The Thomas-Fay-Custer Terriers basketball team went 1-1 this week in the West Central tournament, losing to Hydro-Eakly 74-47 Thursday, but beat Arapaho-Butler 59-48 Saturday to finish third in the tournament.
In the first round of the tournament, Thomas was supposed to play Calumet, but Calumet had to drop out of the tournament because of some COVID-19 protocols. As a result, Thomas automatically advanced to the semifinals and played Hydro-Eakly.
“I know this is midseason, but it is still early season for us because of all the success our football team had,” coach Elijah Zoschke said. “We are still trying to get into good basketball shape. With this being said, I am externally proud of how we played this week and we continue to improve and are catching up, but still have some work to do.”
Noah Rainwater made the alltournament team and he came up big in the fourth quarter for the Terriers as he scored four 3-pointers for the Terriers.
“We have lots of shooters on our team and I cannot take all the credit for this award,” Rainwater said. “I got some good looks, but my teammates played well and they hit some big shots too.”
Hydro-Eakly 74,
Thomas-Fay-Custer 47
The game was close early as Thomas’ Jaxen Mannering had a dunk off a steal, making it 12-11 Hydro. The Bobcats responded with plays like Carson Propps scoring a fast break layup.
Hydro-Eakly went on a 7-0 run, making the score 19-11 with 55 seconds left in the first quarter. Hydro-Eakly was ahead 19-13 at the end of the first quarter.
Cade Berkey scored two 3-pointers in the second quarter for Hydro-Eakly. The Bobcats built a double digit lead and were ahead 36-23 at halftime.
Thomas’ Aden Kelley kept the Terriers in the game, scoring 8 points for Thomas. However, Hydro-Eakly kept scoring 3-pointers, hitting three of them. Hydro-Eakly was ahead 54-38 going into the fourth quarter. The Bobcats scored 20 points in the fourth quarter and they won the game 74-47.
“We got our butts kicked and it was a perfect storm for us to get beat the way we did,” Zoschke said. “We came out flat and they took advantage. We could not recover from our bad start. The game plan was to guard the perimeter because they shoot the 3 ball really well. They made lots of shots on us and we did not execute well. We missed lots of shots on offense and it just was not our night.”
Zoschke said Kelley played really well and he was a big part of their offense, but they also must learn from the loss and it is behind them. “We have to get the ball to Aden even more,” Zoschke said. “Hydro put lots of pressure on us and we have to handle their pressure more. We just have to keep getting better and we must move on and learn from it.”
Thomas-Fay-Custer 59,
Arapaho-Butler 48
Thomas jumped out to a quick 8-0 lead. Rainwater had three rebounds during this run. Arapaho-Butler scored two quick 3-pointers and it was 8-6. Thomas was ahead 10-9 at the end of the first quarter.
Arapaho-Butler took an 11-10 lead early in the second quarter. Thomas built a 16-11 lead, but Arapaho-Butler hit some shots and was ahead 17-16 with 5:20 left in the second quarter.
Thomas closed the second quarter on an 11-6 run with plays like Camden Billy scoring a layup, getting fouled and making the foul shot. Thomas was ahead 28-23 and went 5-6 from the foul line in the quarter.
Arapaho-Butler opened the third quarter on an 8-0 run. Gunnar Oakes stopped the run as he scored a short jump shot, making the score 31-30 with a minute left in the third quarter.
Arapaho-Butler hit a 3-pointer with 10 seconds left in the quarter and they were ahead 34-30 going into the fourth quarter.
Rainwater hit three 3-pointers in the fourth quarter. Rainwater scored a 3-pointer, tying the game, 36-36, with 6 minutes left in the game. Rainwater hit another 3-pointer, making it 42-38 with 4:15 left in the game.
Kelley hit a layup, making it 44-41 with 3:45 left in the game. Arapaho tied it, 44-44, with a made 3-pointer. Rainwater scored another 3-pointer and it was 47-41.
Rainwater got a big rebound and the score was 51-45 with 1:12 left in the game. Arapaho got the ball back.
Kelley scored a layup, was fouled and made the shot, making the score 54-46 with less than a minute left to play.
“We did make some adjustments as they were double-teaming Aden and Camden,” Zoschke said. “We forced them out of our zone and put the ball in the middle. They collapsed and we kicked it out and made open shots.”
Arapaho played the foul game and Thomas won the game 59-48. Zoscke said the fourth quarter was the best they played all season long.
“We had an unbelievable fourth quarter,” Zoschke said. “We scored 29 points in the fourth quarter, which was awesome to see because we only scored 2 points in the third quarter. We have been struggling to finish games. Our problem late in games was we are still in early season form because of football whereas most teams we play have been playing and practicing much longer than we have been. We are still trying to get into the flow of things. Arapaho did have guys out, but they are still a top eight team.”
Thomas improves to 6-3 on the season and they played at Canton Monday and they played Fairview Tuesday night. They return to action, 8 p.m. Friday at home against Leedey.
“I want to continue to see progression,” Zoschke said. “We cannot afford to take any steps back because we do not have time for that since the playoffs are coming up soon.”