Despite a spirited fourth quarter rally, the Skyline Middle School boys basketball team had to settle for fourth place in the Heart of the Plains League tournament, which concluded last night at Skyline.
The T-birds fell behind early and trailed Central Christian 24-18 at halftime and 36-19 with 1:30 left in the third.
But in the final 7:30 of the contest, Skyline went on a furious run to get back in the game and put the pressure on the Cougars.
With 1:230 left in the third, Brandon Abbott stepped between two defenders and got a layup.
He scored again with 24 seconds left in the frame, and Brad Dearinger got a layup courtesy of a nice feed from Chris Santana with three seconds left in the third.
That quick spurt made it 36-25 heading into the fourth.
Another basket by Abbott, this one coming off an assist by Blake Lee, made it 36-27 Cougars with 5:50 left in the game.
Central Christian scored five straight points, but the T-birds went back inside to Abbott, who scored three straight of his own to make it 41-29 with 4:02 remaining.
A second-chance basket by Santana cut the lead to nine points with 3:43 left, but the Cougars answered with a bucket at the other end.
Skyline wouldn’t go away that easily, as Santana scored again with 3:19 to play, making it 43-34 Central Christian.
After the Cougars’ Zach Krehbiel scored with 2:56 on the clock, Dearinger kicked it to Ross Westhoff for a three-pointer that cut the lead back to eight with 2:17 left.
The T-birds started fouling with 1:26 left, and at the 1:22 mark, Krehbiel hit one of two and Lee rebounded the miss.
Nine seconds later, Westhoff hit another outside shot to make it a seven-point game.
Skyline immediately fouled again, and Central Christian’s Kyle Patrick missed the front end of the one-and-one. Lee gobbled up the rebound, and with 54 seconds left, Santana buried a three from the corner, pulling Skyline within four points down 46-42.
The T-birds gave another foul, but this time Krehbiel hit both shots for a 48-42 lead with 51.5 seconds to go.
Santana scored on a putback with 40 seconds left, but Krehbiel hit two more free throws with 32.3 on the clock for a 50-44 Cougar lead.
Santana’s next three-pointer was off the mark, but Abbott got the rebound and was fouled on his putback attempt. He got the first shot to fall, but couldn’t coax the second one in, leaving the T-birds down 50-45 with 17 seconds left.
Central Christian’s Cody Moore scored with 11 seconds left for a 52-45 lead, and Abbott’s putback at the buzzer wasn’t quite enough as Skyline came up short 52-47.
The T-birds outrebounded Central Christian 25-20 in the contest and they forced 17 Cougar turnovers.
Skyline had 12 offensive rebounds — ten in the second half — and had seven second-chance points in the fourth quarter alone.
Abbott and Santana provided a strong 1-2 punch for Skyline.
Abbott finished with 16 points, six rebounds and two steals while Santana added 14 points, eight rebounds, two steals and two assists.
The T-birds also got eight points and three assists from Westhoff. Lee chipped in with seven points, five rebounds and three assists.
Dearinger finished with two points, two rebounds, two steals and two assists while Colin Little had a steal and an assist.
The T-birds hit 19 of 47 shots in the contest, a 40 percent clip, and they were six-for-16 (37.5 percent) from three-point range.
Central Christian connected on 19 of 33 field goals (57 percent) and eight of 15 three-pointers (53 percent) during the game.
Abbott, Dearinger, and Santana finished their SMS careers in the contest, while fellow eighth grader Cole Patterson missed the game after suffering a concussion in Monday’s semifinal.
Central Christian 52, Skyline 47
CCS: Zach Krehbiel 3 (3) 6-7 21, Kyle Patrick (3) 0-1 9, Ben Krehbiel 1 (2) 0-0 8, Marc Vilahur 4 0-0 8, Cody Moore 3 0-0 6, Matt Rich 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 11 (8) 6-8 52.
SMS: Brandon Abbott 7 2-4 16, Chris Santana 3 (2) 2-4 14, Ross Westhoff 1 (2) 0-0 8, Blake Lee 2 (1) 0-0 7, Brad Dearinger 1 0-0 2, Colin Little 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 14 (5) 4-8 47.
CC 13 4 12 16 — 52
S 7 11 7 22 — 47
