Sports
Andover Central tops Olathe North
The Andover Central Jaguars won the Ralph Miller Classic last year. With the team’s performance in its first game of the Ralph Miller Classic on Thursday afternoon, the Jaguars proved that they may also be the team to beat at this year’s tournament. Powered by 30 points from senior Zach Winter in this contest, the Andover squad beat Olathe North 57-39. The meeting between these teams was close-knit early on. Due largely to eight first quart...
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NCCC men beat Allen County for first conference win
Brian McDowell Sports Editor The NCCC Panthers men’s basketball team picked up its first conference win of the season on Wednesday night, beating its Allen County rivals 69-64. The scoring was slow to get started in this contest. Jamie Batish, the scoring leader for the Panthers (8-8) so far this season, is in Australia dealing with some citizenship issues, so he will be back in Chanute on Sunday. “That was a little bit of what had to do with...
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Missed last minute shots cost Comets in loss to Leavenworth
Brian McDowell Sports Editor The Chanute Blue Comets boys basketball team kicked off its annual basketball tournament with a down-to-the-wire Thursday night nail-biter. The first day of the Ralph Miller Classic ended with a confrontation between the fourth-seeded Comets and the fifth-seeded Leavenworth Pioneers, and the evenly matched teams tangled. The Comets kept pace with Leavenworth throughout the tense match-up. The Pioneers are a current...
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Erie boys barely beaten by Neodesha
The Erie Red Devils boys basketball team lost a one-point heartbreaker to Neodesha, on its second game of the Wilson County Tournament on Tuesday night. Erie fell 48-47. The Red Devils saw dominating double digit performances by three players in the down-to-the-wire loss. Kody Tredway had 16 points in the loss, while Garek Peters scored 12 and Christian Murphy ended up with 10.
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St. Paul girls fall to Columbus
The St. Paul girls basketball team fell to Columbus 32-26 in the second night of the Southeast Basketball Tourney on Tuesday night. Over half of the Lady Indians’ points in this match-up were scored by Jordyn Tuck, who had 15 points on the night. Columbus 6 11 9 6 -32 St. Paul 3 7 2 14 -26 Columbus: Froebe 4, 0-0, 8 Murdock 1, 0-0, 2 Spear 0, 2-6, 2 Anderson 7, 0-5, 15 1, 0-1, 3 Robinson 1, 0-0, 2 Three-Pointers: Anderson, Thompson St...
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Ralph Miller storied athlete, coach
Ralph “Cappy” Miller, the namesake of the 41st annual high school basketball tournament this week, had a hugely heralded career as athlete and coach. Miller, born March 9, 1919 in Chanute, earned four letters each in football and track, three in basketball, and one each in golf and tennis at CHS.¬† While in junior high, Bob Allen (University of Kansas Coach Phog Allen’s son) informed his father that he had just scrimmaged against the finest ...
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Erie’s Oliphant signs to play volleyball for Coffeyville
Erie senior Chelsea Oliphant is going from the Red Devils to the Red Ravens. A stand-out player on both the Red Devils volleyball and girls basketball squads, Oliphant signed a letter of intent on Tuesday morning to play volleyball at Coffeyville Community College. Oliphant visited several colleges around southeast Kansas before making the decision to commit to play for Coffeyville. “I felt more at home there,” Oliphant said, “and the coach...
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Chanute girls start Tonganoxie tourney with comeback win
TONGANOXIE — The Chanute Blue Comets girls basketball team trailed by 11 points at the end of the first quarter of its match-up with the Atchison Redmen on Tuesday afternoon. “That first quarter was tough,” Coach Dustin Fox said. “There was no energy. It was a 3 o’clock game. There was barely anyone there. We didn’t respond well to that.” However, the team picked its energy up, and started playing harder. This increase in energy and work ethic...
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Comets flying high heading into Ralph Miller Classic
Brian McDowell Sports Editor The Ralph Miller Classic has been a part of this community for more than 40 years, making it one of the oldest and most respected basketball tournaments in the state. The event, which starts Thursday afternoon at Chanute High School, brings in some of the region’s best basketball teams for action-packed bracketed games. The tournament is named after a Hall-of-Fame coach and player who hails from Chanute. Chanute H...
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Second half costly to Lady Panthers in Coffeyville
Brian McDowell Sports Editor COFFEYVILLE — When NCCC freshman Dena English hit a last second three-pointer to tie Saturday night’s basketball game against Coffeyville at 17 at halftime, all momentum seemed to be shifting to the Panthers’ side. However, Coffeyville managed to outscore NCCC (6-9) by 14 points in the second half to come away with a 50-36 will. This loss stalled Neosho County’s conference winning streak. Coffeyville (5-10) struc...
