YATES CENTER — It wasn’t exactly a work of beauty.
But Yates Center High’s boys played “spurty” enough and finished strong Monday to defeat visiting West Elk High 50-37.
The victory comes in the first round of the Class 2A substate playoffs. Yates Center (15-5) advances to the substate semifinals to take on Pittsburg-St. Mary’s Colgan — the state’s top-ranked Class 2A school — which defeated Humboldt 68-32 in the other opening round contest.
The substate semifinals and finals will be played at Sedan High School. The substate champion advances to the state tournament next week in Manhattan.
“We played well in spurts, when we moved the ball well and hit the open guys,” Wildcat head coach Jason Weilert said. “But we tried to do a lot of individual stuff, and when we do that, we aren’t very good.”
The Wildcats broke open a one-point halftime lead with a 9-4 third-quarter run. The Wildcat offense started clicking down the stretch, outscoring West Elk 18-11 to seal the win.
Weilert credited the play of his reserves, because several key players were dealing with illness this week. Freshman Robert Arnold, who played sporadically during the regular season, was on the court all four quarters, Weilert said.
“We had players step up for us,” Weilert said.
Dalton Smith led the way with 15 points, eight rebounds and four steals. Blake Francis scored 14 points — “with some huge three pointers,” Weilert said — and Paul Stockebrand added 11 despite being one of the ailing players.
Ty Roebuck scored 12 and Dalton Signer 11 for the Patriots.
“We have two days to get a few things worked out in practice and get our players healthy and see if we can’t win another one,” Weilert said. “That’s what counts.”
THE TOP-RANKED St. Mary’s Colgan squad took control early against Humboldt raced to the win at the Panthers’ home gymnasium.
Colgan turned on the jets in a 27-4 second-quarter run to lead 41-10 at the break.
“They’re so fast,” Humboldt head coach David Taylor said. “We had trouble keeping up with their transition, and they made it difficult for us once we got into our half-court offense.”
Still, Taylor found several silver linings in the loss.
“The kids played hard and did some good things,” he said. “We did a good job at times of breaking their press.”
Noah Thornbrugh led Humboldt with eight points, five rebounds and two assists. Tanner McNutt added seven points. Derrik McCall had two steals and Trey Johnson also had two assists.
Kelley Thompson’s 15 points led Colgan, followed by Joe Saia and Andy Farmer with 12 points apiece.
“We had some ups and downs this season,” Taylor said. “We had some seniors who had ups and downs, and they stuck it out. I’m proud of them.”
West Elk (5-17-4-9—37) (FG/3-pt): Roebuck 2/2-2-2-12, Miller 0/1-1-5-4, Juiare 0/1-0-3-3, Smith 1-1-2-3, Koch 2-0-2-4, Signer 4/1-0-2-11. TOTALS: 9/5-4-16-37.
Yates Center (10-13-9-18—50) (FG/3-pt): Morrison 2-2-1-6, Knoblock 0-0-5-0, Aguirre 2-0-1-4, Francis 1/4-0-2-14, Stockebrand 4-3-0-11, Smith 6-3-3-15, Arnold 0-0-1-0. TOTALS: 15/4-8-13-50.
Pittsburg Colgan (14-27-19-8—68) (FG/3-pt): Dawson 1/1-0-1-5, C. Smith 1-0-1-2, Farmer 6-0-1-12, Thompson 5/1-2-0-15, Gilbert 1/2-0-1-8, Saia 6-0-2-12, Valdivia 1-0-1-2, Z. Smith 2-1-0-5, Kays 0-1-1-1, Dechant 3-0-0-6. TOTALS: 26/4-4-8-68.
Humboldt (6-4-17-7—32) (FG/3-pt): McNutt 2/1-0-4-7, Whitcomb 2-0-0-4, McCall 1-4-2-6, Wiltse 1-1-1-3, Johnson 2-0-2-4, Nickell 1-0-0-2, Thornbrugh 4-0-1-8. TOTALS: 12/1-5-10-32.
