By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
The wins don't have to be pretty this time of the year. The madness got underway a few days early as the Great Bend boys played host to a Bishop Carroll team with just seven wins on the season in Tuesday's Class 5A playoff opener at Great Bend High School. Sophomores Daxton Minton and Ian Premer made big plays in the final seconds to secure a 54-51 win.
"The scouting report, they were all over," said Panther sophomore Jacob Hall, who scored 16 points in the win. "They're all shooters."
The biggest shooter of the night proved to be Golden Eagle senior John Hauserman, who averaged just 11 points in his first 20 games of the season. He made four of his six 3-point attempts in the fourth quarter, including one to tie the game at 51 with 1:28 remaining.
Hauserman had made another three just 30 seconds earlier. Hall answered with a pass to Premer for an old-fashioned 3-point play and 51-48 Great Bend lead. The teams traded quick turnovers after Hauserman's final basket, and the Golden Eagles appeared content to run the final 57 seconds off the clock in search of a game-winning shot.
Enter Minton. Playing with four fouls, Minton picked Hauserman's pocket near the midcourt stripe. Minton missed his ensuing layup with Hauserman trailing, but Premer was there to clean it up with just 16 ticks left. The Panther pulled back ahead 53-51.
Minton's fifth foul put Hauserman on the free throw line with 9.8 seconds to play. After a delay, the team foul count was corrected to four Panther fouls, forcing a Golden Eagle inbounds play instead. Hall took a charge on the play to get the ball back to Great Bend. After a foul, Premer and headed to the other end to shoot free throws with 7.6 seconds remaining. He missed his first and made the second to bump the Panther lead to 54-51. Hauserman put up an off-balance, line-drive 3-point attempt to tie the game that rimmed off as the buzzer sounded.
Senior Mikey Brand, Bishop Carroll's leading scorer at 17 points a night, missed six game this season but came out firing with 11 points in the first quarter. Panther senior Carter Coombs provided the highlight of the opening frame with a behind-the-back pass into traffic to Hall, but Great Bend trailed 15-11 after one.
Brand picked up his 13th points of the night early in the second to extend the Bishop Carroll lead to 19-11. Premer got the crowd back into the game with his first dunk, and his second nearly four minutes later tied the score at 23. Coombs picked up another assist to senior Maddox Spray with three seconds left in the half to give the Panthers a 28-26 edge heading into the break.
Hall and senior Parker Dicks each hit threes in the third quarter, and Coombs dropped another assist to Premer for a 33-28 Panther lead. After scoring just four points in the first half, Hauserman warmed to a 7-point third quarter but Great Bend clung to a 40-37 lead with a quarter to play.
Brand did not score in the second half, finishing with 13 points for the Golden Eagles. Hauserman scored 14 of his game-high 27 points in the fourth quarter and added six rebounds.
Hall did a little of everything with 10 points in the first half, including a 4-of-5 effort from the charity stripe. With a pair of big threes in the second half, he finished with 16 points.
"As long as we kept the ball moving, everything was opening up if we used ball fakes," he said. "It was just all there."
Premer led the Panthers with 18 points, Spray scored 11 points, Coombs finished with six points, and Dicks had the one 3-pointer for his total.
The Panthers move their win streak to a season-best seven games. Great Bend (16-5) will play either Hutchinson or Goddard-Eisenhower Friday at Great Bend High School.