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Panthers topped by Coffeyville with Lesovsky at the helm
Brian McDowell Sports Editor COFFEYVILLE — The most difficult foot to move in basketball is the one-foot distance between the assistant coach’s seat and the head coach’s seat. That is a popular clich√© in the sport, and Brandon Lesovsky, the assistant coach of the NCCC men’s basketball squad, found out about its accuracy first-hand on Saturday night. The Panthers (7-8) traveled to Coffeyville to take on the nationally ranked Red Ravens. The ...
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Chanute girls sixth in latest rankings
The Chanute Blue Comets (8-2) are ranked as the sixth best 4A girls basketball team in the state, in the latest rankings released on Monday by the KBCA. The Comets’ SEK rivals from Pittsburg are fifth. Girard, a team which the Comets defeated a couple of weeks ago, was ranked eighth. Wamego was the top ranked team. None of the boys’ teams in the SEK were included in the KBCA 4A rankings. The Humboldt Cubs were selected as the 7th best team in...
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Last second Gilmore score extends Chanute winning streak
Brian McDowell Sports Editor A last second lay-up by senior Brock Gilmore allowed the Chanute Blue Comets boys basketball team to extend its winning streak to six games on Friday night. The shot thrown up at the last second of the game cemented a thrilling and topsy-turvy 55-53 victory for Chanute. Gilmore’s big play occurred a minute after an arching three-pointer by Labette’s Lee Reliford with less than a minute to go that put the Grizzlies ...
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Fiscus gets 100th win at Chanute double dual victories
Brian McDowell Sports Editor ALTAMONT — Chanute senior Jared Fiscus picked up his 100th win of his high school wrestling career in a win by fall over Iola on Thursday night. “It’s a pretty special feat,” Albright said. “Not a lot of wrestlers have done that. So, we’re really happy to see him get that tonight.” This was among the highlights of the Comet wrestling’s team official return to action, after a long Christmas break. “I was happy to s...
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NCCC wrestling loses three home duals
The NCCC wrestling team was humbled this last Tuesday by three nationally ranked teams at its home dual event. The Panthers’ star wrestler, Le’Roy Barnes didn’t make weight for this event, so he was missing in action. Coach Wayne Petterson said this could have been and probably was a factor in the way that these duals turned out. The coach offered kudos to the team’s wrestler at 174, Blaine Hill, who went 3-0 at the event. “He is working hard...
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Comet girls grab victory from the Grizzlies
Brian McDowell Sports Editor In the recent history of girls basketball in this area, the road to SEK success usually goes through Labette County. The Grizzlies were undefeated in the SEK headed into their Friday night confrontation with Chanute. Dustin Fox knew that if his Comets squad wanted to control its own destiny this year in this conference, his team would have to topple the Labette squad. The Chanute Blue Comets accomplished this on F...
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Bracket released for Chanute’s Ralph Miller Classic
The bracket was released on Wednesday for next week’s Ralph Miller Classic basketball tournament at Chanute High School. With its recent success in SEK conference play, the Chanute Blue Comets boys team (6-3) enters the annual tournament as the number three seed. The squad’s first game will be on Thursday night at 8 p.m. against Leavenworth. How the Comets fare in this game will determine their schedule on the next day. If they lose this firs...
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Lady Panthers secure overtime victory
Brian McDowell Sports Editor FORT SCOTT — Lining up against a short-handed Fort Scott team with only five available players on its roster on Wednesday night, the NCCC women’s basketball team still trailed for most of the road match-up. Yet, the Lady Panthers showed some fight late in the game, managed to score when it was important, and fought their way back to a 58-50 overtime victory. “Hats off go to Fort Scott,” NCCC Coach Kelley Newton s...
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CCA boys triumph over Tyro
The Chanute Christian Academy boys basketball team took on Tyro Christian in league play on Tuesday, and scored a 61-32 victory. In the first period, CCA came out playing good defense but cold on offense. Tyro was able to keep pace for most of the 1st on some good shooting from guard Steven Wright who hit three 3-pointers. In Coach Dave Yarnell’s estimation, the Warriors were taking some bad shots early that let Tyro stay in the game. However...
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Comet boys extend streak with rout of Fort Scott
Brian McDowell Sports Editor FORT SCOTT — The Chanute boys basketball team has now won five in a row, after its 63-41 rout of Fort Scott on Tuesday night. This victory brings the Comets’ record to 6-3. It is a nice record and run for a Comets squad that was picked as sixth place in the SEK coaches’ pre-season poll. “The pre-season polls are nice to look at,” Chanute Coach Max Ruark said, “but it’s hard to tell from year to year exactly how p...
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