained a triple on the next trip down the floor to regain the advantage for Blair Oaks with 2:15 left. Closser added a followup score on the drive to make the score 34-31.

Killion set up a thrilling fourth quarter after banking in a deep 3-pointer from just in front of the halfcourt line at the buzzer to end the third period with the game tied at 34-all.

“He’s been good for us all year,” Fields said of his senior. “He releases the ball so high being a 6-5 guard. He’s good in ball screens and we just tell him that it doesn’t matter where he’s at on the court, let it fly. He has great range and hit some big shots for us tonight.”

SCORING LEADERS

Killion led the way for East Newton with 15 points, including three 3-pointers. Sorrell added 10, while Bergen finished with eight.

Northweather led all scorers with 17 points, while Kusgen had 13. Closser also finished in double digits with 12. 

AVA, Mo. — East Newton boys basketball is known for its ability to put up points in bunches on the offensive end. On Tuesday, however, it was the team’s defense that led the Patriots to a 36-34 win over Ava in the Class 4 sectionals.

“We score it well most nights,” East Newton coach Kyle Fields said to SoMo Sports. “We know that our defense has to be our constant, and it was definitely our constant tonight. There’s going to be nights when the ball is not going in the hoop and shots are tough to come by. Possessions get decreased. I thought our defense was really good tonight and I am really proud of our kids.”

The win for East Newton clinches the first berth to the quarterfinal round in school history.

“It means a lot to our kids, and they’ve worked so hard to get to this point,” Fields said. “They’ve played a lot of basketball in and before their high school career. It’s a tight-knit group that plays a lot together. They are very deserving.”

The Patriots have a school-record 26 wins to go along with two losses and will be hosting Blair Oaks for a trip to the semifinals with a 6 p.m. matchup on Friday. Blair Oaks defeated Buffalo 69-46.

“I feel its huge,” Fields said about hosting the quarterfinal round. “(The crowd) is kind of like our sixth man. We’ve played well (at home) all year. We’ve got a great community, great support and it will be a lot of fun. It will be a packed house, and hopefully it’s worth a few possessions.”

GAME ACTION

After two-plus scoreless minutes to start the contest, East Newton reached the scoreboard first on a bucket from Lucas Kimbrough, who finished with a team-high 12 points. The Bears (23-6) took the early momentum after Andrew Dalton scored the next seven points, including a 3-pointer, to give Ava a 7-2 advantage with 3:31 to play.

Following Dalton’s early success, particularly on the inside, the Patriots switched to a zone defense, which proved to pay off for the remainder of the game. Dalton had all nine of the Bears’ points in the first, but East Newton limited him to nine more points total in the final three quarters to finish with 18.

“We’ve worked on that (1-3-1 zone defense) sparingly throughout the year,” Fields said. “Going into the game, we thought we would try to play man and see how it went. (Dalton) is such a good player, though. He finds ways to getting to his spots — he is so good at going to his left — and getting to the foul line. We didn’t do a very good job in man early on him. So, we went to the zone and found success keeping the ball out of his hands and keeping him out of his sweet spots.”

East Newton scored the final two baskets of the opening period on hoops from Kimbrough and Tanner Youngblood, who totaled seven points in the win, to trim the deficit to 9-8. Kyson Lahman knocked down two free throws inside the first minute of the second period to give the Patriots their first lead since scoring the first basket of the game, 10-9.

Blayne Mendel converted from the perimeter and Ethan Donley added a score inside to regain the lead for Ava on the way to a 14-10 advantage.

East Newton battled back to regain the lead with less than a minute to play in the first half with an offensive rebound and putback score by Connor Killion and a 3-pointer from the corner by Youngblood gave the Patriots a 18-16 cushion. Mendel converted inside just before the horn to send the game into the half tied at 18s.

“We found some success with the 1-3-1 defensively,” Fields said. “They scored a bucket right before half to tie it up, but I thought we really struggled (in the first half). I think maybe we played a little tight early. I just said we needed to stay the course. Shots were going to start falling and we’re going to continue to get good shots. We just had to find ways to get to the foul line and continue to get stops.”

After both teams traded baskets to open the second half, Killion earned a block on the defensive end and splashed a catch-and-shoot 3-ball on the offensive end to give East Newton a 23-20 lead with 4:50 on the clock. Killion finished with seven points for East Newton.

The Patriots pushed the lead to five, 27-22, late in the third quarter on the back of another strong defensive play when Lahman knocked an entry pass loose for a steal before grabbing his own miss at the other end for a putback score.

“I thought we had some big defensive plays late,” Fields said. “We played really intelligent basketball defensively. … When you get up two possessions in a game like that, it almost feels like a double-digit lead.”

East Newton went into the fourth with a four-point lead and pushed it to a game-high six points, 29-23, to open the quarter on a mid-range jumper from Lahman. He finished with six points in the win.

Bryse Dodson answered back for Ava, scoring two straight baskets to cut the lead to 29-27 with 5:10 left.

Both teams equally traded buckets over the next five minutes of game action, with the Bears cutting the deficit to two before the Patriots pushed it back to four with each score. 

Ava broke the seesaw affair when Quinton Donley buried a 3-pointer from the wing with 41.2 seconds left in regulation to trim the lead to one, 35-34.

The Bears had a chance to take the lead but Mendel missed a long mid-range jumper off a ball screen, with Killion coming away with the defensive rebound, drawing a foul with 2.8 seconds.

Killion made the first and missed the second with the rebound going to Ava. The ensuing halfcourt heave from Dalton at the horn came up short to preserve the win for East Newton, which was also the first home loss of the season for the Bears.

“This year, we’ve had to win games in a lot of different ways,” Fields said. “It’s about just fighting and finding a way. Maybe it’s getting a loose ball here, a deflection there or a couple of free throws. Who knows? I thought we just found a way to win. I am really proud of our group and it is all about just being who we are.”