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Tonganoxie High seniors shine in boys basketball regular-season finale

By Evan Riggs - | Feb 28, 2016

? On senior night, it’s common for seniors to be too jacked up, or be nervous enough to where it affects their play to start the game. For seniors Tyler Novotney and Dylan Staaz, that certainly wasn’t the case.

The senior duo combined for the first eight Tonganoxie points, and Novotney hit five three-pointers and scored 16 points in the first half alone in the Tonganoxie Chieftains wire-to-wire 56-34 win against the Bishop Ward Cyclones. The win improved the Chieftains to 4-16 on the season.

“I think they wanted to go out with a bang,” Tonganoxie head coach Shawn Phillips said of his seniors. “Tyler (Novotney) can get like that sometimes where he can make anything he can make anything he’s putting up. He was on tonight, and (Dylan) Staaz was good attacking the basket. I thought both of our seniors played well on senior night.”

Novotney didn’t score in the second half, but Staaz had four of his six points in the second half, which was much needed because the Chieftains were lacking in firepower after the an early injury to junior Logan Williams. Williams hit his head on the court in the first quarter while diving for a loose ball, and he didn’t return to the game. Phillips was hopeful that Williams would return in time for the Chieftains first Sub State game next Friday.

Sophomore Chandler Caldwell’s 10 points also helped make up for the absence of Williams, as well as junior Kyle Burge, who wasn’t available to play.

When Williams was injured, the Chieftains were up 8-2 with all of the momentum. But Bishop Ward quickly pulled within 12-10 until Tonganoxie sophomore Mason Beach nailed a three at the buzzer to put extend the lead to 15-10 to end the quarter.

“Senior night is important, we always try to put a little extra into senior night,” Phillips said. “Both of these guys are four-year guys who have been with us their whole careers. We tried to stress to the younger guys to give a great effort for those guys.”

In the second quarter, the Chieftains weren’t able to get much going on offense. However, Novotney bailed them out by making three shots from beyond the arc to help them extend their lead. However, after a made layup by the Cyclones, the Chieftains turned the ball over in the backcourt, which led to a buzzer beating layup by the Cyclones to pull within 31-20.

But the Chieftains quickly turned it around in the third quarter, and a 12-2 gave them a big cushion heading into the fourth quarter.

“At halftime, we talked about ‘what’s going to happen to this lead?'” Phillips said. “‘Is is going to go up or are we going to let them make it a game?’ I’m glad to see our guys came out and put their foot on the gas pedal a little bit.”

In the fourth quarter, the Chieftains were battling foul trouble with Caldwell and sophomore LeeRoi Johnson saddled with four fouls. Fortunately for the Chieftains, they had already built a big enough lead so it didn’t matter much.

Tonganoxie will look to carry the momentum from senior night over to Friday when they host Atchison in the opening round of substate.

“How you’ve done prior has zero impact on substate,” Phillips said. “If you go out and play well, who knows? I feel like our younger kids are coming on, and if our seniors play like they did tonight, who knows.”

THS 56, Ward 34

Score by quarters

THS 15 16 14 11 — 56

Ward 10 10 7 7 — 34

Individual THS scoring

Tyler Novotney 20, Chandler Caldwell 10, Dylan Staaz 8, Mason Beach 8, LeeRoi Johnson 7, Dakota Grey 3.