Three seniors lead Wildcats in season opening win over Tonganoxie

It wasn’t exactly the offensive output Louisburg head coach Ben Doll was expecting from his team Friday during the Wildcats’ season opener against Tonganoxie. 

Before the game even started, the Wildcats found out they would be down one of their starters with an illness, and Doll wasn’t sure how his young team would respond. 

Leave it to three seniors to lead the way. Gavin Lohse, Myles Vohs and Luke Schultz all scored 16 or more points in the 77-50 rout of the Chieftains. Not only was it a strong start to the season, but it was more points than the Wildcats scored at any point last year.

The Wildcats also got big shots and minutes from senior Ethan Kush, along with junior Owen Marsh and senior Billy Vohs.

“It is an incredible way to start the season,” Doll said. “Winning is hard at this level and in this league. We start the night with Derek Frederick, who was gonna start and play a lot for us, going home sick, so then we’re down one guy there. So we had to have some other guys step up and they did. Owen Marsh stepped up really well, along with Billy Vohs, so we had some guys come off the bench that we didn’t think we were gonna play that much. Owen played almost the whole game. 

“Then the the big three of Myles, Luke and Gavin just paced us and we also faced foul trouble with them, so I’m just feeling really fortunate that we were able to win the game with their foul trouble and with the sickness of a starter and everything else. We discovered a lot about this group today.”

Lohse, who had to sit most of the second quarter with foul trouble, was a force on the inside for Louisburg. He nearly finished with a double-double as he scored a team-high 20 points and pulled down eight rebounds, to go along with a team-high five steals.

Myles Vohs flirted with a triple-double as the Wildcat point guard played all 32 minutes and finished with 17 points, a team-high nine assists and eight rebounds.

As for Schultz, the Wildcat forward finished with a double-double as he had 16 points and 11 rebounds as he was a constant fixture on the inside. 

Louisburg also controlled the boards as it out rebounded Tonganoxie by 17, and had 12 offensive rebounds.

“Gavin scored 20 points and he missed basically the whole second quarter with foul trouble, so that’s pretty impressive,” Doll said. “We’ve been working with those guys in practice about just, you know, putting the pad on them and finishing around the basket, and him and Luke both did a pretty good job and they they absolutely controlled the boards. 

“Myles did a good job running the team and really did a little bit of everything for us. I’m just really, really happy because there were a lot of things that could have gone differently for us if we let negative stuff get to us. And then we shot the ball from the outside pretty well, too. I mean that obviously helps.”

The Wildcats hit several shots from the outside as it knocked down seven 3-pointers, including three from Kush. Billy Vohs had two and sophomore Lance Callahan hit one in the first half for his first varsity basket.

Louisburg also got strong play from Marsh, who filled in for Frederick, and played all but two minutes of the game and scored six points, had three assists and three steals.

The Wildcats took a 41-25 lead at halftime, and Tonganoxie was able to chip away at the lead a little in the third quarter as it switched to a zone defense. Louisburg eventually figured it out and built a 29-point lead in the second half.

“In the first half, guys like Lance came off the bench and Ethan hit some big shots, so we were able to build a lead,” Doll said. “That forced them to have to do some different things. And in the past, you know, teams would throw some zone at us and stuff like that, and we might not know what to do, but we did a better better job at taking care of the basketball against the zone and just understanding time score and situation. Then we hit a couple of shots and got them out of it.”

Louisburg will see its schedule start to toughen up and that starts Tuesday when it travels to Ottawa, which is currently ranked No. 4 in Class 4A.

“It’s good to get this one and it’s a huge confidence builder,” Doll said. “So hopefully the guys will enjoy this one for a little bit. The schedule gets a lot tougher for sure, and hopefully this builds some confidence that we can work with in practice and get ready for Tuesday.

LOU 18 23 18 18 — 77

TONG 13 12 11 14 — 50

LOUISBURG (1-0): Gavin Lohse 8-12 4-7 20; Myles Vohs 6-13 5-11 17; Luke Schultz 6-13 3-4 16; Ethan Kush 3-6 0-0 9; Owen Marsh 3-7 0-0 6; Billy Vohs 2-3 0-0 6; Lance Callahan 1-1 0-0 3. Totals: 29-55 12-22 77. 3-point field goals: 7, (Kush 3, B. Vohs 2, Schultz, Callahan)