Kearney pulls off upset over Lincoln Prep with 62-56 win

Trailing by 12 at halftime against a Lincoln Prep team that entered the Missouri Class 4 boys sectional with 10 more victories, Kearney pulled off a stunning, fourth quarter comeback Tuesday for an improbable 62-56 victory.

Kearney, 14-13, advances to the quarterfinals. Lincoln Prep finished its season at 23-5.

“We played really scared in the first half,” Kearney senior Pierce Moling said. “That is the worst in a game like that. In the second half, we came out and played with nothing to lose.”

For much of the game, it appeared it would be the Tigers in the quarterfinals. But the momentum definitely started to slip away in the third quarter. Lincoln held a 47-39 lead going into the fourth in the game at Staley High.

The Tigers scored the first two points in the fourth for a 49-39 lead. The last 7 minutes belonged to Kearney.

“We played nervous and scared and we weren’t attacking, but the second half we had a different frame of mind,” Kearney coach Zane Tanner said. “We came out and realized we had to go make some plays. We can play with these guys. To wipe out a 12-point deficit was huge. We kind of chipped away the whole time.”

It started with the inside play of junior center Cameron Miller. His second basket of the fourth quarter closed the gap to 49-45 with 6:28 left. Meanwhile, Lincoln Prep went ice cold from the field. The Tigers made just one field goal in the fourth quarter.

Miller kept the Bulldogs energized when he received an alley-oop pass from junior Logan Hinck for a dunk that brought Kearney back to within four at 51-47.

“That second half might have been the best basketball I have ever seen out of him,” Moling said. “He played like an absolute monster.”

Kearney, though, didn’t forge a tie until 2:42 left on a basket by Moling that made it 56-56.

In the last 3 minutes, Lincoln also went cold from the free throw line. The Tigers missed five free throws in the fourth quarter.

“We totally fell apart,” Lincoln senior Asim Brown said. “We didn’t get loose balls. We missed free throws. The ball didn’t go our way.”

The Bulldogs put the game away at the charity strip. Miller gave Kearney its first lead of the game at 57-56 when he made one of two free throws with 1:39 left. With 40 seconds left, Kearney increased its lead to three on two free throws by sophomore Dylan Ritz.

“We did a very good job of hitting our free throws,” Moling said.

Lincoln was in panic mode and was unable to score again. The Tigers went from a 56-53 lead to a six-point loss in the final 3 minutes of the game.

Lincoln Prep played so well in the first half that even though Kearney hit three-pointers at the end of the first quarter buzzer and the second quarter buzzer, the Tigers still went into halftime with a 36-24 lead.

“Our coach got on us in the locker room and said we had to get our stuff together,” said Miller, who finished with 13 points. “We had to play harder and make better decisions.”

St. Joe Benton 41, Notre Dame de Sion 31

The three-point shooting of St. Joseph Benton senior guard Mallory McAndrews was too much for Notre Dame de Sion to counter.

McAndrews knocked down five three-pointers, helping the Cardinals beat de Sion 41-31 Tuesday evening in a Missouri Class 4 girls’ sectional at Staley High School.

The win puts Benton, 26-2, into the quarterfinals. The Storm finished the year 13-16, but with only two seniors, the future looks bright for de Sion.

“I think our future is very promising,” de Sion coach Jared Pitts said. “We have a lot of great young talent with the junior class on down. We finished well. We won seven in a row. Our seniors played great and played hard. They showed the younger kids what needs to be done.”

Thanks to 12 points from sophomore Madeline Dercher in the first half, de Sion only trailed 20-16 at halftime. Dercher finished with 18.

The three-pointers by McAndrews in the third quarter hurt the Storm. Her second one in the third quarter gave the Cardinals a 28-18 lead. She followed that with her third trey in the third quarter, extending Benton’s lead to 31-18. McAndrews finished with 19 points.

This story was originally published March 10, 2015 at 9:49 PM with the headline "Kearney pulls off upset over Lincoln Prep with 62-56 win."