At last: Cimarron, Holcomb girls get rematch
3/1/2013
By BRETT MARSHALL
bmarshall@gctelegram.com
All basketball season, fans, players, and yes, coaches, have longed for the rematch between the Holcomb Lady Longhorns and the Lady Bluejays of Cimarron with the hope that it would be in the Class 3A sub-state championship game.
That hope is now a reality following Thursday's semifinal games at Southwestern Heights in Kismet, after the Lady Longhorns outran Chaparral's Lady Roadrunners, 63-31, and the Lady Bluejays held off a stubborn Cheney team, 65-54.
Those teams will now battle at 6 p.m. Saturday for the right to travel to Hutchinson next week for the Class 3A state tournament, a place where Holcomb made a 2012 first-round exit after ending Cimarron's season with a 70-46 romp.
Holcomb made five 3-pointers in their rout of Chaparral, two of them by Taylor Deniston en route to a 17-point effort that led the team in scoring.
Holcomb erupted for 24 points in the opening quarter to go up by 12 and then kept things rolling with a 17-7 second-quarter advantage, taking a 41-19 lead. Another 15-7 margin in the third gave them a 56-26 lead.
The Longhorns are now coached by first-year mentor Kenton Tennal, who took over from Kelley Snodgrass, who now coaches at Dodge City. He has said periodically through the season that the goal is to win the next one, then the next one, and eventually get to sub-state and win that one. That now is one game away and standing in front of the 18-4 Longhorns are the 22-0 Bluejays, ranked No. 2 in 3A while Holcomb is now ranked No. 6.
Cimarron had a much tougher road on Thursday night, thanks in part to a third quarter that coach David Ediger called "pretty bad."
"The first half (18-11 and 43-27 leads) wasn't bad, and we played pretty well for the most part," Ediger said Thursday night. "The second half I didn't do a good job of coaching and the girls didn't play very good team or individual defense. We hardly had any fastbreak points."
Ediger said he didn't think his team overlooked Cheney, a team that had a 12-9 record, but that the Bluejays were eager to reach the championship game.
"Trying to keep the kids focused was maybe the toughest part," Ediger said. "It wasn't pretty, but we won and at this time, that's all that counts."
Ediger said it will take a much better performance by his team on Saturday if they want to head to Hutchinson.
"We're gonna have to defend their 3's and rebound well," Ediger said. "We'll have to be efficient on offense. Last year, their shooting was unbelievable. I've never seen anybody shoot 3's the way they did, especially that first half. We can't let that happen if we want to be in the game."
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Chaparral 12 7 7 5 -- 31
Holcomb 24 17 15 7 -- 63
Chaparral (31) — T. Mathes 2 1-2 6, Wescoat 2 0-0 5, Coffey 1 0-2 3, Schrant 2 2-2 6, Ballard 3 0-1 6, McKee 2 1-1 5. Totals 12 4-8 31.
Holcomb (63) — Pfeifer 2 2-2 7, Jarnagin 3 0-0 6, Prieto 3 0-0 6, Heydman 5 1-2 12, Deniston 7 1-1 17, Amos 2 2-2 7, Pena 4 0-0 8. Totals 26 6-7 63.
3-point goals — Chaparral 3 (T. Mathes 1, Wescoat 1, Coffey 1), Holcomb 5 (Deniston 2, Pfeifer 1, Heydman 1, Amos 1). Team fouls — Chaparral 8, Holcomb 12. Technical fouls — none. Fouled out — none.
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Cheney 11 16 20 7 -- 54
Cimarron 18 25 11 11 -- 65
Cheney (54) — Denney 4 5-9 16, Needham 0 2-8 2, Jacobs 2 2-2 8, Holt 3 1-3 7, Dewey 0 2-2 2, Peitz 1 0-0 3, Benson 3 0-0 6, Lampe 4 2-2 10. Totals 17 14-26 54.
Cimarron (65) — Dupree 2 0-0 5, Burns 4 7-8 18, Hoskinson 2 0-0 4, Ediger 6 5-8 20, Koopman 7 4-5 18. Totals 21 16-21 65.
3-point goals — Cheney 6 (Denney 3, Jacobs 2, Peitz 1), Cimarron 7 (Burns 3, Ediger 3, Dupree 1). Team fouls — Cheney 20, Cimarron 19. Technical fouls — Cimarron (coach). Fouled out — none.