Plainville suffers first loss

2/10/2012

By CONOR NICHOLL

cnicholl@dailynews.net

PLAINVILLE - Plainville High School had several changes in its basketball schedule after last season.

Downs-Lakeside switched to the Northern Plains League and couldn't find a date to face the Cardinals. Rozel-Pawnee Heights didn't want to play Plainville. The Cardinals didn't want a game against Pawnee Heights either, since Pawnee Heights doesn't have a girls' team.

Plainville tried to work out a date with several squads, but couldn't.

Finally, the Cardinals saw Wichita-Word of Life was looking for a contest. Last spring, Plainville coach Chris Rorabaugh first thought Word of Life "wasn't very good" because the Fire had finished eighth in Quinter's Castle Rock Classic in 2010. However, that was the Word of Life junior varsity.

The Cardinals soon learned Word of Life had an excellent varsity squad with plenty of height.

"We looked up their roster and we were like 'Holy smokes, they are tall,' " Plainville senior Andrew Casey said. "We wanted to come and play, and challenge them, and see how we could do against them."

On Thursday, Plainville gave Word of Life a strong contest but had trouble with the Fire's size and ball pressure.

The Cardinals never led, but kept the game close throughout before suffering a 63-48 loss in front of a loud, packed crowd. It dropped Plainville, ranked No. 2 in Class 2A, to 17-1 and marked one of the few challenges for the Cardinals this season.

"To be honest, I enjoyed it," junior Nolan Weiser said.

"I was looking forward to it. The crowd was loud and it was just a fun atmosphere. I will play games like that every night compared to just blowing a team out."

Word of Life, a private school that isn't part of the Kansas State High School Activities Association, has collected a 23-4 record against teams from several states. They have multiple players from European countries, including 6-foot-9 junior Logan Botica, 6-8 junior Mindaugas Kacinas and 6-8 senior Milos Bozovic. Senior 6-5 wing Luka Nikcevic, one of the Fire's better players, had dislocated his elbow and didn't play.

This year's team is the best squad of coach Ryan Hujing's five seasons. Kacinas has received looks from high-major NCAA Division I programs, including Kansas State University and Wichita State University and Boston College. He finished with a game-high 22 points and 11 rebounds.

"He has got a Division I worker's mentality," Hujing said. "There is no doubt in my mind that he will be successful there."

Bozovic collected four points, but had 11 rebounds. The Fire outrebounded Plainville 51-33, blocked numerous shots inside and frequently scored off second and third chances. The Cardinals went 17-of-56 (30.3 percent) from the field, including 10-of-34 (29.4 percent) on 2-point shots.

"It was a challenge for sure," Weiser said, who went 1-of-6 with two points, said. "They are strong and big and you have to try to get around them or shoot high. Just a lot of pump faking and moves."

Senior point guard Jamal Jones, recruited heavily by Colby Community College, finished with 14 points and supplied strong perimeter defense. Jones had several steals from Cardinal senior point guard Kyle Becker, who had the stomach flu Wednesday and missed practice.

"He ran out of gas, probably way too early," Rorabaugh said. "But he is our point guard and I told him, 'You are going to have to do this, because we are not going to make up new plays with a new point guard.'"

Word of Life opened the game on an 11-2 run as the Cardinals missed their first 11 shots. Senior forward Jameson Klein especially had trouble scoring against the Fire's height and went 0-of-7 for the game.

However, the Cardinals went on an 8-0 run and trailed 11-10 after the first quarter. Plainville eventually tied the game at 18 with 4:08 left in the first half on a step back trey from Casey.

Casey, a returning all-state player, had his usual stat-filling line with a team-high 21 points on 7-of-23 shooting, including 5-of-16 from beyond the arc. He added a Cardinal-best seven rebounds with seven steals and four assists, playing all 32 minutes.

"Their height kind of got to us a little bit down low," Casey said. "We couldn't run our normal sets. We mostly did a perimeter game. Their height, we couldn't get it inside. We had to shoot a lot of perimeter shots and we are usually a down low team, so it was kind of a different change."

Word of Life, up 21-18, had two steals off Becker in the final 55 seconds of the first half that led to fast break layups from Jones and senior Jagos Matijasevic (12 points). In the third quarter, Plainville committed eight turnovers and Word of Life built a 40-22 lead with 3:44 left in the quarter. Then, Casey hit three treys in a 62-second stretch to cut the deficit to 46-33 after three quarters.

"They are well-balanced," Hujing said. "They have got a lot of different options that can shoot the ball. Obviously, they shot it well tonight. They didn't ever give up. We put some runs on them that would test a lot of teams and a lot of teams would fall down after that. They didn't give up. They kept fighting."

Casey and senior Bryan Brungardt (14 points) helped close the gap to seven points, but the Fire's size helped Word of Life pull away down the stretch.

"It will be good for us," Rorabaugh said. "We need to play against tough competition. I don't think there is going to be anybody at Bramlage (at 2A state) as good as these guys. I have been down to Bramlage to watch if nothing else almost every year. Never seen a team that big."