By DIANE GASPER-O'BRIEN

dobrien@dailynews.net

It's hard to shoot a basketball correctly when your shoes are 10 sizes too big.

But after a couple of tries, Tanner Diehl made a shot Sunday night and went home a big winner.

The 7-year-old Hays boy was called out of the crowd to come to the floor with the Harlem Globetravelers during a show at Thomas More Prep-Marian High School's Al Billinger Fieldhouse.

Tanner was a good sport when the traveling entertainers tricked him out of his shirt and took his size 5 shoes, only to replace them with size 15 boats.

"Yeah, it was hard," to even walk with those shoes, Tanner said after the show.

By then, though, he had plenty of memorabilia in hand to show his second-grade classmates at Holy Family Elementary School today.

Clad in a Globetravelers' headband and wristband and one of their T-shirts that hung to his knees, Tanner was all smiles as he held tightly to his red, white and blue basketball.

"I'm sure glad we came," said Tanner's mother, Angie Diehl. "It sure made his night."

Several youngsters were entertained after dragging their parents out on the cold, wet night of the event, a fundraiser for the Heartland Parish Catholic Youth Organization.

"We thought it was a great turnout," Renee Michaud, sponsor of the CYO at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Hays, said of the approximately 500 fans.

"As you watched around the gym, those young children were all engaged," she added. "Lots of smiles."

"Definitely entertaining," added Kathy Volker, who serves the same role at St. Nicholas of Myra Catholic Church.

Michaud, Volker and Rick Binder from Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church, Hays, combined efforts to co-sponsor the event while the Globetravelers were in the area.

They performed in Hoisington on Saturday and are scheduled to be in Smith Center tonight.

While the Globetravelers' show is more about comedy and entertaining than playing basketball, they did get in a few impressive baskets, including some dunks.

The local team -- made up of community members, former recent high school basketball players and principals from the two local high schools, Mike Hester from Hays High and Bill DeWitt from TMP-Marian -- probably actually made more baskets than the Globetravelers.

Hays native Brian Kitchen, a 2007 graduate of Hays High, was the spark on the floor early with a couple of steals, an assist and a bucket of his own during the first quarter of action, and former classmate Kameron Parker drained a few long 3-pointers.

The crowd let out a cheer when DeWitt hit a 3-pointer that landed with a thud on the back of the rim and fell in.

"Thought it was good all the way," he said with a smile.

DeWitt, whose sport of choice in high school was wrestling, did play basketball in middle school at Kennedy.

"I was a substitute on the C-team," he said. "But I did play (basketball) intramurals in college."

The entertainment didn't stop for some after the show, when the Globetravelers hung around to sign basketballs, photos and T-shirts.

As volunteers cleaned up afterward, Tyler Windholz sat in a chair on the north end of the gym and smiled as he watched a group of youngsters shooting baskets.

Among the wanna-be basketball players were his 4-year-old twin daughters, Kaci and Kenzie.

Windholz, a city mail carrier, knew he had to rise early this morning to brave the cold.

"We were going to go home right away afterwards," Windholz said. "But the girls wanted to play some. This was really good entertainment tonight."

"So is this," he added as he settled in to watch the action on the court. "It doesn't get much better than this."