Wildcats face tall task against Bishop Miege

By Andy Brown
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Updated: March 8, 2017

Andy Brown / Louisburg Sports Zone

Louisburg senior Grant Harding splits the Fort Scott defense thanks to a screen from teammate Dalton Ribordy (31) on Saturday in the Class 4A-DI sub-state championship game. Harding will lead the Wildcats against No. 3 Bishop Miege Wednesday in the first round of the state tournament.

In its final practice before its first state tournament game in 12 years, the Louisburg boys basketball team was all smiles.

If the Wildcats had a little bit of bounce in their step, who could blame them? Normally at this time, the Wildcats have already checked in their uniforms and many of them were focused on what spring sport they were going to play.

“It is just good to have extra basketball,” Louisburg senior Jayce Geiman said.

The Wildcats were loose and having fun as they prepared for what could be their biggest challenge of the season. That’s not to say they didn’t get work done though.

Louisburg (10-12), the No. 6 seed, has a big task at hand as they meet No. 3 seed Bishop Miege (19-3) at 8:15 p.m. on Wednesday in the Class 4A-Division I state tournament at the Tony’s Pizza Events Center in Salina. Miege has been the No. 1 ranked team in 4A-DI all season and is considered one of the better teams in the state.

Still, the fact the Wildcats are in this position for the first time since 2005 leaves them excited for the chance to play on the state’s biggest stage.

“It really hasn’t sunk in yet,” Louisburg senior Grant Harding said. “It probably won’t until we step on the court, but we are looking forward to the challenge. They are obviously a great team, so we have to go in and play our game and don’t be afraid. A lot of teams lay down for them because of the name and we can’t do that.”

Bishop Miege, the defending state champion, has put together a strong season against a schedule that features mainly Class 5A and 6A teams. The Stags opened the season with a win over 4A-DI McPherson, who is also in the state tournament, but played higher classification teams the rest of the way until the sub-state tournament.

The Stags defeated Bonner Springs (72-32) in the first round of sub-state and then defeated the state’s No. 2 ranked team – Eudora – 49-40 in the championship game. Their lone losses on the season were to Blue Valley and St. Thomas Aquinas (twice).

Louisburg played both Eudora and state-ranked Ottawa a total of four times on the season, so the Wildcats have played the state’s upper-echelon teams in the past, despite losing each contest.

Senior guard Sam Guetterman pushes the ball up the floor against Fort Scott last Saturday.

“It does give us a good barometer of what we are going up against,” Louisburg coach Jason Nelson said. “Just from the limited film I have seen, Eudora played them pretty well and Eudora is one of the better teams in the state as well and hopefully we can take things that they did well and tweak them to make them work for us.”

Although they have seen tough teams in the past, the Wildcats haven’t faced a front line like they will see from Miege. The Stags feature a line that stands 6-foot-8, 6-8 and 6-5, which forces the Wildcats to adjust what they normally do.

“It is hard to simulate that in practice,” Geiman said. “We have been practicing against six and seven guys on defense, which is really hard, so it will be a challenge. They are a really good team.”

Jeremiah Robinson-Earl is of the Stags’ top players as the 6-8 sophomore forward averages 14 points and nine rebounds a game to go along with three assists. He is also drawing interest from a lot of NCAA Division I schools, including Kansas.

Senior forward Francesco Badocchi (6-8) averages 15 points and six rebounds a contest. He wasn’t able to play varsity at Miege until the second semester last season as he transferred from Italy, but since then he has elevated Miege’s play even more. Badocchi has also drawn interest from Kansas and other D-1 programs.

“Their height is definitely the biggest challenge, especially when they run a line of 6-8, 6-7 and 6-6 or whatever they are,” Nelson said. “It does significantly alter your game plan going in because we aren’t going to be able to get our traditional inside looks, but I feel good with our game plan. We are just going to give them our best shot.”

The Stags also feature skilled guards in Landry Weber and Semaj Ray. Weber leads the team with seven assists a contest and Ray averages close to 11 points a game. Guard Ezekiel Lopes also averages close to 11 points a game.

As for the Wildcats, Harding (6-2) has led the Wildcats in scoring most of the season. He averages 17 points a game, while Geiman (6-0) also averages 10 points a contest from the point guard position.

Senior Sam Guetterman (6-1), senior T.J. Dover (6-3) and junior Dalton Ribordy (6-2) will fill out the starting lineup, while the Wildcats also look for production from senior Jake Hill (5-9), senior Dalton Stone (6-0), junior Desmond Doles (6-1) and junior Garrett Lowry (6-4) off the bench.

Should Louisburg advance, it will play the winner of No. 2 Abilene and No. 7 Mulvane on Friday in the semifinals and will guarantee the Wildcats their first top four finish in 38 years. Louisburg has only placed at state two years, the Wildcats took fourth in 1979 and third in 1948.

Despite facing their toughest challenge of the season, the Wildcats aren’t worried about making history again, but they are looking forward to the game and their chance at playing in the state tournament.

“It will be exciting,” Harding said. “I have had butterflies the last two games of sub-state, so I am sure I will for state as well. We are just going to go out there, play hard and see what happens.”