Wildcats lose on the road to Paola in final seconds

Louisburg senior Colyer Wingfield goes up for a shot Tuesday during the Wildcats’ game at Paola. Wingfield scored a team-high 17 points.

PAOLA — The Louisburg boys made several plays down the stretch Tuesday to put them in position to leave Paola with a win.

Unfortunately for the Wildcats, Paola made one more than they did.

With three seconds remaining in a tie game, Paola ran an out of bounds play and Panther senior Landon Taylor scored close to the basket with .8 seconds left and handed Louisburg a 43-41 setback.

“That was a tough way to lose for sure,” Louisburg coach Ty Pfannenstiel said. “It was a back and forth game all night. In the end, they made one more play than we did. And it wasn’t just the last play, that’s the one that gets magnified because it was the final play, but there are so many possessions in the game that are equally as important as the last one.”

The two teams stayed within striking distance of one another through the entire game and Paola held a one point lead over Louisburg at the end of each of the first three quarters.

Louisburg (7-7) made a run to start the fourth quarter and took the upper-hand. The Wildcats went on a mini 6-0 run to take a five-point advantage thanks to free throws from Colyer Wingfield and Conlee Hovey, along with a 3-pointer from Cade Gassman.

Paola then had an answer of its own. The Panthers went on a 9-0 run to take a 40-36 lead with under a minute left. The Wildcats went close to six minutes without scoring during that stretch.

“Going on a drought like that makes it tough,” Pfannenstiel said. “Our effort was good all night, but in the end it wasn’t enough.”

Wingfield hit a pair of free throws to cut the deficit to two, and the Wildcats fouled Taylor with 34 seconds left to keep their hopes alive. Taylor hit 1 of 2 and left the door open for Louisburg.

Louisburg junior Nathan Parker took advantage of the opportunity. Parker, who hadn’t hit a 3-pointer all night, knocked it down from the corner to tie the game with 20 seconds left.

“Nathan didn’t have a good night shooting, but he has that shooter’s mentality and hit another big one to tie it up for us, much like the Frontenac game,” Pfannenstiel said. “He’s a good shooter, so we lean on him to make shots from the perimeter.”

That set up Taylor’s late-game heroics with .8 seconds left. The Wildcats tried a full-court pass to get a shot off, but the Panthers intercepted it. Taylor scored nearly half of his team’s points as he finished with 18.

The Wildcats lost by two, but they gave the Panthers plenty of chances on what was an off-shooting night. Paola pulled down 22 offensive rebounds and got up 17 more shots than the Wildcats.

On offense, Louisburg had a tough time scoring on Paola’s zone defense and struggled getting good shots. 

Wingfield led Louisburg in scoring with 17 points — nine of which came from the free-throw line. He also added six rebounds and four assists.

“We were down a couple of our best shooters so it was hard to stretch out their zone,” Pfannenstiel said. “Finally in the second half we started getting some better movement, but struggled to be consistent.  

“Colyer was solid again. He’s been pretty consistent with his scoring all year. We definitely need to find a couple more scoring options to open things up for us.”

Gassman was second on the team in scoring with six points and Hovey finished with five. Senior Mason Dobbins pulled down a team-high eight rebounds.

Louisburg will try and bounce back today as the Wildcats host Ottawa for homecoming. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m.

LOU 10 11 9 11 — 41

PAO 11 11 9 12 — 43

LOUISBURG (7-7): Colyer Wingfield 4-9 9-13 17; Cade Gassman 2-4 0-0 6; Conlee Hovey 1-2 3-4 5; Nathan Parker 1-8 0-0 3; Isaiah Whitley 1-7 0-0 3; Mason Dobbins 1-4 1-2 3; Myles Vohs 1-1 0-0 2; Gavin Lohse 0-0 1-2 1; Brock Vohs 0-0 1-2 1. Totals: 11-36 15-23 41. 3-point field goals: 4, (Gassman 2, Parker, Whitley)