Cair Paravel's Noah Hastert goes in the paint for a basket against Kansas City Christian in the Lions' 75-65 win over the Panthers. [Photo by Rex Wolf]
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Cair Paravel Latin boys basketball coach Mike Malloy didn't go into detail about his message to his team at halftime of Monday's home contest against Kansas City Christian.
But Malloy apparently got his point across, with the Lions storming back after trailing by 15 points in the first half to take a 75-65 victory over the Panthers.
"Halftime was one of those deals where we just had to light them up a little bit on taking some pride in their defense,'' said Malloy, whose team improved to 4-3 on the season. "We stunk it up because they had 37 points at halftime and we weren't playing a lick of defense. It didn't matter what we played, we just weren't guarding anybody.
"I guess it was just kind of the threat of what running was going to be like tomorrow that got them going.''
Down 37-22 with just 1:34 left in the first half, the Lions scored the final 6 points of the half to get back within single digits (37-28).
Cair Paravel then started the second half with the first 11 points of the third quarter, taking a 39-37 lead on a Luke Fay 3-pointer with 5:30 left in the quarter.
Kansas City Christian was still within 2 points (51-49) at the start of the fourth quarter but Cair Paravel pulled away down the stretch, leading by as many as 14 points (73-59).
Zachary Clark, a 6-foot-3 junior, led the Lions with 26 points and also grabbed 9 rebounds while 6-6 junior Noah Hastert added 17 points, 10 rebounds, 4 blocks and 4 steals and junior Ethan Everhart had 14 points and went 7 of 9 from the free throw line.
"I felt when we played man to man pressure in the second half we stepped up and once we got some steals it gave us energy,'' Clark said. "Once you get steals you play as a team and you move the ball more and it ends in made shots instead of misses.''
Junior Alex Knernschield led Kansas City Christian with 25 points while sophomore Ben Raschke added 10 points.
CAIR PARAVEL LATIN 75, KANSAS CITY CHRISTIAN 65
KC Christian 22 15 12 16 -- 65
Cair Paravel 16 12 23 24 -- 75
Kansas City Christian (1-2) -- Ko 1-4 0-1 2, Van Dyke 3-4 0-0 8, De La Torre 0-6 0-2 0, Allen 4-5 0-0 8, Knernschield 8-12 6-8 25, Wichman 2-4 2-2 6, Buresh 3-4 0-0 6, Raschke 5-10 0-0 10. Totals 26-49 8-13 65.
Cair Paravel (4-3) -- Everhart 3-8 7-9 14, Hastert 7-12 3-9 17, Clark 11-17 3-6 26, Fay 3-11 0-2 8, Will 2-3 0-2 5, Brian 2-6 0-0 4, Johnson 0-0 1-2 1. Totals 28-57 14-30 75.
3-point goals -- Kansas City Christian 5 (Knernschield 3, Van Dyke 2), Cair Paravel 5 (Fay 2, Will, Everhart, Clark). Total fouls -- Kansas City Christian 22, Cair Paravel 16. Fouled out -- Allen.
