Sports writer
With 3.9 seconds left on the clock and the score tied, 42-42, Jordan Versch threw an inbound pass Tuesday night that landed in the hands of Riley County’s Bryce Chavez as the Marion High School Warriors competed in the Trojan Classic Tournament in Hillsboro.
Chavez took a few dribbles to get into the lane and lofted a looping teardrop runner that fell through to give the Falcons the lead for the first time in the fourth quarter and win the game 44-42.
It was Chavez’s only shot of the game.
The Warriors seemed to have hold of the momentum at the end of the third quarter.
Wil Case hit a buzzer-beating three at the end of the third quarter from NBA-range to tie the game for the Warriors.
The Warriors took their first lead early in the fourth quarter since starting the game at 2-0. The two teams traded baskets throughout the fourth quarter with the Warriors maintaining a slight advantage throughout the period.
Case hit a turnaround lay-in to give the Warriors the lead near the end of the fourth quarter at 42-40, but Falcon guard Kyle Cromwell quickly scored a basket of his own with 3.9 seconds left.
The Warriors had a good scoring night with 10 points from Case, Isaac Hett with 13 points, and Eric Vogel with 12 points in a losing effort.
The Warriors will play at 4:45 p.m. Thursday against Hillsboro.
Warriors win 66-50
over Hoisington
Isaac Hett was in the zone.
It wasn’t of the “Twilight” or “Danger” variety, but the mystical basketball state where seemingly all of the shots fall through the rim with precision.
Hett experienced the closest thing to basketball Nirvana Friday against Hoisington. He scored 27 points on 13-of-21 shooting.
“Right when we came out of the locker room,” Hett said he knew he was feeling it. “It’s senior year homecoming. All the seniors were pumped up for this game.”
He started out by pouring in 15-foot jump shots from both sides of the basket in the first quarter. On fast breaks — the Warriors used 19 Cardinal turnovers to start a lot of them — Hett would stop on a dime to hoist another midrange jump shot.
“He was aggressive,” Marion head coach Jeff McMillin said of Hett. “He played like he does in practice.”
In the second half, Hett decided that he wanted to get to the basket. He was able to get layups, although at least one Cardinal usually contested them, by curling around screens and on numerous Warrior fast breaks.
Hett had such a Midas touch working that even on his misses the Warriors would end up with points. Eric Vogel was the recipient of a few Hett misses, as part of Vogel’s 10 offensive rebounds, which inevitably ended up as easy layups.
Two plays in the second half really defined Hett’s night.
On a fast break, Hett drew two defenders on the side of the basket near the MHS student section. Hett quickly fired a pass across the lane to Wil Case for an uncontested layup.
On another fast break, Hett drew two more Cardinal defenders, but with no Warriors around, he pump faked and the two Hoisington players jumped out of their shoes to try to block the shot. Hett calmly ducked underneath the leaping Cardinals and scored the layup.
“Everybody has those nights where everything goes in,” Hett said.
Hett also noted that this was the first game that Case, Vogel, and himself all had quality scoring nights in the same game. Vogel ended the game with a double-double — 12 points and 12 rebounds — and Case scored 16 points. The Warriors won the game, 66-50, in their largest margin of victory since their first game of the season.
“We were moving and we were looking for each other,” McMillin said. “We passed the ball really well tonight.”
Jordan Hett was the leading Warrior distributor with five assists and only one turnover.
“He takes a lot of the burden like that,” McMillin said of Jordan Hett, “handling the pressure.”