Fort Osage wins third straight district championship

Fort Osage waited 58 years for its first boys basketball district championship.

They’re coming in bunches now.

The Indians won their third straight district title Friday with a 49-43 victory against Kearney in the Class 5, District 14 championship game at Kearney High School.

"Coming in here on their home floor, we knew it was going to be tough and we’d have to do the little things to win," said sophomore Skylar Thompson, who made two three-pointers as part of a 12-point night. "We were going to have to out-rebound them, push the ball, execute our offense. I think we did everything right tonight."

It’s been going that way for awhile.

After a rocky 5-5 start to the season, Fort Osage has won 14 of its past 15 games. The Indians will face Lee’s Summit at 8:15 p.m. Wednesday at the Independence Events Center. Lee’s Summit upended Blue Springs South 78-74 on Friday.

"We changed up a lot of things we were doing early in the season and kind of changed our entire philosophy," Fort Osage coach Josh Wilson said. "These kids bought in. The chemistry started growing again like we had last year. Winning will do that."

It’s been contagious lately, a trend that only continued Friday. Fort Osage never trailed in the second half, aided by its 19-of-21 performance from the free-throw line.

Brian Starr led Fort Osage with 15 points.

Pierce Moling scored 12 in the loss for Kearney, which ended its season 15-12.

This story was originally published March 7, 2014 at 11:47 PM with the headline "Fort Osage wins third straight district championship."