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Chargers swipe win from Chieftains

By Shawn Linenberger - | Jan 9, 2002

When the Tonganoxie High School boys’ basketball team loses, it often seems to happen in the same fashion.

The Chieftains lead or trail by a few points for most of three quarters, then their opponent builds a lead and, despite a late rally, THS falls short.

The same scenario played itself out Friday night against Santa Fe Trail (5-2 overall and 4-2 in the Kaw Valley League). The Chargers prevailed, 74-65.

“They had a stretch in the third where we committed three turnovers and they scored on all three possessions for seven points, bam, bam, bam,” THS coach David Walker said.

Santa Fe Trail led 55-45 after three quarters and built a commanding lead early in the fourth quarter, but the Chieftains (3-4 and 3-3) battled back.

“I was really proud of our guys,” Walker said. “They were down by 15 and cut it to five. We just ran out of time.”

The Chieftains were whistled for 34 fouls, which translated into 48 attempts. For the Chargers, 31 points came from the free-throw line. Tonganoxie, meanwhile, had 16 points from the line.

Trail senior guard Ben Fawl provided points from beyond the three-point line, hitting all three of the Chargers’ three-pointers in the third quarter. Santa Fe Trail finished 3-for-6 in that category, while Tonganoxie was just 5-for-15. Junior Jon Gripka led Tonganoxie’s three-point shooting, going 2-for-3.

Senior center Brian Kral did the most damage for the Chargers, scoring 22 points and registering eight rebounds. Kral missed just two shots, one from the field and one from the free-throw line.

Although Kral had the game-high total, Senior Bryan Gurss led the Chieftains with 18 points. Other top scorers were sophomore Joe Calovich with 17, Jacob Walker with 10 and Jordan Glenn with seven.

The Chieftains (3-4 and 3-3) hosted KVL leader Piper (6-1 and 5-1) on Tuesday and will head to Mill Valley (3-1 and 3-1) on Friday before playing host to the 42nd annual Tonganoxie Invitational. The tournament starts next Monday and ends Friday. Teams in the tournament with THS include Bonner Springs, Eudora, Lansing, Olathe Christian, Oskaloosa, Pleasant Ridge and Kansas City-Van Horn (Mo.).

Santa Fe Trail 74, Tonganoxie 65

SANTA FE TRAIL (74)

11 22, Fawl 5-8 2-2 15, Hulings 3-9 3-5 9, Ramsdell 3-9 1-6 7, Shively 1-3 0-1 2, Sclar 0-1 1-2 1, Musgrave 0-0 2-2 2. Totals 20-45 31-48 74.

TONGANOXIE (65)

Walker 2-8 6-6 10, Gurss 6-11 5-6 18, Calovich 6-13 4-8 16, Gripka 2-5 0-0 6, Alexander 2-3 0-0 5, Howard 0-3 0-1 0, Gilner 0-3 1-3 1, Glenn 3-8 0-0 7, Turner 0-4 0-0 0, LaRosh 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 22-59 16-24 65.

Santa Fe Trail (5-2, 4-2) 14 17 24 19 74

Tonganoxie (3-4, 3-3) 8 20 17 20 65

Three-point goals SFT 3-6 (Fawl 3-4, Miles 0-1, Shively 0-1), Tonganoxie 5-15 (Gripka 2-3, Alexander 1-1, Gurss 1-3, Glenn 1-4, Turner 0-4) Total Fouls SFT 21, Tonganoxie 34. Turnovers SFT 23, Tonganoxie 24.