By VINCE LOVERGINE
TopSports.news
Cair Paravel Latin boys basketball held on to top Wabaunsee in Flint Hills action Tuesday night on the Lions' home floor.
Lucas Marichal led Cair Paravel with 29 points in the Lions' win over Wabaunsee Tuesday night. [File photo/TSN]
The Lions started out with their foot on the gas pedal for White Out in The Den against the Chargers, and it took every last second to determine the winner, as Cair Paravel Latin grabbed the win, 54-53.
“We knew we were going to get a really tough assignment,'' Cair Paravel coach Chip Kueffer said. "They’re a tough team, they box out and they get a lot of second-chance points. I don’t think we beat that team in a bar fight, it’s not realistic, they’re tough and have more muscle than we do.
"I think we guarded according to the scouting report pretty well … whether we win by half a point or 40 points, they’re all the same. With the game on the line, you don’t want to be down one with 10 seconds left, you want to be up one and defensively you want to win the game getting a stop. I’m proud of them for finishing.”
Senior Lucas Marichal put CPLS on the board with a 3-pointer and he wasn’t even close to being done scoring the basketball.
He put the Lions up 7-2 off a baseline layup and then sophomore Blaine Durbin also had it going, putting them up 11-6 off a short jumper in the paint, 11-6.
Marichal hit another triple to push the lead to six, scoring 10 points in the quarter and Durbin had eight of the 20 CPLS points, with the Lions leading 20-10 heading into the second quarter.
Cair Paravel Latin built its biggest lead of 14, 26-12 in the second quarter thanks to Marichal driving straight down broadway for a deuce, but then Wabaunsee went on a big run to cut the Red Lions lead down to four before the break.
A 9-0 run thanks to a fast break steal from Carter Falk of Wabaunsee, forced CPLS into a timeout with 2:52 left in the quarter, with the score 26-21 at that point.
Falk would nab another four points to cut the CPLS to two but Marichal was fouled with five seconds before the break and nailed two free throws to put Cair Paravel up 28-24.
Cole Frank of the Chargers had a sweet up and under finishing with the left hand to bring it to 32-30, but then Marichal scored five straight to push the lead back to seven, with another 3-pointer. He then would get the steal, get fed on the fast break for another bucket as CPLS maintained a 41-34 lead.
Then to end the quarter, Drew Fay put up a wild shot to beat the buzzer and banked it to end to put the Lions up by 13, 49-36.
Then it got interesting in the fourth quarter as the Lions' lead evaporated again.
It was 51-44 with under three minutes left and Charger senior Wyatt Gerht scored at the cup bringing Wabaunsee to within five but Marichal got fouled again and nailed two free throws to make it 53-46. He finished with a game-high of 29 points.
“We knew that in a lot of games, they’ve been down double-digits in most of their games and they’ve battled back in the second half, so we knew it was coming,” Marichal said. “The fourth quarter was super big for us to slow the game down and try to play it our way… at the end of the day it came down to who played harder and we wanted it more. We want to win the league, that’s our goal and that was one of the biggest teams to reach that goal.
“It was a blast, I love it. It gets so loud in here and when the crowd gets going, it’s a blast.''
Frank, who eventually fouled out in the waning seconds of the game, brought it to within three on a fast break, 53-50.
With 33 seconds, sophomore Landon Kaberline hit one of two free throws to put CPLS up, 54-50. Cutter Murray would not let the Chargers go down quietly, as he converted an and-one opportunity with 26 seconds remaining.
Before Caleb Cleverdon could shoot free throws with 19 seconds left, some extracurricular activities in the stands occurred and then a scoring issue that delayed the game a few seconds caused some frustration before Cleverdon did miss both free throws after it all was sorted out.
“We got three great team captains who are experienced and good leaders,'' Kueffer said. "We talk about oozing with the whole experience. We’re a Christian school, so when teams come in there and play us we should act in a manner that is Christ-like.
“We can’t be throwing cheap shots, or mouthing off or barking at officials, that’s not us, that can’t be us. Everything we do needs to be Christ-like. On the floor, I don’t think we were perfect, nobody is, but when things like that happen it’s super unfortunate because it takes a little bit of fun out of it truthfully when emotions get like that. But I think we did a good job of keeping out wits about us and finishing the game.”
Wabaunsee had the chance to score and win, but could not get a bucket. With both teams trying to grab the rebound, the horn sounded, but the referees blew the whistle as the ball went out of bounds before the horn sounded. The officials put .08 of a second back on the clock, and as it was the Lions' ball, they inbounded it and narrowly escaped with a conference win.
Cair Paravel Latin did not make a single field goal in the fourth quarter, scoring just five points on free throws.
“I told them they can enjoy this one for 12 hours, as they should, they earned it,'' Kueffer said. "We could’ve easily been on the wrong side of that … We’ve been very mediocre here historically. They were the number one team in the league, we were the number two team in the league, it’s a two game swing and now we’re in the driver seat which puts a target on our back, which is a special privilege.”
CAIR PARAVEL LATIN 54, WABAUNSEE 53
Wabaunsee 10 14 12 17 -- 53
Cair Paravel Latin 20 8 21 5 -- 54
Wabaunsee (5-2) – Frank 6 0-0 12, Gehrt 4 0-0 8, Falk 5 3-5 13, Murray 7 3-3 18, Schoffner 0 0-2 0 Breiner 1 0-0 2.
Cair Paravel Latin (5-2) – Hastert 2 0-0 4, Marichal 9 8-10 29, Durbin 5 5-6 15, Cleverdon 0 0-2 0, Fay 3 0-0 6
3-point goals – Wabaunsee 1 (Murray), Cair Paravel Latin 3 (Marichal 3). Total fouls – Wabaunsee 16, Cair Paravel Latin 11. Fouled out – Cole Frank. Technical foul –. none
