Wellington senior Landyn Glenn in his final game vs. Hugoton.

By Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — The Wellington boys basketball team took a 250-mile trip to Hugoton. It came home with a 73-39 loss to a team that intends to repeat as Class 4A state champions.

The Eagles dominated from the onset en route to a sub-state championship. Hugoton’s old-style rafter gymnasium was packed and raucous. The Crusaders, who were playing in their second consecutive sub-state championship game, probably weren’t going to get that upset, no matter how well they played. The Eagles were not to be denied.

Trey O’Neil is the head coach at Hugoton. He got his start in Wellington – like his life start. His father, Glenn O’Neil, was the head Wellington boys basketball coach for one season in 1995-96. Trey was 1 at the time. His father went on to win five state championships at Scott City and transcended sports. He is now a high school football coach at Dodge City.

Brody Weir gets a taste of how tough Hugoton is inside.

The Hugoton game was not unlike the Wellington girls’ sub-state match the night before. It wasn’t so much a contest as it was a coronation.

Wellington actually played with Hugoton in the early going. The Crusaders went toe-to-toe with the Eagles – trailing 9-6 at the 3:22 mark in the first quarter. Then Eagle senior Desean Lewis, who scored 22 points for the game, nailed a 3-pointer from the left wing,

It was all over.

Hugoton led 16-8 at the end of the first quarter, and it was just getting started. It cranked out its full-court pressure defense in the second, and Wellington could barely get off a shot on the other end. Suddenly, this game was 27-8. It was 31-16 at the half.

If Wellington was going to try to get back in the game with halftime adjustments, Hugoton quickly disposed of that notion on the first possession. It opened the second half with an alley-oop lay-up. The defense then created five consecutive turnovers and the Crusaders were eventually down 55-23.

Nolan Russell gets sandwiched between Hugoton defenders.

It never got any better for the Crusaders with the Hugoton student body on courtside having themselves a party in the waning minutes.

Wellington ends the season at 13-9. The Crusaders secured a Cheney Tournament championship and had a sub-state victory over Mulvane. Wellington loses Nolan Russell, Morice Ayers and Landyn Gleen as seniors. But this team appears to have a good nucleus for the next season.

Wellington head coach Joe Newman had this to say of the season:

First off, I’d like to recognize our three seniors. Morice Ayers, Landyn Glenn, and Nolan Russell. Their hard work and leadership was instrumental to our team’s success this season and they will be missed.

Hugoton only lost two seniors from last year’s state title team and had eight seniors on their roster. They have all the pieces to repeat. We knew coming into this matchup we had to play a near perfect game. Unfortunately, they were too much for us.

Looking back on this season I am proud of what this group accomplished. Getting 13 wins with our schedule is no easy task. Some of our most notable wins were over Andale, Cheney, Pratt, Augusta, and Mulvane. We have a lot of key players coming back and some young talent coming up. The potential is there. We will keep working to come back stronger next year.

Hugoton 73 Wellington 39
Wellington –   8   8  14   9 — 39
Hugoton – 16 19 28 10 — 73
Wellington: Russell 13, Bannister 11, Ayers 6, Weir 6, Glenn 2, Braram 1. Total: 12 3 6-14 39. Hugoton: D. Lewis 22, Izeyah Harris 16, Griffin Heger 14, Emmett Gaskill 10, Jay Acosta 5, Miguel Hernandez 3, Isaac Martin 2, Julian Delgado 2. Total: 20 (9) 5-8 73.

The full stats can be found here: hugoton

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