Leavenworth earned a trip to state on Saturday night, edging Shawnee Mission Northwest 54-52 on the Cougars' own court in their substate tournament championship. The Pioneers used a last-second shot from Kyle Wiggins to pull off the upset and make their first trip to the state tournament since 2007.
Head coach Larry Hogan said it was his boys’ overall effort that helped them overcome the Cougars on Saturday.
“It was just our effort, especially at the defensive end,” Hogan said. “It was just a solid team effort where we scrapped for everything. Defensively our kids never stopped fighting. ... We held them down. It was our defense and our rebounding effort that really made the difference. It was the second and third effort on the glass that really made a difference.”
The game was tied at 52 in the waning seconds of Saturday’s matchup and Leavenworth had possession of the ball for a shot at the win. Hogan said his squad was able to stay calm and run the set play to seal the win.
“The most we were up was six, the most they were up was two or three,” Hogan said. “They had tied it up with about 30 seconds left. We came down and ran four corners, and Kyle Wiggins pulled up and hit a jumper with about 1.6 seconds left. They played it in, tried to throw it long, we deflected it and the game was over.”
Wiggins was the catalyst for the Pioneers in the fourth quarter, putting up 10 of his 16 points in the final period after sitting much of the second and third quarters with foul trouble.
“He was actually in foul trouble and had to sit a lot,” Hogan said of the junior. “It may have been a blessing because he was fresh at the end of the game. It was a dogfight both ways.”
Wiggins said he was just running the play.
“Coach Hogan called the play and I just executed,” Wiggins said. “He sagged off me a little and I stepped back and just shot it and it went in.”
Wiggins is no stranger to having the ball in his hands in big situations. On Feb. 16 he hit a game-winner against Olathe North, icing a 60-58 win over the Eagles with a last-second shot. The junior said no shot is any different to him.
“I just take the ball when it’s put in my hands and don’t think about the pressure and things,” Wiggins said. “I just react to the defense. I guess I thrive with pressure on me, but I don’t really think about it.”
Leavenworth was able to hold Steve Carver, the Cougars’ 6-foot-8 senior who had 23 points the last time the two teams met, to just 13 on Saturday night.
“We did a better job containing him,” Hogan said. “Their other big guy, Goodger, hurt us, and Spencer got his points but they were hard earned. Basically they had four guys score.”
AJ Spencer’s 14 topped Shawnee Mission Northwest in the game while Carver and Drew Goodger each had 13.
“We played man-to-man the entire game and we just played better (than last time we played them),” Hogan said. “That helped a bunch.”
Nino Williams led the Pioneers with 20 points and Wiggins was the only other Leavenworth boy in double figures with his 16. Grant Greenberg added nine points in the win.
Offensive putbacks, Hogan said, was what helped Williams and Greenberg to their points.
“We had some big rebounds and stickbacks, Nino got two and Greenberg had one. Nino did a terrific job on the offensive glass,” the Pioneers’ coach said. “In the third quarter Preston (Padgett) had a big rebound and stickback.”
That little extra effort, Wiggins said, came from how ready the Leavenworth team was to play on Saturday.
“I think we were all really ready to play,” Wiggins said. “We had a shoot around that morning and everyone was hyped and ready to go. We didn’t let it get to our heads, we were all ready.”
After rising to a No. 1 ranking in the state with a 10-1 start to the season, Leavenworth battled injury and took a 14-6 mark into substate. Because the path wasn’t easy, Hogan said he feels confident that his boys have the fight they’ll need to be successful in state.
“Obviously we set some goals at the beginning of the year,” Hogan said. “We really had some tremendous adversity. First we lose Sam Banach, our big kid, with a knee problem. Then of course we lose Alec (Zeck) and he’s a big part of running the team, our floor general, and then we lose Nino. We had three starters out. What helped was in that time, the other guys were thrust into action. We weren’t as successful with wins, but in that time they gained a lot of experience and it helped us to not rely on those other guys so much.”
Although Wiggins admits it felt pretty good to achieve the Pioneers’ goal of making it to the state tournament, he was quick to add that Leavenworth isn’t done yet.
“I feel good right now,” the junior said. “It’s not over yet though, we’ve still got a long way to go and we’ll be ready to play.”
Leavenworth takes the No. 5 seed and matches up with No. 4 Maize (17-5) at 8:15 p.m. Thursday in the first round at White Auditorium in Emporia. In other first-round games on Thursday, No. 2 Dodge City (19-3) played No. 7 Blue Valley Northwest (15-7) at 3, No. 3 Shawnee Mission South (17-5) will battle No. Blue Valley North (15-7) at 4:45 and No. 1 Wichita Heights (20-2) takes on No. 8 Manhattan (12-10) at 6:30. The Pioneers must win Thursday to continue their season. With a win, they’d play the winner of the Wichita Heights/Manhattan game at 8:15 p.m. Friday.
