By Ryan Atkinson
atkinson@joplinglobe.com
MOUNT VERNON, Mo. — It was a simple formula, but it worked for the Seneca Indians on Friday night.
The Indians used a suffocating defense, solid rebounding and good shot selection and knocked off the top-seeded Mount Vernon Mountaineers 56-46 in the Class 3 District 12 semifinals at Mount Vernon High School.
Seneca — the No. 4 seed — will face No. 2 East Newton at 7:30 tonight for the district title. The Patriots nipped Aurora 48-47 in the second semifinal.
“I told the kids at halftime that if we would just keep doing the things we were doing, we were going to win,” Seneca coach Will King said. “We were playing the game that we wanted to play.”
The Indians, trailing 22-19 at halftime, intensified their efforts in the second half, especially on the defensive end.
Seneca (18-9) held Mount Vernon (18-10) scoreless for a stretch of eight minutes, 33 seconds — part of a 20-5 run that gave the Indians a 39-27 led with 4:54 remaining.
“We’ve been playing good defense all year,” King said. “It’s all about heart. These kids have so much want-to. They’ve bought into this and they play as hard as they can.”
The Indians led by double digits as late as the 1:50 mark, but the Mountaineers refused to concede. Mount Vernon’s Weston Newell drained a 3-pointer to pull the Mountaineers within eight at 44-36 and, just 13 seconds later, Zack Kleine made it a five-point game when he converted a three-point play after the press produced a turnover.
The Indians got a pair of free throws from Toby Roelfsema before the Mountaineers scored seven of the next nine points and pulled to within 48-46 with 35 seconds to play.
But Seneca senior Matt Wilkes went 6-of-6 from the foul line in a 25 second-span to secure the win. Roelfsema added a layup at the buzzer for the final margin.
“(Patrick) Bennett is usually our shooter,” Wilkes said. “But he was a little off tonight, so I was glad I could step us and hit those shots for us ... all of us seniors did not want to see our season end tonight. We knew we could do it, we just had to execute.”
Other than their final push, the Mountaineers really only controlled one portion of the game — the second quarter. After Seneca took a 15-7 lead on Bennett’s trey less then a minute into the second, Mount Vernon erupted for a 15-4 run that gave them a three-point lead at halftime.
The rest of the game was controlled by the Indians, who avenged a Feb. 1 63-31 loss to the Mountaineers.
“We knew this district was wide open,” Wilkes said. “We’re a good team and we didn’t feel like we play our best the first time we saw (the Mountaineers). We’ve been telling ourselves that we’re good enough to win this district and now we’ve given ourselves a chance.”
Roelfsema led all scorers with 18 while Bennett added 15.
Mount Vernon was led by Kleine’s 15 points while Corey Phillips and Eric Botts chipped in with 12 each.
East Newton 48, Aurora 47
The Patriots — thanks to some stingy defense in the final minute — narrowly avoided becoming the second upset victim of the night.
Aurora, which trailed by seven with less than two minutes remaining, had three chances to take the lead in the final minute.
The Houn’ Dawgs, trailing 48-47, stole an inbounds pass and called a timeout with 52 seconds remaining. They got the ball inside to Chase Howerton, but his shot was blocked by 6-foot-6 Jon Ringstaff.
Joe Batson’s miss on the front end of a 1-and-1 gave Aurora another chance, but Ryan Carmichael had the ball stolen in the lane with nine seconds remaining.
East Newton (22-5) again missed the first shot of a 1-and-1, but Aurora (13-10) junior Devin Hillman’s jumper at the buzzer was short.
“There were too many times when we played like we were behind even though we had the lead,” East Newton coach Todd Dana said. “We had a lack of composure and that prevented us from taking control of the game.”
It was a lack of Patriot rebounding that put Aurora back in the game.
Hillman hit a layup and had a chance for a 3-point play with 1:46 remaining. He missed the free throw, but Brysten Stephens rebounded for the Dawgs, hit the shot and was fouled. He, too, missed his foul shot, but Carmichael rebounded the miss and hit the putback to bring Aurora within 46-45 with 1:41 to play.
“We definitely have to rebound better (tonight),” Dana said. “If we don’t, Seneca will just kill us on the boards.”
Denny Farmer led East Newton with a game-high 18 points while Batson added 13. Aurora got 11 from Hillman.
Seneca and East Newton split their two meetings this season. Seneca won 54-50 on Jan. 4 while East Newton prevailed 57-34 on Feb. 5.
