Ark City pulls away from Belle Plaine to take Chaparral Tourney crown; Wellington finishes 6th

January 21, 2018 Cueball

Freshman Eli Wiseman gets a layup in third quarter against Ark City.

by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — The Belle Plaine Dragons could not recover from the liberal substituting of the run-and-gun Ark City Bulldogs and fell to a 74-49 defeat Saturday night in the 2018 Chaparral Roadrunner Classic.

In other Sumner County games, Wellington lost to Chaparral 68-61 for fifth place, and Mulvane would defeat Conway Springs for seventh place. The Chaparral all tournament team, free throw and three-point winners are listed below.

It was a spirited first quarter in which Belle Plaine played Ark City tit-for-tat and trailed just 17-14 at the end of the first quarter. But Ark City would slowly pull away, outscoring the Dragons 17-12 in the second quarter and taking in a 34-26 halftime lead.

Belle Plaine knew it had to recover quickly in the third quarter to keep up with the large 4A, usually 5A, Bulldogs, who have been dismantling opponents by 20-plus points throughout the tournament. Instead, Ark City took advantage of Belle Plaine’s first five fruitless possessions, to expand on its lead to 15.

Caleb Stover with the hoop in first quarter. Belle Plaine held the lead for most of the first quarter.

The Dragons would go on a mini-run, cutting the lead into single digits, but Ark City would expand the lead back up to 17 points with a 54-37 advantage to end the third quarter. Ark City then outscored the Dragon troops 20-8 in the fourth quarter to win by 25.

“I’m really proud of the boys,” said Joe Newman, Belle Plaine head boys basketball coach. “We are going to be a 2A school and Ark City will be playing 5A next year. This was a good test for us tonight.”

Newman said Belle Plaine implemented a triangle-two defense to hold off Ark City sharp shooters Cevin Clark and Jordan Wilson. It worked with those two, but the Bulldogs were finding other ways to score. And the triangle-two is an exhausting defense, Newman said. Belle Plaine would switch back to a more conventional defense in the second quarter.

Ark City, with the use of its bench, would wear down the Dragons. It wasn’t a sudden jolt but a slow progressive pull away.

“I think a little of it was we were just coming off that emotional win against Kingman on Friday,” Newman said. “It just wasn’t the same team from the second quarter on.”

Belle Plaine just the night before played a thriller against Kingman, winning 54-53. Cole Osgood would cash a field goal with just 11.3 seconds left to give the Dragons the lead. Kingman failed to score the winning basket thereafter.

This was Belle Plaine’s third loss during a hectic seven-game stretch since the New Year. The Dragons will get a much-needed bye Tuesday, before playing what should be four winnable games. The next big tango appears to be Trinity on Feb. 13 there.