Cy-Springs Coach John Harmatuk
Langham Creek Coach Charles Ament
Lobos convert free throws down the stretch to stay unbeaten in district play
Reggie Simmons converted two free throws with 14.86 seconds to go helped the Langham Creek Lobos hold off a furious rally while downing district rival Cy-Springs 65-62 Friday night at Langham Creek High School.
Though the Lobos led most of the game, it all came down to the fourth quarter to no one’s surprise. The two schools have been instant rivals since Cy-Springs have been in existence.
Langham Creek (18-9, 6-0), down by four early, knotted the game at nine on Eric Johnson’s layup, Ryan Patrick scored a quick basket off an inbound steal and went ahead 12-9 on Patrick’s 3-pointer from the right baseline.
Cy-Springs Marquel McKinney closed the gap to one, 12-11 after shooting free throws for the third time early in the game, knocking down two charity shots. Right after, the Lobos ran off five straight points when Patrick was good on his second trey followed by a low post score from Quinn Taylor to go up 17-11. But the play of the half came when McKinney worked his way inside and surprised the Lobos with a monster dunk in traffic.
Langham Creek’s Patrick finished the first quarter in double figures (10 points) as they held a 19-14 advantage.
Shortly after the second quarter started Cy-Springs trailed by seven, 21-14 but the deficit increase when Patrick kept his shooting alive connecting on another 3-pointer to lead 26-17.
For most of the second quarter the Lobos kept Cy-Springs off balance with the inside, outside game clicking on all cylinders. It enable them to build a 35-24 halftime lead.
“It’s too bad we stunk the first half. I knew it was going to be a battle, Coach Ament knew it was going to be a battle no matter what the records are in this game, it’s a rivalry game and always seems to finish really strong like it did,” said John Harmatuk Cy-Springs Coach. We just got to come out playing better at the start. That’s two games in a roll that we lost to the two teams in our district that are undefeated by one basket but both of those games we didn’t play a half. If we can put two half’s together, I think we can get back on track.
The Lobos didn’t let up in the third quarter as they led by as many as 13 points, 44-31 before closing it out, up 50-40.
Junior Guard Ryan Patrick led Langham Creek with 17 points and Marquel McKinney paced Cy-Springs with 23 in defeat.
The Lobos looked as if they would run away with an easy victory, enjoying a 13 point lead midways through the fourth quarter, 55-42. But Cy-Springs begin to chip away at the lead to get back in the game.
The game became a tug of war for the last five minutes.
Cy-Springs (13-13,3-3) got it started with a trey from the right side to cut the lead to ten, 55-45, Sophomore Quame’ Edwards could have cut the lead to eight but fail to convert an open layup. Japhet Davis-Sophus hit a jumper in paint, then McKinney heated up stroking a trey and knocked down one of two free three after being fouled to complete a 9-0 run while closing the gap, 55-51.
More opportunities were missed when Richard Benedyth was whistled for a charge and a missed shot under the basket by Sophus.
Johnson made the best of two free throws to stopped the bleeding for the Lobos, 57-51 with 2:23 to go. Benedyth was back, this time scoring on a layup while drawing a foul and completing the three point play the old fashion way to move the Panthers closer,57-54.
As the final seconds the game wound down Cy-Springs drew as close as 62-60 but could never come up with that one big shot to tie or take the lead. They foul to stop the clock in efforts to slow the Lobos but to no avail.
