Wildcats fall in overtime in tournament opener

Louisburg junior Conlee Hovey fights off three Northeast Kansas defenders for a rebound Tuesday during the Louisburg Invitational.

Louisburg seemingly had its game with Northeast Kansas in hand Tuesday in the first round of the Louisburg Invitational.

The Wildcats held the lead for much of the game, and even when the Nighthawks forced overtime, Louisburg still found a way to take the lead with just seconds left in the game.

Unfortunately, the few seconds the Wildcats didn’t have the lead turned out to be at the very end.

Northeast Kansas had an answer for every Louisburg bucket late and handed the Wildcats a 55-54 overtime loss.

“This loss is incredibly frustrating,” Louisburg coach Ben Doll said. “The things we go over in practice and things that we write on the board before the game as keys, we didn’t do a good job with those. Whether it was valuing the ball, cutting down turnovers or shot selection, we didn’t do well in those areas. Our shot selection was poor.

“Now these things are all correctable. We also talk about playing good on the ball defense, and that is why we fouled on that last possession because we didn’t do a good job defensively. All things we talk about in practice, but the good thing is basketball is sport where you need to be playing your best at the end of the season. We aren’t there yet, but we are in the middle of the season and we aren’t playing well yet.”

The Wildcats (4-5) were either tied or led for much of the game, until the Nighthawks were able to take a small lead late in the fourth and eventually force overtime.

Both teams had a chance to win it in regulation, but neither got their shots to fall.

They traded baskets in the overtime as Luke Hill opened with a layup on the tipoff and Northeast Kansas responded with a basket of their own 10 seconds later. 

The Nighthawks eventually took a 53-51 lead with under a minute remaining. That was until Hill hit a 3-pointer with 25 seconds left to put Louisburg back up one.

Northeast Kansas raced down the floor and hit a bucket off the glass with 11 seconds left to grab the lead right back.

Louisburg had an opportunity in the final moments, but shots from Nathan Parker and Gavin Lohse each rimmed out.

The Wildcats had their fair share of chances, but just shot 39 percent from the field and were 8 of 15 from the free-throw line.

“I am sure we shot about where our average is, which is under 40 percent, but we are just not finishing underneath the basket right now,” Doll said. “We are getting rebounds, we get good looks, but if we could finish under the basket we would be beating a lot of people. We will keep working and we will get better.”

Hill led the Wildcats in scoring with 12 points, including the only two 3-pointers on the night for Louisburg. Parker and Lohse each finished in double figues with 10, while Lohse had six rebounds.

Hovey paced the Wildcats on the glass with a team-high eight rebounds. Parker, Hill and Brady Hickey each tallied a team-high three assists.

Louisburg will try and end its home tournament on a good note tonight when it hosts Girard for a 5:30 p.m. tipoff.

“Luckily we play Friday and we can get back at practice and try to resolve this,” Doll said. “We are all healthy now, so now we just have to find the right guys to be on the floor and figure out a rotation.”

LOU 11 8 13 13 9 — 54

NEK 8 8 9 20 10 — 55

LOUISBURG (4-5): Luke Hill 4-9 2-3 12; Nathan Parker 4-11 2-2 10; Gavin Lohse 5-10 0-2 10; Conlee Hovey 4-7 1-2 9; Luke Schultz 2-5 1-2 5; Bristol Barbour 1-3 1-2 3; Myles Vohs 1-2 1-2 3; Brock Vohs 1-4 0-0 2. Totals: 22-46 8-15 54. 3-point field goals: 2, (Hill 2)