By LIONEL TIPTON
ANDOVER, Kansas – The days of narrow misses are over. Andover Central’s boys are headed to the Class 5A tournament.
Spared a matchup at top-seeded Great Bend by Eisenhower’s upset Wednesday night of the Panthers, the eighth-seeded Jaguars were given another home game against the No. 16 Tigers in the sub-state final.
And Central made the most of the opportunity, leading all the way after the first 1½ minutes and rolling to a 61-49 victory in the third time this season the AVCTL Division II foes have met, all Jaguars triumphs.
Jaguars coach Tyler Richardson said it’s nice to break through.
“We’ve fallen short the last three years,” he said. “This means a lot to every one of us. Me, as a head coach – I’ve done it for several years at Heights as an assistant – but to do this as a head coach … my assistant coaches have never been to State, my players have never been to State in basketball – they do some damage in baseball and football. We’ve won the league title the last three years, but … I’ll take a state title over a league title any day.”
Richardson was relieved afterward to have his Jaguars finally break through in sub-state. Three years ago, Maize ousted Central on the Jaguars’ floor. That was followed by sub-state losses the past two years at Maize South.
“I’m a firm believer that everything happens for a reason,” Richardson said. “We had a bumpy January, we hit some speed bumps along the way, but everyone … we came together, we trusted each other, we trusted the system, and … we’re 5-0 in our last five games.”
Senior guard Jayden Brown helped Central get off to a good start, hitting five three-pointers in the first half and leading the way with 19 points at the break, as Andover Central led, 33-23.
The 5-foot-7 Brown showed no fear in putting up a shot from anywhere and at any time, often way behind the three-point line..
“And he’ll make them, too,” senior forward Jace Adler said.
Brown readily admits being fearless with his shot.
“I have unlimited confidence,” he said. “My teammates trust me to take those kinds of shots. I feel confident, and that’s my game. Even if I miss one, the next one’s still going in, because I trust myself.”
Richardson said that’s great – when it works.
“It’s to a fault at times,” Richardson said. “But that’s just confidence, coming from a kid who just lives in the gym. He lives basketball. He’s so committed to the game, so committed to his team, and you see that every time he’s on the floor.”
In the second half, Brown became more of a distributor, setting up teammates like Adler for easy layups with precision passing. Adler is no stranger to scoring off of passes, but that has been in football. Instead of senior Jace Jefferson – another senior on the Jaguars’ basketball squad — throwing the ball, it was Brown.
“They start collapsing on me, I dump down to (Adler),” Brown said. “You can’t stop us all.
“That’s why we’ve got a good team and punched our (State) ticket. I’m proud of our guys.”
Finally breaking through for State is a good feeling – even though he had to wait to his senior year to do it, Brown said.
“Perfect timing, though,” he said. “I’m so happy.”
Eisenhower’s upset Wednesday at Great Bend, 62-60, was a welcome surprise, the Jaguars said.
“We were all kind of really, honestly, shocked that Eisenhower won that game,” Adler said. “But we knew (Eisenhower) was a great team. They’re way better than a 16 seed.
“We can’t overlook them.”
Richardson agreed that Eisenhower’s seed was wrong.
“That’s not a 16 seed out there,” he said of the Tigers. “They’re probably at a ’10,’ maybe, in a healthy season for them. They’ve been playing well the last few weeks, kind of like us. So, our guys understood what they were getting into.”
Getting the home game was huge, Brown said.
“Thank you, Eisenhower,” he said. “I expected to be in Great Bend (Saturday), but that’s March for you. We’ve never lost to Eisenhower, and I wasn’t going to lose (Saturday) in the biggest game we play against them.”
The Brown-to-Adler connection paid big dividends for the Jaguars, helping Adler to 13 points – all in the second half. Brown, a Manhattan Christian College commit, finished with 22 points.
Andover Central (14-8) saved its best for last against the Tigers (7-15). The 12-point margin was the largest in any of the games between the teams this season. After Eisenhower scored the game’s first points, the Jaguars took a lead they would not surrender on Brown’s shot in the lane with 6:31 left in the quarter.
About the only consistent offense Eisenhower could muster came from 6-5 senior Pierce Blue, who matched Brown’s game-high total of 22 points.
“He’s hard to guard, that’s for sure,” Adler said of Blue, son of Tigers coach Steve Blue.
Richardson said, “That’s just a hard kid to stop. You’re not going to completely stop him, but we can make him take difficult shots, and I thought we did a decent job of that.”
But unlike Brown, the Tigers couldn’t give him any help in the scoring column, placing no one else in double figures.
To its credit, Eisenhower managed to keep Andover Central from running away. The Jaguars’ lead stayed consistently in the low- to mid-double digits but never was larger than 16.
Another nice feature of this sub-state is that Central faced Newton and Eisenhower – the last two teams on the regular-season schedule, both victories.
“We’re very familiar with our opponents,” he said. “The planets aligned for us. Our guys were determined; they were not going to let us lose.
“And you saw that in almost every possession. I was so proud of them. I’ve been here five years, and this is our first trip to State. These guys, they haven’t seen it (State). We’ve fallen short the last three years … it was our turn.”
Two seniors from the team that lost at Maize South two years ago, Kobe Smith and Brian Perry, are winding up their sophomore seasons at Hutchinson Community College and Kansas Wesleyan, respectively. Both were in attendance for Saturday’s game, sitting behind the Jaguars’ bench.
“They were being supportive of our guys, the guys that were just little ones when they were here,” Richardson said. “That means so much. That’s why I do this, man. When we say ‘Family,’ we mean it. We don’t just say it to say it. That’s so warming to my heart when I look, and I see guys that were here.
“That just makes me warm and tingly inside, because that’s why we do it.”
In addition to Brown, Adler and Jefferson, Central has six other seniors on the roster. Five of them – Jefferson, Adler, Brandt Stupka, Brody DeGarmo and Maddox Archibald – have experience at State.
But that is in football, as part of the Jaguars’ reigning Class 4A champions.
Adler was excited to be going to State in basketball.
“(It’s the) first time for basketball, for sure. It’s going to be a weird feeling, but I’m really happy for it,” he said.
Once Brown drew the defensive attention, that opened things up for players like Adler.
“He sure makes it easier to score, that’s for sure,” Adler said.
Brown said Central benefits from having the large number of seniors.
“There’s nine seniors on this team, and I think that everyone just takes their part,” he said. ”Me and Brody have been stepping up our leadership, and that benefits our team in playing confident together.”
Richardson said he has noticed.
“The way he and Brody have stepped it up, that’s something I’ve rarely seen in my 20-plus years of coaching,” he said.
The Jaguars will be the eighth seed when the 5A tournament begins next week and will open against top-seeded Topeka Highland Park (22-0). The field also includes archrival Andover (19-3).
“We know we’re going to be the underdogs going into it, so we just want to do as much damage as we can – and have fun, too.” Adler said.
Andover Central boys 61, Eisenhower 49
Eisenhower 10 13 10 16 – 49
Andover Central 19 14 14 14 – 61
EISENHOWER – Blue 7 8-10 22, Morgan 3 2-4 8, Stanberry 3 (1) 0-0 7, Koehn 1 (1) 0-0 3, Howard 4 1-5 9. Totals 18 (2) 11-19 49.
ANDOVER CENTRAL – Brown 8 (5) 1-1 22, Stupka 1 1-2 3, DeGarmo 3 (1) 0-0 7, Jefferson 2 2-2 6, Meschke 1 2-3 4, Adler 6 1-4 13, Balke 2 (2) 0-0 6, Inslee 0 0-2 0. Totals 23 (8) 7-14 61.
