F-M takes third at Corner tournament

If you’d have told Fremont-Mills coach Steve Raymond his team would miss 17 free throws in the fourth quarter, he would not have given his team a betting chance of winning.

Good thing Raymond isn’t a gambling man.

The Knights did in fact make just 3-of-17 free throws in the final frame, allowing East Mills to trim a 16 point lead down to three in the waning minutes .Raymond’s squad hung on late in a 48-44 victory in the Corner Conference tournament third place game in Malvern.

“We played some good offense earlier in this game and moving the ball, being active against their zone,” Raymond said. “When we got the lead in the fourth quarter, we knew how effective their zone is, so we decided to hold the ball a little bit and stall and the bad thing was how we shot it at the free throw line.”

For the game the Knights finished 9-of-28 at the line for the game.

“It’s been an area of emphasis all year,” Raymond said. “For the life of us, we can’t put free throws down. But we have made them when we absolutely needed to. So when they made their run, they got it to three and we hit one (a free throw) to got up four late and that was the difference.”

The Knights (10-5 overall, 7-2 in the conference) built an 11 point lead at the half and led by as many as 16 in the second half before the Wolverines’ rallied.

Sophomore Eli Owen sparked the Knights victory, coming off the bench to hit 4-of-6 three-pointers and matching Mason Vanatta with a game-high 14 points.

“He’s a young kid, only a sophomore, who didn’t play any varsity last year,” Raymond said. “But we knew he had the ability to shoot the ball. It’s just about getting the experience to be comfortable playing.”

Defensively, the Knights packed the lane and forced the Wolverines out of their comfort zone. East Mills finished 16-of-47 from the field (34 percent), including 3-of-20 from behind the arc.

“With our lack of experience, we need to hang our hat on the defensive end and that has to be our focus every game. We are really happy with how our defense has played all year. You look at the stats and you can see, we defense. We wanted to control the paint and make them shoot contested jump shots.”

Riley Story led East Mills with 12 points. Dylan Schroeder added eight.

Stanton 69,
East Mills 44

East Mills opened the game on a 7-0 run but Stanton wouldn’t be dismayed,  out-scoring the Wolverines 29-10 the final 15 minutes of the opening half and cruised to a 69-43 win in the Corner Conference Boys Tournament semifinals Thursday in Stanton.

The Wolverines, who have dropped eight straight to the Vikings since the 2014-2015 season, shot 34 percent from the field (15-of-44). Dylan Schroeder led the way with 10 points.

Drake Johnson led Stanton with 24 points and Donnie Weis added 18.

Sidney 41,
Fremont-Mills 28
Sidney clamped down defensively, limiting Fremont-Mills to 13 second half points in a 41-28 victory in the Corner Conference Boys Tournament semifinals Thursday in Stanton.

The Cowboys (9-5 overall, 6-2 in the conference) led 17-15 at the half but slowly pulled away thanks to some clutch shooting and a stifling defensive effort that held the Knights to a season-low in points and field goals.

Noah Jorgenson hit 5-of-9 shots, including 3-of-8 from behind the arc, to lead Sidney with 13 points. Brock Shirley added 12 points and Cameron Whitehead chipped in six points and 12 rebounds.

The Knights (9-5 overall, 7-2 in the conference) were led by Mason Vanatta’s 13 points.

East Mills 64,
Clarinda Academy 47

East Mills downed Clarinda Academy 64-47 to advance to the Corner Conference semifinals last Tuesday.

The Wolverines led 33-23 at the half.

Dylan Schroeder led East Mills with 15 points. Riley Story added 14 and Michael Schafer 13.

Kyce Davis paced Clarinda Academy with 19 points.

Fremont-Mills 38,
Essex 37

Fremont-Mills out-scored Essex 13-4 in the final quarter to rally from an eight-point defecit to win its Corner Conference opener over Essex last Tuesday.

The No. 2 seeded Knights struggled offensively for much of the game against the No. 7 seeded Trojans, scoring a season-low 10 first half points and shooting 33.3 percent from the field (14-of-42).

But the Knights heated up when it mattered, out-scoring the Trojans 28-16 after halftime.
Jaeger Powers led the way for the Knights with 10 points. Mason Vanatta added eight points and Christian Melgoza seven.