The town of Shady Spring is not in the state of Kansas, but for the Tigers, there was no place like home Wednesday night.
Coming off a nearly two-week absence from playing inside Dave Wills Gym, Shady Spring returned home and returned to form, trouncing Westside 63-33.
Entering the clash with the defending Class AAA state champions, Renegades head coach Nick Cook felt like his team had a strong chance to knock off the Tigers.
Unfortunately for Westside, expectation did not meet reality.
“It is hard to explain. It is a different type of gym, I guess. It is a little darker in there, but that goal is still 10-feet tall,” Cook said. “Just hit the square and put it in the basket. We just struggled tonight to put the ball in the basket. Whether is was a layup, a 3 (pointer), or a foul shot.”
The home team was coming off of two hard fought, three-point road wins over regional foes Independence and PikeView where Shady Spring was far from its dominant self in recent years.
“I really feel like we are close. We just need to figure each other out and be sound on both sides of the ball,” Shady Spring head coach Ronnie Olson said. “We are a really good basketball team and we show glimpses of that. They are still trying to figure each other out, but I think they are finding the winning solution. We are looking to be more efficient.”
Olson’s message for his team to hopefully get back on track Wednesday night was simple, dictate tempo and step up the pressure.
“We stepped our pressure up tonight. I feel like we have been a little hamstrung the last few nights. We were going to play pressure defense, even if we were in foul trouble,” Olson said. “Even if we took a loss, we were going to play four quarters of pressure defense and get after them. I think that was the difference in the game. Our game plan was to get after it.”
Shady Spring took command of the game from the opening tip when Jalon Bailey drove hard to rack for a 2-0 lead which was 14-8 after one quarter.
The Renegades managed to stay within arms reach and had the deficit inside single digits late in the second quarter. However, a pair of triples from freshman Gabe Short ignited a late run by the Tigers for a 32-16 lead at halftime.
“To see the 3-ball go in was great. We haven’t been shooting the 3-ball at a high clip. That is the epitome of the seven guys that we have. They can all play,” Olson said. “Every game is different and dictates different minutes and different substitutions. Gabe came in and hit some big 3’s there and rebounded hard. I want all of those to be able to do that when they come in.”
Cook agreed that the final minutes of the half were a game changer.
“It was big. I thought defensively, we weren’t terrible the first half. We fought pretty good, but we couldn’t get one to fall. Then they made that little run, made a couple of 3’s and stretched it back out to 15 or so,” Cook said. “Then it kind of snowballed the second half. It was the difference. If we get a stop, or get a bucket and get it down to five, we come out with a different approach in the second half.”
Jack Williams knocked down a pair of long balls early in the third period to offset one from Austin Bishop and the Tigers ran away for a 48-24 lead after three quarters.
“We talked at halftime that we couldn’t score 15 points in one possession. We had to chip away at it, but, for whatever reason, we could not get going tonight,” Cook said. “We weren’t focused. We weren’t mentally prepared to play tonight. I could tell before the game. They were talking about everything except basketball. They have to mentally prepare for a game and they weren’t tonight. (Shady Spring) was and they were hungry to kind of right their ship. We didn’t match that intensity.”
Williams led the Tigers with 16 points, while Brody Radford and Short added 11 each.
W: 8 8 8 9 – 33
SS: 14 18 18 13 – 63
Westside
Austin Bishop 3, Kyler Kenneda 3, Bryson Blankenship 4, Kadien Vance 5, Coltin Lester 10, Brayson Bishop 3, Braydon Waldron 2, Hendrix Cook 2, Logan McNeely 1.
Shady Spring
Jack Williams 16, Jalon Bailey 9, Brody Radford 11, Braedy Johnston 6, Eli Sexton 7, Gabe Short 11, Myles Clark 3.
