By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
The final shot of East Newton senior Connor Killion’s career was a desperate heave from well beyond half court at the final buzzer.
It didn’t matter that he missed; a Blair Oaks free throw with two seconds remaining had already sealed his team’s fate.
East Newton’s remarkable season – the best in school history – came to a halt Friday night on the Patriots’ home court with a 44-40 loss to the visiting Falcons in the Class 4 quarterfinals.
“I’m so proud of this group,” head coach Kyle Fields said. “They battled and we had a lot of tough games. We had a great year. It’s hard right now and I know it’s hard on them but they’re great kids, they’re a good basketball team and we just got beat by a really good basketball team. I couldn’t be more proud and thankful.”
It was just the third loss in 29 games this year for East Newton, which started four seniors and came out swinging in the first half in front of a deafening crowd. The teams combined to score on 14 of their first 17 possessions with the Patriots jumping out 7-2 and leading by as many as six.
Three pointers by junior Kelton Sorrell and Killion gave East Newton a 28-20 lead late in the first half while Blair Oaks went scoreless for nearly five minutes, but a late triple by Falcons’ 6-foot-9 big man Luke Northweather cut it to five at the half.
The story of the second half was East Newton’s lack of offensive production. The Patriots opened the third with four misses and a turnover and found themselves trailing for the first time at the 3:19 mark when the Falcons pulled ahead 29-28.
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Sorrell answered with a three to briefly reclaim the lead, but Blair Oaks answered with one of its own 30 seconds later and the Patriots never led again.
It was 34-31 with six seconds left in the third but Killion raced down the court, used a behind-the-back dribble to evade one defender and then banked in a shot from 30 feet at the buzzer to tie it up.
He tied it again at 38 on a floater with less than four minutes remaining, but the Falcons pushed it to 41-38 at the 2:32 mark.
A field goal by junior Gabe Bergen with 1:59 remaining cut it to 1. The Patriots missed a shot for the lead on their next possession, then Blair Oaks made two free throws with 54.8 seconds on the clock to make it 43-40.
On two straight possessions East Newton missed game-tying three’s, and Blair Oaks senior Jake Closser went to the line with two seconds left for a 1-and-1 opportunity. He made the first to put it out of reach.
“I think it was a lot harder getting shots,” Fields said of the team’s 12-point second half. “I think their pressure got tighter. They did a really good job and their length is really tough. I think the difference was they ratcheted up and put the pressure on just a little bit harder and we didn’t do a real good job of sharing it like we should have, probably.”
“Man, what a great atmosphere for a high school basketball game,” Blair Oaks coach Ryan Fick said.
“I thought we guarded the pick and roll better in the second half,” he said. “Our big really did a good job of hedging, keeping Killion from getting downhill and really a huge difference in the second half is I thought we rebounded better. The first half they got a lot of second-chance points, especially in the first quarter. They were beating us to 50-50 balls and I thought we evened that up a little bit in the second half and that was a huge difference.”
The Falcons, 24-4, will face Vashon in the semifinals.
Killion led the Patriots with 15 points, Sorrell added 10 and Bergen scored eight. Quinn Kusgen scored 13 for the Falcons and Closser added 10.
East Newton only took four free-throw attempts and missed each one. Blair Oaks made 11 of 16.
“The group is so special,” Fields said. “The kids are such high-character kids. They’re great in the classroom, they’re great to coach … It’s for sure going to be a year to remember.”
